Saturday, June 07, 2008

Time Is Crazy To A Tree

It dawned on me today, while I was setting out the sprinkler to water this oasis monstrosity I installed in the front yard, that time is passing. That's not a great revelation-- in fact, it is rather pedestrian as far as epiphanies go-- but it was so graphically obvious I just had to let it sink in.

About the same time I started this blog, Mum got ill, and right after that I moved in here to fulfill a promise I made years ago.

Out front was a large stump, growing in the grass. It wasn't attractive. It had very little use. And it was hard to mow around.

I washed all of the dirt out from around it with a jet nozzle on the hose. I spent an afternoon digging a very deep hole the shape of a kidney alongside it, and then I lined the pond with vinyl and put some plants around it. I wanted to make a spot that Mum would be attracted to, so she'd be motivated to spend time outside, perhaps maybe pulling a weed or two in the process... maybe sit on the bench and read a book...

All of the trees came from my tree collection. (When I find a volunteer growing where it is not supposed to I scoop it up and put it in a small nursery container with some dirt. I water it for a year and then I do something with it.)

I now have an eighteen foot tall quaking aspen, a fourteen foot tall birch, a five foot tall red cedar, and that plumb tree you see on the far right of the picture I found growing out of its plum pit at a rest stop off of highway 5 five years ago.

On the far left is a curly willow, which I started from a cutting I got from another curly willow that I started as a cutting from a tree my sister now has dwarfing her front yard, which started as a cutting...

All the clumps of ornamental grasses I started by rubbing my hand up someone's ornamental grass when they were seeding and sticking the seeds in my front pocket.

Right now there is so much going on in there and stuff growing so much like gangbusters, that I have to think about what to prune and how to tame the wilderness...

If, that is... I have time...

9 comments:

Jeannie said...

I hacked back a couple shrubs the last two days that had inexplicably and seemingly all of a sudden, taken over my back yard. I found 3 rather pathetic cedar trees I'd forgotten about.

kario said...

I love this! It is so cool to stop and measure time by the growth of the things around us. Every once in a while I stop to marvel at how big the trees in our yard have gotten - reminding me that we didn't just move in last week.

meno said...

Dude! Lay off the Miracle Gro!

Lizza said...

Scott, your plants look great. I envy your green thumb. Hope your mom enjoys the greenery! (and the flowery)

So sorry for being blog-remiss. :-(

travistee said...

Hack away, or Mum won't have anywhere to sit pretty soon, unless it's in the tree house you're planning to build...

Bernita said...

Reminds me. I have to do some pruning too. The forest encroaches.

Shrinky said...

How satisfying to watch your babies grow from tiny little cutings and seeds into this beautiful green and lucious garden. I'm sure your mum is very appreceiative of your living gift.

Shrinky said...

How satisfying to watch your babies grow from tiny little cutings and seeds into this beautiful green and lucious garden. I'm sure your mum is very appreceiative of your living gift.

fuzzbert_1999@yahoo.com said...

Nice Jumble...lots of hard work and help from Mother Nature!