Replacing the Urban Tree Canopy – Post EAB
The urban tree canopy is failing. In many cities across eastern North America, gardeners and arborists find themselves in a situation. We need to replace the canopy of our urban forest, again. This has happened before, and we failed to learn from it. It happened after Dutch Elm Disease, and now it is happening again […]
Planting With Natives: Season Long Color for the Landscape, Using Natives in place of Aliens
Again I return to using native plants in the landscape. This is an ever growing concern, as we are seeing the loss of pollinators and native songbirds in our region. The loss of songbirds is felt by bird watchers and gardeners alike. How many of us put out birdseed in the winter months only to […]
Improving Quality of Life: Improving Heavy Clay Soils
Living in the central Great Plains can be a challenge: prairie fires, extreme temperature swings, wind, chemical drift, drought, and soil quality. For many of us, soil quality can be a determining factor in choosing plants for our garden. I have been fortunate to have great silt clay loam soil in my garden, but I […]
How we make Real Maple Syrup
To make maple syrup, first we need to gather maple sap. Our supplies: 1 Bucket Plastic Tubing Cordless Drill Custom Metal Tap Hammer Sanitizing Wipes We clean our supplies before they go into the tree. Then we drill a hole in the tree for the tap. The hole needs to be just large enough […]
A Study of Maples
Thoughts of autumn in New England, maple syrup, children throwing “tree helicopters”, wonderful shade, fall festivals. All these seem to embody the spirit of the maple tree. When our forefathers came to America they found the eastern forests full of tuliptrees, elms, chestnuts, red maples and sugar maples. They loved the maples for the same […]
