The apricot tree surprised me with blossoms today when there I was pottering around road-tripping one state over, thinking I had the whole of February still to do the fruit tree pruning. Oops! February is done it seems.
March is roaring in like a truly bad tempered lion brandishing a red flag fire warning and incredibly strong winds which are literally blowing off roofs around me in this run down trailer park town, the second (economically speaking) poorest town in the whole state, I read recently.
In a semi lull between yesterday's and tomorrow's desert dust filled derecho, I got some rudimentary and rather hasty pruning done this morning: the apricot tree, Santa Rosa plum, three pomegranates but not the two figs, two grapevines, the weeping Santa Rosa plum (not sure at all what to do about her since she seems disinclined to weep much) the Kashmir pomegranate outback or the dwarf North Star cherry at the front door.
Poorest town? Money in the bank is only one measure. There's a wealth of young fruit factories rooting down and rising up in this little piece of desert. If I nurture them right.
It is true that I have had to lay down a fair amount of dollars over the past four years on these 15 various fruit trees and vines, and I continue to pay a premium to water them. The return an orchard will give on this investment of money and other resources will be long term, benefit the entire ecology of the area and feed me personally in significant ways beyond nutrition I suspect, so is worth it. After all. I think.
Onward with the season, Holi is just around the corner and the sugar snap peas have sprouted.