Build a Tree

Bradford Pear Tree

Build a Tree

I drove through town today and noticed that many of the early blooming trees are

actually blooming. Maybe a bit early but not that bad. I saw several white blooming Bradford

Pear trees and a couple of the pink blossoms on some purple leafed plum trees which are usually

the first to bloom here in our high desert country. I know people are seeing these beautiful trees

and are going to the plant nurseries asking for them. But do they really think about what they

are doing before they buy and then plant their new trees?

Many people look at growing a tree as they would raising a child or caring for a pet. They think

they have to sweet talk the tree, play music for it, pet it and give it special TLC. For some people

this might be the proper approach for growing trees and plants, but not for us builders.

Don't just plant that new tree or shrub. Build it. Many people seem to be afraid of the idea of

growing or raising a plant. I worked in a plant nursery for many years, hearing so many people

complain that they couldn't grow anything. I heard comments saying they didn't know why they

were buying a tree as it probably wouldn't grow. I would tell them, “Have confidence in yourself

and build that tree.”

The dictionary defines 'grow' as 'start to increase in size, develop, to reach maturity, to

expand'. The dictionary defines 'raise' as 'to cause to move upward, to make greater in size, to

build'.

To Build! To develop or expand. Maybe we should stop thinking of growing or raising plants,

but of building plants.

The same people who say they can't raise or grow plants, frequently, are builders. These are

people who are architects, and engineers, people who build homes, offices, and bridges. Or

they are mechanics, who build or repair cars and trucks. They can be carpenters, who build or

make furniture, and they may be electricians who build or develop computers. We even 'build' our

children, or we hope we are building them into good people.

I can grow a tree, but I would be lost trying to build a computer, as many computer people would

be growing a tree. All of us can do one thing better than another, but we can all try to build something.

Trees are really easy to 'build' if you will just give yourself and the tree a chance. We build lots of

things, including trees, shrubs, vegetables, and houseplants as well as those computers, and homes.

So the next time you start to plant that new tree, think of it as a building project.

First you excavate a hole. You want it twice as wide and twice as deep as the pot the tree is in. You

build a proper foundation by adding several good shovel fulls of peat moss and compost to the soil

you dug out of your hole. Mix it all well and put a couple of shovel fulls back into the hole. Now pull

the tree out of the pot and put it in the hole. (Yes, I have heard of people who didn't take the tree out

of the pot before planting it. No, it will not grow that way.) Now use your water hose to fill the hole

with water all around the tree. As the water soaks in add the rest of the soil mixture to the hole around

all sides of the tree, tamping it down some as you layer it in. You can compare this project to baking

a cake – a baker builds a cake by adding the right ingredients together to make a cake. Instead of milk,

butter, eggs, sugar, and flour you are mixing water, peat moss, compost, maybe some light fertilizer

like root stimulator. Remember don't give it very much fertilizer or you will burn the tree and it won't

grow or build right, if at all. You wouldn't want to put to much sugar or oil into your cake, would you?

Water the tree again after you have all the soil mix in the hole. You will want to water it well every day

for the first couple weeks and then every other day for another couple of weeks working down to about

every three days for the summer or more often if it is really hot and especially if you see the tree looking

droopy. Now you don't want it standing in water but keep it damp for the first summer. The next summer

you shouldn't need to water it near as much.

I recommend adding a stake to your tree so that it can be helped to support its self when the wind

blows or someone accidentally pushes against it. Make sure the stake is not tied to tight to the little tree. If

the ties are to tight they can cut into the truck of the tree causing it to not breathe right. Yes, your tree

breathes. It breathes in carbon dioxide and breaths out oxygen. The same kind of oxygen you breath. So

not only will your tree look pretty as it grows it will help you breathe. You in turn will help it to breathe.

All plants take in carbon dioxide and give off oxygen.

Remember, this isn't one of those quick, one day projects, like painting a room, or even a project that

takes a couple of months like building a house. It is an expanding, on-going, never-ending project similar

to raising a child. Over the years the tree will grow, expand, and mature because you will add the re-

quired amounts of water, fertilize, and mulch, as well as the occasional repair or removal of a branch that

forms wrong or doesn't look good. Your tree will require cleaning and repair just as your home does, or

your car or computer. But it will give back so much. Not only will it give you oxygen but it will give you

pretty blossoms to look at in the spring, leaves for shade in the summer and colorful fall leaves. Or if you

are planting an evergreen tree like a pine or spruce it will be green all year for you.

