looking past the mess at the future plans for the homestead

The landscape on the homestead currently looks more like a logging operation than a farm.  In a sense, that is what it has been, as we slowly clear away the Norway Maples that have taken over the orchard (those Norway Maples haunt me, I feel like they are mentioned in every single post!).

Ira and Ian visited from Montreal in March and helped a bit with the cutting

Piles like this one dot the property, we tried to burn one, but the wood is too green

It's sometimes hard to see past the mess, but we quickly use our imaginations to remember our dreams and plans we have for the homestead, and as you can see, we are far from troubled ;)! We just tell ourselves that the endless mountains of brush aren't clutter :) they are resources, materials that will be used for the various projects we have planed: trails, fences, lumber, sauna, outdoor shower... They will soon disappear as these projects come to life.  

Just yesterday, with the beautiful sunny weather, Alex and his friend John practiced some tree climbing techniques, to be able to begin pruning even the tallest of our apple trees, big and small.  They climbed our prized and magical crabapple, which we hope to turn into delicious homemade hard cider this fall.

We have been doing all this clearing to make room for the garden (which is already in full production indoors!), but also for our new trees which are set to arrive in May.  We will be diversifying our fruit trees with the addition of some cherries, plums, pawpaws and we'll add some protein with walnuts, hazelnut and butternut.

Getting ready to transition to the greenhouse

Tomatoes nice and warm next to the stove

Meanwhile indoors, our garden grows. In the cold winter months I got to reading The Seed Starter's Handbook by Nancy Bubel (great book, part of the collection of farming books gifted to us by the previous family who lived here), and in order of plantings, we now have seedlings of onions, tomatoes, peppers, eggplants, celery, kale, basil, cabbage, lettuce, leeks and potatoes either sprouting in the greenhouse or next to the woodstove or already growing and luscious under the grow-lamps.  For the rest of the vegetable varieties we plan to grow, I think I will simply wait to do direct planting.

One cool technique that Sabrina and I started doing last year: pre-soaking the seeds in water, it works!  It's like starting sprouts, and this way you give your seeds a headstart.

The temperature inside the greenhouse already gets up to 95F (35C) in April, when its sunny all day, luckily Alex planned for good ventilation!

One exciting plan that is currently under way is the relocalization of the chickens to their permanent home.  We also got to reading the Permaculture Garden book by Graham Bell and the Edible Forest Gardens Vol II book by Dave Jacke during the colder months, and we got the idea from both these books, to design a chicken moat around our largest vegetable garden plot. By creating a gated 4 foot wide corridor all around the garden, where the chickens can roam, our new garden 'guardians' will be ridding us of any potential weed seed or most insects trying to enter our coveted food pantry, all while foraging for their food. 

So far we have moved them into the summer coop on top of the knoll, have created their pen, complete with roosts and access to the compost pile, and this week the rolls of 150 feet of 6 foot tall chicken wire will arrive.  Currently, the chickens are busy eating away at all the weeds that grow where the garden will be :) Thank you chickens! More on this project later...

And I leave you with these photos of Léo, who is now 10 months old :) has four teeth, will soon be walking without the help of the table or chair, and does poo poo in the potty everyday! It's the little things in life... ;)

Seems crazy I know, but he is really regular ;)

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Until next time, be well

Prepping the orchard: Wood, Air & Light!

After our November post about the orchard, here is an update of its progress. In the words of John Bunker all you need is new wood, air and sunlight, and the rest is up to you and your tree's individual personality and story.

Two weekends ago we had the very good fortune of hosting a MOFGA pruning workshop on our homestead, for very old apple trees.  John Bunker and Phil Norris were our instructors, about twenty people came, and it was a perfect day with warm sun rays and my very first sights of butterflies.

During this 4 hour course we learned about the best practices of pruning fruit trees (as opposed to pruning for powerlines or ornamentals who just need to look good), to maximize their fruit production, but also to bring back trees that have been left untended for quite sometime.

Being that our house was built circa 1840, we have some Old trees, and although they might look 'old' and dying, they are still kicking.  And it is possible to bring them back to interesting fruit production with a little help.

