03.31.10 PRUNING PEDAGOGY

It has been ten years since I planted my orchard of espaliered fruit trees. Having no experience in an orchard, I expected a harsh learning experience. The peach and plum quickly died. The cherry has not prospered. The two apples and two pears have grown fabulously. I have not paid any attention to the HOW of pruning them other than creating a basic fan shape. So this year I read up on the business of training a tree as an espalier and found that it requires much more attention than my one late winter pruning each year! Apparently, after the structure has been created I need to keep after all the new growth throughout the summer and restrict it to short branchlets. Here you see the before and after photos of one of the apple's after this week's fascist pruning. I will see how the tree fares this summer under the new regimen. Someday, with some appropriate deer protection, I might even harvest some fruit!

03.25.10 SOLAR POWERED FLIGHT

Charging their batteries after a cold night, the appearance of these big buzzards intimidates the residents of a Charlottesville apartment complex.

03.18.10 PORCH WREN

Investigating loud noises on the back porch, I discover a pair of Carolina Wrens are busy building their spring nest in the clothes pin holder! These wrens often suffer from severe winters and it is reassuring to see them again. Their song is always a great encouragement: a loud, energetic, "tea kettle, tea kettle, tea kettle, HOT."

03.15.10 TINY TUNNELS

The melting snow revealed a myriad of tunnels in the garden, just on the surface of the ground below the snow. Several days later I found one of the builders had met his match when poking about in the chicken house. I believe our visitor is a short-tailed shrew and not a mole.

03.09.10 CONFIDENCE IN THE CRUCIFERAE

I took advantage of the amazing spring-like weather yesterday to plant out 18 of my little broccoli seedlings and tuck them in snug with plastic milk jug cloches and plenty of straw mulch. I also fed them each a small handful of rotted chicken manure. Hoping for big things...

Which got me thinking about "confidence." I have confidence in my garden. Something which is often misplaced given the vagaries of weather, pests, and disease in my small enterprise. But it is based on my confidence in the natural world. I know with certainty, as I believe in the birth of a new generation, that the seasons will turn, the sun will continue to rise and the birds offer a springtime song...regardless of the actions of man.

But confidence can be such an ephemeral feeling ... especially among masses of people. Humans are so susceptible to whims and sudden pursuits of the fanciful, we have history to teach us this. Yet, our society is built upon the notion of "confidence." The economies of the world operate based upon the confidence that the citizens of each state have in their government's paper currency...confidence that it will maintain "value." And the capitalist's stock exchange is all about confidence. It has been commodified so that an emotion can be bought, sold, and traded. Yet it can never be really "seen" or "measured" in a physical concrete fashion.

Here is my "confidence in the Cruciferae." Even sharing a photo of broccoli in bloom many weeks before my little crop will blossom.

NB: In the "cross shape" of these tiny four-petalled yellow flowers is the clue to the name "Cruciferae."

03.08.10 SWEATER WEATHER

At last! Warm days. Someone has outfitted a tree AND the trashcan in Charlottesville's Lee Park for the weather!

03.07.10 TREE PLANTING TIME!

Thrilled, yesterday, to get out in the balmy weather...the first warm afternoon we have really had since last fall...and plant that apple tree that came last week. It is a variety which is supposed to be disease resistant. It will need to be considering how this over-orcharded countryside is plagued with apple disease.