Keep it Simple: Planting for the future
Last year, I purchased a fruiting mulberry and two flowering dogwood tree seedlings. The trunk of each was about the diameter of a yellow No. 2 pencil and not much taller than the iconic writing implement. Both the mulberry and dogwood trees will take at least a decade to reach a mature height of 10 to 15 feet tall. You can add a few more seasons of growth to mine before they reach maturity; given the diminutive size in which they came to me from the nursery.
I, alas, am getting up in years and when I consider planting the likes of a tree nowadays it is with the knowledge I could very well have exited the planet, stage left, by the time said tree is big enough to grace my yard with its shade or the enjoyment of its fruit or flowering habit.
Why then, you might ask (go ahead, ask), would I stack the deck, so to speak, against myself possibly ever enjoying the benefits of said tree by not planting one with some substance to it, such as the more normal-sized tree of five feet in height from a local nursery?
Well, it’s like this: For the very reason I am of a certain age and nearing the endgame of my time here planting trees, shrubs and such, I have opted to “go small” and am banking on enjoying my plantings on the front end, rather than the typical back end of their growth.
Knowing the likelihood of these three tiny trees standing up to the rigors of growing all on their own somewhere in the yard - riding lawn mowers are hell on newly planted trees, as can forgetting to water them when mixed in with all the other trees, shrubs and flower beds — I opted to create a mini nursery of my own near the garden where these trees can get all the nurturing and love seedlings such as these require.
Into recycled gallon-sized black plastic pots I added a mixture of topsoil, compost and organic fertilizer which served as a temporary home to my tender flora. Rather than being ignored and forgotten somewhere in the big yard, my mulberry and dogwood seedlings spent last summer pampered (and enjoyed) near the eggplant and pepper plants and as such more than doubled in size by growing season’s end.
I expect after one more summer being pampered these seedlings will fall into the category of small young trees and will be ready for their final resting place; either in the yard or the big flower garden near the road the following spring. By then I hope not to be in my final resting place and can continue to enjoy their journey from scrawny seedling to mature tree status.
A five-foot-sized dogwood tree planted last year would become a six-foot-tall dogwood this year and look pretty much the same as when first planted. My “front-end enjoyment” trees are on their way from that of yellow No. 2 status to fine young tree status while I am enjoying the hoped-for accomplishment of seeing said seedlings morph eventually into those of mature specimen status.
My hope is to find myself still dottering about outside my rural home well into my early 80s where I can enjoy the fruits of my labors from the here and now. The question of course will be whether out there somewhere in the future will the future me be contemplating planting still more trees for an even more future me to enjoy, or will I have come to my senses and leave well enough alone?
For my sake I plan to never come to my senses and when my time comes to be “planted” my hope is they (whomever they turns out to be) will have to first pry the shovel from my cold dead hands, finish planting the tree I was in the middle of planting, and say to themselves, “What was he thinking? This is an oak tree which will take decades to mature. How on earth did he ever imagine enjoying such a tree at this age?”
At my age the “front end” is where all the enjoyment lies in wait. Live for the now folks, not the future, whatever your age.
— Michael Jones is a columnist and contributor for the Gaylord Herald Times. He can be reached at mfomike2@gmail.com.
This article originally appeared on The Holland Sentinel: Keep it Simple: Planting for the future
