Concerned about early bud break!

Well this fall weather has produced some strange things and one of them is early bud break. This is happening on fruit trees and shrubs here and the honeysuckles are no exception. It is quite concerning when you look and see fresh green and know it will get frozen in a month or so.
Here is a look!

 This is a Honeysuckle tip!

This is a Chokecherry tip!














I did not check others but I expect there could be some damage as well!

Summer cultivation and clean up continues!

Finished pulling out the old carpeting I had laid down between the rows of my Edible Blue Honeysuckle so this week I could roto-till the pathways and clean up a little. Still some serious pruning to be done to get rid of the low growing branches and make the plants smaller.
Here are some pictures of the new look.

As you can see there is Quack Grass and also Canada Thistle and Sow Thistle still growing so that needs to go too!

July 2016 Clean Up

I decided to give the honeysuckle nursery/orchard a real clean up so
have pruned all plants with the hedge trimmer and pushed all the
cuttings out of the paths. I plan to remove all the old carpeting and
till between the rows and the plants if it is at all possible.

I have attached several pictures of the clean up results.

We only got about a handful of berries again as we were away when the
plants should have been covered with netting. Cedar Waxwings and even
Robins are real pests for us here.