Our friends Theresa and Dave came on over on Black Friday and we planted trees in Karen’s honor. We managed to get about 125 trees in the ground. It was quite a bit of work for us, but provided a real sense of accomplishment. I’m still learning the tricks, and have limited tools, so it wasn’t really something where others could participate this time around.
Planting seedlings in the ground quickly required the use of planting bars (dibble bars), of which I have two. I’m really pleased with how it went, and plan to do this as many times as it takes until Karen’s vision is realized. Basically, her vision was to remove all the locust trees and replace them with trees that are colorful in the fall. She loved the fall.
Over the weekend I put 120 more trees in pots for later planting, and have about 75 more to pot this weekend. This is a task that I’d prefer to do alone this time around. It’s just putting dirt (potting mix) in pots with little trees, and gives me time to reflect.
Perhaps next spring I’ll have a tree planting party where all our friends and family can come out to plant a few trees in her honor. Planting the seedlings took special tools, but planting potted trees only takes shovels (and sweat), so everybody could bring their own, as well as share mine. Think about it, and if enough people want to do that we’ll make a celebration of it. It doesn’t have to be a lot of trees. A couple would do just fine. Spring is the best time to plant, so we probably shouldn’t wait until her birthday. The time of her passing might be a little late in the year, but around that time might be a good choice. She’d want us to do something positive in her memory, so I’ll bring it up again in the spring.
On other fronts, I did manage to spray down all the fields, and they are ready for the next phase of flower planting in the spring. This will include another herbicide spray prior and then the planting of a special mix of ground cover flowers and things like clover that are designed to choke out any remaining weeds and mitigate the amount of new ones sprouting up in the spring/summer. In the spring and summer there will be a couple of cuttings when the flowers go to seed. These cuttings will be done at a 10″-12″ height, instead of a normal cut height. This helps spread the new seeds around a bit, without damaging the flowers so much that they can’t bloom an extra time or two over the spring/summer. That will be followed up in the fall with a couple other special steps to ensure success, but I’ll talk about those steps when the time is nearer.
<3 Charlie
Many thanks for the update. Count me in for spring planting. Looking fwd to new year.