Saturday, June 14, 2014

Save a Tree Project -- Lessons on Sowing and Reaping

"...a little sleep, a little slumber, a little folding of the arms to rest, and your poverty will come like a robber, your need, like a bandit."   Prov 6: 10-11


Sowing and reaping.  Much as we may not like it, there is no avoiding the theorem law.  It rears its head in all facets of life. Recently, we came to grips with how our "busy-ness" had paved the way for some regrettable reaping.  Neglect had enabled a nation of unwelcome species to invade our property.  Yesterday, we were just learning about non-native invasive species and today, they were flourishing everywhere.


One problem could no longer be ignored:  a leviathan had taken over our trees.


You name it wild grape, Virginia creeper, kudzu, bush honeysuckle, and poison ivy were winding their way around branches, trunks, and leaves.  Some, to the very tops of the trees.  All, sucking the life out of the trees and settling in for a long war.  It feels like a war, or at least a continual battle.




Last summer we "saved" five trees.    


Cutting through vine trunks, tearing down green strongholds, we pulled, sawed and weeded what we could. 





There were still vines hanging in trees this year that even my car would not pull down last summer.  This year we have the tractor and were able to "save" ten trees in one day. 


We pile onto a tarp the brush, bushes and branches cleared from underneath the tree,


haul it away to our pile in the woods,




take a moment to admire our work,


and then we start all over with the next tree.  




For information on non-native invasive species in the Mid-Atlantic region, see the link to the EPA website here:
http://www.epa.gov/reg3esd1/garden/invasives.htm



Happy Gardening!

--Two Peas