Sweet Life Garden: tree trimmings

Thursday, January 26, 2012

Twigs and Trimmings in the Orchard!

It's early morning in the orchard, the peach trees are bare to the bone. This is pruning time, the short season between the time that the fruit trees are dormant and the time that the buds break in the spring. I have one more peach tree left to prune!

This year I was determined to salvage some of the peach tree trimmings for a little garden elegance. As I gather, strip, snip and chop, the old nursery rhyme keeps running through my head... five, six, pick up sticks, seven, eight... lay them straight! Now I know what they were talking about!
This little project definitely takes a lot of time and effort. I've already decided that this labor intensive endeavor will not be happening every pruning season!

Today I have the perfect spot for at least a few of these little twigs! The larger projects won't be tackled until after the roses, blackberries and apple trees are all pruned.

Now, if you will just take a quick walk around the garden with me... I'll show you what's up around here!

The orchard yard was covered with peach tree trimmings. I'm thinking... wreaths, spheres and stars for garden ornaments and next years holiday decor. The thicker branches will be just right for stakes, boarders and plant supports.

Here's one of the newly pruned peach trees. It's our Mid-Pride peach tree (thanks for sharing little tree).

Aren't they lovely!

We kept some branches long and cut some short. These long branches are for an archway we will build at the entrance to the orchard. There's a Don Juan rose there, with lovely, long canes that are ready to be trained up and over! It'll take some bending, weaving and shaping. Hopefully one day it will be covered with red roses!

Here are a couple of spur of the moment things we came up with... until we have a little more time to get creative.

This was husband's idea... these are going to keep the stray cats out of his bell pepper box (we hope)! Later, we ended up weaving longer twigs through these sticks. These structures could be used for low fencing or walls.

I placed these whips all along my brick flower/ vegetable bed. It turned out to be a really delicate and pretty boarder.

Here, our sugar snap peas are ready for a little support. We cut the ends of the twigs at an angle so they were nice and sharp, then just pushed them into the soil. We also built a few tee pee type trellis for our climbing bush beans.

Here are a few of the inspiration photos that I've collected over the year. I love the rustic, twisty, turning, woodsy look of the branches. They are structurally and architecturally beautiful, but they also blend naturally into the garden, almost like they grew there on their own.

I'd also like to share a post from one of my very favorite garden blogs, Ewa in the Garden. Ewa has captured some amazing photos of Hampton Court in the UK sharing the ingenious ways that they have used tree trimmings for plant supports throughout the garden. Take a look!