Engraved with motifs of fruit and foliage, the products of their use, the set includes billhooks for removing branches and clippers that could be mounted on a pole. A pruning knife,saw, and combination hammer and auger to cleave tree bark for bud grafts are evidence of the care taken in trimming and directing tree branches.
Was there something different about the Bradford pears this year? Did you see it, too?
Think back – back 8 weeks ago, when the nights were still chilly and the mornings were cool, but the days were warm and you thought Spring is here. There were no leaves on the oaks, but you saw the Bradford pears doing what Bradford pears do: bursting into white blooms to decorate suburban roadsides (and some…
The vigorous, deciduous shrub Chaenomeles speciosa ‘Moerloosei’ (Japanese quince, flowering quince) is ideal for fan training on a fence and the bare twigs are smothered in flowers before the glossy, dark green leaves appear. This is a later flowering cultivar with white flowers flushed with dark pink, from March to May. The flowers are often followed by aromatic, greenish-yellow fruit that can be eaten when cooked.
The spreading deciduous shrub Chaenomeles speciosa ‘Nivalis’ (Japanese quince) has a habit that creates a tangle of growth, with spiny branches. Here it has been trained along a fence and manages to thrive in the shade of other shrubs. The line of white flowers shine out through the stems of other deciduous shrubs.
When I was little, I would look out my bedroom window every February/March and watch my dad prune all the apple trees in our yard. One by one, they would go from tall gangly, scragly trees to a stubby little plant that looked a bit like one of those funny metal wire back-scratchers, but upsidedown. The first year I watched him do this, I remember running out and asking why he was killing the trees… were they bad?
‘No no no…’ he replied. 'Only if I cut them down will they be able to grow big and tall again and grow very good apples for us to eat.’
It still doesnt make complete sense to me… why fruit trees work that way. And I still hate to see the chopped-off apple trees every spring. I think they’re ugly.
….and that’s how life feels right now. A bit ugly, and quite a bit hard. I had not really been able to figure out what was going on for the last few weeks… it felt like life was regressing. But today I read John 15, and suddenly it all made sense.
John 15 is the chapter in the Bible where Jesus is talking to his disciples about the Vine and the Branches. Now I’m from Washington - we have apple trees, in abundance. But Jesus lived in the middle east - where grapes, well, they’re 'the thing’ over there. And while I’ve never watched my dad pruning grape vines, the analogy still makes sense.
I won’t quote all of John 15 in this post, since you can read it right here: youversion
But basically, Jesus has to prune us. There are times in our lives where he wants us to move FORWARD, but before we can move forward and bear wonderful fruit, we have to be pruned. The lackluster 'branches’ of our lives have to be cut away so that only the good 'branches’ can continue to grow strong and healthy.
And good golly, it’s not a fun process.
In the last few weeks i’ve felt confused about friendships, i’ve felt my confidence slipping, i’ve made some weird choices and hung out with even weirder people, and all the while just kind of disliked what was going on in life. I felt discouraged and even angry at times. A couples times I asked God what was going on, but I never stuck around long enough for an answer, so I just stopped sticking around, since I was a bit mad at Him, too. But after John 15 today… it is kind of all making sense.
I’m being pruned.
And yes, pruning sucks. But, if you read past the pruning part, into the middle of John 15, there’s hope:
I’ve told you these things for a purpose: that my joy might be your joy, and your joy wholly mature. This is my command: Love one another the way I loved you. This is the very best way to love. Put your life on the line for your friends. You are my friends when you do the things I command you. I’m no longer calling you servants because servants don’t understand what their master is thinking and planning. No, I’ve named you friends because I’ve let you in on everything I’ve heard from the Father.
We get to have God’s joy! We are named as friends! We are no longer servants! These things are SO much better than being approved of by the world. In John 15:18-19, Jesus says the world will hate us because it hated him; when we are confused about how the world treats us, we have only to realize it treated him that way first, and it is because we are becoming like him that it treats us that way.
And here’s the truth of the matter: I would rather be friends with God and have his joy than not go through pruning and only have fellow lost humans by my side. Hands down.
So with that revelation… I embrace the pruning and look forward to the JOY. :)
Csa volunteers hard at work. We are cleaning up the garden to prepare the soil for planting cover crops for the fall season. Planting a cover crop in fall really helps protect our soil from the upcoming frost.
I bought a bigger wood chipper last summer (the first one we had was too small for what we needed and didn’t last long) and it’s loud. I loved it when I realized just how loud it is. I look forward to dragging that thing right in the corner of the orchard closest to the neighbors, putting my noise cancelling earmuffs on and taking my time and slooowly chipping ever single twig and branch that will result from pruning this spring.
