Tuesday, 8:00 AM. 37 degrees, wind E, calm. Fog once again obscures the Island and the fog horn is bellowing down on City Dock.The apple trees are at peak bloom, and driving through the orchard country it is apparent where trees are being pruned for production and where they are neglected, as the neglected trees have far more blossoms and are prettier. I prefer to prune apple trees, even if not grown for production,and pruned and sprayed, the old fashioned way…the top branches pruned out, and the whole tree pruned into an almost weeping shape. The structural character of an old apple tree is, to me, a far more important aesthetic than the blooms. Apple trees are very long lived, and can assume an ancient, gnarled character. The apple tree reportedly responsible for inspiring Newton’s ‘Principia,’ the theory of gravity, is still alive in England, and is well over three hundred years old. Now that there are dwarf varieties and trellised apple trees the old fashioned appearance is not as prevalent, which makes them even more important as a landscape feature. Such pruning must be done yearly, and it takes years to form the character of a tree, almost like doing Bonsai. I look upon it as an annual late winter ritual. I have only one apple tree, quite old, and I don’t spray it anymore except perhaps for a dormant oil spray, and the apples are good for little more than deer feed, but it is an anchor in the landscape.
We are going to Ashland today, and with gasoline prices what they are, we have saved up a lot of errands to accomplish at one time, so will be gone until late afternoon. We go to La Pointe by ferry for a Bayfield Chamber of Commerce & Visitor Bureau “After Hours” event this evening, and the captain may have to use radar, sonar GPS and perhaps intuition to get us there and back.
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