Hello - so I must admit to having worked very little with
trees, and they behave very differently than row crops. So I have a bunch of different trees well established on my property and I really don't want to take any of them out. At least not until I'm damn sure what I'm doing. I have here an incomplete list of some of the trees I have around and some general questions about them.
Mt.
Ash - So I say a lecture on Youtube a couple nights ago where someone in Vermont was grafting pears to them. Has anyone done that? how about uses for the mountain ash berries? The robins (and other birds - I think a nation audabon
class is in my future) seem to love eating/getting drunk on them - but my
chickens dont seem to want anything to do with them. Thoughts?
Wild Cherries - So these guys seem to be the vangaurd of the edge running trees on my property - not alder which supprises me. They're tenacious pushing the forest edge year by year. They grow pretty quick and drop leaves. But do they indicate anything? soil conditions et cetera? also could you graft fruing cherries to them? What about to an
ornamental cherry tree?
Ceder - I have several western red ceders. They go nuts here. Actually they are shading out a good quarter of my property including what 20 years ago was a vineyard/orchard. I hate to take them out since they are such stately trees, awesome to climb, and I'm about 200 feet back from a bluff with major erosion issues (I've been watching this thing all my life and sure
enough - development = bluff damage - pretty cut and dried - people put in houses, driveways et cetera, compacting
land and channeling
water and BOOM landslide) So anyway... sorry about the digression... I'm wondering how much I can thin these trees and still have them remain healthy and pumping water. Ideally I'd like to take pretty much ever branch off up to about 20 or 25 feet. If the laws around here ever changed I could chip them and use them as
carbon in a composting toilet system right.
Apple trees - I have a couple 100 year old
apple trees which haven't had a good pruning in more than a decade. I'll probably start another post on this. I know very little about pruning though I think I'm learning. I'll get some pictures up when I can (seriously people if I ever get a tablet or a smart phone I'm pretty much going to be working on my property, posting pictures and reading comments from this site 14 hours a day)
Laurels - these have gone absolutely nuts on my property and are taking up SO MUCH light. The soil under them seems really good due to being shaded/mulched for decades. I am seriously considering cutting these out and burying them. Can anyone think of a reason not to? I have a few but they're starting to be overwhelmed by my want for good garden space.
Golden Chain - I love these trees. They're a member of the
pea family right? does that mean they fix nitrogen?
Should I plant more? I know they are posinous though, so I don't know maybe not. That's why I'm asking.
well those are the ones I'm really curious about at the moment. I wish I could shoot a little 10 minute tour. I haven't really disturbed my site yet. I'm been paying attention to things and thinking too much.
