Fall is definitely here. This morning I muttered under my breath as I surveyed minor damage to the tomatoes and squash, due to a light but supremely annoying frost. It was not my favorite moment of this day, but things improved substantially in the afternoon. Andy the arborist came to look at the apricot tree that lost four of its seven branches this summer from insanely heavy yields.
Tree Tales: It’s all fun and games until the branches start to snap!
Those apricots were yummy!
I’m glad you liked them, 9, especially as we have about six gallons of them in the freezer.
I confessed to Andy that I’d been a bad tree mom and hadn’t had them pruned for this year, and asked him if the tree was still viable:
Tree Tales: The price of overbearing, but there’s hope!
It does look a trifle sad.
Happily, it doesn’t need to be, Lily. Andy said pruning the surviving branches and removing the fallen ones will keep the tree healthy. He’ll do this in January, when the tree is fully dormant. I’ll admit I am relieved. I hate it when trees die. Also, he advised me to thin the fruit by fifty percent when it starts coming in.
That sounds like a lot!
It does to me, too, but this summer I thinned maybe fifteen to twenty percent and clearly it wasn’t enough. Like me, Andy hates to do the thinning. It just seems wrong to pluck those little baby apricots off the branches! But even though it makes him sad, he does it for the overall health of the tree. In coming years, I, too, will be brave!
You were concerned about the big spruce as well?
That one got a clean bill of health. He didn’t see anything concerning, like splits or other signs of weakness. And he okayed my plan to cut back about ten feet of the lowest branches so they don’t hit the ground.
Ten feet sounds like a lot!
Tree Tales: The big guy gets a clean bill of health. . .
Not so much, considering the tree is about fifty feet tall. If that one had to go, it would be quite a process to take it down, considering the fence lines and not enough clearance to get a lift into the back yard. I asked him about that. He said he doesn’t use a lift for big trees, he climbs them.
I could never!
I hear you, Lily! Even if we’d had the upper body strength to climb ropes in Mrs. Kuehl’s PE class, harnessing up, ascending and doing the actual cutting all the way up there would be A LOT.
We’re pretty independent at my house. I strongly resist hiring people to do what I can (still!) do myself, but when it comes to tasks that require specialized skills and equipment, I’m glad to contract it out.
Which reminds me: it’s not getting any warmer. Time to disconnect and drain the garden hoses, turn off the irrigation well, let the outlets drain, and insulate them for the coming cold.
Because cold is definitely on the way. . .
