Tree Gate Farm Shovel-Leaning Party

Ok, so it was really a tree planting party, but you have to love Mark D, and our neighbor Julia's shovel leaning form while supervising Sharon as she digs a hole between our dying evergreen wind block.

We had beautiful weather, and an extremely energetic crew of 8 adults and 4 kids join us this Saturday for a few hours. It was great having friends help dig holes, remove rocks, plant trees, add leaf mulch, cover with cardboard (to reduce weed pressure), top with wood chips and water heavily. The work went so fast, that Sharon and I were having a hard time keeping everyone occupied.

Thanks to everyone who joined us for a nice sunny day of planting. We got ALL of our serviceberry, choke cherries, and red cedars planted (except for the few we potted for reserves). Monday saw Sharon and I planting out 60 high bush cranberries that our friend Scott brought us. He showed up Sunday with a trunk load of  trees left over from a seed/sapling give-away that he was a part of. He brought us white ash, green ash, black ash, white walnut (aka butternut), black walnut, nannyberries (aka sheepberries), and the high bush cranberries. Later, we stopped over at our friends at Red Tail Farm and they had a bundle of black locusts they had been given, and decided they weren't going to plant them afterall... When we get those in the ground it will make a total of 75 black locusts we've planted as well. :-)

I guess I'd better get back out there...only 465 more holes to dig!