 

Our Russet before... sorry I don't have a better before picture

Our Russet being actively pruned :)

First, you want to assess the vigor of your tree, to determine whether or not it will do well with an intense makeover all at once, or if you could help it with some homemade braces under some branches to reduce the pressure of gravity on the main trunk, or even more important, whether or not the fruit is any good!  Have you tried it?  Lots of different apples can be used for different purposes -- fresh eating, sauce, baking, juice, cider, apple butter, animal feed, etc. -- but not all apples are worth all that work.  Especially if they are seedling trees (meaning it isn't a grafted apple variety but one that simply grew from a seed).  Seedling trees may be edible, but rarely delicious.  So the advice given to us was to first try the fruit of the seedling trees we have, and maybe if it's not all that interesting, to use the tree as a root stock to save, or simply multiply one of our other trees with a better fruit on it.

From what I understand, all apple cultivars we commonly know of by name are supposed to be genetically identical specimens to the original one.  That is because they are propagated through grafting or budding, grown from a twig of the original one, passed down from generation to generation.  That is the beauty of orcharding: even if your tree is old, and you think you might not be able to bring it back to life (because of a hollow trunk or a nasty wound) you can give it new life by grafting a piece of last year's new wood onto a new root stock, or fifty new root stocks!  Well that wasn't the focus of this specific workshop, but I am thankful for that option, as my dearest apple (that we have temporarily named the Ghost apple), is probably close to 150 years old and has a very hollow trunk and because of that, could, might, perhaps not survive that much longer (Gulp!).  For that reason Mr. Bunker saved quite a few scions (= new wood twigs) which he will transform into new grafted young and healthy Ghost apples for future generations to enjoy.

Alex learning the ropes on the ghost apple tree from Phil

The next thing you can think about when pruning, is pruning the other trees around your apples :) Do you have lots of Norway maples or other early pioneers or invasives slowly taking over your orchard?  Cut them back, and use them as lumber, firewood, woodchips, etc, and give more sun to your fruits!

Alex and Ian, cording a Norway Maple that we took down to make room for the Ghost Apple

 Then dead wood is the easiest next step.  Remove all the dead branches, to give you a better, more accurate idea of what you will want to keep.  Then begin to remove what are called the Water Sprouts, the vigorous vertical branches that shoot straight up. 

Apple trees will never have fruits on vertical wood, never.  You need to have horizontal growth (or also otherwise called weak wood) to have fruits.  So if you see some younger vibrant growth shooting straight up, it might be a good sign that your tree is still very much alive, but you can go ahead and cut it off (remember it might seem extreme, but its not all for not, as you can also then remove last years growth on that branch to make scions :)). 

Sabrina came down for the workshop, and Léo in her arms :)

After removing adjacent trees, dead wood and water sprouts (thus taking care in part of the wood and sunlight aspects), we still have to keep cutting to create AIR.  You don't want any of your branches to touch, intertwine, or 'choke' one another.  So just like at the hairdresser, you want to layer the tree, and the analogy of a Christmas tree shape was used a lot, even though, with these olds gals, it might have to take a less symmetrical shape :) Obviously you want to encourage growth closer to the ground so you don't have to climb so high to get your fruit, so keep that in mind when you select the branches you will keep. An old adage is you want to cut enough to be able to throw a cat through the tree!

All cuts should be made directly next to a joint to allow the tree to cover the wound with bark. The two types of pruning cuts, heading and thinning are used for different purposes, but about 98% of all cuts we were told should be thinning cuts (cuts at a branching joint and not somewhere along a branch).

And I guess lastly, take your time, whether you are pruning for the first time or if you are an experienced apple orchardist...  As you open up new sunlight areas your tree might be telling you a different story next year, so think of the future, and don't be afraid to be gentle, there is always next year, or the fall.  With these older trees, don't be afraid to take your time, do the pruning in seasons, wait to see if new growth appears right on the trunk (as it will when you cut some of the top, thereby freeing some sunlight).

I say this because there is a saying, ''When you think you are done pruning, keep pruning!''. 

If you know some important tips about pruning, old or young trees, if you have comments, questions or stories about how you prune your trees, we'd love to hear from you :)

Til next time, be well!