Up at my Dads place, in the field across the creek, there is about a 1 acre corner that a gulleywasher washed out years ago and really isn't accessible to farm anymore. Its so small that even the Mennonite equipment won't fit in there anymore. So, we worked it up years ago with our small machinery and planted Ladino and let it go. Well, years later, I have decided to do something with the now weed patch.

 

We had an early storm that knocked down some helicopters about a month ago.  I had the kids gather up a cupfull, went and bought a bag of potting soil and some food spikes. We pushed the helicopters into the dirt a little, shoved a food spike in next to them, then took them up to my dads and set them on a table in front of the south facing patio door. He has the room, it gives he a little project, and he has well water. Ain't nothing gonna grow with the bleach city water we have in our house.

 

Since then, the helicopters have started falling on their own, and are a little brown. I think they are ready. So we planted another batch and took them up to Dads today.

 

Come to find out, in the first batch, in the red cups, some of  the seeds that were laying on top of the dirt  have sprouted nicely. The ones we pushed into the dirt aren't showing anything, but I pulled one up and it had a big root going down.

 

 

So, on the new batch, I pulled some up and laid them on top of the soil. Figure that's how they land when they fall from the tree anyways.

 

 

So, we will see how this goes. If nothing takes off, I'm out a bag of potting soil. But if it works, my kids and I can plant a patch of trees for their children to enjoy. 

 

The plan is to plant several seedlings, and put chicken wire around them to keep the rabbits away. Then put a bigger wire  fence around that, to keep the deer away.

 

 

More to come, eventually!

 

 

 

 

 

Pa picked  out the best seedlings and transferred them to pots and set them outside in partial shade. They seem to be doing quite well, and with the incredible amounts of rain we have been getting, I figured this would be a banner year for stuffing trees in the ground.

 

Years ago, a small section of the field across the creek was cut off by a washout. I seem to remember it happening a few times when I was younger, and we always went and filled it in. This last time was a bit too much and Pa said forget it. We just tilled it up and planted some Ladino grass and let it be. Well, it didn't take long for the goldenrod to take control.

 

SO, I got to fire up the old Simplicity walk behind tractor with handy 30" sickle attachment.

 

 

 

 

 

Man, that thing is wicked. And fun to use!

 

Grabbed some cow manure and compost, some fencing and some fenceposts, and off we went.

 

Dug four good sized holes, chopped up the dirt, threw a bag of manure/compost in each one, and put four seedlings in each hole.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Set some posts in, used chicken wire around the bottom for smaller critters, and some 6 foot wire fence for the split toes. Figured a little mulch would help with weeds and moisture control.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

So there.  The only hitch in our giddyup was that it stopped raining at least once a day.  Seedlings need a lot of moisture, especially when first planted. Well, back to town, junior, to remedy said situation!

 

 

Pa has enough firewood for oh, two or three years. He's kind of running low on stuff to keep him busy, and he has that fancy Gator that he patrols the property with.....how can we put him to work???

 

Went to Fleet and bought a 12 volt transfer pump. Grabbed a 35 gallon barrel from the back shed.  We can pump water out of the creek and haul it up and water the trees.

 

The holes on the suction thingy were pretty small, but I still wrapped it in a couple layers of nylon screen to filter out all the crud from the creek water.

 

 

 

 

 

Mounted the pump, ran a hose up to fill the barrel, then installed a boiler drain valve and another hose to gravity feed the water out. Junior got to learn about drilling and tapping holes, PVC and primer and glue, all sorts of handy stuff.  (And momma says we are wasting time!!!!)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

So there, time for a mockup, because I'm not sure how high that little pump will lift water.

 

The green bucket simulates sucking  it out of the creek, the barrel should be about the same height when its in the gator.

 

 

 

 

Works good. It pumps about 5 GPM, so it takes 7 minutes to fill the barrel. The pump has alligator clips on it, so we can attach it to the gator battery.

 

 

So there, back up to the farm. Got it all mounted in.

 

 

 

 

Pa started watering them religiously back in July, he says they are doing well.

 

 

Well, the  mulch doesn't slow the weeds down much, that's for sure. Some of the seedlings haven't done much, others are thriving. I guess if we get one nice tree out of each batch, that's good enough.

 

 

 

 

 

 

So, we dug three more holes and planted three more. I hope these take off, they are quite nice.

 

 

 

 

Hmm, didn't get a picture of the other two. Oh well.

 

Finally, our turn to try out the water barrel.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Mother nature, take it away! Pa said he would probably water them into October, and lets see what happens. For crying out loud, they grow EVERYWHERE here in town, I would think that up there, in that rich soil, protected from the deer, they should thrive. I guess time will tell.

