One Billion Trees

Laurie, Dan and I grew up together and have close family connections. His family is my family. We were best friends in kindergarden thru college. I have been awestruck with the person he has become and am proud to have traveled widely with Dan. We first started touring our home state Michigan by bicycle at the age of 8 where we would leave home and travel to many places to explore the area. We traveled to Fla at 15 to visit the Everglades and Fla Keys. Then we met and hiked in Norway where he was doing some masters work. Now he has continued it by collecting and teaching those of us who relish in the intellect and character of Dan.
Pole barns are Post and beam buildings that are set on tall posts 6"X6" that are connected with rafters and allow tall structures which store my trailor and other toys I have collected.
The trailor will allow me to lift up to 5 tons of weight with a winch and I have designed it to carry long logs and large rocks. I hike often in the forests and have located several specimens that I am bringing down to create the Nurse log look, Totem pole look with upright planted logs, and stumps with roots that will provide a sitting area where I can sit amoungst clematis vines and YES Cornus Canadnensis! Great Idea. Good plant for my ground cover. I am using lots of mushroom compost (sawdust and manure) to mix with the topsoil present. Then I plan on adding sandy loam to make a rich humus filled soil to "plant" the stumps and nurse logs on. The cornus species I am using are: Alterfolia, 'Satomi', 'Argentea', 'Green Osier', and 'Happy Summer'. This is Argentea.

Ahhh, I'm not so impressed then with your pole barn! (Don't you believe it! The idea of actually building a barn impresses me enormously). But, sheesh, we have one that sounds very similar, however it was built in the 18th century (probably 1726 - we date it from the Bessemer beam in the fireplace - the house would originally have had animals on the ground floor and the family would have lived up stairs. In 1726 they modernised the house installing a large walk in fireplace, and so proud of it they carved their initials and dated it. The animals would have been moved outside then). Despite its age, our barn is sound as anything, with an enormous tiled roof, and still has the original animal stalls and a root cellar. Most of the beams are still original, although the main spread had to rereplaced about 15 years ago, and we now need to replace one of the corner posts on the weather side (that is going to be a tough job). This will be replaced with green oak and worked with traditional tenion joints.

I hadn't realized mushroom compost is sawdust and manure - I don't know what I thought it was, just manure I guess. Interesting. Mushroom compost has become difficult to get here and very expensive. (The dutch have cornered the market on mushroom growing, and clobbered the prices for the English growers. Consequently a lot of them have closed down. I never understand how a country with most of its land underwater can become such a market force for growers! I wish England would take some lessons instead of just capitulating). I haven't bought much in lately, but maybe I need to give that some thought for the woodland area. I do find it is quite alkaline (my understanding is that they add lime to it to improve the mushroom crops) - do you have to rebalance to bring it back to neutral/slightly acid (I would have thought conifer woods are on the acid side? We do use quite a bit of sawdust for sweepings (damp sawdust in the tool shed and the scullery mades quick work of cleaning dried dirt from the floors without raising dust, and in the green house we use a much coarser material from planing to scrub off moss from the brick). I have always added it to the compost, but never thought of combining it with the manure (which we get tons and tons of!)

Now, to look up your cornus. I still envy you knowing DH. Sounds like a really nice relationship.

Great shot of the leafy Arboretum, Sofer. My first inclincation would be to scuff my feet through those leaves in a long path toward the opening in the trees and take in the scent of fallen leaves. My second would be "COMPOST!" and to gather up as many as possible before JBuresh arrived with her Subaru to steal them all! LOL http://davesgarden.com/forums/t/665889/

How wonderful to have a lifetime of adventures and friendship with Dan Hinkley! Sounds like you two have logged some serious mileage together.

What do you use to pull your trailer when fully loaded with large rocks or logs?

Laurie 1, and others, i'm glad you enjoyed the woods. I try to enjoy even a bit of it every day as I am so grateful it still stands behind us. Your barn and house sound enchanting Laurie! I can't imagine a building that old still standing: a testament to construction materials of yore. Also can't imagine living above the animals which reminds me I need to clean out the barn today and work on the compost.

