Tree Season
Tuesday, March 9, 2010 at 8:09PM Here's what artists do: they take a piece of canvas, or marble, or glass or wood or whatever, and they alter it or embellish it or reduce it, to perfection. They take a little piece of this chaotic world, and they make it as good as it can be. It's as if they're saying "I can't solve all of life's problems, but look what I did with this little chunk of stone: it's an ideal, naked muscle-y man, throwing a discus." Order from chaos.
I would not consider myself an artist, not even at a kindergarten level. But when I'm pruning a tree, I think I feel the way an artist feels. Mother Nature creates the art, in the form of beautiful trunks, branches, leaves, flowers, and fruit. But then she hides it with a bunch of other crap, like crossing lateral branches, broken limbs, watersprouts, and suckers. That's where I come in, reducing Mother Nature's mess to perfection. Did you ever notice a well-pruned tree? They're beautiful. I would rather be in a tree with my arborist's saw and pruners than be just about anywhere else. I absolutely love it, and I am proud of every tree I prune. People say I'm very good, too, I'm not ashamed to say. Actual people.
It's tree pruning season, especially for fruit trees, but also for shade trees. Actually, these trees can be pruned almost any time, but we don't want to do it too late because we want trees to "harden off" or go to bed for winter, instead of trying to generate new growth in response to pruning. But for better fruit trees, the time is ripe; another reason (see Daylight Savings) I'm excited about this time of year.