 

 

Thanks for looking.

 

 

 

 

Junior started this years batch...

 

 

 

Last time we were up there, I mowed with the bush hog,

 

 

But along the edge, the goldenrod rules. Went up today to cut it all back so the trees can get some sun.

 

 

 

Lifted up all the cages, chopped out the weeds, and threw in some grass clippings for mulch.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Got the area cleaned up pretty good for a little while anyways. Gave everybody a drink and called it good.

 

 

 

Apparently, 4 days of camping, a triple header Saturday, and staying up late eating Smores every night catches up with a guy.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I have 7 silver maples but they aren't what you are describing.

Mine are like these and don't have copters.

Planted them when they were pencil size and now I can't even get my arms around them.

 

 

Started to rain. Unfortunately, I am too busy, I don't wait for the weather. Good thing I made the kids bring umbrellas.

 

 

The old weed patch sure looks different from last year. I guess bush hogging it once sets the goldenrod back quite a ways. Lots of milkweed now though.

 

At any rate, I think the first trees we planted are way too close together. This time we spaced them out quite a bit.

 

Had the young uns mark it out and get the supplies out.

 

 

 

Peeled the sod back, dig down a ways, dump in a bag of manure and mix well.

 

 

 

Kind of neat. At Farm Technology Days, they dug a big trench and put the soil and conservation tent over it. It was neat to see the layers of soil. There was only about 2 or 3 inches of topsoil in that field.

 

 

When I dug the holes today, there was a good 8" of topsoil, before I hit the clay. I suppose, years of the weeds growing and dying really builds up the soil. That is some damn fine dirt up in that corner, dark brown and loaded with earthworms.

 

Stuck two seedlings into each hole. This is what life it all about, being out in the fresh air working in the dirt to grow something. Hope it stays with the kids for the rest of their lives.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Last year was the off year for acorns. This year there should be plenty, so we will be growing some oak seedlings as well.

 

Thanks for looking.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

You're doing your part to battle 'climate change' ! Planting trees !! That's the easy SOLUTION, commone sense too !!!

Trees take in all that 'bad' CO2 and give us O2. They also grow and store that 'bad' C ( carbon).

Hopefully you and your 'crew' will  be able to carry on this 'tradition' for decades.

 Jay

Dug this up quick on the net if your curious.

 

Really not a large number of trees.

I know I am from a different climate and stuff, but found acorns grow really well were I have sprayed simazine. I am cheap and LAZY so not having go and mow or hoe around little trees is big help. Right now all my weeds are dead and just a bigger fire hazard,so clean ground has other benefits as well. But I cannot buy simazine anymore cause off the Fruits and Nuts running this place.

 

Late summer, found some acorns up in dads woods. Brought a handful home and floated them.

 

 

All junk. It was way to early anyways.

 

One day after we got done painting the football field, picked up a batch at the school. They have a nice stand of oak trees.

 

 

Floated them as well. Skimmed off the junk ones, and had a pretty good pile of good ones.

 

 

Planted some in some pots right away, and put the rest in a bag of potting soil in the fridge downstairs for storage.

 

 

Made a squirrel proof cage, and set them out behind the shed where they get mostly sun.

 

 

Watered and watched them all fall, haven't seen hide nor hair of anything going on there. I guess we will just see if anything happens come spring.

 

So, kind of gave up on the project for the winter, but then, a few weeks ago, I got the itch again. Grabbed a couple acorns out of the fridge downstairs and planted them in some plastic cups and set them on the kitchen windowsill.  Didn't really expect much, I was watering them with our fluoride/bleach water.

 

But, lo and behold, on Christmas day....

 

 

And only three days later...

 

 

Well, that one sure is doing good. I guess we will see if any other ones pop up. And once we get rid of the dang Christmas tree, looks like I will be building a shelf on the ledge of the big picture window in the living room on the west side of the house, lots more good afternoon sun over there...

 

Thanks for looking.

 

 

Got a shelf made and planted more acorns, hopefully we can get a good batch of seedlings going to plant this summer.

 

 

 

I see junior snuck his aloe plant in the shelf too. He grew that in gardening class at summer school.

 

Off to a good start! Hopefully they all take off.

 

 

Thanks for looking.

