Trees In A Box!

LOOK WHAT I GOT!




What do you mean, you can't see anything?  There are 140 trees in that box! 
 
Literally, in the box.  The corrogations in the cardboard contain approximately 70 tree seeds (and beneficial mycorrhizal fungi) per square foot, which means all parts of the box.  Yup, we're planting an empty box.

Life Box Company is not only concerned with perpetuating life on our plantet, but also with doing it without creating waste products.  In fact, they made the packaging beneficial to growth.  Basic instructions are right on the box - two boxes, in this photo:

 

I haven't started it yet, but that soak and chill part is interesting.  Soak for 10 minutes, and chill in the refrigerator for 6-12 weeks.  I think this simulates the dormant period of winter, because if you plant in the fall, you skip the refrigeration step.

 

I don't expect to have a forest - many seedlings don't survive in nature, and I imagine deer, rabbits, and assorted others will make a tasty snack of some of my baby trees.  But as a prospective parent, I am looking forward to some or all of the following native species:

 

 

Douglas fir                                                     river birch

Arizona cypress                                             water birch

Blue spruce                                                    paper birch

Lodgepole pine                                              desert willow

pitch pine                                                       American sweetgum

Eastern white pine                                         American sycamore

Virginia pine                                                  American elm

mountain hemlock

white cedar

                                                                                                               

Stay tuned for the next twenty or thirty years and watch my babies grow up!

 

 



Writing Technique

My granddaughter took over my office.  She may be a future novelist because I swear this is the same technique I use!  Maybe I should try a pacifier, too.

Deer Friends

I never fed the deer before this year, but with a lack of apples and crab apples and God knows what else after our weird weather, I figured they needed some help.  I get a regular crowd of 9 does every morning, with a few others straggling through after them.  These three are my favorite - a mom and her twin babies - because I've watched the little ones since last last spring when they were tiny spotted fawns, all legs and curiosity.  They are far too used to humans, which worries me, but they're only copying mom, who is also used to living close to people.  The whole herd now recognizes my whistle for calling the horses in, and they come trotting across the neighboring hay field, knowing corn and sunflower seeds will be out soon.