Sorry this one is not about CSS, it's about planting... I know, I know...who'd want to plant a tree?!? I have a small creek/tributary that crosses my property. I planted 3 apple trees and one cherry tree about 10+ feet back from the water's edge and about 2' elevation higher. It was nice soil, only a couple of rocks in the 4 holes total. I followed the directions for proper hole size and depth. Dug down to the clay, turned over the soil, added a little mulch from some tree chippings and some real nice looking topsoil to fill the hole back up. I put the trees in and watched them go...then the deer started to eat the leaves and break the branches, killing the trees in about two years... (those deer don't know how lucky they are! there is a house directly across the street ) Ok, so here is the question. I want to plant something pretty, instead of fruit trees that will likely get destroyed again. My house sits back from the road 250 feet. The creek is back 40-50ft. The trees will be on the house side of the creek. There were a couple willows between the creek and the road years ago, but the power lines are on my side of the road and the power company liked to knock the guts out of the one tree giving it a nice L shape in the crown. When they asked if they could trim it again a few years ago, I told them only if they trimmed it to the ground. The other willow uprooted during a storm. This is moist ground, very nice soil. There is a nice little white birch there already, so maybe 4 more white birch trees to make a nice tree line (and little bit of privacy and sound barrier during the summer months.) I also like the looks of sycamore trees. Maybe 2 nice big towering sycamores to fill the gap. The leaves will most likely blow away so I'm not too worried about clean up. I might be able to transplant trees I find in the woods on the neighboring property (40 acres) that I cut on. He would dig them up with his Kubota for me I'm sure. There are plenty of small red oaks and maples growing there. I love the colors of the maple trees in the fall, so thats another idea. Oh and I could tap them for syrup What say you, FHC brethren ?
One thing I'd suggest is to put a fence of some kind around the saplings. The deer and bunnies around here LOVE munching on those. I've been trying to get an Oak to grow in the driveway turnaround for over two years and every winter, they chew it down to almost nothing, but haven't killed it .........yet. They girdled 4 dwarf apple trees we planted a few years ago. So far, they haven't gotten to the Walnuts we planted last year, because those have chicken wire cages around them.
Need a physical barrier around the trees until they are big enough that the deer can't reach the new growth...otherwise they will continue to do the same thing to almost any tree...at least they do here (BTDT!)
I bought several 12ft sections of metal fencing and cut it in 3-4 foot pieces. They are zip tied together around some saplings. Add or subtract pieces for the size of the sapling. I’ll try to take a pic tomorrow
I planted 2 pin oaks on my property a bunch years ago. They have flourished! Then you could watch the deer eat the acorns?
Any maple you planted would take decades to mature enough for syrup. But since we are living in fantasy land, I vote you plant a money tree there!
Tim, the bottom limbs on pin oak tend to die anyway so they won't be a problem. Oaks and maples tend to grow fairly fast. Have you considered anything like a lombardy poplar? Yes, fence those trees in so they can't get out!
dogwoods don't get too tall cleveland select flowering pear have white blossoms and are a rather thinner tree and don't get too tall- they don't have the problems of other flowering pears of falling apart. The one I have ( the first tree I bought and planted here ) whatever they used for root stock likes to send up root shoots so I'd only plant where it will be mowed up to the trunk. (if they are a grafted tree, I'm not sure, it doesn't look it) I've planted transplanted pines, red oaks, bought some pin oaks cheap at Lowes, tried mostly unsuccessfully transplanting white oaks and also bought some eating pears. I transplanted a bunch of Norway Maple when I was a kid into all the wrong places and they've all been used for firewood. :tu: I didn't trim the lower branches off the pin oaks that still had them but I'm growing ground cover instead of lawn under them.
Lombardy's are junk Imo. Hybrid Poplar. Tall, Skinny, Suceptable to wind damage, and seem to die for no reason round here. Often planted as a screen or break.....then looks terrible when one of them does die out. No offense meant Dennis. Maybe it's just a regional thing, but I see just as many dead ones as I do alive here.
