Thursday, October 4, 2012

Planting Trees


O Wise One loves trees. As soon as we bought this farm he started planting trees. He even went and learned how to graft trees. This pecan tree above was his first attempt at grafting.  It is now producing pecans after almost a decade. He is so proud of those pecan harvests. Another skill mastered.


This maple tree was planted last year. It was a gift from my daughter Fred. 


These sycamore were planted 4 years ago. They were given to O Wise One by his older brother who died just shortly after they were planted. They are now a reminder of a lost family member.  


And these Catalpa trees planted just 2 years ago. After losing several trees in the last several years to wind we have started planting young trees that are known to be able to stand up to windier conditions such as the Catalpa tree above. Eventually once these trees are large enough to shade our intentions are to take out some of the softer fast growing maple trees that are getting really broken up from the strong winds that seem to be becoming much more common place.  Back home in Louisiana these were planted for the worms that feed off them. Actually a type of sphinx moth larvae I think. They were prized for catfish bait. Up north here I don't see the worms as much. 


 Not to mention the peach and fruit trees we have planted. 


We now have in the yard sycamore, pecan, walnut, chestnut, oak, locust, mulberry, elm, black cherry, hackberry, birch, willow, maple, catalpa, red bud, crab apple, apple, peach, plum, cottonwood and american persimmon. There were very few trees around the house when we bought the farm and unfortunately most are still very young. What few older ones that were here were in bad shape and are no longer here due to wind damage.




We are not always successful in our tree endeavors. This curly willow I rooted in Louisiana over 15 years ago from a limb cutting that O Wise One brought home one day. It made it's trip to Missouri in a black pot in the front of the U Haul truck. The terrible cold and snow storms of 2 winters ago really took their toll on this tree and just a couple weeks ago we lost it in a windstorm.  



But as you can see in this picture there are plenty to take it's place. All in various stages of growth. The prairie is a harsh environment for trees.  With it's winter snow loads, ice storms and spring and summer tornadic winds.   

My next trees to plant are sugar maples because I think I would like to try my hand at syrup.

Someday this will be a beautifully shaded place indeed. 

We hope to live long enough to see it.

It is a wise man who plants a tree in the shade of which he knows he will never sit...Old Greek Proverb


Have you planted a tree lately? 

Blessings from The Holler

The Canned Quilter

4 comments:

  1. They are not really trees but this year we are going to plant three or four blueberry bushes. Thank you for all the great information in each of your posts. In the last several monthes I have used your blog to help me stock my pantry and freezer.

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  2. I to love trees ! We have a huge oak tree in the yard that's older then our farm house and that was built in 1895 actually this old house was once a school house so part of it was built way back in the early 1800s so this tree must be well over 150 years old and its beautiful . All your trees look great and seem to be producing nicely ! Lovely photos . Now most of our trees have all changed with vibrant colour and leaves are everywhere ! Have a great day !

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  3. We're not seeing many catalpa worms down here, either. The LSU Ag guy who came to look at the trees for us, said it's because of mosquito spraying...
    We need to plant a couple more pecan trees.
    I was looking at a magazine today, about gardening in Louisiana, and it said crepe myrtles are considered wind resistant, too, if you want flowers.
    It also mentioned that Live Oak was wind resistant and Pecan was not, haha; but we have a really good crop this year and feel quite blessed.
    Have a wonderful Friday and a blessed weekend, CQ!

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  4. I am about to plant some trees too! Do you have any experience with Silver Maples?

    Yolanda
    photographybaking.blogspot.com

    ReplyDelete

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