Speaking of, I always thought mushroom compost was made from mushrooms LOL. Always something to learn, isn't there?

Laurie I can feel the warmth of a walk-in fire place. How big of logs does it burn? We have plenty of wood here so we burn a fire all fall/winter/spring. My mothers family lived in Germany and they housed their animals below where they lived. The idea is good because you would not need to take a shower very often cause then you would smell the animals. My barn is going to be much easier to build. Yours sounds beautiful. How about a picture? I always thought mushroom compost was special until I started building soil here. I have had thousands of mushrooms popping up. I have decided that I am building a mushroom grotto in my new woodland garden. I am piling old woodland stumps to make a cave and will fill it with mushroom compost and keep it moist. I suspect I will have a cornicopia of different shrooms. Mushrooms grow in acidic soil and I suspect the lime is to bring the ph closer to 7. We actually have 6.8Ph here and that is what must grow them cause they do great here.
Poochella I thought the same thing with the entrance to the arboretum. Jburesh wouldn't be allowed to collect there because they were blowing the leaves into the areas they compost them.
I pull the trailor with a 4X4 Pickup. I will have to test the best way to haul 5 tons of rock. Please note I will start smaller. The trees will be easy. I am hauling one at a time and am waiting for the snow to melt to get the first ones. We collect in many different vehicles. LOL

I'm a day late and a dollar short, I think. Don't know what happened to yesterday!!! (Actually I do - it was one of my two days a week with my parents.)

Pixy, I would love some of your trees - thank you so much for offering. Just let me know what it costs to send them.

Sofer, what a great shot and what a surprising "vehicle" for transporting such a large piece!!!

It is actually many pieces. I do the driftwood and my DW does interesting rocks. Many in the bottom. We spend a lot of time collecting. Just one of many beds of unique rocks.

What a haul in that canoe! Are you on a river or a lake there, Sofer? What a great rock bed.

That is one incredible rock bed, Sofer!!! And what a great activity for the two of you.

Yes there is nothing better than taking your wife out on the lake with your dogs and camping. Where we go there are no boats or hardly any people. Kind of middle of nowhere. We camp on islands cause the grizzley are kind of thick at this particular lake.
We live in a forest fire area and cannot have mulch next to the house or they won't fight the fire to save it. So we pile rocks like this picture all around the house. This is just one small area. We have many colors here in Montana to make interesting collections. This is another stream we were on this fall.

soferdig, that is lovely, and I just keep getting more and more envious. Your wife shares your gardening interests! And does drift wood! My husbands concept of gardening/digging/planting is that he occassionally comes out of the study and brings me tea/glass of wine (depends on time of day), and compliments me on wheelbarrowing. I must admit, I'm not convinced how comfy I'd be camping - but hey, who knows? We don't have grizzleys so I could always give it a go.

I hate to disappoint you but we have installed a woodburner in the fireplace. The reality is that very big fireplaces don't draw well or give off much heat (that's one of the reason they built them so big, so you could actually sit in them, and even then most of the heat would have gone up the chimney!). We do use it as a major part of our heating - and like you we do keep a fire most of the year. (We have tile or brick floors through most of the ground floor,and they actually get slightly damp with out some heat). But originally they would have kept a large oak log going - partly because our forests were primarily Oak, with chestnut and hazel - but also Oak gives off the most sustainable heat.

I'll try to get a nice photo of the barn. It is lovely, I love the smell of it.

I found the good ones that my wife has put together .

This is an area that will be covered by the Onadaga V but for now it keeps its interest.

Gorgeous, Sofer - I don't think there are any rocks of such beautiful colors around here.

And, Laurie, I hear ya! My dh admires what I've done, expresses amazement, tells other people . . . but doesn't do any of the gardening. I really don't care except that at times I sure could use his manly muscles!

