Lately I've been planting trees and shrubs. Outside the fence is deer country. Mostly the sweep of the hill is bare, some coast live oaks at the top, a couple of California bays at the base and a couple of pines and redwoods as well. In between is a sweeping slope of mostly bare earth, the weeds by law disced, cut, or sprayed every year for fire abatement. It looks ugly. No softer word will describe it accurately. For years I have wanted to plant a woodland there. Trees here must be widely spaced so they can pull water from a large area, so it really will not take too many trees to fill it in. A few years ago I planted two valley oaks. This year I added a third valley oak and three blue oaks as well as an incense cedar. I want some conifers. I have a northern California black walnut on order and I plan to put in a couple more incense cedars. So far, all these are native trees. To keep this theme I should go with a couple of pines, but the bark beetles are killing so many of them these days that I have decided to go with non native cedars, one Atlas and one deodar. That should pretty much fill the slope.

There is a triangular area separate from the sweep of the hill that is to be my bird-attracting native shrub area. That is where I planted the three manzanitas. I've also planted different three native ribes. Later today I'm planting a toyon. (Did you know that Hollywood was named after the toyon? I was surprised to learn this myself.) Over the next couple of weeks I'll be planting ceanothus, two of 'Blue Jeans', two of 'Julia Phelps' and one of 'Snowball'. I'll round it out with various sages. My hope is that eventually I won't have to weed so much. Meanwhile for a year or two I'll be weeding an acre. I hope the hula hoe works on this tough soil.

All this, and roses, too.

Rosefolly

My town planted the Eastern black walnut (juglans nigra) all along our street as street trees about 105 years ago. I have pictures of two of them in front of our house from about 1910 - they were about 10 feet tall. Several of them still survive right near our house - they are over 100 feet. We call them part of the "traffic calming" system, because when they drop their walnuts (covered, of course, in soft green skin over the hard nut) all over the street, cars run over them and they either explode with a loud bang, or get squirted out by the tires, and sometimes hit parked cars hard enough to set their alarms off. Sometimes that happens just from walnuts falling from the trees onto the cars, because the trees are so tall. Anyway, this activity tends to make the traffic slow WAY down, as it makes quite a racket.

Our black walnuts are amazingly prolific in fertile nuts - the squirrels plant them everywhere (even in the flower pots on my front porch, which is one story off the ground - one year I found one to two walnut seedlings growing happily in each of my 6 or 8 inch pots!). The amount of nuts seems to vary from year to year, but in a heavy year, walnut seedlings become the main thing to weed in the garden - they come up easily with their nuts attached if you get them within a few months, but after that require a shovel. My next door neighbor once was paying her 8 and 10 year old boys 50 cents for each walnut they picked up or pulled up - they made quite a lot of money. So, you might end up with a walnut forest.

Jackie

Jeri

Anne

June of 2011 we planted 2 redwoods 2 cedars, and one giant sequoia here in Westrn WA. Each were between 12" and 14". True monsters. The redwoods are between5 and 6 feet. The rest 3-4 feet.
We werent sure they would grow here let alone thrive, but they are. During the dry season, we water them once a week. Such fun.
Jeannie

HoovB, valley oaks are my absolute favorite oaks, too. I love the twisted outline they create when they are very old. They remind me of old mystery novels I read as a child, mysterious and beautiful. The live oaks are very good trees, too; but it is the valley oaks I love. I hope they do well for me. I'm not sure how deep my water table is, and they like it to be no lower than 60 feet below the surface.

Anne SFBay, yes, I've been to Yerba Buena a number of time. Did you know that they recently moved to Half Moon Bay? Checking the tags I discovered that the three ribes I planted are all Ribes speciosum, the fuschia-flowered gooseberry, not three different ones as I had thought. I picked it because it is so thorny the deer are said to leave it alone. There is a herd of deer browsing on the hill every day.

Jeannie, earlier today I was down by the three redwoods and three pines at the base of the hill. There was a big windstorm a few weeks ago and I noticed that one of the pine trees had lost a couple of limbs. Taking a closer look I discovered that they are not pines at all, but cedars. What a surprise! I'd never seen cedars grow with that tall, narrow pines-in-a-forest form.

Campanula, I'm buying small trees and shrubs mostly in one gallon containers. There is a lot of interest in natives these days so I'm finding what I want pretty easily. Two of the toyons are small seedlings I collected elsewhere on the hill, waiting in pots to be planted after they get a bit larger.

Catsrose, Seil, Kittymoonbeam, Jeri, thank you for your nice comments. I am having a good time and look forward to the future as this area develops. Next year I fill in with an elderberry, a hollyleaf cherry, and a redberry, with perhaps more sages an a another ribes or two. After all, I will need something to amuse me next year as well! A friend of mine called me the Mrs Winchester of gardening the other day. Those of you from California will get the reference.

And once all the trees are planted and after the roses are pruned, there are a dozen-plus teas are awaiting their places in the ground, inside the fence.

Rosefolly

Brava, rosefolly, Brava.

