https://jcpruningandgardening.com/blog daily 0.75 2026-11-14 https://jcpruningandgardening.com/blog/leave-the-leaves monthly 0.5 2026-11-14 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/60fb9d6803427c583dbbe9d1/8e95c7aa-e956-4576-b8ba-2543c52e69c8/leave+the+leaves Blog - Leave the leaves - As fall slowly slips into winter the glorious colors of fall days make their descent to the earth, carpeting the ground in the various colors and textures of leaves. Many people rake and blow these beauties into trash bags and remove them from their property. Some HOAs even require you to remove your leaves. Have you stopped and thought about why? Or what happens without our intervention in a natural system? Perhaps those leaves serve a purpose beyond photosynthesizing or shading out competition. And yes they sure do. The leaf layer is where many insects and vertebrates overwinter, including moths, butterflies, native bees, and salamanders. Fallen leaves are also an important way to fertilize the plant they came from and build soil. Have you ever dug under an area with a thick leaf layer? The soil is incredible and full of life! We are lead to https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/60fb9d6803427c583dbbe9d1/53052d87-f312-41e6-8f92-470e8abf70a2/IMG_8852.jpeg Blog - Leave the leaves - believe fall ‘clean up’ means removing all debris, including the leaves. I would like to suggest a phrase change, one that I am working to embody in my work. Instead of cleaning up, let’s just ‘put the garden to bed’ in the winter. This way we can think of the dormant season as a season of rest, both for the garden and for us gardeners. We can use the leaves as the blanket to help insulate and protect the plants and critters overwintering in our gardens. So what does this actually look like? Leaves on a driveway can be raked or blown to garden beds as mulch. You can place the leaves around trees and shrubs, avoiding contact with tree trunks, and you can create a layer over your vegetable beds. Lawns can easily handle an inch or two of leaves, if you have more than that move them to your garden beds. If you have rock mulched beds, you will unfortunately want to remove the leaves from them, or better yet, remove the rocks and start using leaves! If you still have extra leaves put them into a four sided ‘cage’ and let them decompose over time to make beautiful compost. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/60fb9d6803427c583dbbe9d1/6d7fadec-d67e-46de-ae9a-816639bb5a05/IMG_0229.jpeg Blog - Leave the leaves https://jcpruningandgardening.com/blog/heirloom-apples monthly 0.5 2026-11-02 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/60fb9d6803427c583dbbe9d1/be0f5bd6-8f4d-462c-915e-411079850d31/IMG_5027.jpeg Blog - Heirloom Apples Uncle Jim at 91 out in the nursery in Ithaca, New York https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/60fb9d6803427c583dbbe9d1/872408e2-74cf-4b2d-af94-c7cf7d767077/IMG_8168.jpeg Blog - Heirloom Apples https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/60fb9d6803427c583dbbe9d1/7e13f2ef-a971-4004-8645-ce47e90565aa/IMG_6810.jpeg Blog - Heirloom Apples https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/60fb9d6803427c583dbbe9d1/1fbc88e6-70d7-4d84-a40d-858ce3715af0/IMG_6808.jpeg Blog - Heirloom Apples https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/60fb9d6803427c583dbbe9d1/a3ee2a6a-1689-4e65-975c-681b0139f64d/IMG_8172.jpeg Blog - Heirloom Apples https://jcpruningandgardening.com/blog/apple-resources monthly 0.5 2026-11-01 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/60fb9d6803427c583dbbe9d1/737f23df-608f-4e41-a4cb-e08ebb82bc5b/IMG_6585.jpeg Blog - Apple Resources https://jcpruningandgardening.com/blog/h433rrsu2r3l9pk8n8s0bpvraww3j4 monthly 0.5 2026-10-31 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/60fb9d6803427c583dbbe9d1/c8c9dc35-5c38-4904-83a7-007a47b97428/Summer+dahlia+arrangement Blog - Introducing…River Song Blooms! - Make it stand out Whatever it is, the way you tell your story online can make all the difference. