Spring so far has been a bit disorganized for me – which has been mirrored on the weather front as well. Since my last post, we had a least one late snow & ice storm and several cold fronts of rain blowing in. But grass is growing, trees are budding and planting is going on.
In terms of planting, I have been working with John Bakewell of Carlislearboriculture to put in a traditional English hedge along my property line with the Kimball’s property. See my prior post here
John arranged for Rototilling and in April I helped him plant the Hornbeam, Hawthorn and Arrowwood. Yesterday I planted the Blueberries, Grapes and I also planted my four American Chestnut seeds.
- Twenty Five seedlings of Hornbeam
- Twenty Five seedlings of Hawthorn
- Twenty Five seedlings of Arrowwood
- Six seedlings of Concord Grape
- Six seedlings of Frontenac Grape
- Six potted Blue Berrys
I stumbled across the American Chestnut Foundation a few years ago somehow and I joined last year as a Chestnut Leaf Sponser, which as a benefit, allowed me to get 4 chestnuts for planting. The ACF is attempting to get around Chestnut blight and re-establish the American Chestnut tree into the North American forest. Before joining, I had never realized that Chestnuts made up 25% of all trees in the US forests and in some places, fallen chestnuts could be a foot deep or more. When you think of today’s forests, they are out of balance from what they used to be – the calories inherent in the chestnuts are missing.
The four chestnuts that I have planted are the property of the ACF and I have to report back regularly on their progress – a neat way to participate in something that could be very transformative of the countryside in the coming decades!
Speaking of transforming, my Dad and I are working on reconstructing his workshop and decluttering it of equipment and stuff that he is not regularly using. For his birthday, he received a new sander. I am taking his old sander out of the shop. We are also looking at getting the wiring re-done and a lot more lighting that is also task focused. My birthday gift to him is building a customized workbench for the new sander. In the picture below, you can see the shop at maximum clutter – now thankfully already being reduced
Plenty of projects still to go!
