The Arboretum

The tree markers arrived yesterday! When the mail person honked, I ran down the stairs hoping she would be delivering the markers and she was! I opened the box right away, but forced myself to go back upstairs and finish editing my UCN column. UCN, United Caprine News, is the goat paper I write for. My column is due on the 5th of every month. Yesterday was the 5th. I had written the first draft a few days before but was having issues with the rewrite. Funny how something like the desire to go outdoors and set up my tree markers can motivate a person. In minutes, I declared my column good enough and sent it off via email to my editor.

I took just 5 markers out first to see if I could get them into the ground okay. I could, thanks to our soggy weather. And they looked wonderful! (Click on the photo top left to enlarge and read the Fraser Fir marker.)

I had mowed up to the trees I wanted to mark the day before, after the raptor run. Alas, the weeds are high in the arboretum... and the Rocky Mountain Junipers very small. I mowed over one of them. The really sad thing is I had big rocks all around it and I even mowed over those, throwing them every which way and no doubt dulling, if not chipping, the mower blades. The rocks protected the base of the little tree so maybe it will still grow, with a branch taking over the job of leader.

Nineteen of the twenty markers are now in place. I could find no Western Red Cedar to mark. I remember planting Western Red Cedar with Redwoods and Incense Cedar with Sequoias, but my Redwood grove in the arboretum has no cedars at all. I must have planted all the Red Cedars in the Redwood grove by the river. I will have to buy more at the next native plant sale so I can use my Western Red Cedar marker. (Days later Johnny identified a lone Red Cedar in the Sequoia section, so it is now properly marked.)

Next year, I'll order markers for my various Eucalypts... when I figure out what they are...