Tree One

Today we planted an East Palatka Holly near the place where the linden oak grew. We could only find one in all the nurseries around town that had a central leader and no pruning to make it bushy. It will be a better tree down through the years than the bushy ones we saw at all the other nurseries. In the short run, the bushy ones look better and ours looks thin and scrawny. But in the long run, those other trees will have forgotten how to grow up and ours will be a straight arrow to the moon. The single purpose of the growing pattern of our tree may look strange now, but later it will make perfect sense.

East Palatka Holly

We have studied the situation and decided to plant East Palatka Holly trees to replace the linden oak that fell July 3. These native hollies will take an attractive conical shape. They will be shelter and food for birds all year round. Positioned in the front of the yard, they will provide a wind break between the street and the rest of the yard where other plantings already give food for birds and butterflies. This wind break will be important because the wind usually comes from the north, up the hill from the T intersection, and there is not as much wind break there as there used to be before our neighbors to the north severely pruned back their impenetrable hedge and destroyed the opportunistic vines that were weighing it down.

I have always wanted to plant East Palatka Hollies but didn't have a place for them until now. These hollies will be planted in honor of my brother, who got a lot of pleasure out of watching birds from his window in Knoxville these past few months. His favorites were the woodpeckers-- redbellied and hairy-- and the goldfinches and hummingbirds when they came. The loss of the linden oak has left a big swath of open space with no canopy. I was happy with the linden oak there, except when it dropped huge branches, and I did not want it gone. I grieved for it after it was taken down. It has taken weeks for me to be used to the idea that something else can grow there in the future. While the hollies are growing, there will be time to plant butterfly and hummingbird plants near them for a few years until they fill in. It feels good to think about the future as well as the past.

Monarchs

The monarchs are back. I have had more caterpillars on my milkweed already this year than I have had in the past five years put together. I feel so encouraged. This morning I planted four more milkweed plants that I bought yesterday for them, because the dozen who were still munching away looked like they would need a few more leaves to reach full size for making cocoons. The milkweed plants that were reduced to sticks two weeks ago are starting to put out new leaves, so by the time they devour the new plants, the established plants will have more to give again. Even though I needed to start driving this morning, with a long road trip ahead of me, I felt that the half hour it would take to plant the milkweed would not make that much difference. When I bought the milkweed I thought I would be leaving Sunday, but it turned out I needed to leave sooner, and planting the milkweed was an affirmation I needed to act on.