Our apple trees are getting ready to bloom, all except one lone guy who seems doomed for the wood pile. In fact all the trees look pretty sparse. The one in the photo? That's the healthiest one.
Maybe they just need some care. I'm not the best with fruit trees and I think maybe they don't like me so much either. One of them bailed out in the winter windstorm we had in January. I think our soil is too wet. In the photo you can see the powdery mildew on the branches. I'm no tree expert but that can't be a good sign. I imagine they will just slowly die off unless we can find a better way to drain the soil.
I don't imagine any arborists are reading my blog but if there is one, help me save my trees!
Yesterday over a group mommy coffee session I learned that they sold the house next door. That sure was was fast. We just heard the negotiations on Saturday and by Tuesday the news is already out. You've got to love small towns. I imagine that it just means that the offer was accepted but still I'm excited because we'll have neighbors and the house will get saved. There's nothing sadder than an old abandoned house and a scrappy yard. And we really have no visible neighbors around us, unless you count the couple in the gated house who are divorcing (rumor has it they´ve divided the house in half, War of the Roses style pending the sale). The house behind us is our most accessible and most neighborly.
I grilled Seb about who saw the house on Saturday. There seemed to be lots of visits and he couldn't remember much from his dugout post in the basement. I just hope they're nice. My in-laws have these horrible neighbors who are suing them for having put up a small laundry line in their backyard last Summer. They have a mental anguish claim against them for over 2,000 euros and they're likely to lose too, something about a clause in the homeowner's association and grandfathering in old laundry lines or something stupid. If you knew my in-laws and knew how anally NEAT they are about their yard (well, everything in fact), you would be shocked that anyone could get away with such a claim. They spend hours in their yard trimming, edging and mulching. The whole thing is out of hand and now apparently fil has a counter-claim because the neighbor has been spraying him with a hose each time he goes in the backyard to water. It kind of makes me worried that we'll have those kinds of neighbors. If people can get out of sorts to the tune of over 2K over laundry lines then I suppose dirt piles could cause heart attacks.
I just hope these new people will be nice, -an older couple not too fuddy duddy who love kids or a family like us with small children. Or maybe, better yet an arborist with small kids. I can dream right?
9 comments:
It's good to dream. Maybe it was what they hung out on the laundry line that caused the mental anguish? LOL. Hoping for good neighbors. Don't think too much about the trees until you see what they produce next fall!
haha yes I have some mental anguish myself from what I've seen on their laundry line.
My guess is if they're buying an old house in much need of repair, they're not going to be too fussy about laundry lines or a yard that's less than perfect.
I'm no arborist, but I send all my questions to the garden web forums.http://forums2.gardenweb.com/forums/fruit/
I hope you get good neighbors!
It looks like you have a nice big backyard...but I know nothing about trees. I lost a laurier this winter, but it had been sick for years and I never did anything about it.
I think you are supposed to prune. I have no idea how this is done on a fruit tree though. We have fruit trees and people come over, look at the trees, and say "Those poor trees! When were they last pruned?" Giampaolo and I look at each other and scratch our heads.
Hm. Maybe we could use an arborist ourselves.
I hope you get good neighbors too!!!
Cherise - Yeah I guess your right but you know sometime people buy houses and pay other people to fix them and THEN they move in. We wouldn't know about that now would we? Anyway maybe they'll be that type (which is cool) but hopefully they'll be not too fussy.
Meredith - I am really sad for that tree. I can't walk by it without getting upset. I'm too sentimental. Seb was ready to chainsaw it last weekend and I screamed at him "no it's still alive!" because there are blossoms on it.
Jennifer - I've heard that too. I'm going to look into it. I'm guessing you prune in the late Fall though after the tree fruits.
I've seen my neighbors pruning in Feb/March. But they are BIG with the pruning here. They are always pruning everything. So it could be year-round affair for the Northern Italians.
Oh, I know them too, and we all fear those those ones. There are a few houses for sale near us and all of us are uber-vigilant. We don't want THOSE types ;)
I'm the chainsaw happy one in the family. We have SO many trees we had a jungle, which I proceeded to thin out, which pissed off the husband. One time I hurt myself with the pruning shears and he said "Serves you right! The tree is fighting back."
I've heard that you are supposed to prune in late winter, before the tree starts it's spring budding.
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