Arlo and Janis by Jimmy Johnson for May 27, 2015

I don’t get it.

Should have covered it any way, Janis…Forget Arlo….

I don’t know why covering it would be a problem….but heck, if it makes a difference, nowadays there are loads of websites and new age boutiques where you could buy it an adorable little baby blanket, made of pure organic cotton or hemp…You could probably even find one with a cute print of smiling apples, done in natural soy-based inks.

Covering it? Apples are a northern climate ‘crop’. I can see wrapping them to prevent deer and rabbits from eating the bark.

The logic of purists…

“See the tree how big it’s grown, but friend it hasn’t been so long it wasn’t big.”

Covering the tree ≠ “organic.” It could even keep unwanted pesticides off. Also, as others have said, protecting the young trunk is important, because rabbits and stuff do ring fruit trees. My daughter’s beloved crabapple died a lingering death that way.

I think that many missed the whole point of the joke, which is that Arlo for some reason thinks that covering the tree would somehow make it non organic, which has more to do with the use of chemicals.

Janice has a flying saucer on her head….

I have loads of used hay with organic bunny poop in it! Makes great fertilizer! My daughter in law composts it for her garden.

Cover apples? No. They need winter cold to set fruit. Citrus, yes, you don’t want those to freeze, and cherries, yes, not because of the temperature but in spring because there are beetles that will come out at night and strip every single leaf off the tree. Putting a frost cover over it at night and tucking the bottom around the trunk keeps them off. Save the ash from your barbecue grill, Arlo, it gets in the joints of the bugs and kills the ants trying to take over your picnic or fruit trees.

Notice this week’s Arlo and Janis strip copyrights have no year on them? They may not be reruns anyway…

I have a lemon tree in my yard (near Atlanta), approximately 400 miles too far north to survive under normal circumstances. I use a plastic drainage pipe to divert the exhaust from the gas furnace to the tree, and on those 5-10 days each winter when the temperature is expected to fall below 32, I wrap my tree in an old bed sheet, an old mattress cover, a thick plastic tarp, and a large and thinner sheet of plastic. Worked so far, but then the tree is more like a 7’ bush for now.