You can't expect everyone to love gardening but I know it goes a long way with a man to tell him how helpful his imput or assistance is. (Brown Nosing is good) Then we can become proud of what we do and you will never stop him from building your garden. Most men need something to be proud of and the garden is just the spot to show off. Like me I am always begging you guys to like my garden by posting all the pictures. We men are insecure in todays world and need a quest. After all there are no wars to fight. See my new pile of rocks I found today.

Lovely rock pile soferdig, I love the moss. You can come here and I'll admire your work all day. Bring rocks. LOL

Sofer, nice rocks. Infact, very nice rocks. Makes me think that I am going to have to go and take some nice pictures of our stream for you. Your rocks really remind me how long its been since I have been down there.

I don't mean to be rude - but how do you find the time to do all this scouting around and collecting? And is Onadaga V the name of that lovely little plant in the picture?

They are terribly nice rocks. Go get some more.

Now, as much as I love all this, I want us not to loose focus on working towards one billion trees. Soferdig - what trees are you planting?

Trees .... yes .... well, let's see ....

Next year, my objective is to plant trees in strategic clusters so i can delight in all the bird-traffic between them. Some of the clusters will have to perform the function of screening (though i'd like some fruit and ornamentals as well). Does anyone have any ideas for, let's say three kinds of trees, that will look particularly nice together?

I was thinking maybe magnolia, pine, white dogwood as one cluster ..... crabapple and two kinds of figs in another .....

Well you can see i haven't really thought this out .... :)

I'm learning tree planting is actually fairly complex! There's a lot of practical things to consider, and one must envision what the tree will look like two decades from now. So far, it hasn't been a challenge cause i've just been doing border planting. But now i'm "filling in" the property, and my mind is dazzled ....

Thoughts?

And to the rear right of this picture is a wet area where i thought a willow might thrive. What looks nice with a willow?

Oops I have sinned again. I am so self absorbed. Any way I have been planting since early childhood. I was taught by a couple of people in my life the name, characters, and value of trees. One is now a famous mother of Dan Hinkley. We traveled the forests of Michigan and learned the names and propagation of trees. She took us to many of our local specimens and with help of a Mrs Neuman taught us how to plant and care for the trees. This has resulted in my planting trees in many locations. Several replants in clear cuts, each of my 8 homes, even in medians of Bellevue Washington roadways, and now my 3 acre garden where I plan on living out my life caring for my trees. They here alone count now at 64 specimens of every type that will thrive here in Montana (and maybe a few that won't). Pray for my Parrotias and Hamemelis. I have preserved on my 3 acres alone a total of over 80 Ponderosa pine, and 62 Douglas Fir that were here when I arrived. I collect carbon (sawdust/manure/bark) from all over the valley and turn it into soil ammendments that will become tree mass here on my property. On Billion trees would be easy if only I could live another 40 years. LOL

Sofer, you don't have to do all 1 billion, afterall Pixy and Murmur and Poochella are pitching in too. And I think Estreya is up for taking on a fair share of the count (Estreya, I still think your border planting is lovely - although I am not too convinced about magnolia against that backdrop). And over this side of the pond - I am growing for Britain. So maybe if you slow down a bit in the next 40 years, that'll be okay.

I think it is time for a nice glass of Prosecco now while I think about Estreya's plans.

Estreya you have a large area and I would assume you are in Zone 7 or 8. I would consider planting groups of say Parrotia, Hamemelis, or Cornus with a wide low profile for the birds to flitter from branch to branch in the varied texture of a tall columnar tree like Swedish Aspen to attract the high perchers. This would allow you to see through the canopy and continue you view of the woodland beyond. Here are a few examples of the above trees. http://www.mobot.org/gardeninghelp/plantfinder/Plant.asp?code=L480 http://www.mobot.org/gardeninghelp/plantfinder/Plant.asp?code=C312
http://www.mobot.org/gardeninghelp/plantfinder/Plant.asp?code=A768
And this is the Swedish aspen.

