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  • Trees

    "Everyone loves trees, some like them vertical and some like them horizontal."

    "The best time to plant a tree is twenty years ago. The second best time is this spring."

    Most NY counties sell tree saplings cheaply. Now is the time to order. Without too much effort one can order ten trees, plant them, preferably with a child, and create a personal legacy.

    Walk up to any impressive tree with same child and speculate who's legacy has blessed this moment.

    Order today, “A society grows great when old men plant trees whose shade they know they shall never sit in.”
    "A culture is no better than its woods." W.H. Auden

  • #2
    Brings back memories of some time ago. NYSDEC at one time had two state funded tree nurseries, one near Lowville next to the Black River, and another facility in Saratoga. My best childhood friend's father managed the Lowville facility where the family lived in a nice house provided by the state. I lived a mile away. We grew up having the run of the 100 acre nursery with its dirt roads and canals and wildlife, as well as the river. In the spring they would hire temporary workers (I was one) to pick seedlings from the growing beds. Count 50 seedlings, and tie them in a bundle for processing and shipment. All day. It was a backbreaking job. At that time they sold for a penny a piece.

    Then in its "wisdom", the state decided that due to funding cuts the nursery closest to Albany was the only one to keep open, so the family was moved there to live and manage that facility. At least we were mostly grown by then and about to go our own individual way away from home. I am still in touch with my friend, and his elderly father who lives on a private tree nursery of his own.

    A nice custom by my friend's father was to present a small live blue spruce tree to the family of a deceased member who had connection or worked at the nursery. I have a couple of those trees, now quite mature, proudly growing in my yard.
    Last edited by Wldrns; 02-27-2015, 06:06 PM.
    "Now I see the secret of making the best person, it is to grow in the open air and to eat and sleep with the earth." -Walt Whitman

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    • #3
      Wldrns, Great anecdote!
      Back in 1976/1977 my brothers, cousins and I planted a forest of trees provided by the State. Back then they paid you a small sum to plant them (something like $20.00 per thousand). We used the money to buy a canoe which I still have, heavy sucker, and the walk through said forest today is impressive as all get out.
      We didn't plant any Blue Spruce but all the ones I see around town are dying, including the three hugging and protecting the front of my house. Gonna be bummed when I have to say good bye those friends.
      However I do have a bone to pick with you. One of my bundles back in 1976 only had 48 seedlings.
      "A culture is no better than its woods." W.H. Auden

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      • #4
        Originally posted by geogymn View Post
        "Everyone loves trees, some like them vertical and some like them horizontal."

        "The best time to plant a tree is twenty years ago. The second best time is this spring."

        Most NY counties sell tree saplings cheaply. Now is the time to order. Without too much effort one can order ten trees, plant them, preferably with a child, and create a personal legacy.

        Walk up to any impressive tree with same child and speculate who's legacy has blessed this moment.

        This time of the year a lot of Arbor societies have seedling giveaways.


        Order today, “A society grows great when old men plant trees whose shade they know they shall never sit in.”
        Well said and with so many fallen over the past few years from the extreme storms, much needed.

        Personally, I always try to plant trees that produce food for wildlife. Walnuts, Hickory, Sugar Maples, Oak, especially White Oak etc. Eastern Hornbeam is a beautiful understory tree that the squirrels & birds around my house love and the hawks & owls love the squirrels. Hawthorns are another favorite and the leaves, flowers & berries are very medicinal.

        I look forward to one day replanting our missing Chestnut forests.

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        • #5
          Tis the season to order trees through the state or county. Anybody going to give it a go? How hard could it be to plant 10 seedlings? Take a youngster out there and let them become intimate with the earth, together let their roots struggle to find substance and balance in this crazy world, let them grow up together, let them find refuge with each other's wants and cares. Let a tree become family, and only family matters.
          "A culture is no better than its woods." W.H. Auden

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          • #6
            The hardest part about planting those small nursery seedlings is the continual process of keeping the grass and weeds cut down around the trees for the following 2-3 years. They arrive from the state nursery as not much more than little twigs. If you neglect keeping the grass down then the small twigs have little chance of survival. But the care is well worth it. I have a couple of stands that are doing great, well over 30 feet tall now.
            "Now I see the secret of making the best person, it is to grow in the open air and to eat and sleep with the earth." -Walt Whitman

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            • #7
              Originally posted by geogymn View Post
              Tis the season to order trees through the state or county. Anybody going to give it a go? How hard could it be to plant 10 seedlings? Take a youngster out there and let them become intimate with the earth, together let their roots struggle to find substance and balance in this crazy world, let them grow up together, let them find refuge with each other's wants and cares. Let a tree become family, and only family matters.
              Excellent idea.. But I have the opposite problem. Hemlock, beech , maple and eastern white pine crowd my property.. I need to remove many of them so that they do not grow up to be spindly. Eastern white pine needs the overstory removed to promote growth.

              We have two acres and a couple thousand trees.. Google Earth does not show my house for the dense forest.

              It could be hard for me to plant something neat like even one chestnut sapling. We cannot even plant bulbs for the roots of all the trees.

              Grass and weeds are foreign to me!

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              • #8
                My father-in-law died a few years back from cancer. One trip for his chemo treatment I picked up butternuts from the ground at the facility. I sprouted them in the house and then transplanted to our flower garden where they have grown since. This spring I have to transplant them again to a spot on the farm where he grew up(we still own it). At present I'm waiting to see if the Chestnut burrs I found are going to sprout. There appeared to be only one mature tree so I'm not really sure they're viable.

                ....... with the good Lord willin' and the creeks don't rise.......

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                • #9
                  During my twenties, I planted eight thousand hardwood and conifer seedlings. This winter I have been thinning the black locust, which are now 32 years old. Not sure whether it will feel satisfying or depressing when the chunks are heating my home next winter, but I suppose it will be some of both, bound as we are by the give of life that also takes.

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                  • #10
                    Don't worry about thinning the black locust. They are a great root sprouting tree. You'll have it forever.

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                    • #11
                      Can't comment on Black Locust as stove wood but it makes a superb open fire fuel.
                      I downed a bunch of BL the winter before last in an effort to release a struggling Aspen grove as a means to encourage grouse habitat. I abhor downing healthy trees but the BL in this particular location developed a nearly monoculture situation.
                      I planted thousands of trees back in the middle 70's, including BL, and they are sight to behold today.
                      "A culture is no better than its woods." W.H. Auden

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                      • #12
                        Reminder! Now is the time to order tree seedlings and transplants, wildflower and other specialty seeds, and planting accessories

                        Contact your County Soil and Water Conservation District
                        "A culture is no better than its woods." W.H. Auden

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                        • #13
                          Good tip geo. BTW, black locust is excellent stove wood. It burns like coal.

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                          • #14
                            Trees available directly from the NYS DEC tree nursery in Saratoga (at one time in the past also from Lowville)

                            http://www.dec.ny.gov/animals/75799.html (the price has gone up from when I was picking)

                            Geogym, about that 48 count in '76. that was long after my time.
                            "Now I see the secret of making the best person, it is to grow in the open air and to eat and sleep with the earth." -Walt Whitman

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                            • #15
                              I built a timber frame barn for a client. Part of my contract was that we each had to plant the same # of trees as timber in the frame. There were 151 pieces in the frame - so we ordered up and planted over 300 trees (12 years ago now). I planted 200 on my parents property not far from the barn site, and he planted the balance on his property, right behind the barn. We had friends and family help, and made an event out of it.

                              My mom (dad passed a few years ago) has a healthy softwoods stand now, and the client has trees taller than his daughters, who helped us plant them all.

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