Next time your looking for a new project, give it a try. Build a Tree.

Morning Glories

Good Morning Glories

It's almost spring time. I love planting seeds and watching them grow and bloom. Here is one of my favorites.

“Good Morning, -------Glory,” is one of my friends favorite greeting, and morning glories are one of my favorite flowers. They are fantastic, easy to grow vines that have masses of large heart shaped leaves and big, bright, eye-catching blossoms that really do seem to shout “good morning.” I've spent many an early morning with a good cup of coffee watching these delicate flowers unfold to the sunrise, all the while knowing each one will be gone by mid-afternoon. But not to despair, as there will be another group opening the next morning.

I plant morning glories. I plant them in every corner, in every spot in my yard that doesn't already have something else growing there. I plant them to grow on the picket fence bordering my front yard, and so they will grow on the post supporting my mailbox at the corner of the driveway. I like to have the climbing the trellis on the corner of the patio. I don't have a very big vegetable garden but there are usually several volunteer morning glories on the garden fence. I had had mounds of them along the edge of the lawn, and climbing trees and even up shrubs and roses.

As a child I resented having to do any yard work but I quickly learned to admire the fast growing vines with their large leaves and beautiful flowers. I was taught to grow them as a child and let my son grow them when he was a small child. The seeds are large enough for small hands to be able to see and hold, and the plants develop fast enough that children can begin to understand how plants grow.

Last summer I read everything I could find about growing morning glories and decided to do some experimenting with them. I bought as many different kinds as I could find seeds for and planned to grow them in the ground and in pots. Morning glories or Ipomoea come in several different colors. Heavenly Blue is the all time favorite, its blue flowers being four to five inches across. There is, also, Scarlet O'Hara in red and the white Pearly Gates. The three make a beautiful red, white and blue showing for the Fourth of July. Other colors include shades of pick and purple and some that are striped.

These vines are considered annuals, meaning they only last one summer season. Sometimes they come back from the many seeds the flowers produce, but it is usually best to reseed to get the colors you want. Starting plants from seed can be done either directly into the ground after all danger of frost is over or they can be stared about six weeks ahead of time in peat pots that can be put directly into the soil of the flower bed without disturbing the plant roots. The plants don't do as well if grown in plastic pots and then pulled out as they don't like having their roots disturbed. When planting either in the ground or in pots they should be planted ½ inch deep after being soaked overnight or for about four hours in water. I found it is not necessary, as some books and seed packs recommend that the seed should be scarified or nicked with a small file or fingernail clippers before soaking. If you do decide to do this hold the seed between thumb and forefinger and nick the pointed end. Avoid damaging the rounded end as that is where the plant embryo is located.

Morning glories are called twiners, meaning they go round and around the first upright support they come in contact with. They have growing tips that are very sensitive to tell them where to climb. Strangely enough, they usually move in a counter-clockwise movement. If the tip finds a horizontal or lengthwise object, it will try to avoid it and “feel” for a vertical object to climb. And climb they do. They try to climb on anything but do best with a little help. Chain link or open wooden fences work well, as do trellis, lattice, and even chicken wire. Special nails or hooks with glue can be used on cinderblock walls and houses, along with a grid of criss-crossed string. They grow very quickly, reaching twelve to fifteen feet in a season. In World War 11, in parts of southeast Asia, morning glories were used by the British to camouflage ammunition dumps and gun emplacements because they grew so fast. You can use them to screen unsightly garbage cans or fences or your neighbors yard.

Remember that morning glories don't like rich soil that has been heavily fertilized. Living in New Mexico I already knew they did well in our hot, dry climate with its poor soil. They should do well anywhere they don't get to much water. I add a little compost from my organic compost pile to the area I want to grow the flowers in, but not as much as you would with most flowers, trees, and shrubs. Don't add any fertilizer, either, or you may find you have nice long vines with wonderful leaves but no flowers. The same with watering your morning glories. They prefer low to moderate watering and will rot and die quickly if over watered.

