trees

I was so proud of my Lombardy poplars in the fall of 2008.  In a few short months they had grown from twigs to trees.  Those weeds in the background are part of the reason I wanted the neighbor's place hidden; that, and I wanted a little privacy.  

You can see that those babies are now doing the job, after only two years.  The trouble is, Lombardy Poplars don't live long.  Also, they send out shoots everywhere, so you have little trees sprouting where you don't want them.  Because of the way they spread, you must make sure they aren't too close to the septic lines; we did that.  
I had a plan:  I'd plant Norway Spruce trees on the east side of the poplars; once those got a good start, we'd remove the poplars.  

See near the base of the first poplar, on the left?  I know it looks tiny, but it's actually about three feet tall.  

This shows you the row of spruce; some don't show up too well because we had a slight problem.  Four of them died, and this year I replaced the dead ones with new baby spruce trees.  

Like this one; isn't he cute?  

A couple of them got mowed the first year.  So they suffered a setback.  

Here's the other one.  


I have a problem: In order for the spruce trees to make it, we're going to have to remove the poplar trees this year because, obviously, as close as they are, they'll smother or crowd out the little trees.  At this point I wish I had not gotten the Norway Spruce trees; the poplars are doing such an excellent job.  They don't have a long life span, but we could have planted more when they began to die.  
But because of money invested in the Norway Spruce trees, I refuse to sacrifice them.  
My only hope is that I will live long enough to see the spruce trees doing their job.  

Never give up

I've mentioned a couple of times how all my Norway Spruce trees seemed to be dying; it's disappointing because last year they were thriving. Still, I told Cliff not to mow them down yet, since some of them had a tiny bit of green. By "tiny bit", I mean four or five needles. But one never knows.

Today I was making an inspection of the sickly trees and noticed something promising on one of the "dead" trees.

Looks pretty hopeless, doesn't it?

But look! New growth! Can you see the green buds?

How about now? I can hardly wait for Cliff to wake up so I can tell him. Some of the others are showing signs of life, too.

In spite of strong winds yesterday, the tulips are standing tall and proud. You knew there would be a shot of the tulips in this entry, right?

grow, little trees

Cliff and I planted twenty-five Norway Spruce trees last month. It was a hard job, since most of the holes had to be dug at least two feet deep. Poor Cliff. Thank goodness we'd had a lot of rain, so the ground wasn't rock-hard.

Up until four days ago, I honestly thought all the trees had died. Then I saw little green buds on a couple of the trees.

Can you see them?

In a couple more days, a few of the trees looked like this. So I figured we had at least half-a-dozen out of twenty-five that would survive.

But today I'm seeing green buds here and there on other apparently dead trees. I have hope!

We have another twenty-five trees on their way... and it hasn't been raining so much lately. Wish poor Cliff luck; I can help him with a lot of the task, but I'm no good at digging. I have no knee power to push down on the spade.

Mulching our Spruce trees

Several days ago, Cliff and I planted some Norway Spruce trees near the property line in hopes of getting a bit of privacy; you know, get out of sight of the neighbors. We have twenty-five more of these trees ordered.

That shed yonder is where Secret and Meatloaf went for shelter and shade in the first months of their lives. We had to remove the fence around the pen to make a way for our mobile home to get through. (If it ever arrives.)

On the floor of the shed lie the remains of a big hay bale, soggy from rain and the calves' waste. I decided to use it for mulch around the Spruce trees; they're pretty small, and I don't want them to have to compete with grass for nutrients and sunlight.

Because the spoiled hay is wet, it made for a pretty heavy load.

The mulch also makes it easier to see the trees, so they won't be so likely to get mowed when we mow the grass.

With our twenty-five Norway Spruce trees, we received five free White Spruce seedlings; since they grow at a different rate, we didn't want to put them in line with the others. Besides, these are first-year seedlings. The others are four years old. They just wouldn't have fit in.

They appear to be healthy little fellows.

Grow, little white pines, grow! Hurry and cover up Marvin's junk, please!