 

  Well,,I'm one of the biggest suckers (no pun intended) on doing my share of plantin, grafting and even goin from seed when I find some interestin,,,,, 

Right now, I have 8 aspen and 10 cottonwood and 2 red maple " trees" growin in 5 gallon tubs. These are from cuttings I borrowed from donor trees,,,,,ummmm somewhere,, The parents were some really beautiful fall colored yellows and orange trees I had been watching,,so I borrowed some cuttings and after 2 years, so far,  are doing really great. My plan is to transplant them to the ranch up in the mountains next year. I absolutely LOVE the Crepe Myrtle ones too but I have tried and tried to grow some from cuttings but no luck so far,,,,I gots my eye on 4 trees downtown that are so beautiful,, I'll have to try and borrow some more next month,,,,,  

 I have bout 10 apple seeds in an envelope in  the fridge  from 2 trees up in the mountains, we ran across on an Elk hunt last year. The apples were big for mountain apples and just so dang sweet,,I just had to save some and will plant them in the spring. Thet owner lady,,, UMmm,,, caught us borrowin some of the apples,,but she finally let us keep the bag we had already picked after I told her my favorite obama joke,,,, 

 

Well, we eat enough ice cream around here that we can remedy that, no problem.

 

 

It wasn't root bound, but now we know. Maybe a guy should plant them in clear cups...

 

Plenty of room in its new pad. Shoved some food spikes in and gave it a good drink. We shall see.

 

 

We have 11 seedlings showing out of 19, so doing good so far.  I'm hoping to nurse the next batch along awhile, then take half up to my dads just to see where they grow better.

 

Going to try melting snow for some fresh water to use instead of the bleach that comes out of my faucet...

 

 

Sure enough, the roots are starting to circle in the bottom of the cups.

 

 

 

You can see the acorns yet

 

 

 

Shoving in some food spikes for a snack

 

 

We plant them, water them and the potting mix settles about an inch. Fill the buckets up level full again.

 

Man, this guy is doing well. Leaves almost as big as my hand. I do not know how the stem can hold them up.

 

 

So, I hope they survive the transplanting.  I read somewhere that the best time to plant oaks is in the fall. The way these guys are going, I'm going to have to transplant them into 55 gallon barrels mid summer. I still can't believe they are growing on city water.

 

The coveted spot in front of the patio door at Grandpa Marvin's is currently occupied by a wood rack- he keeps a little woodpile right in the kitchen for the wood stove and it dries up real nice basking in the sun. As soon as that is out, I can start hauling trees up there for some sun and nitrogen rich well water.

 

Going to make a trip to the local nursery and see if they have any advice.

 

Thanks for looking!

 

 

And this one is kind of interesting. It shot a sprout around Christmastime, but it died shortly thereafter. It just sat on the windowsill, now I looked at it tonight and it has another shoot again. Life finds a way, I guess.

 

 

Oh yeah, Carter and I both gave up ice cream for lent, so we are out of transplant containers for awhile. Probably didn't think that one through....

 Hey LittleMarv,,,sure glad to see your helper interested in horticulture and develop thet "Green Thumb" while doin it. That lady that I "borrowed" the apples for seed donors laughed at me cause she asked me,,,How long do you plan to live as them apple trees will take several years to produce fruit?" I just looked her straight in the eyes and said,,,'As long as it takes, Ma'am, As long as it takes"  Chit,,,, if we gonna give up doin the things we love just cause it might take some time to get done,,,we never will get nuttin done,,,right,,,??? 'Sides,,,I plan to keep goin for ,,,,,,,,,for,,,,'nother 37 years,,,,, tha'd be a lot of apple trees,,,,,,,

 

Grandpa Marvin has been tending to the trees, and hardening them up little by little, they reside outside on the deck for a few weeks, then in the ground they go.

 

 

Junior was the last one to load up, so he got to hold the barrel. Stopped in the creek to get some water. Notice how the gator fits in to ONE tire track from the tractors hauling manure to the field across the creek.

 

 

Tried things a little different this year. Just dug a small hole, then cut around the bottom of the bucket and slit down the side. A little compost in the hole, set the bucket down, slide the bottom out, put dirt around the sides, then lift the bucket out.

 

 

 

A little more compost, a little mulch,

 

 

Trying to stretch my fencing dollar. Planted them individually and cut a 50' roll into 14 pieces, so the cages are only about 15" in diameter. We will see if this works, or we may have to revamp them later. A little chicken wire around the bottom as well.

 

 

 

Gave everybody a shot of water as well. Planted 12 Oak trees and two apple trees. Some in full sun, some in half a days shade, some up in the higher part, and some in the wetlands. I guess time will tell.

 

 

 

Simple pleasures

 

 

That dog does not sit down much. Surprised I caught him relaxing.

 

We have one more small batch to plant this summer. Dreamt up one more hairbrained idea I have to try....

 

Thanks for looking!

 Hey LittleMarv,,,you done GOOD,,,,by golly,,!! You definately gots a great green thumb,,,,!!

