An injury incident on Thursday exacerbated Mike’s shoulder pain. After checking with a doctor Friday morning, we went ahead with our plan to plant trees on the farm. So, we picked up the trees in Moscow and spent the afternoon planting them – 60 Ponderosas on the northwestern boundary of the property
[see photo] and 20 fir on the northern edge of the “flat.” (At least I think that description is accurate.) We felt pressed to complete the work since cold weather was predicted over the weekend. It cost Mike something in terms of pain to c
omplete the work, but he did his part (the actual planting) faster than I did mine (fitting ground cloth around the trees, mulching, and working the tubing over the treelet). I couldn't help but wonder what Uncle Dan, our friendly forest pathologist, would think of our operation. This I know: we're pretty slow so no professional tree planter would hire us. But we take a lot of pride in our reforestation efforts -- improving our place and improving our world.
[see photo] and 20 fir on the northern edge of the “flat.” (At least I think that description is accurate.) We felt pressed to complete the work since cold weather was predicted over the weekend. It cost Mike something in terms of pain to c
omplete the work, but he did his part (the actual planting) faster than I did mine (fitting ground cloth around the trees, mulching, and working the tubing over the treelet). I couldn't help but wonder what Uncle Dan, our friendly forest pathologist, would think of our operation. This I know: we're pretty slow so no professional tree planter would hire us. But we take a lot of pride in our reforestation efforts -- improving our place and improving our world.
On Saturday all that remained of the tree project was my part with the 20 fir trees. Mike helped me. Here's a picture of Nellie looking at something while we worked.
This is a photo of a tree we planted last year. Mike thinks 45-50 of the 60 we planted in 2007 survived. KW
Dan says last year's tree shows good growth. There's a lot of grass around the trees you just planted, but if what you did last year is the same as you're doing this year, he says, "It works."
ReplyDeleteHe also says, "Leave the vexar tubes around the bases of the larger trees (tight to the ground) to protect against mouse girdling. Every dozen years or so, in grassy lands, the mouse population explodes and we lose lots of trees when the mice chew the bark off the bottom of the trees."
P.S. "Rabbits do the same thing--coyotes are on your side."
Thanks for this helpful info, Chris & Dan. So, is the vexar tubing really enough to protect against mouse tubing? They can't squeeze through the holes? I know there was a population explosion 2 or 3 years ago. Yes, it is grassy in that area and we thought the best we could do was to give each tree some space. Growing trees -- or anything -- seems like an uphill battle. In addition to the draught, we have the critters -- deer, mice, rabbits, other rodents, porcupine -- and the coyotes that yodel in the night. KW
ReplyDeleteAnother suggestion Dan had was to plop a piece of stovepipe over a tree and spray the grass around it with Roundup. Just move the stovepipe from tree to tree as you spray, being careful to just spray on the ground.
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ReplyDeleteThat's a great tip for keeping the grass at bay. We have stovepipe. We'd love to see the trees come back. Mike always says the coyotes are on our side, too. I don't much like to hear them, though. KW
ReplyDeleteMike hurt himself AGAIN??? That guy is an accident waiting to happen. HA-HA-HA!!! I hope he's okay!!
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