PLANTING, PLANTING, PLANTING!
I graduated from the University of Alberta with a Bachelor of Science in
Agriculture degree in 2001. I became interested in growing fruit in 2003.
I planted my Saskatoon Berries that spring.
In 2004, I
planted 1020 dwarfing apple rootstock and 120 cherry trees. The cherries
looked horrible and lost all of their leaves. In the fall, I took a
budding course at the University of Saskatchewan and purchased budwood from
them. We had about 2/3 success with the apple buds growing the following
year. The cherries also turned out to be fine to my relief. I
enrolled in the Prairie Horticultural Certificate Program through the
University of Saskatchewan majoring in Fruit Production. We have been
planting, budding, pruning, and thinning ever since!
We currently
have about 600 cherry trees, 130 Saskatoons, and 2600 apple trees.
Every year is
different and presents different challenges. The years that I was pregnant
with my kids were challenging in that it was difficult to get the jobs done
that needed doing. The last few years we have just missed late spring
frosts, we've had hail which decimated our apple crop, had some winter
damage to the trees, had some disease issues across the province, and we've
learned an awful lot. We've made great friends, had great customers who
talk about the orchard to everyone they see, and have grown closer to our
family. We've also had duck nests in the orchard, killdeer nests, seen
partridge around, rabbits, and have had a lot of geese, ducks, and swans
flying over in the spring and fall (not to mention a few military jets).
