Tree Tuesday
Tree Tuesday is an initiative by @old-guy-photos and meant to encourage people to post - and of course - to take some awesome pictures of trees.
Now, I got the part down about taking pictures of trees - maybe not awesome ones, but pictures :)
What is missing if to actually make the posts and get those pictures out to you all.
Well, no more!! Today is the day! 😉
Fig Tree Pruning
This is a panache fig tree which produces a delicious fruit!
If you know anything about figs, you know that they are best if eaten right of the tree when fully ripe. As a matter of fact, they do not keep ripening after they are picked. Once they are ripe, they don't keep very well and shipping ripe figs is almost impossible. As a result, a lot of people do not like figs since they only had them storebought - and those are not ripe.
When they are ripe, everyone loves figs. And by everyone, I mean birds, bug, rats, squirrels, possums - you name it, they like it!
If you, human, want to eat your figs, you must protect your fruit. And to do so, it is best if you can reach your fruit. so, a tree like this is very hard to work with.
Now, if you have a big orchard with hundreds of trees, it is fine to let the wildlife have their share. Even in a home garden, you want to plan that at least 10% of the potential harvest goes to feed the critters.
However, this tree is in a community education space and hadn't been pruned for a long time. It was time to do something about it.
See the aluminum foil wrapped packages in the foreground? We started propagating (making more trees) a few month ago with a technique called air-layering. I will write about that in a separate post.
Tom was explaining to a large crowd of people (we did the pruning as a class) which branches to cut and why.
I threw this picture in because I like it.
And the next one to show you what it takes to be a good photographer. This is @benjamincossel who takes awesome pictures.
Yup, sometimes, you have to lay down to get the picture you want. It pays to stay in good shape - both for pruning and for taking pictures of the pruning process - or anything, really.
This is the finished product. Now, we have a tree we can work with without having to climb a ladder and it is not interfering with the people space.
Just a geeky sidenote. I love how the tree is framing the woman's face sitting under the arbor.
Once the tree is coming out of dormancy, I will take more pictures and you can follow the progress.
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