Planting Trees

I love trees! Did I say I love trees? I mean I really, really love trees. Trees are the backbone of our landscapes and serve to truly raise our quality of life by providing shade and protection, and by taking our wastes and making food and converting energy to oxygen; which is what we breathe! The first picture is but a sampling of some of the trees on my one acre lot. We are blessed with many oak trees and a few evergreen trees too. Last year my son Brian came to visit the first week of May. It was a sad sight which greeted him in Tennessee. We had no leaves on the trees. What you see above is more than what we had in May of last year and I am ever so grateful for the shade and leaves this year.

Dave at The Home Garden (see sidebar) is linking posts about planting trees so I thought I would join in. This year alone I have planted about eight trees. Four were coral bark Japanese maples and four were seedling redbuds given away by our extension agent. These little sticks haven't done anything as of yet, but I am still hopeful they will take. The coral barks have taken off. I finally figured out what it is I love so much about the Japanese maples, it is not the wonderful color of the leaves or the bark, nor is it their nice branching pattern, though that may be part of it. No, I really love Japanese maples because of the cool way all the leaves seem to lay horizontally. I really like that effect from these trees as I can't think of any other tree that does the same thing. See how the leaves on my little Japanese maple seem to all be horizontally laid out? Part of the effect is created by the branching pattern (probably all, but I can only see the leaves) and I really like it in my landscape.

Anyhow, I am looking forward to seeing all of the posts Dave links to concerning planting trees. Here is to happy tree planting!

in the garden....