Why I Oughta...

Last Fall, I collected a few dozen acorns off off a small stand of upright, columnar Oak trees that are planted in a parkway near our downtown.  On many of my early morning walks, I'd stop by, see if the acorns were 'loose' and then grab a few before they fell to the ground.  Our Oaks in our yard last year threw off A HUGE amount of acorns - a mast year.  These columnar oaks were simliar. I identified these as Regal Prince Oak trees and here's a look at some of the acorns as I collected them in September 2023 .   In November, I water-tested them (if they floated, I tossed them), then buried them in wet sand for a long Winter's nap via cold stratification .  I also grabbed three large Chinese Chestnuts and did the same - tested, then tucked-in the fridge for four+ months.   In 2022, I collected a wide variety of acorns, but didn't label them.  This year, I went with JUST ONE species - the Regal Prince Oak. Earlier this month, I took the container out of the fridg

Earlier this year (May), I planted a pair of dwarf Ginkgo trees - Spring Grove Ginkgos - on either side of our back stoop .  I was planning on planting *something new* here, but I didn't plan on these - rather, I just came across them and decided to go this route.    I posted about them one-month-post-planting and they seemed to be doing well and getting established .  But...I knew the hard, hot, dry part of the Summer was coming and I wanted to be sure these dwarf trees were set up to succeed.  We were gone for a large part of the Summer, so I decided to set up a some timed irrigation and then covered these in shade cloth.  Yeah...I covered them for months at a time to keep them from drying out and burning.  I recently took the shade cloths off - thinking the heat of the Summer is behind us.  What happened under the shade cloth was quite A LOT of new growth.  But, that new growth was *very* tender because it was being protected from the sun.  When I first took the shade cloth off