windbreak

It is almost apple time, folks. The first early varieties will be coming in, and it looks like this year will be just as good as the last with all the rain we've been having. Amber and I took a trip down to Wolfe Farms in Monticello, Illinois recently. We brought Ron and Hope five baby apple trees grown from seeds of apples Amber and I ate last season. Ron and Hope have kindly shared some of their expertise (they have over 300 apple trees, mainly heirloom and antique varieties) to assist with our Johnny Appleseed projects. Early this spring we sent two grafts of a tree that was supposedly planted by Johnny Appleseed in Navo, Ohio. Next March, Ron will teach us how to graft so that we can propagate Johnny Appleseed's last tree across the country.

The five baby trees we brought down in 5 gallon buckets. Ron pointed to the windbreak of cottonwood trees and said, "I'm taking those down. I think I'll put your trees in its place." But wait, we asked. Aren't our trees going to be a whole heck of a lot smaller than those cottonwoods? Ron stunned us by telling us that apple trees grown from seed can get up to forty feet tall, and that there is no way of really knowing until they are full grown. Wow. It is pretty poetic and lovely to me that these seedling trees will act as a windbreak to the carefully manicured grafted trees of his orchard.