Oh my gosh! What wonderful consideration! Thank you ....

Laurie1, what's Prosecco? :)

Soferdig, i really love these suggestions. The Parrotia is particularly interesting to me because of its underlying architecture. I've always been deeply attracted to the "musculature" of a tree, you know?

It's funny. When i lived in Sidney, B.C., i had the luxury of frequent visits to the ever-so-delicious Butchart Gardens. Now that i live in Southern Washington, i tend to recapture its glory through the photographs on their web site (http://www.butchartgardens.com/gardens/). Much to my amazement, although they feature the seasons of Spring, Summer, and Fall, there are no photographs of the gardens in Winter! How can this be? Although not as showy as the other seasons, winter is one of my favorite times for a garden. It's when we can really see the bones, the beams, the history and core strength of a garden. And i just love that.

Thank you for these suggestions, Soferdig, and with links to boot! I'm going to print it all out and add it to my binder. (And yes - zone 8a, if i'm not mistaken. Do you think the Cornus would grow here even though it's noted as zone 7? Is there usually a fairly generous give-and-play with those numbers?)

Estreya - I would encourage you to be diligent in getting a Parrotia. My friend has one that is drop dead stunning, year round. I will be getting one in the late winter - I wish I had done this years ago - time has been wasted & need to remedy this lapse.
Steve - how do these Swedish aspens do with the typical excess moisture of the rainy PNW? I have great drainage up front in an area that will be started next Spring. Would like to plant multiples of something as a wind-break: southeastern/southern exposure.
I am also researching what to plant (1 tree & multiple shrubs) in an area at the bottom of my property that has seasonal flooding.(high enough water table in Autumn-Winter to be 3-4" above ground, Spring-Summer is fine, soil is not "wet".)
Salix & Sambucus, are continually recommended. Does anyone have experience with this type of situation, and if so, what thrived there? The other consideration is that it's an area my neighbour sees from her house, & I want it to be an area that is nice to look at from her side, too.
Thanks!

Katye I have no idea about the aspen in the PNW. I always saw them when I lived there. I don't know? Something to consider for wet feet is Hamemelis many are georgeous. Like the parottia they are year round pleasant beings. This picture is a Parrotia in the Arboretum I visited a couple of weeks ago.
Estreya Cornus would thrive there they of course like filtered light and will take all but hot afternoon sun.

I'm going to take the liberty of bumping this tread, because it's just an embarassement of riches.

What does that mean? I haven't heard the term bumping before. But how nice to hear you are revisiting it.

Well, i'm no expert in "message board" vernacular, but my understanding is that "bumping" a thread means to post on it so it moves back up to the top of the viewing list. Since so many of us are planting now, i thought this thread would freshly inspire .... :)

Estreya - you're so smart. Bump away.

And here is what I'll add -

One heart-wrenching disaster: The wild pear seeds sown last autumn were coming through brillantly in the cold frame - had 16 seedlings in 4 pots (planted 60 seeds in 12 pots, so pretty good germination) - hardening them off with the coldframe lid open a few inches at night, and came back to see a Black bird rush away and all 16 cut down to within cm of the gravel. Swearing and tears was definately on, including throwing a shoe at the bird razzing me from the hedge. I have no idea how many he (definately a he!) got before I noticed these 16. Moved everything into the greenhouse, and have nursed them on. Have 8 more good seedlings, and a couple of the chomped ones have continued to grow and two of those have resprouted the tiniest leaves - but sheesh. I must admit to feeling crushed. that bird.

Having said that, we have planted out 4x 3 year old trees this late winter, and one 5 year old. We have two more reserved for our neighbours who are planning a new garden and want ones the ages of their two daughters (18 mo. and 4 years old), and I am in the process of repotted the one year olds (7) from last year.

