New North garden – hellebore flowers
On Friday when we were out pruning the peach trees, I got beginning of season photos of all the little trees. There’s the set of 12 that was planted in the spring of 2020 “Little Trees” and then there are the ones in the second planting of 8 in 2023 “Little Trees II”.
The top left photo shows the cherry before we cut away the root stalk. Hopefully now the energy will go into the surviving trunk. The #2 York elderberry is one of my best ones. #3 Goodbarn elderberry is small and has remained smaller than all the others.
The #4 Allegheny serviceberry had finally established and started to grow. #5 is the Adams elderberry and it’s a medium producer, not a powerhouse. The Lapins cherry has been doing very poorly since it was planted and was never pruned. It’s hard to see if for the tall tree behind it.
Several of the elderberries have sent out runners but this one from the #7 Adams elderberry on the north side of the Lapins cherry was big enough to warrant the protective spirals.
There’s a pair of Adams elderberries on the north and south sides of the Lapins cherry. This one, #7, has done far better than the other one. Next is another Goodbarn elderberry, #8, and it is small and sparse like the other one. #9 is the Contender peach. It was heavily laden with fruit last year and badly needed pruning.
The #10 York elderberry is the best one of the lot, by far. At the end of the row is #11 Juneberry. It has done pretty well, having fruit from the first year. Up by the house is the last little tree, #12 the sugar maple. It has also finally established and grown a lot.
This is the Little Trees row, from the #11 Juneberry looking south.
This is the second set of Little Trees II, just coming out of its second dormancy since planting. The row starts with a tiny Juneberry, #1. Then a Kahinta plum, #2, that we will be pruning on April 1st, weather permitting. And #3 is the chokeberry. It’s started to outgrow the protective cage, so we will be removing them once spring is farther along.
Next is the #4 Pembina plum that has really outgrown its cage and needs pruning badly. Another chokeberry, #5, not as big as #3. And at the end of the row, #6 Reliance peach. This is the one we sprayed and it needed pruned also.
On the edge of the back yard, there are 2 Louise Swenson grapes. They finally have a trellis and we will be training them onto it this year.
So those are most of the fruit trees here on the farm at the beginning of the 2025 season.