Wallyhood has an apple tree and a peach tree in our yard. You’re welcome to the fruit, but only if we get any. This past year: nada. Zilch.
It could have been the lousy weather (our normally fecund tomato plants were near barren) but we suspect our poor pruning skills may be to be blame as well. That’s why we were so delighted to hear from Barb that help is on the way:
Bob Baines, senior gardener of Seattle Parks Department, will lead a fruit tree pruning workshop Saturday, March 14 from 1 – 3 pm.
We’ll meet at the Mosaic Coffee House, 4401 2nd Ave NE in Wallingford (corner of NE 44th and 2nd Ave NE), a block south of Dick’s Drive-In.
The first hour will be spent indoors with Bob discussing the fundamentals of apple and pear and possibly plum tree pruning. Then we will visit some neighborhood fruit trees to see those pruning techniques demonstrated. Bob will try to tailor the discussion to the interests of the participants. Pruning questions are welcome.
Dress prepared to spend an hour outside – rain or shine. We’ll try to find trees very close to the Mosaic.
Suggested donation: $10. Net proceeds go to Lettuce Link / Community Fruit Tree Harvest
Any questions, call Barb Burrill at 206-632-0130
this picture is not current is it? our stuff is not at this stage yet
No, just a pretty picture from Flickr to illustrate the story. I always link to the original picture to give the photographer credit.
Did any neighbors have similar problems? Lack of honeybees might be an issue!
For most apples, it’s all about pruning to develop fruiting spurs.
I feel the need to point out that the original photo on Flickr is listed as “All Rights Reserved.” May I suggest:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/kurlvink/1369821945/
or
http://www.flickr.com/photos/autanex/2281243751/
both of which are released under the Creative Commons license. (You can search for more/better images at http://search.creativecommons.org).
Don’t mean to be antagonistic, but copyright protection on the Web is close to my heart.
Many thanks for writing about our awesome neighborhood!
– Mike
Just the help we need for our trees! See you at the workshop.