Pine Tree Removal Makes Room for More Berries

Last winter we had lost several large pine trees – and the few that survived that bad storm have been leaning more and more each month.  Jeff decided today that it was time for them to all go – so he pushed them down with his tractor.  Pushing them had the distinct advantage of pulling out the entire root ball – this made cleaning up rather easy. 

So he pushed three huge pine trees down – just so that they would miss our young fruit trees.  He then sawed them up enough for the tractor to be able to pull the stems and branches to a new “burning pile” across the road. 

The plan now is to make a straight line – parallel to the picket fence –  all the way to the end of our field.  Then plow from the fence on out toward the fruit trees.  This new section will be divided into two parts – one for blackberries (toward the back) and one for blueberries – toward the front, on the ground where the pine trees used to grow.  Hoping that the years of dropping pine needles turned the soil a bit more acid – to keep the blueberries happy.

 We got 40 more blueberry bushes – like last year, at the end of season clearance at Lowes.