This week I went on a lovely orchard care adventure pruning fruit trees in the beautiful town of Killarney, County Kerry. Its that time of year when there can be several new inquiries for orchard care on a given day and when there are smaller jobs somewhat in the same area I naturally plan to do them in the same trip.
Ballyvourney Apple tree Pruning on the way to Kerry
First up was a job pruning a large vigourous mature apple tree in a garden in Ballyvourney County Cork. Ballyvourney is a large village at the northern end of the Muskerry Gaeltacht, and its a beautiful place. It was on the main N22 road from Macroom to Killarney until it was recently bypassed. West of Ballyvourney the land rises up into the Derrynasaggart mountains and the lovely Lee valley is left behind as you head for the county bounds and Kerry beyond.
Here are the apple tree before and after pictures:
The natural shape of fruit trees
Buried deep in the heart of every neglected and overgrown apple tree there is a beautifully formed, natural central leader tree waiting to be revealed by some caring judicious pruning. It is true that in some trees it is buried more deeply than others, and may take more than one year of pruning and growth to be revealed, yet it is there nonetheless, because the natural growth pattern of apple trees grown from seed is the central leader shape. Our grafting and pruning to unnatural shapes can upset this form but it still remains the form that any vigourous tree will attempt to revert to. From this perspective I view pruning work as a kind of therapy for traumatised trees. I help them re-establish a natural healthy growing pattern that was interrupted early in life by the trauma of grafting and pruning to unnatural forms.
You can learn all about this on one of my courses: https://permaculturedesign.ie/permaculture-courses-2/
This particular tree is also overly vigourous, as evidenced through the huge number and vigour of vertically growing shoots on the tree before pruning. Now that the bigger structural cuts are seen to, most subsequent pruning will be confined to summer in order to calm the tree vigour down and encourage fruiting.
Orchard & Permaculture Design Projects in Cork and Kerry
So far I’ve actually had relatively few customers in Kerry given its proximity to my home in West Cork. Part of the reason is the geography – the Cork and Kerry Mountains lie between my location and the more populated parts of Kerry. As well as being more populous, those lower lying areas have better growing conditions for fruit trees than the mountains. When I began advertising orchard care services over eight years ago, I did so in Cork only, and by word of mouth my customer base kept growing, to the point where I have customers all over County Cork. Its about time the fruit trees in Kerry get some care!
Pruning fruit trees in Killarney County Kerry
My Killarney customer had some dwarfing fruit trees to tend to. When I saw the photographs I thought that they looked quite good and could see that it would be a small job to tend to. The two apple trees already had a central leader form that was easy to pick up and elaborate on with some judicious pruning. The pear tree however had competing leaders. This is often the case with pear trees, which tend to grow upwards rather than outwards. Rather than excessively prune such competing shoots however I often bend them back to the desired shape using temporary props as shown below.
Random acts of kindness on the streets of Killarney
After the pruning was done I headed into the town to do a little bit of promotion for my upcoming course on orchard pruning.
After I parked the car I was walking to the pay station in the car park whereupon I was hailed by a man from a passing car and given an ticket with time left to use. This random act of kindness made my day. As I was walking back to the car – literally twenty seconds later – the same thing happened. A woman offering to give me a ticket out of a passing car. I love Killarney!
Central Leader Pear Trees in Killarney
I know this is becoming obsessive but checkout these central leader trees growing in the car park in Killarney! I’m pretty sure that these are ornamental pear trees (so might actually be useful as pollinating partners for other pear trees in the environs). If anyone wants to fill me in on the variety used in Killarney please leave a comment.
Soaking up the Sun in Killarney House and Gardens
There was about half an hour of sunlight left before the sun sank in the southwest behind the MacGillycuddy Reeks so I headed across the road to the Gardens of Killarney House to soak up the rays which are so valuable this time of year.
Of course when I was there I couldn’t help but see many beautiful plants including this scene of the herb alexanders growing wild under the canopy of some beautiful exotic species of tree that I am unfamiliar with. The tree leaves have a shape and colour resembling the bay laurel but with thinner leaves. The habit is more like oak. If you know what this tree is please leave a comment!
I had a wonderful day and look forward to my next orchard care adventure in Kerry.
