Early Plantsman

http://www.fremontica.com/roadside/cnco.htm

After reading your emails, I often wonder if all of you are modern day plantspeople who could make a big impact in your local communities offering trees to your city parks. In our city people will call in donations and we try to accomendate them by planting their trees in our parks. Modern day gardeners don't have your knowledge. You people could make a great contribution by donating trees to your local parks.

Nelson

Things don't change much do they-

We don't have a city park. Don't have a city! It's just farms and gravel pits, villages, small towns, and weekend cottages around here. We do, however, live within a township area governed by an enlightened council that offers inexpensive seedling trees for planting on residential lots. Also, our province (Ontario) offers a tax incentive to property owners who commit to a management plan for their woodlots. We (hubby and I) own about 60 acres of woodland and wetland that we manage as a wildlife conservation area. Hopefully, when we pass on, this sanctuary can be taken over by a Conservation Authority and preserved for future generations of wildlife.

Good suggestion Nelson. I grow a lot of things from seed and usually I'm looking for places to plant them. I've offered a few things to local arboreta. I've thought about giving plants to the county to grow along a new bike path. I'm debating whether it is simpler and better to go through the proper channels or to just plant them surreptitiously. I'm sure that if a tree just suddenly appears mulched, staked, labeled, and caged from deer, that no one will remove or mow it, right?

Scott

Decumbent, by planting a tree on city/county/etc property, you may be liable for property damage. It's far better to act in good faith by going through proper channels as to not interrupt planners, etc. I regularily donate plants to the botanical gardens as there is nothing more rewarding than to see your contributions appreciated by others.

Growin',

Yeah, that's the fly in the ointment. I keep thinking that somewhere behind the county facade there is somebody like Viburnum Valley, a diligent public servant Landscape Architect, who is toiling away on a design for the land, somebody to whom sudden pox of appearing Yellowwoods, oaks, hornbeams, and maples would be a stumbling block. Perhaps a curious and compelling stumbling block, but still a stumbling block.

Scott

I resemble that remark!

I only design with the finest donated material left over from the big box stores, preferably the ones with:

•the most corkscrewed girdling roots
•at least one round of frost/freeze failure
•extra heavy infestations of irascible insects
•severe hang-dog drought damage
•a five-star rating in the Invasives International™ itemization

The last thing I need is a guerilla go-getter like Scott uninhibitedly installing select specimens. What gall!

Well, if they had galls, then maybe that'd be OK...but only native galls.

Trees are regularly donated and planted here. Often times they're donated as a memorial to a loved one. I actually helped a friend a while ago pick a tree to donate as a memorial tree in tribute to his father.

Landscape planners mean well, But often they are just filling plans with familiar plant material that is available to most contractors.

I think landscape planners should be on an irrigation and mowing crew for two years before they can design.

When you work in a park and know it very well, then you can compliment their work with your specimens that the local nurseries don't carry.

Always consider the maintenance man #1.

Plant Historic Trees, Drought Tolerant Trees, Native and Exotics. Look around town and you will know which ones are going to live past a hundred years.

A good gardener will not plant invasive species, since they already know the maintenance impact they cause.

Look at Cementaries, Old Estates, Old Parks and study the old trees that evoke your imagination. Plant tree like that! One gallon trees will have superior rooting when established when planted on new medians with irrigation. The soil is freshly tilled, tested and irrigated. Planting natives after first drenching rain with some supplemental watering works too.