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/60fb9d6803427c583dbbe9d1/683eee0d-bfb5-46ac-954a-b038a6bc9205/Fall+dahlia+arrangement Blog - Introducing…River Song Blooms! - Make it stand out Whatever it is, the way you tell your story online can make all the difference. https://jcpruningandgardening.com/blog/autumn monthly 0.5 2026-10-28 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/60fb9d6803427c583dbbe9d1/2b6a962a-9154-4be5-bed2-ef4b8c5e16c4/IMG_8772.jpeg Blog - Autumn https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/60fb9d6803427c583dbbe9d1/071cfa8e-a377-4c00-82a8-ed98df30198c/IMG_0046.jpeg Blog - Autumn https://jcpruningandgardening.com/home daily 1.0 2026-03-06 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/60fb9d6803427c583dbbe9d1/1780932031.011044-HQYJCWTPVIDSHAHUIARE/imgg-gg3p-BC-DRJ-9a3ac480.png Home https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/60fb9d6803427c583dbbe9d1/1780932031.11286-ZBCPULHSCKQTWCTIVHHM/imgg-gg3p-BC-DQ-U-4232d553.png Home https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/60fb9d6803427c583dbbe9d1/1780932031.031863-NXFUHURWYVQAQFCNRMHX/imgg-gg3p-BC-DQ-O-c16fd78a.png Home https://jcpruningandgardening.com/services daily 0.75 2026-11-03 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/60fb9d6803427c583dbbe9d1/1627575138477-W45J0MMYCBOPGQNYEYLB/IMG_7289.jpeg Services https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/60fb9d6803427c583dbbe9d1/2406f69d-a3ef-4519-8c33-de74d705255b/90B444C4-C40A-449C-9114-25A8BA5962A1.jpeg Services https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/60fb9d6803427c583dbbe9d1/1627575232023-8D9QE2JAIQNU86D014PA/IMG_0050.jpg Services https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/60fb9d6803427c583dbbe9d1/62e0894d-f15a-4629-876b-99d46f06cad4/IMG_9015.jpg Services https://jcpruningandgardening.com/about daily 0.75 2026-11-03 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/60fb9d6803427c583dbbe9d1/56a3c413-f5bb-4d53-ac1e-0c8a546d4b71/Jamie+Cummins About Jamie Cummins, owner, orchardist, gardener JC Pruning and Gardening is a culmination of experience and formal education, tailoring orchard and gardening practices to the climate of central Washington. I have a background in organic row crop agriculture, mail order nurseries, and organic and conventional orchards with a Bachelor’s of Science in Agroecology. My practices are focused on plant and soil health through addressing the health of the whole system. I am constantly learning and researching best practices to best address the needs of my clients. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/60fb9d6803427c583dbbe9d1/1629495860419-40W7NSJ6AANV8DPZ4LGR/Screen+Shot+2021-08-20+at+14.43.53.png About - Grafting Grafting is the age old practice of duplicating a fruit or nut variety by joining a twig (scion) to a rooting part (rootstock) of the same species. Most fruit and nut species’ seeds are not true to type. This means that if you were to take seed from your favorite apple variety and plant it, the fruit that tree would produce would not be the same as the fruit the seed came from. Apples have one the largest genomes of any food plant. Each apple seeds’ genetics have been reshuffled. At one point there were around 14,000 known apple varieties in North America. We have lost many of them due to industrial agriculture and count around only 1,500 varieties. The small little farms have been replaced and their apple varieties lost. However there is an heirloom apple resurgence, largely in the Northeast, but also here in Washington State, to hunt down apple varieties thought to have gone extinct. Grafting is the only way to preserve a variety, such as the famed old apple Lady, possibly from Roman times. Grafting is done in late winter; it is the process of taking dormant wood of last year’s growth (scion wood), making a couple special cuts and joining it to rootstock with the same cuts. The cambium (vascular tissue) then heals together and one of the dormant buds on you scion wood will grow into your new tree bearing the same fruit you took the