Loquat season is here!

...ng it’s vaguely tropical looking. They don’t seem to require much water or pruning–so they do well under benign neglect, though I’d suspect the fruit is best on trees which are not completely ignored. This is the time of year when the fruit comes ripe, and it’s always kind of an exciting time because the loquats bridge the “fruit gap” between winter citrus and stone fruit. The thing about loquats is that they are really suited only for fresh eatin...

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How to Plant a Fruit Tree

...bble–it’s been proven to be not a good idea to amend soil when you’re planting a tree. Other than that, this is how we’ve planted our trees and they’ve all grown well. And I wish that I had done the radical pruning you see at the end of the video. Cutting the tree to knee height will give you a shorter, more manageable tree. You can find more home orcharding videos on the Dave Wilson website....

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What Equipment do I Need to Keep Bees?

...s spray bottle with syrup made with a 50/50 combo of water and white sugar pruning sheers for cutting tree branches a roll of caution tape bee suit/gloves/boots (most, but not all swarms are docile) nuc box mesh bag to put the nuc box in (especially important if you don’t own a truck!) knife (for cut-outs) Benadryl for when you get stung! I strongly suggest having all of the things in this post on hand before you think of getting bees. So beekeepe...

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Mulch, mulch, mulch!

...pretty much invisible in a few days. Practice “chop n’ drop”. When you’re pruning bushes or trees, chop up softer trimmings to about 6″ (15 cm) and leave them at the base of the plant. The plant will appreciate it. You can leave woody branches here and there, too, to support beetles and other bugs. (I make little piles of fallen wood, hoping to host lizards, but resign myself to the fact I’m more likely hosting mice. Well, it gives the neighbor’s...

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