{"id":5129,"date":"2012-06-15T15:22:53","date_gmt":"2012-06-15T22:22:53","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/ruffledfeathersandspilledmilk.com\/?p=5129"},"modified":"2012-06-20T04:20:21","modified_gmt":"2012-06-20T11:20:21","slug":"pruning","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/ruffledfeathersandspilledmilk.com\/?p=5129","title":{"rendered":"Pruning."},"content":{"rendered":"

Well, I’m sure this comes as a big surprise, but the garden chores got away from me a little bit.\u00a0 Not through any fault on my part, of course.\u00a0 Mainly it happened because we have been doing this:<\/p>\n

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Helping to shear Ramses, the UNC mascot.<\/dd>\n<\/dl>\n<\/div>\n

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And this:<\/p>\n

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We found a pond where the owners don’t have time to fish.<\/dd>\n<\/dl>\n<\/div>\n

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And we were very happy to help them out…<\/dd>\n<\/dl>\n<\/div>\n

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…with their fish overpopulation.<\/dd>\n<\/dl>\n<\/div>\n

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And this:<\/p>\n

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Pretty graduated from the 5th grade. With honors, of course.<\/dd>\n<\/dl>\n<\/div>\n

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Plus this:<\/p>\n

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The first watermelon of the season truly has heart.<\/dd>\n<\/dl>\n<\/div>\n

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A girl has to find time for all these things, you know.\u00a0 Which meant I wasn’t dealing with this:<\/p>\n

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\"Suckers<\/a><\/dt>\n
Suckers growing between the main branches of the tomato plant.<\/dd>\n<\/dl>\n<\/div>\n

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The problem with not pruning the suckers as they grow on your tomato plants is that eventually your tomato plant looks like this:<\/p>\n

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Tomato, green giant variety.<\/dd>\n<\/dl>\n<\/div>\n

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Which is exactly what my tomato plants looked like when I finally stumbled down to gather the harvest.\u00a0 I knew the plants were loaded with tomatoes.\u00a0 They were just hidden from the ripening sun.\u00a0 And the branches were so tightly packed into the cages that they were starting to get diseased.\u00a0 Or eaten by bugs that the guineas couldn’t reach.\u00a0 Or something else bad that I don’t even want to know about.<\/p>\n

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Something evil lurks here.<\/dd>\n<\/dl>\n<\/div>\n

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So we all headed down with the 3 sets of pruning shears and my other garden helpers:<\/p>\n

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Raw milk to prevent blossom end rot and Dr. Bronner’s peppermint soap to keep away pests.<\/dd>\n<\/dl>\n<\/div>\n

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We gave all the plants a good haircut with the shears, a good spray of soap on the leaves, and a good soaking at the roots with the milk.\u00a0 And what do you know?\u00a0 I was right.\u00a0 There were tons of tomatoes hiding in there.<\/p>\n

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The big reveal!<\/dd>\n<\/dl>\n<\/div>\n

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And none of the clippings got wasted.\u00a0 C.C.’s a big fan of tomato branches.<\/p>\n

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Who needs the red part when you’ve got the green part?<\/dd>\n<\/dl>\n<\/div>\n

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The trouble with pruning is that it’s really hard when you first get started.\u00a0 It seems a shame to be cutting away healthy, vigorous branches that you’ve babied since they were just seeds.\u00a0 But after a few good cuts, it’s hard to stop.\u00a0 I cut back the crepe myrtle.<\/p>\n

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Before.<\/dd>\n<\/dl>\n<\/div>\n

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After.<\/dd>\n<\/dl>\n<\/div>\n

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Then I attacked the parsley and lemon balm.<\/p>\n

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Twin take-over attempt.<\/dd>\n<\/dl>\n<\/div>\n

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And cleared a path for the trumpet lily to grow behind the lemon balm since I stupidly planted the lemon balm in front of it last year.\u00a0 Not having any idea that lemon balm had aggressive tendencies.<\/p>\n

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I also cut up the oregano which was trying to suffocate the guara I planted it in front of.\u00a0 Because every mistake is worth repeating at least twice.<\/p>\n

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Then I went after the butterfly bush.\u00a0 Mine had been allowed to grow free into this amorphous shape:<\/p>\n

