It's hard to believe, but the calendar says there are less than 50 days until spring. If you're at all like me, with all the welcomed winter rain, you haven’t spent too much time working in the garden — so now we're getting down to crunch time to get those winter orchard chores done. What are the things do you need to be doing? The first thing: if you haven’t pruned your fruit trees yet, get that done. You have until about the middle of February to take advantage of the beneficial effects of winter pruning: It helps trees become structurally sound with strong limbs to carry fruit load. It helps to control size for easier care in maintaining and picking fruit. It helps to distribute sunlight evenly throughout tree. Pruning regulates fruit bearing by removing excess fruitwood. It also helps to renew and replace old fruitwood. And lastly pruning removes undesirable wood — dead, broken, and crossing branches. But if pruning seems a little daunting, just remember, there are only two types