The wisdom of trees

As  I have watched this Spring 2015 unfold, it occurs to me that there are even more lessons that can be learned from trees, in addition to the one I mentioned in my post entitled "Longing":

"I realise there's something incredibly honest about trees in winter, how

they're experts at letting things go."  -Jeffrey McDaniel

In the back pasture here on HeartSong Farm, there are various kinds of oaks and willows, as well as tallows, maples and what is often called a Chinese umbrella tree (which is not the same as a Chinese tallow or popcorn tree).

Leafing out starts off slowly.

In the backyard, next to the house, it is easy to see that the Japanese
magnolia is way ahead of the crepe myrtles in leafing out.

Some trees bud out as soon as the temperatures warm up a bit, while others wait longer, maybe a week or two, to sprout new leaves,  Some flower first, and some don't bloom until late Spring once they are all leafed out.  So, if we let them, trees can teach us about "everything in its own time". Realizing this helps me get through the impatient times that I struggle with as I get closer to retirement.  Everything is unfolding as it should, after all!  Relax and enjoy! Breathe and pay attention!

Look at all the manifestations of green just in my front yard!

When we look around at all the various shades of green in early Spring, and, later when we admire all the colors of Autumn, trees can teach us to notice and appreciate all the shades of the human race.   

All the greens go well together, no clashes in shades or colors.  There are yellow greens, blue greens, true greens, purple greens, light and dark greens, and they all exist side by side in Nature.  In Autumn, the yellows and russets and oranges and crimsons once again co-exist beautifully, and we admire them as they stand out against the greens of the pines and cedars.  

Similarly, shouldn't we admire and appreciate all the colors of the people of the world?! Our different colors, talents, histories, stories, religions, philosophies, foods, and music is what makes our world a very special place to live. Shouldn't we appreciate all the differences which make our world rich and interesting?  I happen to believe we should, and I hope that you do, too!  It really is a beautiful world out there, you  know.  Take a look around you.

I am a Tree Hugger,  and unabashedly so.  When I was a child, my Daddy often read to me from his favorite poetry books, and one of the first poems I can remember loving and then memorizing for him was this one:

             Trees
              By  JOYCE KILMER


             I think that I shall never see
               A poem lovely as a tree.

               A tree whose hungry mouth is prest
               Against the earth's sweet flowing breast;

               A tree that looks at God all day,
               And lifts her leafy arms to pray;

               A tree that may in Summer wear
               A nest of robins in her hair;

               Upon whose bosom snow has lain;
               Who intimately lives with rain.

               Poems are made by fools like me,
               But only God can make a tree.

                          Source:  Poetry (August 1913).

I absolutely adore the heart shaped leaves of a redbud tree! This one planted

itself by the driveway a couple of years ago and seems to like it there.

This oak sapling has sprung up out front near the fig trees.  Although it is

 not really in a "good" place, I am inclined to leave it right there.

Trees that produce fruit like my two fig trees are especially wonderful.

This little cottonwood (pardon me while I sneeze!) has sprouted in the
parking lot at work  next to where I park my car.

In pots, next to the side entrance, I have several "treelets" I found in the 
yard last year:  a crepe myrtle, a redbud, and a cedar.  Where shall I plant
them?!

All the rain of this Spring has really pleased Gloria, the bald cypress!  She 
has dressed her lovely  horizontal branches in a double layer of fringe,

something she has never done before.

In fact, she has even sent up some vertical "arms," perhaps in praise to 
Mother Nature for her "waterful" bounty this Spring?!

After each week of rains, Ben needed to rework the dyke and trench

in the driveway that diverted the water into the bog for Gloria.

Diverting the water from the driveway helped relieve the muddy water 

trying to get into my house at the side door by the parking pad, as well as

delighting Gloria with all the extra water for her feet and knees!

Two weekends ago the weather changed to a nice dry spell and I pulled my garlic bulbs from the garden. In the process, I got bitten by fire ants all over my hands and feet!  Dang those obnoxious little creatures!  I am not positive, but I think the ants actually devoured one of my garlic bulbs as I was only able to locate and pull 49 out of the 50 that sprouted when I set the buds last October.

Garlic bulbs fresh out of the garden.

In the last two years of growing garlic, I have learned quite a bit.  The first year I planted buds from garlic bulbs bought at the grocery store.  I planted them in the late Spring and dug them up a year later.  Out of the 15 buds I planted, only 4 or 5 produced anything.  This had to do with the fact that they were most likely from hybrid garlic, plus the fact that I planted them at the wrong time of the year.

I have since learned that garlic should be planted in the Fall, usually early October so that it can have a chance to start its root system and sprout before cold weather sets in.  It is ready to harvest in late May, usually, when the stems turn yellow and flop over.  So, this year's crop was much more successful by far than last year's uneducated attempt.

Something I learned with this year's crop of garlic is that I planted them too close together for them to become as large as I would have liked them to be.  I spaced them neatly at 3" apart in rows 6" apart. Ideally, they should be minimally 6" apart in rows 12" apart.  Come this October, I will be remembering that!

I set the garlic bulbs to drying on the racks of my little greenhouse unit on the back porch where it is shady, cool and dry.  With the garlicky aroma I am not expecting any problems with vampires for the time being!

And finally, I discovered that you do not wash the dirt off of the garlic bulbs until after they have been allowed to dry, with stems on, for about 10 - 14 days in a cool dry place.  They are ready to wash up and store when you can press your thumbnail into the neck of the bulb and hear a nice crunching sound.  Last year, I washed them all clean and whacked off the stem and put them in a bowl on the counter by the stove.  It didn't really ruin them because I didn't have but about 5 and I used them up quickly.  But, they would not have lasted more than a couple of months before they mildewed and/or rotted.  The flavor is also enhanced by this "right out of the ground" drying process.

My very first homegrown, handmade garlic braid!

The rain total for the year so far in my neck of the woods is a tad over 46".  Incredible!  That is almost four feet!  And California needs it so very badly.  Wish we could pipe some to them, but the pipelines around here are used for oil and natural gas.  My kitchen sink "burps" now and then, and drains slowly because the septic field lines are so saturated with the unusual rainfall totals making the ground stay soggy.

The rains and standing water and cloud cover have done a nice job of keeping the air and soil cool so far this year. It has not gotten hot enough here on the farm to heat the soil up consistently so that I can plant any cotton seeds.   There have been only a handful of days where the humidity was bad enough to make me think it was finally time to turn on the air conditioner.  This was the case last year, also, and the heat didn't really get insufferable until July.  My cotton crop last year was minimal, at best, and I expect this year to be the same, if I decide to go ahead and plant any seeds.

Speaking of cotton, I do need to "gin" last year's minuscule harvest this summer and add it to the bumper crop harvest from two years ago, then card  and spin it.  That is something I hope to accomplish this summer.  It is on my Summer 2015 Bucket List!  And also to learn to spin it on my  book charkha.

I have finally turned on the air conditioner here at HeartSong Farm, and am ready to work mostly inside this summer, hopefully finishing up quite a few projects I have started and never finished over the last several years.  I do miss hearing the sounds of frogs, crickets, and birds, though, through the open windows.  I feel less connected to Nature, all closed in and cool. That is when it becomes time to take a glass of iced tea out on to the back porch, sit in the swing, and relax in the balmy breeze of an East Texas summer and listen to the songs of mockingbirds and orioles, and watch the dragonflies skip across the tops of the grassy weeds and dip down into the water troughs.


Meanwhile, another little leopard froggie has left the habitat for the spacious wilderness of what is HeartSong Farm!