Have sent my best wishes to the parent tree, it made it through another year of winds, this time with two gales coming in from the extreme northeast - a direction we rarely get and is the vulnerable side for the pear (it lives on an embankment, and NE blows it to lean away from the incline rather than into it). I'll try to take a photo of the location - although the tree is so incidental it will be impossible to single out - took me 3 years just to locate it, even in fruit.

How are other projects getting on?

Sorry to hear about your seedlings Laurie. What exactly did the blackbird do to them- nip them off for nesting material? I never thought of birds as going after a seedling, especially inside a cold frame! Cheeky little fellow.

I have had a blast on my latest project and it deserves a new thread, I think.

What a thing! What a crushing thing to have happened!

At least they're recovering .... and your tears are now part of the life-blood of that soil, where so many things grow and thrive .....

Laurie, be sure to check out the new thread "50 Trees or so for Murmur" that Poochella started - sorry, I don't know how to link to it.

Hy folks,
I am new to this thread but I thought I would throw my wooden nickel into the pot.
The birds brought me a tree in the middle of my back yard, wrong place. In 2 years that tree has grown to about 40 feet. In studying the tree I found out that it is a Japanese Empress Tree, the fastest growing tree in the world. It even rivals bamboo for growing speed.
The Japanese have a tradition that they will plant an Empress tree when a girl is born and when she gets married they cut it down and make a trousseau chest. It is very soft when green and hardens to a hardwood upon curing.
The Chinese are planting a billion of these trees in the next few years to counter their filthy air.
My tree will have to go. I will save some seedlings and plant it where it belongs, along the fence in the back yard.
I was thinking that some of you that want to reclaim a clear cut might sneak some of these in the landscape.

What a wonderful story and tradition of the Japanese, lonejack. Send those birds over to Whidbey Island!

Glad the Chinese are making an attempt to clean up their air. They need to put on a good face for the 2008 Olympics.

Don't be a stranger lonejack. Plenty of NW interests of all sorts here.

Lonejack, love hearing from you - and love the story!!! I'll be looking for a couple of those trees, that's for darn sure!

Pooch, I don't know what he did with them - I assumed he added them as sprouts to his sandwich. Fortunately for him, he did not stay around long enough to discuss it with me - grrrrrrrrr.

I'd never heard of an Empress tree - but hooray that it is designated in celebration of a girl! Lonejack, before you cut it, can we have a pic of it - full frontal and a leaf detail please. Or the latin name will do. I'm sure it will be in the plant files (although personal snaps are so good). And welcome to the thread Lonejack - always nice to have some more input.

Lonejack, i just love the history and stories about a given tree. Thank you for bringing it, and welcome!

Welcome lonejack! Those empress trees are cool with their big heart shaped leaves and lovely purple flowers. There several mature specimens at the Woodland Park Zoo and the blooms are always glorious. The fact that they grow so well makes them quite invasive in certain parts of the country, but I don't think so here. I know that some gardeners who enjoy the tropical effect plant Paulownia trees in their perennial beds and then cut them to the ground each year. They grow so fast that the garden gets a nice crop of large leaves every year.
Also, because of their wood and fast growth, these trees are being considered as crops in certain parts of the U.S. If you google search them, you'll get a ton of information. I did a cement casting from one of my sister's Empress tree leaves last year and it made the most beautiful bird bath.

Here's a lovely photo of one, and as I copied the link, I saw that it is actually growing in the U.K.!

http://python.ex.ac.uk/ead/be/species/p/paulownia/

That IS lovely Pixy. Gorgeous tree!

Laurie, that is one lucky blackbird: not only did he get away with a delectible snack, but didn't have to pay the piper who grew them :(

Yes,, it is indeed beautiful. Makes me want to reconsider having one.

I just re-read this entire thread and smiled, remembering what a grand time we had with our tales of woe, etc., in regards to clear cutting by "other people."

It's amazing and fun to realize that Poochella did indeed provide me with mucho trees and I got them all planted in record time, and most are doing well. Not only do the trees give me pleasure, but the generosity of Annie still warms my heart.