Spring Training Continues

Its hard to believe that this all started a whole month ago.  Right after we completed the first round of tree clearing we had a decent sized pile of unwanted Poplar wood.  We sorted that out of the "good wood" and posted it free on Marketplace.  By the end of the day we had given away the firewood and located and purchased a log splitter.  With the original stack of firewood that we had been burning a the firepit, we borrowed a log splitter.  Now we're all set up.  Last Monday we split our pile of Oak and Ash and today we stacked it neatly near the firepit.  That's a pretty nice looking stack of campfire wood.

In between the stacking, I also got back into the Thicket to pick up more sticks and cut Multi-Flora Rose.  Its looking pretty good in there.  I will take one more pass at it and then it will be time to plant some bareroot shrubs.

I am weary of being tangled up in rose bushes.

Milkweed

I am still taking advantage of spring sales to stock some plants for the naturalized area where the trees were removed.  There is already a lot of Goldenrod, Aster and Fern in the area and I am sure we will have a lot of "weeds" that are prepared to take over in there now that more water and sunlight is available.  But it does afford me some space to introduce some flowers that I have been wanting to add to my garden space.  In keeping with the wild, pollinator theme, I have ordered some bareroot Milkweed.  I am staying away from the brightly colored yellow and orange collections that are available and sticking with a more natural color pallet.

Cinderella Swamp Milkweed

Ice Ballet Swamp Milkweed

Eastern Bluestar

All of these are native, pollinator friendly, attract hummingbirds and are deer and rabbit resistant.  They should introduce variety of color and texture to the undergrowth.

Dirt Cheap

 Every year I save as much of my potting mix as I can in my Dirt Locker and Rubbermaid Totes.  Each year I lose a little through attrition either due to having to top up whiskey barrel planters or planting perennials in the dry creek bed or through giving away plants.  Sometimes when you dump a planter, the roots of the annual plants are so vigorous that there isn't much point in trying to retrieve any soil at all. So each year I end up buying a bag or two of fresh potting mix.  I keep a list of all of my planters and how many gallons it takes to fill them.  I make note of how much I have been able to save from last year.  The difference between those numbers is how much I have to buy.

This week our regional farm store Runnings has a great deal on Miracle Gro potting mix.  Generally I stay away from Miracle Gro products, but I can't beat their Moisture Control potting mix.  I've tried several other brands as well as mixing my own and nothing really compares.  I usually buy the 50 quart (1.67 cu. ft.) bags from Home Depot.  Back in the day they were $14.99  a bag.  Now it is $17.97.  Lowes and Tractor Supply sell the full 2 cu. ft. bags for 19.99  You can go nuts comparing prices.

Two bags for $20!  That's practically buy one get one!

Cheap Dirt!

As soon as we saw that flyer we headed out Saturday morning (and we never go to town on a Saturday).  I bought 6 bags.  They were out in the rain which made them twice as heavy and as unwieldy as wrestling a greased pig.  6 bags was a pretty full load for an SUV.  But the more we thought about it....  We went back today and got 4 more to stockpile for next year.

Fruit Tree Pruning

 

I have been working on pruning my fruit trees for about a week now.  I did one major prune and now every time I walk past them I scrutinize them to see if I missed anything.

The little Gala apple tree that I relocated last fall is alive and well.  I only took a handful out of this little guy but it will probably need some header cuts and if I don't work up the nerve to do it this year it can wait until next year.  It is developing a nice open center vase shape all on its own.

The 4-in-1 pear tree also needed little pruning.  I did do some header cuts on this one to encourage branching on the back side.

This mature Northern Spy needed a lot of thinning out.  It is a nicely shaped tree.  But I think I need to get a ladder out and remove one more branch.  The one that I highlighted below is cruising straight up the center and beginning to outpace the main leader.  Also I don't want that tight angle in there.

I need to walk around it a little more and make sure I am ready.  You can always take out more but it is pretty hard to put it back if you change your mind.

