Stacking Trees

 

I spent the first part of the work week outside planting trees for several stream and wetland projects.  It was cold work, and physically demanding work (I got a blister!), but so nice to be outside working with plants and seeds.  After we finished the planting projects, we ended up with a bunch of left over tree seedlings.  Instead of trashing them, Jamie and I brought them to my house and covered the roots with some old straw in an attempt to heal them in and keep them alive until I can figure out what to do with them.  

The baby trees are are dormant this time of year, and come from the nursery in bundles of seedling with no dirt on the roots, called "bare root seedlings," and we planted them by hand using a "dibble bar", which is basically a flat spade that is pushed into the soil and pulled toward your body and pushed away from your body until a slim deep hole is made.  The seedlings is put in the hole and the dibble bar is pushed into the soil in front of the seedling and pushed and pulled until the hole is closed.  It doesn't sound that hard until you've been doing it for a few hours, then it seems like some sort of torture routine. 

The nursery only sells the seedlings in bundles of 25 or 50 even though we didn't need that many of most of the species.  I've got black walnut, sycamore, red bud, a couple of oak species, and several others I can't remember now.  Basically a forest in a pile.  Hopefully the straw will keep the roots moist though the rest of the winter while I find homes for them.  I had to put chicken wire over the stack to keep Helen and Mrs. Hall from digging them up.