Early Spring Garden Work

We have had a very mild winter and it appears that we may have an early spring too. Today we received our electric bill and the trend of more electricity made (by the solar panels on our south facing garage roof) is up and our electricity use is down. Today it hit 69 degrees this afternoon. Our greenhouse was at 83 degrees with the roof vents open so I put the exhaust fan on and left the door open to bring the temperature down to 79 degrees. Even though I did my weight lifting at the Y and took our dog for a 3 1/2 mile walk I just had to get out into the garden to begin the annual spring clean up.

This is the time of year to prune fruit trees and berry bushes. I started with our Northern Spy, and Gravenstein apple trees. I bucked the recent trend of dwarf and semi dwarf trees and went with standard trees. They take longer to get to an age when they produce fruit and are also a much larger tree to manage. But nostalgia won out. We used to have a standard Gravenstein tree on our property I mss it) and I have memories of a Northern Spy at my grandparent’s property in North Reading. So I will be patient and wait a few more years for them to produce apples. In the picture above you can see how the pruning has opened up the tree to let light and air into the center.

Last year I failed to properly thin the fruit on our white peach tree. The resulting fruit was so heavy that the branches ended up being bowed permanently out of shape. Today’s pruning was an attempt to bring the tree’s shape back to where the branches can properly support it’s fruit. The apricot in the background didn’t do well last year and so this spring it didn’t need any pruning. I will give it some slow release fertilizer and pay attention to the need to spray it this year to see if I can bring it back to good health.

These raspberry plants were originally offshoots from my parent’s patch in Reading, Mass about 40 years ago. They are considered everbearers. That means that they produce a large crop in June on the florocanes and then a smaller crop in the fall on the primocanes. The roots and crowns (found underground) are perennial (they grow year after year) but the canes (stems) are not. The first year that a cane grows from a bud it is called a primocane. Everbearers produce fruit (in the fall) at the tip of the canes. Then next year those primocanes are then called florocanes and will produce fruit (in June) lower down the cane. The next year those florocanes die and turn brown. So the spring pruning chor is to cut and remove old, dead florocanes as well as trimming the live florocanes down to about three feet high so lateral branches will form and te yield of fruit will be increased.

On my way to the raspberry patch I noticed the need to prune the hydrangeas in the cottage garden. And then there were leaves that had blown in and needed to be raked. So, raspberries tomorrow, cottage garden today.

So a silver lining is that I had a close look at the four clematis vines I planted last year and, 😀 they are all alive with emerging green growth. Spring; I love it!