pruning

I'm pleased to report that the pruning is now all done (whew just in time! spring seems to be rushing in)



I have a simple - 'one method fits all' style of pruning... everything gets the old 'vase' shape hair cut.... (yes I know some deciduous fruit trees would rather a different shape - but this is all I can do!)

I start by taking out with the long arm loppers ( that I affectionately refer to as 'the bolt cutters') and cut out any growth in the middle of the tree - next I go around the outside of the tree and remove long branches to keep the tree nice and compact (I've got a lot of trees in a tight area - keeping them neat and trim is a must - it also assists with superior fruiting). Then I reach way up high and take out the top. Time to stand back and take in the emerging results... anything that catches my eye as standing out from the crowd gets a bit of a trim.

Now it's on to the smaller secateurs... all the little weedy little growth gets the chop - so too all the damaged or diseased stems... chop chop chop.

Around and around the tree I go (singing 'here we go round the mulberry bush' of course!)


and voila!

Abas apple
whilst I love my pruning results here it's not a very productive tree...

it's all done.... next victim....

feeding the cows...

Like most of my long-term country compatriots - I'm a multi-tasking, waste-not/want -not sort of a girl... so this weekend when it came to cleaning up the orchard windfall, I was keen to get the kids involved - they were understandably less enthused... until we all figured out that the cows in the neighbouring paddock were MAD for apples...



so EJ was suddenly keen to throw the old fruit over the fence...




to an appreciative audience...




a couple of the older girls knew when they were onto a good thing





and the smarter young ones soon started to get in on the act - showing how skills are passed from one generation to the next - in cows and in people...



a fun time was had by all - and all the spent fruit was cleaned up and put to very good use... a win-win situation

cooked apples

it has been so incredibly hot here over the last week (yesterday was another 40C+ day) that my apples have cooked in their skins on the tree.



but I must say in all humility - it is a small thing to whine about given the devastation from bushfires in victoria yesterday - more than 66 dead, more than 600 properties destroyed... whole towns burnt off the map...

a few apples roasted is a nothing really in the scheme of things....