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Free love butterfly bush.<\/dd>\n<\/dl>\n<\/div>\n

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I had ideas that it would come out like this lovely butterfly bush pruned into a tree shape:<\/p>\n

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Purple perfection.<\/dd>\n<\/dl>\n<\/div>\n

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I don’t want to say it was a total FAIL, but after this result I decided to find something other than my plants to prune:<\/p>\n

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Huh.<\/dd>\n<\/dl>\n<\/div>\n

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What else could I prune?\u00a0 What else…….<\/p>\n

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Hey big guy. You look soooo hot in all the fur…..<\/dd>\n<\/dl>\n<\/div>\n

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Bruno’s breeder always said Great Pyrs should never be shaved.\u00a0 Their skin isn’t made to be that exposed to sun, dirt, and parasites.\u00a0 I would never do anything to put Bruno at risk for sunburn, bacteria, or fleas and ticks.\u00a0 But there’s no reason he couldn’t be cooled down a little bit….<\/p>\n

I’m taking the fact that he sat, smiling, for the whole process as a sign that he agreed with me.<\/p>\n

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Bruno feels a breeze for the first time ever.<\/dd>\n<\/dl>\n<\/div>\n

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I know Daisy enjoyed it.<\/p>\n

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The best cat gift ever—soft cuddly dog fur, without the dog in it. Get your cat some for Christams this year.<\/dd>\n<\/dl>\n<\/div>\n

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Since we couldn’t take the fur away from her without being exposed to cat scratch fever….<\/p>\n

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I’m prepared to die to keep this fur. Are you prepared to die in order to take it from me?<\/dd>\n<\/dl>\n<\/div>\n

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….we let her keep it in her dog, um, cat house.<\/p>\n

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To the victor goes the…matted clumps of dog hair.<\/dd>\n<\/dl>\n<\/div>\n

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I have to admit I was very pleased with this result:<\/p>\n

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Great Pyrapoodle<\/dd>\n<\/dl>\n<\/div>\n

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So pleased that I looked around for more things that needed a cooler haircut for summer.\u00a0 Lucky for the boys,\u00a0 The Other Half got to their heads before I did.<\/p>\n

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Close call, boys, close call.<\/dd>\n<\/dl>\n<\/div>\n

Then while we were putting away the pruning shears, we found these weeds at the top of the driveway by the tool trailer.\u00a0 I actually don’t know if they are weeds or not.\u00a0 They are some type of soft stemmed plant that grows 6-8 feet high.\u00a0 Oh my!<\/p>\n

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Weeds?!?!?<\/p><\/div>\n

I paid the boys $1 each to cut all these things and haul them off to the livestock.\u00a0 I was tempted to do it myself but working in leaf debris means putting on boots instead of flip flops and I just didn’t feel up to that kind of stress.\u00a0 Kills the joy of pruning, you know.<\/p>\n

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Worker Bee #1<\/p><\/div>\n

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Worker Bee #2<\/p><\/div>\n

I should have made them pay me, though.\u00a0 Because I let them use the machete.<\/p>\n

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Prepare to die, weed-thingy.<\/p><\/div>\n

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Ah, the benefits of farm life.\u00a0 You’re just far enough away from the neighbors that you can let your children use machetes and no one calls you on it.\u00a0 That’s freedom, people, real freedom.<\/p>\n

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\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Well, I’m sure this comes as a big surprise, but the garden chores got away from me a little bit.\u00a0 Not through any fault on my part, of course.\u00a0 Mainly it happened because we have been doing this: Helping to shear Ramses, the UNC mascot.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5129","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/ruffledfeathersandspilledmilk.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5129","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/ruffledfeathersandspilledmilk.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/ruffledfeathersandspilledmilk.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/ruffledfeathersandspilledmilk.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/ruffledfeathersandspilledmilk.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=5129"}],"version-history":[{"count":38,"href":"http:\/\/ruffledfeathersandspilledmilk.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5129\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5198,"href":"http:\/\/ruffledfeathersandspilledmilk.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5129\/revisions\/5198"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/ruffledfeathersandspilledmilk.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=5129"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/ruffledfeathersandspilledmilk.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=5129"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/ruffledfeathersandspilledmilk.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=5129"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}