scion wood from. This growth happens over the growing season and by next late winter your tree is ready to plant. Rootstock has been selected for its rooting purposes. Size, disease resistance, and cold hardiness are all factors to consider when choosing rootstock to graft scionwood onto. It’s a magical process that humans have used since before the dawn of agriculture. There are various ways to graft. Bench grafting is what I have described above. Top-working is when you take an existing tree and either add a variety or change it over completely. Chip Budding is done in the summer with new growth. For custom trees I typically use the bench grafting method done in late spring, my experience shows me this has the highest success rate. My emphasis is on heirloom varieties and introducing people to fruit they have never tried and can’t access in the grocery store. https://jcpruningandgardening.com/contact daily 0.75 2026-11-03 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/60fb9d6803427c583dbbe9d1/1627442330159-BIIJN88NRV6COWQ5QYCN/IMG_6633.jpeg Contact - Contact Jamie Cummins jcpruning@gmail.com (360) 298-1074 Serving Kittitas County Facebook Instagram https://jcpruningandgardening.com/portfolio daily 0.75 2026-11-03 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/60fb9d6803427c583dbbe9d1/de17fa6e-1166-4ef3-a2be-2e5a4beb0fc8/IMG_2582.jpeg Portfolio Planting - A garden designed for continual seasonal color with perennial cut flowers. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/60fb9d6803427c583dbbe9d1/9e238f4a-255e-4781-bdb4-d47b9c710904/image000002.jpeg Portfolio Before - Vegetable and flower garden, the lumber for the beds is from Teanaway Mill Works. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/60fb9d6803427c583dbbe9d1/448fea2d-cbd1-4ada-94f3-1f9eb0c502fe/IMG_7513.jpeg Portfolio Before - Shade Garden https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/60fb9d6803427c583dbbe9d1/25d75603-46c3-4fff-bea9-67d9644982f7/IMG_9408.jpeg Portfolio Before - drought tolerant, low maintenance https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/60fb9d6803427c583dbbe9d1/7ffc6748-96be-44ad-a6d6-557bf7881a4a/IMG_9500.jpeg Portfolio After - Early summer https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/60fb9d6803427c583dbbe9d1/54ee1e54-410f-4381-9499-00ec264668a6/IMG_9789.jpeg Portfolio After - A thriving season of vegetables and annual flowers. The fence was done by RQ Concepts. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/60fb9d6803427c583dbbe9d1/c35b2635-602a-4508-aa7c-99b8e61ac721/IMG_8121.jpeg Portfolio During - Planting https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/60fb9d6803427c583dbbe9d1/8e49a592-a738-4688-a5fa-7206d629e1c0/IMG_9451.jpeg Portfolio Planting https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/60fb9d6803427c583dbbe9d1/7fe7925e-7999-4241-aa53-bad9bf700c33/IMG_9832.jpeg Portfolio After - Late summer https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/60fb9d6803427c583dbbe9d1/630ea53c-d484-4fa4-812e-c8218d008a31/IMG_9791.jpeg Portfolio After - Summer https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/60fb9d6803427c583dbbe9d1/c20154ed-c8dc-4925-a768-76a5c6ad863f/image000001.jpeg Portfolio After - Second spring https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/60fb9d6803427c583dbbe9d1/9e219bea-7745-4e0e-b41f-9dc5be0ce41e/IMG_9799.jpeg Portfolio After - first summer https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/60fb9d6803427c583dbbe9d1/ec7bc093-63fb-43c3-94ac-76008cf0c560/IMG_8196.jpeg Portfolio Planting - Drought tolerant, deer resistant perimeter garden. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/60fb9d6803427c583dbbe9d1/a7c58afc-796b-43b4-a39e-907ed4a5960d/IMG_9493.jpeg Portfolio Spring - The retaining wall was done by Merritt Works. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/60fb9d6803427c583dbbe9d1/6b848502-8c04-40e3-8a07-6cf671b1b37b/IMG_9787.jpeg Portfolio Late Summer - Drought tolerant, deer resistant perimeter garden. https://jcpruningandgardening.com/store daily 0.75 2026-11-03