Arboretum Update 2024

Welcome back everyone, I am going to give you an update on the arboretum for the year. I’m going to take a look at the trees that are out there now, and I have some new ones to add. 

I started this little project in 2021 when I sold our previous house, and I brought a walnut tree and a box elder with me. The idea is to have a collection of various tree species in different states of growth, from sapling through fully mature. Most of what I do works on the other end of a tree’s life, after it’s dead. So to have living specimens that exist only to be a living specimen of a tree is kind of neat and fun. 

The first stop is the walnut, which is the most sentimental tree that I have here. Last year it was further down the tube, and now it’s popping out of the top. So it’s taken well to this spot, especially considering its rough transplant. Next year I expect it will be well out of the top of the tube and starting to establish a canopy. 

Here is an osage orange tree that Greg sent me, and this is my second time trying osage orange. I was surprised a couple weeks ago when I noticed that it still has some life in it, because it typically doesn’t grow in my climate. Greg also sent me a sycamore, but unfortunately that one didn’t make it.  

This one is a sycamore that is green and leafing out. Somehow it made it through a winter, although this past winter was extremely mild. We will see it makes it through a more intense winter. 

Here is my box elder, which I haven’t shown the past couple of years. It’s still doing well, but it needs a little bit of a pruning. 

Here is a chestnut oak which I brought down from the driveway. It has escaped its tube, so I’ll have to move that over. 

Lastly, there is this green ash tree, which was already here. 

This year, I’ll be planting some ginkgo trees, a Norway spruce (my first evergreen), a pin oak, and a black locust. 

But before I get those planted, I’m going to do some maintenance work here. I have some nice white oak sawdust, so I’m going to re-mulch all of the trees first. 

I’m also adding a tube to this tree because it’s going to get out of the top of the one that it has. You can buy these tubes in all different lengths, but I found that stacking the small tubes as you go is kind of nice so that you can keep an eye on the trees. 

I’m going to give the osage a bit of a prune. I know they are supposed to be more of a bush than a tree, but I want it to get some height first before it bushes out. 

Next I’m going to plant the pin oak. I’m planting it on our property line so that it hangs over the adjacent property, which is a nature preserve. 

Gingko is up next! I’m putting these down towards the front of the road because they are such beautiful ornamental trees, so they can be seen as you’re driving by. After these, I’ll plant the black locust nearby. 

I’m putting the second pin oak in the middle of these red pines lining the driveway. The idea is that as the tree grows, it’s growing up into this hole in the canopy. In theory, the tree should grow really straight and tall. 

Next up, I’m treating the ash tree for emerald ash borer. I’ve had people ask me in the past how the ash trees have not succumbed to the emerald ash borer yet. We only got the ash borer here in 2019, and I didn’t see any ash killed until this year. I didn’t treat for emerald ash borer last year because I figured I still had time, but it seems I don’t. We have a large number of ash trees in the wooded part of our property near the house, and this was the first year none of them leafed out. I was planning to treat everything this year, but unfortunately those ones are gone. The ash trees that I have in the field have survived, so I am going to treat those. 

This insecticide basically makes the tree poisonous to anything trying to consume it. In this case, if there are any larva living in this tree, the insecticide will kill them. If any beetles try to burrow in here and lay eggs, they will die as well. The directions will tell you how much total milliliters of product to use, as well as how many injection sites you need. You take the total amount of product for that diameter breast height tree, divide it by the total number of injection sites, and that is how much product to put into each of the syringes. A little hole gets drilled, the syringe gets shoved into the hole, and then I turn the handle a little bit to engage the spring. 

That was a quick update, and we’ll check in on our trees next June, like always. That’s going to do it for this year! Thank you as always for joining, I greatly appreciate it. If you have any questions or comments on the arboretum, please feel free to leave me a comment. As always, I’d be happy to answer any questions you might have. And until next time, happy woodworking!