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AMY SMITH LINTON

Bloggetty Blog, life Blog...

The Would-Be Farm: Trees in the Ground.

5/6/2015

10 Comments

 
The phone rang in early April. The orchardman was announcing that our trees were ready for pick-up, and we should really get them planted right away. The weather was warming up nicely. And by the way, where the heck were we?

I gave him a brief summary: that I was currently answering the phone from Florida, but that I'd pick up the trees at the end of the following week in Northern New York.  
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The mention of "Florida" has a galvanizing effect on people in the North Country, I've found. It stirs wistful memories of vacation or possibly a short-tempered bit of envy regarding sunburns and seashores. And for some, it breeds up a raw contempt for the thin-blooded nambie-pambies who choose to live under the easy sun. "Oh," the voice on the telephone said, "You're in Florida, huh? Well, your trees are ready." Click.
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Fast-forward a few:

The nurseryman, perhaps mellowed by the intervening week of mild, sunshiney days, led me cheerfully to the nursery/orchard cold storage shed  and found –– after some confusion about which of my names is in fact my last name (hint: that would be the last one), he dispatched with my maiden identity ("Let's just get rid of this 'Smith' business," matching words with a heavily penciled line) –– and handed over my $400 worth of trees tied up in a neat bundle. 

I've only ever bought trees in plastic tubs, with their leaves out and their roots gripping a ball of damp, rich dirt. 

20 hazelnuts, a dozen apple trees, a few pears and aronia trees -- an orchard -- weighing no more than a bag of dogfood. Compact enough to fit under an arm.

When a nursery says "bare-root" plants, they really mean it: no leaves, no buds, no hair-roots. A couple hundred bucks seemed a smidge pricey for a handful of sticks. Not expensive compared with retail nursery prices, but still –– to put a twig into the ground and trust that life is sleeping within and that it will waken soon? Such is the brutal mystery of farming, I suppose.
"Where you headed?" the nurseryman asked.

I told him, and he considered it a moment before pronouncing judgement: "Clay soil there." True fact, but I explained about the mitigating gravel-bank and the former dairy barn. He nodded a few times and then gave me what I take as a seal of approval: "You put the trees on the driver's side of your truck-bed, keep them shaded until they get into the dirt."

Well, okay, then. 

I didn't mention that I was going to put the trees into my sister's cellar until we* had finished digging the 40+ holes. Or that I didn't actually know where the trees were going to go. It's one thing to be flaunting my non-sub-zero winters. Quite another to be playing loose and fast with the trees. 
*By "we" of course I mean "Mr. Linton." He decided against renting a power-auger, based on the rocks that are the pride of the farm. 

Shoveling by hand: it was good enough for pre-Industrial folks, so why not us? –– I mean, him?
 
10 Comments
Greg
5/6/2015 02:24:04 pm

well your sticks are feet longer than the ones I got years ago from a mail order company. You will be amazed at how fast they grow. That old manure dirt would be good for a small veggie garden. Something about manure makes watermelons sweeter. Farms looking good. Y'all doin' a fine job!

Reply
Amy
5/7/2015 01:53:23 am

Thanks, Greg!

Now, about that rain....I find myself checking the weather station up there kind of a lot, hoping that the trees will get a good drink without drowning.

Reply
Ned Johnston
5/7/2015 05:04:43 am

How thrilling! Now be sure to keep the deer away from those tender babes. Their northern cousins (further northern) ate half my baby apple trees as a midnight snack!

Reply
Amy
5/8/2015 02:59:08 am

Hey Ned
Here's hoping that between the stinky spray and the multitude of other apple trees, these new trees will cut a break. I figure there's going to be attrition (probably the Blue Permain, more's the pity), but farming seems to be a lot about hope...

Reply
George A.
5/7/2015 02:06:02 pm

I have about a 50% success rate with pine seedlings which pop up in the flower gardens at Brigantine. I take them to the dunes and plant them in the hopes that when I'm an old(er) man they will provide afternoon shade on the cut in the dune to the beach and I won't have to run across the hot sand. Been doing it for donkey years. That strategy seemed to be doing fine until new neighbors with enough money to influence the local politicians decided that some of my trees were blocking their expensive ocean front views. I hope the next storm takes their Mac-Mansion.

Reply
Amy
5/8/2015 03:01:47 am

Hey George --
50% is not bad! It IS a pity to lose green in the interest of someone else's view, but I imagine there's some small comfort in knowing that sometime, sometime they will regret not having a bit of break along the dunes...

Reply
Randy
5/11/2015 05:11:56 am

Sometimes you have to be creative to get a tree to the spot you want to plant it..

https://plus.google.com/u/0/photos/yourphotos?pid=6147646000601025874&oid=110524839818830806620

Hope the link works.

Reply
Amy
5/11/2015 08:57:58 am

Hmmm. I can't see anything on that link.

Reply
Randy link
5/11/2015 09:19:15 am

Try this link..

https://randysphots.shutterfly.com/pictures/9

Reply
Amy
5/12/2015 10:27:04 am

Wonderful! Some folks want a John Deere for the farm -- others, a Starcraft!

Reply



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