TODAY IN THE ORCHARD

Nearly every apple tree on the farm is now at petal fall, and small fruitlets are forming rapidly. I took a break from the orchard today and worked in the Main Garden. The primary activity was constructing a 36’-long arbor tunnel for pole shell beans. These are a SCF favorite. The construction took most of the day using about forty 1 - 1 1/2” diameter hardwood poles. It should look pretty fantastic covered with beans. Around the farm the quince are all now in bloom. A close relative to the apple and pear and very susceptible to fire blight, the quince come into bloom very late, thus increasing their susceptibility. It’s about time to begin doing major weeding in the nursery and around the young trees in the orchard. Saturday we’ll spray surround again.

Bunk and Nick, celebrating the completion of the new bean arbor. Nick was an apprentice here at SCF about ten years ago. Nick is now a farm manager at Johnny’s Selected Seeds. His son is named Finley. (What else?)