Saturday, April 25, 2015

When Bright Ideas Get the Best of You

Several people had questions about my vaccine post and I am working on trying to answer those.  It may be a few days though as one of my bright ideas has come home to roost.

Every year, the Soil and Water Conservation department offers trees and shrubs for sale.  Every year, I get their pamphlet and think I ought to buy some because my property could use a lot more trees.  They sneakily send this pamphlet out in the deepest, darkest heart of winter when planting trees sounds like such a nice, fun thing to be doing.  And, oh look, there's all this info on how to build a living snow fence that will grow fast and and stop the snow and be ever so easy and maintenance free.  God knows I need snow fence that actually works.

Of course, you have to buy these things in bundles of 50 or 100 and before you can plant that oh-so-easy, maintenance free willow hedge, you have to lay down 300 feet of landscape fabric covered deeply in mulch or else the weeds will just swallow them whole, and build fence around them so that the donkeys don't eat them, and those those little spruce saplings really ought to have holes deeper than all their roots, which turn out to be two feet long.

Just the thought of digging all those holes in the mixture of rock and clay that passes itself off as soil around here has me sputtering in run-on sentences. 

They look so innocent don't they? 

Those cute, little spruce transplants, all 50 of them.  That silly broomstick bundle of 100 willow slips and those 10 harmless little blackberry plants looking all small and pathetic.  At least the Farmhand is always up for more work.  Such a big help.

At least I've finally found a good use for the ATV that I got cheap from a neighbor who couldn't use it anymore.  It's supposed to be a farm vehicle, but I haven't used it much.  I've never been an ATV kind of person and I've been rather ambivalent about it.  It might earn it's keep with this job.


One down, only 159 more to go.

Good thing I have some help.

 


10 comments:

  1. at least spruce is pretty hardy. I'd been tempted to put in a hole just big enough and stick it in. :)
    Let me know how the willow works out.

    A few years ago I had this idea that a wild rose hedge all along my road frontage would look beautiful. and it will. But it's harder to put in a rose hedge then you might suppose.....I might get it done by the time I retire.

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  2. You are tackling planting 160 trees and bushes??? Surely you jest. Well --- at least you don't have to run irrigation lines to each one, like we do here in the desert.

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  3. connor is hilarious! and handsome. good luck!

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  4. Planting the 50 spruce starters sounds like a job for an earth auger! Certainly hope the starters do well after all your work :)

    I've got to ask...what did Connor eat from that hole?

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    1. An auger sounds like a great idea, but they don't work here with all the stone in the ground.

      As for what Connor ate, you'll have to ask him:)

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  5. Oh, I really wanna see this willow hedge. Is it designed to grow together like a wall? I covet this. If you (and they) survive the experience, let us know!

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  6. Oy. at least the holes are on the smaller side. I planted willow whips in the stupidist place and now they tower over all the trees in the yard - but they're pretty and sway in the wind. Glad you have a digger to help. Hope Connor doesn't decide those holes are his!!!

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  7. Oh please tell me you don't have to water them the first year. I have been there and done that on a smaller scale. In Wyoming I installed drip irrigation to them all and then MOVED! Always stick around and watch them grow : )

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    1. They probably ought to be watered, but once in the ground, they are on their own. I can't get water to them and I have found that the trees that need coddling never survive their first winter here. Only the tough survive up here on this stony, cold ground:)

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