To most a hassle but one of my loves right up their with fishing. Finished up the pruning. If you haven't done so time to get going. P.

I agree, finaly the yard is empty of snow, my strawberries are coming to life... cant wait for the asparagas to poke it's way to sunshine..... I do need to prune the apple tree... it looks like something from the wizzard of OZ!

I got alot of leafing and cleaning up to do. Maybe start this weekend.

To most a hassle but one of my loves right up their with fishing. Finished up the pruning. If you haven't done so time to get going. P.


Only if you live in lakeville!!! My neighborhood frowns on fruit trees on the estates. It interferes with the chipping green and the swimming pool

I have sprouts of things coming up thru the leaves I didn't rake from last fall. Should I clear the leaves away, or will the buds kick it from the extra cold?

i'm pre soaking sugar snap peas... until they swell to almost marble size... then i shake them around with innoculant (black powder)
and sprinkle them an inch apart in the row on sunday

I always try and do my apple trees on a nice sunny winter day in february. Sometimes its nice in the winter to just to get out and do some yardwork for a few hours. My garden needs a lot of work still and I may pull down a fence thats rusting apart... I've been ignoring my berry nushes and I need to prune a couple years worth of dead canes out of the Blackberries and boysenberries. Maybe get the tiller cranked up to start cleaning up the garden.

:buds: :smokin: :cool: :bo: Trim the roses opening day Red Sox ,, Rose of Sharon cut back when bark softens 1/3rd, don't cut back your Mock Orange till after it blooms,also trim back your Licacs (just the flower) after bloom
Now you can take your Forsithia & pussy willow top shoots and force them inside, don't forget the forsithia can be cut and rerooted just cut off all latteral branches at least 6" and get a group of them push in ground keep watered and you'll have new shrubs
I was a total freak about horniculture until I got my 1ST boat 10yrs ago I had 32 vir of roses blueberry bushes shaped into freakey shapes I'm so happy now when my lawn burns by July 4TH
now it's evergreens & hostas Tigerlillys and daiseys
LINK SR
I still have a GREEN THUMB but it's from a Power Pro BURN

My wife does it ,, loves it ... when neighbors have company they've asked to bring thier relatives in the yard .. I take full credit due to all the fish carcasses I've buried out there ..

Oil sprayed the fruit trees a couple of days ago. Prune tommorow. DFig out the giant pumpkin grow pits and dig a couple of new ones. Staying home this summer so I'll give it a go with four AG pumpkins this year. I think Ill oil spray the trees one more time after I prune.

I have over a hundred peper plants in trays down celler. Started some great AG pumpkin seeds yesterday. All of the seeds except one comes from fruits that weighed over 1000 #'s. One was 1300++, and another was 1170 #'s. Maybe this year the varmints wont decide to make the biggest one a condo.

Raised beds need repairing, to keep them raised. Strawberries just have to be weeded out. I have to remember to take off my wedding ring before I go in the garden this year. Pain in the ass borrowing metal detector.

Do any of you guys know if haveing more then one fruit tree is a must in order for the tree to produce? I know this to true with some other plants, it maintains there health. I too enjoy prunning all types of trees, look good professor.

yeah goose

it pays to cross pollinate with two or more trees...

Especially cherry trees, but like Rav said it really increases you production with many varieties. I really enjoy pruning fruit trees. You prune for production not looks. Definitely a learning curve when you first start but comes easier every year. Blueberries and peach trees require hard pruning as they tend to over produce a lot and if you don't prune heavy or don't thin out, as I often do during the summer, you will get lots of fruit but all very small. My main problem over the last several years is lack of pollinators. Seems I don't get as many bees as I used to 12 to 15 years ago and we lately seem to get rainy wet weather while they are in bloom which bees refuse to work in. The damn winter moths have been a real pest the last 2 years as they get in the bud so early I have missed them. P.

Honey bees are in big trouble right now, they're being decimated by mites and a virus. Last year there were hardly any in my privets. Normally the hedges are humming all through July. Last year, silence..

Fred an expert told me at least 12 years ago that there were virtually no wild honey bees anywhere anymore because of the mites and various viruses. He told me if you have bees then they are from hives from someone in your area. If you raise bees you have to treat your hive for these problems constantly.