The Pandemic of 2020 translated into a simplification of life here on the farm. Since social activities were curtailed and the additional challenges of thick smokey air from major fires all over Northern California meant we often stayed indoors, alternating between sheltering in place in the Bay Area and spending as many days as we could at the farm when the air cleared, pruning trees in the “Old Orchard.” From June to October the two of us went tree by tree, row by row taking out the low hanging branches and opening up the center of the trees. Harvesting will be easier and the trees more resistant to pests.

Since we had tilled the rows earlier in the spring, we avoided mowing the orchard all summer, giving us more time to tend to the trees and the hedgerow. The native plants in the hedgerow flourished during the summer with regular irrigation and weeding, even during the hottest days. The ceanothus concha bloomed a deep blue and the ceanothus ‘Ray Hartman’ bloomed a violet blue early in the summer. The native rose had delicate pink flowers all summer while the yarrow waited until July to bloom orange and yellow. In August, under very smokey skies the buckwheat bloomed yellow-white flower puffs. The hedgerow has a long bloom season so that the native pollinators and the local honeybees have plenty of sustenance for about six months of the year. And once the hedgerow plants grow to be four to eight feet tall and wide, the hedgerow will become a shelter for gopher snakes, quail and a host of other birds.