I love your list of trees to fill that space. Bet you find you have more birds in the future too

Yes, I just went to the new Yerba Buena HMB location. I bought a bunch of stuff but I miss their old location. The ribes I have are currents because they are near a pathway so I do not want prickles! Also, no deer to deter where I live--just rats!

Anne

I just ordered half a dozen more trees today. I'm thinking that I may not get all the roses pruned this year....

Another beautiful California oak is Q. tomantella, the Island Oak.

God, what a joy it is to plant a tree,
And from the sallow earth to watch it rise,
Lifting its emerald branches to the skies
In silent adoration; and to see
Its strength and glory waxing with each spring.
Yes, 'tis a goodly and a gladsome thing
To plant a tree.

Nature has many marvels; but a tree
Seems more than marvelous. It is divine.
So generous, so tender, so benign.
Not garrulous like the rivers; and yet free
In pleasant converse with the winds and birds;
Oh! privilege beyond explaining words,
To plant a tree.

Rocks are majestic; but, unlike a tree,
They stand aloof, and silent. In the roar
Of ocean billows breaking on the shore
There sounds the voice of turmoil. But a tree
Speaks of companionship and rest.
Yea, of all righteous acts, this, this is best,
To plant a tree.

There is an oak ( oh! how I love that tree)
Which has been thriving for a hundred years;
Each day I send my blessing through the spheres
To one who gave this triple boon to me,
Of growing beauty, singing birds, and shade.
Wouldst thou win laurels that shall never fade?
Go plant a tree.

E. Wilcox

I am planting my Pink Lady apple this weekend before the rain comes.
A good long life to all our trees.

Yes, I do think it is a privilege to plant trees.

Rosefolly

It's very different here. We have only one native oak, Quercus robur, one pine, one spruce, one juniper, one yew, one rowan, only one variety of maple and so on. I remember the many maples in Wisconsin and the infinite variety of fall colors. Birches may be the only exception as there are a couple of different kinds of them but still, our flora is poor by comparison. A small part of my garden is a piece of ancient woodland left by those who built my house. It contains only native trees, oaks, birches, pines, rowans and junipers, and after 18 years I have not been able to decide whether I should introduce some more interesting species or not. I have added a few rhododendrons in the lowest part but I can't make up my mind if I did the right thing. Nearly all neighbours have taken down the many birches, pines and spruces originally growing around here so I think I'd better keep what little there is left. I have planted a few non-native trees but not in the woodland, a Cornelian cherry, a Japanese cherry, a katsura and several fruit trees.

I feel quite ambivalent. When neigbours took down 8 tall birches along our eastern border it meant much more sun on the garden and more water for our plants as the birch is perhaps the most hard drinking of all trees. But we also feel much more exposed.

When I was young, there were orange groves all around us. In Irvine, massive eucalyptus grew in long rows along the fields of asparagus and strawberries and other crops. There are still some long lines of tall eucalyptus left in Irvine. The popular tree recently is the palm. They are everywhere and easy to trim. You can see some very odd looking trees here due to "tree service" men. I prefer the natural look.

My favorite California trees are the giant redwoods and sequoias. We have mostly native oaks in our local canyons. I always joke that birds are trying to make the wild fig the local tree of suburban southern California because I have to pull out at least 3 every year. This June will be my first visit to the Great Smoky Mountains and I'm really looking forward to seeing those forests.

See if you can at lead intersect the Appalachian Trail. The scenery is beautiful and you may be lucky enough to meet hikers who are hiking it and listen to their stories.

Cath

Along with two of my sisters, I traveled earlier this month in Vermont, New Hampshire, and Maine. We did not make it to Suzy Verrier's nursery but that is at the top of my list for the next trip.

While we were a bit too early for the fall leaf season, we did see trees, lots of gorgeous trees. Now all but one of the trees I planted this past January survived, but I do still see a few empty spaces remaining. I have ordered three more trees for planting this fall, one Pinus edulis (two-needled pinyon pine) and two Pinus brutia eldarica (Afghan pine). Both of these species can get by on our average 15" of rain per year once established, though they need to be watered for the first year or two. I may add a couple more pinyon pines if the first one does well. I like the idea of the pine nuts, and you need more than one to get them, kind of like apples.

I have been wanting more conifers in the landscape. We do have a some, mostly redwoods and cedars. The pine native to my area is Pinus sabiniana, (gray pine and other names) were long ago completely removed. I keep thinking of planting one. Who knows? Perhaps one day I will. There is still room for one.

Rosefolly

Jackie

Campanula, it is an exciting project, isn't it! I wish you as much pleasure from yours as I am having with mine.

Rosefolly

I love the song/poem------"I think that I shall never see a poem lovely as a tree---A tree that looks at God each day and lifts its leafy arms to pray" the rest is beautiful but can't remember all of it ---another line is"a tree that may in summer wear a nest of robins in its hair"-----the music is very pretty---I will check Youtube ----
Good luck with your project --you are helping mother earth survive------

Florence

Florence