My lone black walnut that got chomped by squirrels is making another attempt at survival by pushing out new leaves from the butchered stem. This time it’s completely enclosed around the pot. With any luck I can keep it safe long enough to plant it in the fall.
I’m only considering it as an experiment in natural seed dispersal. I tried the same thing in the winter with thousands of boxelder seeds (you might guess what happened to EVERY single seed I tossed into the clearing in my backyard)
The back parking lot behind the Dollar General at the end of my street is carpeted in this stuff right now. That area at the bottom of the hill seems to be a catch-all for random seeds that grow into trees. Boxelder, mulberry, willow, apple, Norway maple etc.
Thanks for the idea Brad I picked a bunch of mulberries this weekend, saved a couple dozen, mashed them up in water and strained the seeds out. I’ll store them inside bone head here for winter stratification.
All the black locust I started indoors and put outside got chomped by squirrels. I broadcasted literally thousands of BL seeds in another area, and I assume mice ate them all. Here’s attempt #3. Those are “rabbit raisins” on the surface for fertilizer. So far so good.
I had a tulip poplar come up last year through this brick by my raised bed. I cut it last year, but it came back again this year. I’m going to let this one go, since it’s actually in a good spot for a tree. After I took the picture, I used a hammer and a chisel to smash the brick apart and release the tree.
Doesnt it figure the tree you really didnt want to grow actually grew. Why dont the critters chow on that? Hope the mulberry works out and in a couple years you can harvest some good wood from it? Is fertilizing BL a good idea? I thought they were nitrogen fixing?
Good point. They do grow in poor soil, and I’ve definitely seen them growing in terrible industrial places. These seedlings seemed a little sluggish to get going, that’s why I fertilized them. I’m hoping to get them as large as possible before the fall, then transplant them when they go dormant around November. Rabbit manure is pretty mild too. Slow releasing, and can be used right away as opposed to cow/chicken waste that needs to be composted first.
Over the course of 9 years my wife and I planted a flowering plum tree that caught some disease and I eventually cut it down and pulled the trunk and roots out of the ground. Before that we planted a Dogwood in the same spot but it died as well. So this time I planted my kids’ basketball hoop there and it’s still standing. As for trees that we haven’t killed… the very back corner gets a little swampy esp in the spring so we put a weeping willow there and it’s absolutely thriving! Just up from that is a flowering pear tree that grows like crazy and is a beautiful tree. Then a few years ago we planted another flowering pear outside the kitchen window because that’s what my wife wanted and now she can look at it when she’s slaving away err I mean doting on us boys in the kitchen. Then a Japanese maple in the front yard a silver maple and a fall fiesta sugar maple in the backyard but kinda in the middle of the yard. I know that’s not too many trees but for our little yard it sure fills up the space. That’s what I’ll miss most about this place, because At the end of the summer we’re moving, and I’ll prob plant a bunch more trees at the new place, but I think I’ll get all nostalgic every time I drive by this old house and see those trees, and know I did that.
