Trees

Pinon Pine (Pinus edulis)

I love Pinon Pines! I was first introduced to these stunning

trees in the Eastern Sierras in the Bridgeport/

Mono Lake area where we spent usually a month around

Thanksgiving. We got a permit to cut a Pinon Pine from the

National Forest and took it to MuRefuge for our Yule tree.

The above tree is the third attempt at planting a Pinon Pine in this area of the front native garden. The previous two were 5-6 feet in height; neither survived. This tree was purchased from Plants from the Southwest in a 5 gallon pot and reported to be about 5 years old. Since Pinon Pines start as a seedling in the protection of their sister trees the Junipers, shade has been provided as well as a burlap windbreak since the fierce wind barrels down the street to this corner.

Why plant trees? We think the following excerpts from “Soils and Men”, 

the 1938 Yearbook of Agriculture published by the U.S. Department of Agriculture, explain why. Copied from Tooley's Trees website.

“The earth is the mother of us all-plants, animals, and men. 

The phosphorus and calcium of the earth 

build our skeletons and nervous systems. 

Everything else our bodies need 

except air and sun comes from the earth.

Nature treats the earth kindly.  

Man treats her harshly. 

He overplows the cropland, 

overgrazes the pastureland, 

and overcuts the timberland. 

He destroys millions of acres completely. 

He pours fertility year after year into the cities, 

which in turn pour what they do not use 

down the sewers into the rivers and the ocean. 

The flood problem insofar as it is man-made 

is chiefly the result of 

overplowing, overgrazing, and overcutting of timber.

This terribly destructive process is excusable 

in a young civilization. 

It is not excusable in the United States in the year 1938.

We know what can be done and we are beginning to do it. 

As individuals we are beginning to do the necessary things. 

As a nation, we are beginning to do them. 

The public is waking up, and just in time. 

In another 30 years it might have been too late.

The social lesson of soil waste 

is that no man has the right to destroy soil 

even if he does own it in fee simple. 

The soil requires a duty of man 

which we have been slow to recognize.”

“Within a comparatively short time, 

water and wind have flayed the skin off the unprotected earth, causing widespread destruction,

and we have been forced to realize 

that this is the result of decades of neglect. 

The effort to relieve economic depression 

for farmers has also forced attention on the soil.”

“In agriculture all roads lead back to the soil,

from which farmers make their livelihood.”

Netleaf Hackberry (Celtis reticulata)
I am looking forward to berries on this trees
providing the "fruit" loving birds with food.
It has been located in the back garden so
that the tree can be seen through the 
sliding glass door.

Humans are still engaged-- did they ever really stop?-- in egregious acts that degradate planet Earth. Just recently one of our newest additions to our neighborhood shared how he is planting a "forest" in the front yard of the house he and his partner recently bought and moved into. He related how he "loves aspen trees" so planted several in the front yard. 

Oh my gosh, I thought, having had the Aspen trees in our side yard dug up and taken away. As those of you who follow this blog know, the entire side and front yard landscaping was removed as the trees and plants found new homes before the 11.5 tons of Santa Fe rocks were removed by a gentleman who used them to cover his very long dirt road. Then sheet mulching began with native plants soon to follow. Oh how the night loving critters, as do the thrashers, love to dig in the mulch for the abundance of grubs that love the cool, damp dirt beneath the mulch.

Aspen trees are stunningly beautiful and all who live in Santa Fe can drive up the mountain where hundreds of aspen trees grow naturally near stream beds and form families of aspen trees of all ages. Aspen trees require water and cooler temperatures than in Santa Fe. Yet Santa Feians persist in planting these trees. And I watch them struggle in a climate not to their liking.

One Seed Juniper (Juniperus monosperma)

Santa Fe is in the midst of the Juniper-Pinon Pine forest. Juniper trees put their roots down extremely deeply while the Pinon Pine roots grow laterally and not so deep, thus severe drought conditions as happened in the 1950's often cause them to die. Neither tree grows particularly tall since there is limited moisture available here in the high mountainous desert.

Santa Fe's rainfall on the average is 15 inches and we average 26 inches of snow per year.  The United States average of rain is 38" per year and 28" of snow per year. In contrast Sebastopol, California's rainfall averages 37.1" of rain. Of course, we all know that what has happened in the past is not what is happening now.

At MuRefuge to provide shade from the ferocious West sun in the Great Room a White Locust tree was planted. Locust trees seem to be fast growing trees with lovely flowers in the Spring that attract all kinds of bees. This White Locust was so successful in providing cooling to our Great Room, a local native locust was planted to shade our library, which is a West facing bedroom of our house in Santa Fe, to do the same.

This New Mexico Locust was planted 1 1/2 years ago
and was about a foot tall in a 1 gallon black plastic pot.
I overwatered the first year so the tree shot up
with a very spindly trunk which is the reason the tree is staked.
This growing season the trunk has thickened
with the wind rocking the tree.

New Mexico Locust (Robinia neomexicana)
with first blossoms on this tree.

To celebrate my mom's birthday, she was born on July 04, 1914, I planted a mulberry tree from Tooley's Trees that I bought at Plants of the Southwest. So lucky I felt when I saw two of these trees sitting on one of the tables. The owner of my favorite place to shop for plants said she purchased them last season. This season they are not available from Tooley's Trees. 

As a child I remember going to my mother's mother's place in Wesley, Iowa, where we went next door and shook ripe mulberries onto blankets held beneath the neighbor's very large trees: a joyful childhood memory. So I am looking forward in the not too distant future to harvesting mulberries from the tree pictured below.

Russian Mulberry (Morus alba tatarica)
"Blackberry-shaped, sweet, mild, white fruit, sometimes pink or purple.
Dried like raisins. Staple food in parts of Asia. Also delicious fresh or in pie and jam.
Large spreading, bushy tree grows rapidly to 45-50 ft. tall.
Bears fruit in about 3 years. Tolerates poor conditions and practically disease free.
Self-fertile. Hardy to -25 degrees F.
Native to China, but naturalized around the world. Used to feed silkworms. "
--description from Tooley's Trees

This mulberry tree will eventually provide shade for our bedroom which gets West sun ... hot! hot! hot! in the Summer.

Way back in the mid 90's I saw my first Desert Willow and was blown away, so to speak, by its beauty. I had never seen such a tree although I am familiar from my childhood with its relative, the Catalpa Tree and its long seed pods. The below tree is planted in the back yard near our larger bedroom window. When I bought it from the Plants of the Southwest it was more of a shrub. I have since pruned it to form a tree. This tree is a cultivar so the flowers are darker than the native species and almost the same color as the Desert Four O'Clocks that are planted nearby.

Desert Willow (Chilopsis linearis ‘Bubba’)

Hopefully all these trees will flourish as have the fruit trees: 

               Apple

               Esopus Spitzenburg

               Westfield Seek No Further

               Thornberry 

           Apricot

                Hargrande 

                Harogem

           Peach

                 Reliance

           Plum

                 Green Gage

If so, our small, compared to MuRuge, city lot will have an abundance of trees. They will be providing both beauty and shade as well as food for both humans and other creatures that visit.

As we all sit beneath the shade of our favorite tree enjoying Summer, may we