Easing into Spring

 The snow is finally melting and the sun is shining, but the ground is still frozen hard in many places.  While the wind can be bitter cold, once you got dressed correctly, and got used to it, the weather has been nice enough to get started checking on the garden.  The weather will be unseasonably warm in the 50-60Fs this week so I am making plans as to what needs to be done to take advantage of this.

The first thing I do is check on the rabbit and deer protection and begin moving things from plants that were at risk in autumn to evergreen plants that are at risk in the spring.  While newly planted bulbs (above) may be dug up in the fall by squirrels or racoons, the daffodil sprouts are safe but the evergreen leaves of Penstemon (below), Heuchera, Hellebores or Primrose will suddenly be of interest as they emerge from the snow cover.  Even if the deer just taste them and decide they don't like them, the plants can be set back for weeks.  I have begun scattering repellent granules around the crocuses and as soon as we have some foliage to spray I will switch to spray on repellent.

The rabbits were very hungry when the snow was thick.  Thankfully I had protected all of the fruit trees and they left the other woody shrubs alone.  I can see signs of their munching on the blackberry canes in the bunny patch.

Everything looks pretty flat from having the snow weighing on it for two months straight and some things have snapped.  The Butterfly Bush below shows some damage but it is still too early to prune it.

Any ground that was bare in the long cold has heaved up.  One end of the strawberry patch has heaved because the wire mesh caught all of the snow and the sun shone in under the south end.

Perennial plants are sending up shoots.  Below are the Valerian plants in my perennial herb bed, showing fresh red sprouts at ground level.

This herb bed has a challenging section.  You see that shadow cast by the top rail of the fence?  That ground stays colder and the sun is blocked all winter until the sun climbs up from the southern horizon.  I had planted Parsley in that end of the bed.  You can see that the plants survive to the south and north of the shadow but do not winter over in the shadow.  I seed annual plants in that strip.  I have a similar problem in the perennial bed to the north of the chicken run.  I had low growing Primrose planted in that shadow and while they survived just fine, the plants that lived in the shadow were always late to bloom.  I had to dig them up and relocate them to each side of the shadow.

The end of February, early March is also the time for pruning fruit trees.  This is a chore that I actually enjoy.  Over the years I have gotten better at it or at least more confident.  I have pruned these two fruit trees their whole lives and, for the most part, I think I have done a decent job.  They are both productive and fairly well shaped.  I am very diligent about taking out water sprouts or crossing branches, but I am more timid about header cuts that reduce the height of the tree and change its overall shape.

Before:  I have drawn red lines where I think I need to make cuts.

After:  I was pretty happy with the shape. 
We used a very long, vintage pole pruner to reach these cuts.

One tree (above) is more open and puts out less new growth but produces bushels of apples almost every year.  The other is more of a beauty queen.  She is nicely shaped and puts out vigorous water shoots each year, but is much more fickle about actually producing apples and can either amaze you or totally disappoint.

Before

On this tree I will still need to thin more out on the left (south facing) side.

After

There are a few basic principles to remember when pruning fruit trees. 

• Take out anything dead, damaged or diseased
• Take out anything growing straight up (usually water sprouts) or back towards the center
• Trees send growth hormone to the tips of each branch

That last one is the key principle and must be remembered each time you make a cut.  The last live bud on the end of what you leave, will be the bud that produces a branch.  Below I illustrated this principle on a water sprout, drawing lines from four of the buds.  If you were to keep the branch below you would want to make a cut above one of the buds that is pointing outward away from the trunk.  You would also need to remove the upward pointing sprout to the right of the one I have highlighted because these future branches would eventually cross and rub this branch.  This principle extends to rose bushes and woody shrubs.  There are many factors to consider when pruning a tree, but that is one of the most important.  Next chore: spraying them with dormant oil before they leaf out.

My raised beds have been heavily covered with snow for two months and look as perfect today as the day I prepped them for winter.  And there is not a weed to be seen which is never the case with a mild winter.

We have many snow piles left on the property.  My husband uses the tractor to spread them out where we have room.  This helps them melt faster and also helps control the melt water.  Some of the piles he scoops up and dumps in the roadside ditch where the melt water can run off without causing any problems.

Next spring chore: Clean any remaining leaves from the landscape beds and begin edging and mulching