Trees and Transplants
Paul's working with Godzilla again this weekend. Before he started up the earth-moving behemoth we went through the areas he thought he'd be working on and I started marking trees that I would prefer he not destroy. Even though the weather has hastened the budding of a lot of the trees, there are still many that do not have flowers or leaves on them yet, which normally would make it difficult to determine exactly which trees I wanted spared.
But I've been doing my homework (woods-work?) the past few years and I can now pretty much identify trees in their dormant state without leaves or flowers. Well, at least the ones I know I want to keep. Namely the dogwoods, sassafras, persimmons and red buds. The red buds were a snap to identify as they are in bloom:
Besides the one in our back yard (pictured above), I only found two spindly looking red bud trees in the woods, one of which although I marked, ended up being pushed over by another downed tree....go figure. There were, however, an abundance of dogwoods and I went through a lot of pink marking tape with those. I also found two stands of sassafras trees that will be spared and a handful of persimmon and wild plums.
While Paul went dozing, Rhiannon and I transplanted almost half of the tomato seedlings and set them out on the railing to get some fresh air and sunshine:
I still haven't decided if I'm going to start the squash and melons inside or just direct sow them. Last year I did both, and in just a few weeks, you could barely tell the difference so I'm wondering if I'll even bother with the effort of keeping them inside.
Tomorrow I'll transplant the green peppers and basil and I'll be finished transplanting. But that's not really a good thing as I only started three types of tomatoes, the basil and the green peppers. Well, I also started some eggplant seeds from a package dated 2008, but none of them came up so I'll try again with a new pack and start a flat of cabbages while I'm at it.
Your red bud is beautiful! You definitely have a pretty view. After the storm goes through it's gonna be my turn to replant my tomatoes and peppers. I too am wondering about the melons. I probably will start them early, basically because I will want to plant something. lol
ReplyDeleteI've given up starting squash inside because the ones seeded directly into the ground always end up being stronger and healthier.
ReplyDeleteI'm with you in trying to save every tree you can. But, let's face it, if you want to garden or have some breeze to blow away biting bugs, you have to create some wide open spaces. I still (16 years later) feel bad about the three huge beautiful trees we had to take out for our garden space. (Best I think of the wonderful homegrown veggies rather than the trees, huh?)
I have given up starting squash and melons inside, they grow so quickly that it just doesn't seem to be worth it. Love the redbud tree!
ReplyDeleteI've got a couple of largish tree's that I will be taking down as well. That area would be better used for veggie beds. My Redbud in the front yard looks like yours. It's in full bloom. We've been having some crazy weather in AR this year.
ReplyDeleteYou have all the same trees as we do! That photo of your seedlings struck terror in me, we have such constant high winds here they wouldn't last 5 minutes LOL!
ReplyDeleteRea, I KNOW I shouldn't plant the melons & squash indoors....but sometimes I just HAVE to plant something!!!
ReplyDeleteMama Pea, Yea, I know, I know....I even have "proof" of that as I planted both direct and early-started and I couldn't even tell which was which after a while. I have to find something else to start when I get the urge I guess!
Candy, I LOVE that redbud tree! Unfortunately, the ice storm we had in '09 really took a toll on it & the back half (which you can't see in the pic) is totally dead. I really need to prune it this year.
Kevin, It's a big struggle for me.....trees or veggie garden. Can't have 'em both in the same area :(
Erin, it's not the winds I'd have to worry about, but the cats jumping up on the railing and either sitting in them (yes, they will try to fit their fat bums in each pot) or eating them.