Monday, May 11, 2009

Snowing In May

The other day was sunny with patches of small clouds so it was fun to watch all the light and shadows dance across my garden. I was standing near the composter with my eyes closed and face raised to feel the warmth of the sun. A gust of wind strayed by and suddenly I felt lots of small things falling down on me. I opened my eyes and I realized that they were snowflakes. Then I noticed that they weren’t melting on my skin and I accepted that they were the blossom petals from the old pear tree… LOL!!!!


Last year I noticed that the pear tree – that must be at least one million years old (ha ha) – had lots of dead branches and a grapevine had actually grown up into its highest limbs. It didn’t blossom all that spectacularly and it didn’t even have many leaves. I decided to give it a trim.

I didn’t have a pruning saw – but I bought one this spring and I’ve used it a lot already – so I just applied pressure to the dead branches until they snapped off. It wasn’t very pretty. I thought that these wounds would actually mimic those of a violent and strong wind and that the tree would respond in kind.


For the higher branches, I climbed up a ladder and then I reached out and jumped – grabbed a hold of the dead branch and the two of us came crashing to the ground. Joanne thought I was crazy for doing it this way. It was only a three foot drop to the ground…lol!!


I then climbed onto the roof of the garage to get to the top branches and to pull off the grapevine – which got the next haircut…


This year, the tree looks amazingly full of leaves and it was shining white with blossoms. Unfortunately, I neglected to take any really good photos of one of my gardening success stories, so I hope that you enjoy what I have been able to show.

Jim

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