Tired of Trees

 

This is Day Four of cutting these trees.  Day Six all together because there was a day of burning and a day of finer cleanup.  This is the last of the dangerous work and we are glad it is over.  There was one tall Ash in there that was so dead and so brittle that we were really worried about cutting it.  The vibration of the chainsaw alone could break it up and send the top spearing down at whomever was below it.  Every morning after a substantial wind we would look out the window and hope to see the top down.  But no such luck.

All told there were seven completely dead Ash, a very one sided Oak, a wisp of a Hemlock and about two dozen small Ash saplings that wouldn't amount to anything.  We were able to cut all of these without damaging any of the Viburnum bushes.

While the guys were working on the trees, I helped clear some "Tiger Lilies" (actually day lilies) from the back of our mulch bunkers.  This is the raised bed garden that my husband built for the neighbors back in 2018.  We put the orange ditch lilies along the back of the bunkers to hide the ugly recycled boards.  The ditch lilies came from our frontage back in 2016 when we put in our water service.  We dug them up, stuck them on a dirt pile in the woods for two years, and then transplanted them into this spot.  While they are quite pretty and protected from deer, we all decided the bed would be better used for strawberries or something.  So I offered to help make them gone.  As I write they are filling in low spots up in the area where we took all of those big pine trees out two years ago.  Which makes it the third time I have dug up and relocated these darn ditch lilies.

We had to take a time out and relocate to safer ground when the big dead Ash came down.  And as expected, it exploded.

Could a tree fall any flatter?

Back to the lilies...

There were a lot of tops that will have to get burned later on.

We managed to save on decent looking Maple tree.  Because the surrounding Ash have been dead for quite a few years now, it was able to grow in a fairly nice, round shape.  It had four or five serious Poison Ivy vines in it, which we pulled off the best we could, and a Multi-Flora Rose up the whole height of it which was so massive it had gotten into a dead Ash next to it and actually held it up after it was cut.  It took three men to push the smaller tree out and a tractor to pull the vine down.

The finished area is looking very flat and barren.  There is still a day's worth of pick-em-up-sticks in there.  There are some very wide open areas now but I already have 10 nice bare roots Lilacs ready to go in and 9 other bare root shrubs on the way.  All of those are native and I am looking forward to arranging them in the bare spots so we can have some nice color and habitat for birds.  I think they will get a lot more sun exposure than I was expecting so they should do well.

That Magic Moment

 

We go to bed early so we often miss dramatic sunsets and moonrises.  But the flip side to that is that we are up early to enjoy the sunrise.  Today the world is on fire.  When I first got up this morning I saw the bright, nearly full waxing moon setting out the west window and now the sun is rising huge and blazing through the trees turning everything a brilliant red.  There are few clouds in the sky, but the sun didn't need any to create some drama.

A light coating of frost made the tips of these trees sparkle like liquid gold.

And the tree line behind is just glowing.

Red sky at morning, Sailors take warning.

We have some weather headed our way.

Work Smarter Not Harder

 The tree company called late last night and told us they would be here first thing in the morning to take care of the property line trees.  They came prepared with a lot of equipment.

Even though we called the phone company and had them tension their wire, it still twanged on the back of the crane.  Based on our experience with the logging truck back in 2021, we were prepared also with a very long pole to lift the wire.  

When they crane these trees out, someone has to go up and tie off the top.

Some of the tying off got a little creative.  That dead ash tree creaked and groaned but held.  There was no way the remaining top would support the whole weight.

There were a couple really big ones.  

Photos do not adequately convey the reality of a full sized tree dangling fifty feet off the ground.

"Dude - don't just stand there.  There is a crappy tree hanging over your head"

The best part is watching them drag branches.  Do you know how many days it would have taken us to fell and process those trees?  And we would still have to burn all of the tops.  This was well worth the money.  They spent about fifteen minutes per tree and it would have taken the three of us hours per tree.

Not to worry.  There is still enough work to go around.

All of this will have to be hauled back into the woods where is can be processed into cordwood.  And there are half a dozen smaller dead Ash trees left behind for us to cut and clean up.

Happy First Day of Spring