Ironic Lawn Care

My recent newsletter from the Home Orchard Society also included a story about God and St. Francis discussing lawn care, though this conversation could be with a foreigner unfamiliar with our customs. While I’m not quit this extreme in my views about lawns, I have been arguing for some time now that I don’t need a perfect lawn, and might rip out some of it in favor of a garden instead. Also, the pollution involved in mowing and the chemicals involved is horrible. Anyway, the story goes:

GOD: Francis, you know all about gardens and nature. What in the world is going on down there? What happened to the dandelions, violets, thistle and stuff I started eons ago? I had a perfect, no-maintenance garden plan. Those plants grow in any type of soil, withstand drought and multiply with abandon. The nectar from the long lasting blossoms attracts butterflies, honey bees and flocks of songbirds. I expected to see a vast garden of colors by now. But all I see are these green rectangles.
ST. FRANCIS: It's the tribes that settled there, Lord. The Suburbanites. They started calling your flowers "weeds" and went to great lengths to kill them and replace them with grass.
GOD: Grass? But it's so boring. It's not colorful. It doesn't attract butterflies, birds and bees, only grubs and sod worms. It's temperamental with temperatures. Do these Suburbanites really want all that grass growing there?
ST. FRANCIS: Apparently so, Lord. They go to great pains to grow it and keep it green. They begin each spring by fertilizing grass and poisoning any other plant that crops up in the lawn.
GOD: The spring rains and warm weather probably make grass grow really fast. That must make the Suburbanites happy.
ST. FRANCIS: Apparently not, Lord. As soon as it grows a little, they cut it-sometimes twice a week.
GOD: They cut it? Do they then bale it like hay?
ST. FRANCIS: Not exactly, Lord. Most of them rake it up and put it in bags.
GOD: They bag it? Why? Is it a cash crop? Do they sell it?
ST. FRANCIS: No Sir. Just the opposite. They pay to throw it away.
GOD: Now let me get this straight. They fertilize grass so it will grow. And when it does grow, they cut it off and pay to throw it away?
ST. FRANCIS: Yes, Sir.
GOD: These Suburbanites must be relieved in the summer when we cut back on the rain and turn up the heat. That surely slows the growth and saves them a lot of work.
ST. FRANCIS: You aren't going to believe this Lord. When the grass stops growing so fast, they drag out hoses and pay more money to water it so they can continue to mow it and pay to get rid of it.
GOD: What nonsense. At least they kept some of the trees. That was a sheer stroke of genius, if I do say so myself. The trees grow leaves in the spring to provide beauty and shade in the summer. In the autumn they fall to the ground and form a natural blanket to keep moisture in the soil and protect the trees and bushes. Plus, as they rot, the leaves form compost to enhance the soil. It's a natural circle of life.
ST. FRANCIS: You better sit down, Lord. The Suburbanites have drawn a new circle. As soon as the leaves fall, they rake them into great piles and pay to have them hauled away.
GOD: No. What do they do to protect the shrub and tree roots in the winter and to keep the soil moist and loose?
ST. FRANCIS: After throwing away the leaves, they go out and buy something which they call mulch. They haul it home and spread it around in place of the leaves.
GOD: And where do they get this mulch?
ST. FRANCIS: They cut down trees and grind them up to make the mulch.
GOD: Enough. I don't want to think about this anymore. St. Catherine, you're in charge of the arts. What movie have they scheduled for us tonight?"
ST. CATHERINE: "Dumb and Dumber", Lord. It's a really stupid movie about.....
GOD: Never mind, I think I just heard the whole story from St. Francis.

Cedar Apple Rust in the West

I am a paying member of the Home Orchard Society, in which I get a quarterly newsletter. I recently got one the other day in the mail, and it had an article submitted by Harry Burton in Salt Spring Island, BC is about Cedar Apple Rust.

As I understand it, is a fungus that winters on cedar trees, and then transfers to apple trees, infecting the leaves and fruit. I have been very careful trying to pick out apple trees that would be immune to this, as I am planning on planting the apple trees where cedar trees used to be. Also, there are a lot of cedar trees in this climate to expose my apple trees to, which kind of makes it puzzling that this state successfully grows so many apples with so many cedar trees around.

Burton talks about how he has cedar and apple trees living next to each other, and he has absolutely no problems with cedar apple rust. He admits he has some problems with canker and bitter pit, but never any problems with cedar apple rust that he knows of. This makes me less worried.

At the end of the article, there is a small editor’s note saying, “Cedar apple rust is rare west of the Rockies. We do not have the alternate hosts unless some careless landscaper planted one.” In fact, the cedar they are referring to in “cedar apple rust” is the Eastern red cedar or the Rocky Mountain juniper, which is why it is rarely seen here.

I guess I’ll quit worrying about cedar apple rust when picking out apple trees, along with fire blight, as we don’t have long hot summers to make that an issue.

HOS's Fruit Propagation Fair and Scion Exchange Review

On Saturday, we went out to the Washington County Fairgrounds in Hillsboro, OR to the Home Orchard Society’s Fruit Propagation Fair and Scion Exchange to pick up my pre-ordered custom apple trees. Since apple trees do not resemble their parents when grown from seed (find link), so cuttings are taken and grafted onto root stock. This is what I picked up.

The scion exchange was a huge part of this fair. When people were recently pruning their trees, they cut of the scions needed to make custom grafts. There where hundreds of buckets there full of these scion cuttings for people to take and graft onto new rootstock. It was quite impressive how many scion varieties they had.

As we were leaving, we saw a man carrying a bucket full of scions! I had to ask how many acres he had, to which he said 45. I asked how many scions he got, and he said enough to be playing with sticks for awhile. However, since the scions were free, and he would be paying only a small fee for rootstock, he was probably paying no more than one quarter of the price of what it would cost to buy trees from a nursery. Granted, he has to do a lot of work grafting, but that is a lot of savings for 45 acres.

Home Orchard Society

The Home Orchard Society is a group of hobby fruit tree gardeners based out of the Portland metro area in Oregon. They offer advice, classes, and much more to people who grow fruit trees in their back yards. They have a forum where anyone can ask a question. I became a member this year, and I now receive their quarterly newsletter and discounts to events.

Unfortunately, I found out about the Home Orchard Society too late to attend the fruit tasting every year, including lots of apples. However, I was able to place a custom apple tree order by the end of December 2009, and we will pick them up this weekend at the HOS Fruit Propagation Fair and Scion Exchange. Part of the reason I did this is because I wanted a Dabinett apple tree, and those are kind of hard to find. I had been pointed to a man in New York who would do custom grafts, but I was a little worried about shipping, and I also figure that a tree grafted out here would be more adjusted to my climate. Maybe those are false fears.

Order a Home Orchard Society Make-A-[Fruit]Tree by December 31, 2009

I forgot that I need to give a plug for the Home Orchard Society. They are a group who are centered out of Portland, Oregon. They have several forums on their website, along with some other useful things such as Mason Bees, some eBooks about rootstock, apple diseases, and apple blooming, along with some articles on other topics.

Why I really needed to put the plug in was because they will take custom orders for trees for $12 up until December 31, 2009. You tell them what kind of tree you want, and you tell them what kind of rootstock you want it on, and they will build it for you. You just have to go pick it up at their annual Fruit Propagation Fair/Scion Exchange in March at the Hillsboro Fairgrounds. Take a look at http://www.homeorchardsociety.org/forums/viewtopic.php?f=1&t=3020

Should have blogged about this earlier in case this would be a good Christmas present…