esrosedotblog

PRUNE FACE

Today we are getting all of the trees pruned.

Well, tomorrow also.

This is an essential in desert gardening.

Everything grows so fast that it needs to be pruned before nature does it for you. Pruning without consent.

We already lost half a pepper tree for exactly that reason.

We have two lovely huge carob trees in the front that give us shade (and Franklin a lot of carob pods to eat).

There is an olive tree on the side that will have olives (underfoot) unless you cut it back early in the spring. You can spray the blossoms later on but this is chemical gardening and also unreliable.

Out back there are banana trees and woody palm trees that need to be trimmed because the lower leaves are brown and ugly.

The tangerine tree needs to be trimmed back because this is a bearing year and it will get so loaded with fruit that limbs will break if we do not reduce its size.

And on the north side, we have California oleanders that are now growing over the roof as they shade that side of the house.

The orchid tree out front is out of control growing straight up, all gawky like. It just got reduced to a nice umbrella shape again.

This is a bi-annual exercise.

Two guys do it. One prunes. One cleans behind the other.

They are very methodical. Quiet. Deliberate. Somehow peaceful.

It is great to have them around.

Even Franklin is happy to have them there and does not try to 'help'.

For a while, we will have a lot of light into the house. But it is amazing how quickly the small branches will return.

By the time the heat arrives we will have a welcomed shade again.

Labels: desert, horticulture