Page 12 - MSN_391_OctoberNovember

12 ALL ABOUT MONTANA
Putting the Orchard to Bed
BY CRAIG THOMAS NAYLOR
As evening sunlight casts long shadows
on fall’s golden grasses, chores on my
land and in the orchard turn to winter
preparations. We’ve harvested and stored
the squashes. We’ve pulled, braided, and
dried the onions and garlic. We’ve blended
the basil with nuts, garlic, and olive oil, and
frozen it in ice cube trays for “pesto pucks,”
to later pull for cold-weather pastas. Candi
has canned and frozen multiple quarts of
salsa for a bit of winter spice.
The cherries, peaches, and apricots are
distant memories of long, hot, smoky sum-
mer days, and, I’ve picked the last of the
apples and stored them to ripen.
My attention turns to putting the orchard
to bed. It doesn’t whine and tussle like my
grandkids often do, but my 60-some trees
still need the equivalent of a bedtime story.
After most of the leaves have fallen, and
the bees have taken to winter rest, I spray
with Bordeaux, a mixture of hydrated lime
and copper, which helps prevent bacterial
diseases such as fire blight and peach leaf
curl. It’s a caustic mixture, so I don long
sleeves, rubber boots and gloves, a respira-
tor, and eye protection, then coat the trunk
and branches.
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MONTANA SENIOR NEWS • OCTOBER | NOVEMBER 2022
Next, about every four years, I paint commercially, but, for now, I’ll continue
the trunk with a watered-down solution my frugal ways and work with what I have.
of white latex, to prevent sunburn when This process means I need to get down
winter rays reflect off glistening snow. A on my knees for each tree. As many of you
50-50, paint-to-water solution works well, know, getting down is the easy part, but
and I use the cheapest paint I can find. rising back up is, at our age, quite a bit
Mice, voles, and pocket gophers are more difficult. So, while I’m down there, I
nasty critters in summer, but their danger take my time.
increases in winter when they do their work I pull a few weeds. I commune with each
covertly, under the snow, like four-legged tree, thinking about the fruit it blessed us
CIA agents. with this past year and, since they’re all
I spread castor oil repellant around the unique, about the special tasting bounty
perimeter of the orchard and in a few areas each one produced.
where the gophers are particularly active. If it’s been barren for a few years, we
Those little buck-toothed beasts can eat the have a talk. I ask it if it needs some special
roots of a small tree in one season! The tree fertilizer. Or, perhaps, I scold it, hoping a
will leaf out then wither and die, leaving little shame will help, which we all know is
only dashed hopes and some regretfully rarely productive in any situation.
strong language. I place my hands palm down and say a
The voles and mice stay above ground few words of thanks to Mother Earth for
but will eat the bark at the base of the tree, the bounty She provides and raise my eyes
even a large one that’s been around for to the Father for the many blessings of life.
years, cutting off the life-flowing cambium, And then I move to the next tree and do
dooming it when spring comes. the same.
To prevent this damage, I wrap pieces When finished, I put my tools away and
of aluminum window screen around each move on to hunting for a bit of last-minute
trunk and tie it with twine. I have a bunch wood—cutting and stacking it, in anticipa-
of sections of white plastic sewer pipe I’ve tion of lounging contentedly in my warm
ripped vertically on one side, and I slip home as the temperature drops outside.
these over the trunk for additional pro- I wrote a poem about this. I hope you
tection. One of these days, I’ll splurge for enjoy it. And I wish you all a beautiful fall
some of the fancy trunk wraps you can buy season filled with great thanksgivings.
A
GE
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