Recycling Fruit Tree Prunings...

 

You all know that Spring is the time for pruning fruit trees.  We have 17 apple trees on the microfarm, plus an apricot and cherry.  We also have a pear and another apple at the house.  All of these trees means far too many things to prune and take to the green waste at the dump.  I could take 5 or 6 trailer loads of just tree prunings to the the green waste each Spring.  That's a lot of time, energy, and money in gas and entrance fees to the dump.  We devised a way to reduce our waste that really benefits us on the farm.

As the trees are pruned, we sort through the piles of branches.  (We had someone really terrible prune our trees and we are now paying for it with overgrowth on the trees, so when I say piles of branches, I mean PILES.  Lesson to be learned: take a class or two and learn to do it yourself, it isn't very hard.)  The watershoots are the vertical straight growth from the previous year that doesn't produce fruit.  We take the watershoots and trim them to about 2 1/2 feet in length.  Later, as we plant, we use these as stakes to support beans and peas - things that need trellising or extra support.  I love that it looks very natural and I am thrilled with the fact that we have reduced a significant amount of waste.  Not only are we saving money on dump runs, we are also saving money on buying trellising supports for all of the rows and rows AND ROWS of climbing veggies that we plant.  If I were to buy bamboo for all of these climbing vegetables, I would spend probably close to $250.  Ouch!  The best part of this is that we have a renewable supply each Spring, and we can reuse the stakes from last year that are still in good condition. 

It's a fun idea that I thought I would share.  Sometimes, making a difference is as easy as being a little creative.  Look at things that you throw away or toss into the recycling bin after a single use, there are abundant ways to reuse or recycle lots of things that we are eager to toss.