Extra attention for the perennials
Although the fruits
are delicious, my favorite part of adding high-density
apples to our
homestead is the way they prompt me to pay more attention to our
other perennials. Usually, I'm lucky to make one summer pruning pass through the
perennials each season, but since I have the high-density apples
on my monthly list, I've been going ahead and taking a look at
everyone else while I'm at it. Kayla's hard work weeding,
processing garlic, and generally being an energetic and pleasant
presence in the garden has also been essential in giving me time
to check on the perennials more. (Thank you, Kayla!)
Which is why I spent Tuesday following up on
last
month's raspberry pruning. The reds and blacks are
both done fruiting (although the former are already setting new
berries for fall), so this year's floricanes can come out.
Usually, I wait until winter to remove the used-up canes, but it
seems like acting sooner can only help by giving the new canes a
bit more light and air. Old, branched canes end up in our brush
pile, while the
smaller primocanes that I decided not to keep wilt down nicely
into mulch if placed along the sides of the beds.
Now's also a good time to
tie up those new, vigorous canes so we don't end up picking
berries from a sitting position the way I had to on some plants
this year. This will also keep the berries out of the way of
the lawnmower and out of the rot zone close to the damp ground.
As you can see in the
foreground of the photo above, the blackberries are in full
production mode, so I left them alone. Next month during our
apple-training day, I'll prune out the old blackberry canes and
tidy up the beds like I did for the raspberries this week.
But for now, it's time to move on to training our new plums and
our frameworked
pears.
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About us: Anna Hess and Mark Hamilton spent over a decade living self-sufficiently in the mountains of Virginia before moving north to start over from scratch in the foothills of Ohio. They've experimented with permaculture, no-till gardening, trailersteading, home-based microbusinesses and much more, writing about their adventures in both blogs and books.
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Nice shirt! I love how you and Mom both wear 20 year old hot yellow shirts, although for different organizations.
Also, I am using the other meaning of visiting when I mention I would like to come for a work day. It is ok if we must do indoor work, like the garlic processing if Kayla ever gets tired! But I especially would prefer doing pruning. Pruning tom.'s was the one most important skill I remembered how to do from Celo, though I think I recall you might disagree with the whether to do or not.
If you want a visit, go on and bake my day! (email me!)