 I have no idea what happened with my Apple seed project as they all sprouted in the styrofoam cups, got bout 1/2" high,,then they all just shriveled up and keeled over,,,,,GRRrrrrr,,!! Can't figure that one out,,,,,,

Really enjoyed reading through this for the beginning! Your involvement with your kids and family is great! Plant some hard maples on the high ground too!

Trees! Yes and having them to stand under on a hot sunny day! Nice work! Especially ones you have planted!

Regards,

 Chris

 Hey Shameless,,,,,,but I DO have one nice big Mulberry tree that I use  when the carport is full of other projects,,,, bout 2 months ago,,I traded some work for 4 metal trusses for a Lean-to but can't decide where to put it,,,? They are 24' long and should give me a pretty good sized shade footprint,,,,then I won't have to answer the phone with,,,

"Shade tree enterprises",,,,,

 You don't think somebody came and got O'L Hungry to be   claiming the seedlings? Cause we do we have known gas tank filler  amongst us. Generally kind of proud of how much he fills them up.

Marv you spacing the trees just right so you can put your hammock up to get some good summer nappes in.

 

Alright you little buggers, lets see what you got.

 

 

Took a piece of 4" PVC and cut it into 4 pieces. Plugged one end with plastic plugs. Mix up a little compost and potting soil, a little water, and the best 4 looking acorns go in. I'm not sure how long those acorns from last fall will keep in the fridge downstairs.

 

 I figure I can dig a hole with a hand post hole digger, and drop them in. Maybe slit the pipes lenghthways with a cutoff wheel first to get them out?

 

I wonder if a fellow could plant them in some thick cardboard shipping tubes? Those would be biodegradable and you could stick them in the ground and leave them, if they survived the couple weeks of watering.

 

Thanks for looking.

 

 

One more trip up to grandpa's, load er up with fence, posts, mulch, the boy, and the dog.

 

Slit the bottom half of the pipes in two. Then wrap them with duct tape to hold it together, and cut the top half. Tape it as well.

 

 

Weed whacked four spots, dug holes with the post hole digger, worked really well!

 

 

 

Held the pipes, junior slit the duct tape, set it in the hole, fill in the hole with a compost/ dirt mix, and slide each half up and out. Pretty slick, but couldn't get a picture as all hands were busy making the transfer.

 

Cover with compost and mulch, shove a big food spike next to each one. Up with the fence and the chicken wire.

 

 

 

I peeled back the sod in one area, dumped the rest of the bag of acorns in, spread them out, covered them in compost, and put my homemade cage over it. Laid the sod around it to keep the critters out.

 

 

 

We are just going to let these go and see what happens. If we get some good saplings growing in there, we can transplant them out to replace any that don't make it. There were two the last time that didn't look good when we planted them and they never recovered.

 

So there. Have a pretty nice little field going here. A couple of the maples from the first year  are above the cages already.

 

 

 

Boy, I sure hope all these take off. It may not look like much, but we put a lot of time (and money) into this project. But its well worth it.

 

I went and cut all the weeds out of the cages last year. I wonder if the trees wouldn't do better in the shade of the goldenrod?

 

We were in a hurry to get to a baseball game. Every time we go up there we are in a hurry. I didn't even look at all the other trees, or even count them. There has to be 20-30 or more.

 

 

 

 

 

Thanks for looking!

 

We are too busy to be planting seeds in Solo cups and transplanting and all that, so this year, we took whoevers advise from the second post on this topic.

 

Picked up a couple handfuls of helicopters and a bag of topsoil. Peeled the sod back, dumped in some soil, and scattered the seeds.

 

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Gave them a good soaking

 

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And put up three cages with chicken wire around the bottom to keep the critters out. Also wrapped two in burlap to give them some shade, cause over the years I've noticed they seem to do better in shady areas.

 

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Darwinism, do your thing! May the best seed win! Planted three cages worth.

 

The silver maples are all doing pretty well, maybe lost two or three so far.

 

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The oaks from last year are not doing so well, we have a pretty high mortality rate so far. But, one or two are still hanging in there. We shall see.

 

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 The weather being favorable is also very important here as rain varies from 8  inches  to 60  per year. 

IBWD MIke wrote: Ted, what are you doing planting Maple trees? Around here they grow by the millions, all volunteer! They are one notch down on my hit list for trees to come down in the off season right after mulberry. I'll bet I went through 8 or more quarts of Tordon this fall/winter working on the excess trees around the farm.

I don't have any up at the farm, nothing but Cedar trees, Oaks and a few pines.

I've transplanted or started from seeds; Blue Spruce, Maples, Apples, Butternuts and a Willow.  My biggest maple I planted about 20 years ago just got snapped off about 8 feet off the ground last fall.  I sure miss the shade it put out!