Caging trees and a few pictures

 

Everybody "knows" that you cannot time the stock-market and cannot predict the weather. That never stopped anybody from trying.

Anticipating the rain, I sprinkled some fertilizer around the newly planted trees. By count, that is a number somewhere north of 30 + 2 + 5 + 12 + 12 + 12 + 12 + 8.

I am also in a hurry to get the 5' tall deer cages around the taller, grafted trees before the buds on the scion "push". There are not a lot of carbohydrates saved up in a 4" scion so they cannot recover from much abuse (i.e. being eaten by deer). I have been dragging my feet installing the cages because successful grafting involves removing the buds below the graft because growing tips produce growth-regulators that suppress other buds (like the ones on the scion I just grafted) from "breaking". It is much easier to dis-bud trees before the cages go on.

Yesterday was a record: 6 ticks were on me when I got home.

I will be continuing to cut, fabricate and install 5' cages today and hope to do some rototilling of gardens.

Planting trees is a dance and this year it is a lively jig rather than a slow and stately waltz.

Some pictures

Pear orchard in bloom

 

Apple orchard, not yet in bloom. This is a picture of the Upper Orchard

This is the stump of a 45 year-old pear(Pyrus communis) tree that had fire blight in its crown. Holes were drilled and filled with herbicide solution to kill the roots.

A close-up of the measuring tape. This tree was in a favorable site and had pretty good growth

A yellow violet growing next to a blue violet. This image is for the U-of-M fans.

Virginia Bluebells. I was surprised to find this growing on The Property and was doubly surprised to learn it is a native plant. Springtime is full of suprises! (Disclosure: not my photo)