Pavel314 wrote:
....
It's been fairly dry in the Baltimore area lately, although there's a 40% chance of rain overnight tonight. There was a bit of snow out to the west of us the other day according to the weather radar maps, but none here. I do plan to get the snow blower gassed up and ready to go in the next few days; we only need it about every third year, but it's nice to have when needed. If we get a real snow dump, I'll use the back hoe to clear the drive.

our friends have offered us help this year if we ever
need to be plowed out. it is very rare we need this
because we both like shoveling so much. a few years ago
both of us were sick at the same time so we did have
someone plow us out one time, but we still had half of
it shoveled by the time they got here.


Like you, I plan on doing a lot of pruning now that the trees have gone dormant. The apple trees were infested with a scab-type disease this past season which led them to drop most of their leaves. I contacted the state ag people who suggested heavy pruning to allow air circulation to promote drying, as well as certain sprays.

this isn't pruning as much as tree and shrub removing
as i don't like losing my full sun on the gardens and
the ditches should be kept clear so the grasses are not
killed off by shade.

good luck with the apple trees, what kind are they?
from my experiment with apple seeds i've found out that
i could grow a pretty nice living hedge in just a few
years if i wanted to.


I also plan to try grafting again. I have a few white grape vines that don't produce much, and when they do, the wine doesn't taste too good; I'll cut them back and try grafting some Concord and Fredonia twigs onto them.

concord makes some ok wines, but they are much better
for jams/jellies and fresh eating (i love 'em even if
they can be sour). if your white vines don't produce
much i'd not use their rootstock as it may be the
issue. new vines are not that expensive...


January will be time to fell some trees for next year's firewood.




songbird