Updates

We had a moderately cool but not windy morning yesterday (Valentine's Day), so I spent the morning pruning my apple and pear trees. I can't claim to know much about this, but I reviewed my books for tips on pruning and gave it my best shot. I particularly wanted to reduce the height of the Red Anjou pear tree and the Jonathan apple tree, which I let get big enough that it's hard to get any fruit out of them. But you can't take more than 1/3 of a tree without harming it, so I had to try to eyeball that to make sure I wasn't pruning too much. Also pruned the small trees I planted last spring off so I don't need to do major surgery on them in a few years.

Bad news re the artichokes: January's cold snap seems to have killed them. Drat. The crowns are rotted out entirely... I'll have to try again this year. I have some more artichoke seeds, and will start them soon.

I got some eggplant and pepper seeds planted -- some in "official" peat pot seed starting kits, some in egg cartons (hey, those plastic egg crates have to be good for something!)

K. bought a new finch feeder, since my old, cheap one broke when I refilled it yesterday morning. The new one is much better -- polycarbonate and metal, and the finches have already discovered it and are happily feasting away. The other new bird feeder I bought a week or so ago is also getting lots of visitors -- it's supposed to be squirrel-proof, and so far the squirrels haven't managed to empty it. I like feeding the birds, but damned if I'm gonna feed the fuzzy-tailed rats too.