I have never been overly bothered with any kind of insect pest on my morning glories, which is great for us organic gardeners. No spraying, or bug picking. I did have a friend who said she had some problems with powdery mildew in humid weather. I have not encountered this problem.

If you think you want to try growing morning glories but don't want a vine, I have several seed packets for plants in a dwarf or bush style. They are usually pink, blue, or red with a white throat, and are very showy in pots or hanging baskets.

After you have planted your morning glory seeds, sprinkle a packet of portulaca, cosmos, or marigold seed in your flower bed or large container. These annual flowers will add more color and take about the same care and watering. I planted sunflowers with some morning glories. The sunflowers provided support for the vines and the blue and gold mixture of flowers was very colorful at the end of our long hot summer when everything else seemed to have weathered and dried out from the heat.

I'm searching the seed catalogs for new verities and color for this year. Hope you'll try a morning glory garden, too.

Rockhounding

    

 

 

 

 

 I guess I've been a rockhounder (is there such a word) since I was born. I guess it was born and bred into me. My granddad, Andy Boyd Green became a prospector when he moved from Texas to Silver City, New Mexico. He had a turquoise mine for a while and I still have a few pieces of the turquoise he got out of his mine and made into jewelry or buttons for my mom. At different times he worked on several different gold mines. Not that he made much doing it. Prospecting is not a 'get rich quick' way of making a living for most people. It is hard work moving dirt and rocks looking for those tiny, little grains of gold, silver or what ever you are looking for. My mom was, also, an avid rock collector. Didn't matter if it was valuable or not as long as it was either pretty or interesting. My dad got into the rock collecting when he and my mom married and they past on this love of rocks to my sisters and I. We, in turn, passed it on to our husbands and our sons.

    Like this poem says other rocks can be just as addicting to collecting as gold can be.

    I have never really looked that much for valuable rocks just the ones I liked. Most of my rock collection has come from New Mexico in the areas of Silver City, in Grant county and in the Jemez Mountains, as well as near my home in Rio Rancho. I have been lucky in finding a lot of crystals, geodes, onyx, Apache tear drops, odd shapes of concretion, fossils, and one of my favorites petrified wood. Not all petrified wood comes from the well known Petrified Forest. Here on our New Mexico deserts we have lots of petrified wood if you know what you are looking for. I have found a couple of small pieces.

   Most of the rocks I have found have been small rocks up to those about the size of my hand. Another words what ever I can pick up and usually put in my pocket. But then there are those huge boulders that I see and really wish I could bring home but there is no way. When I find those kind I just take lots of photos and put memories of the places where I find them in my mind. I remember once on a hike we found a very large lava rock, I would say it was about 5 tons worth, and it was shaped like a giant frog with it's mouth open. Of course I didn't get a photo of that one. I know about where it was in the Jemez Mountains but I have never been able to find it again.

   If you collect rocks eventually you find your self buying a rock tumbler so you can have lots of small polished rocks. I did that a few years ago. Rock tumblers are VERY noisy but the polished rocks are nice. You can fill clear vases with them or give them as gifts.

  I do have a few rocks that I have bought from rock shops. You will find shops that carry almost any kind of rock you could want to buy here in our southwestern states. They are interesting places to explore as you never know what you might find. And usually the one you want is expensive to buy.

   If you do decide to go rock collecting make sure it is legal to pick up rocks where you are. If on private land ASK first. On public land, in our national forests, deserts or such make sure you know what the rules are before you pick up that cute little rock.

  Here is a little poem that I found a copy of in my moms things when I was sorting through them.

Hope you enjoy it as I did.

 

 

 

 

 

Rockhounding

I think that there shall never be

An ignoramus just like me

Who roams the hills throughout the day

To pick up rocks that do not pay

For there's one thing I've been told

I take the rocks and leave the gold

Over the deserts wild or mountains blue

I search for rocks of varied hue

A hundred pounds or more I pack

With blistered feet and aching back

And after this is said and done

I cannot name a single one

I pick up rocks wherever I go

The reason why......I do not know

For rocks are found by fools like me

Where God intended them to be

Author Unknown