Fall 2021

The trees in the 2009 and 2010 planting areas have grown up and together this summer and it is starting to feel like a part of the forest now. There are a few open areas where the grass is holding on but under the thicker canopy and the evergreens the grass is pretty sparse. The 2011 and 2013 planting areas are still very open. Many of the seedlings planted by the cub scouts had a good year and are getting to be able to hold their own against the grasses and vetch.

I haven't made any posts to this blog this summer as I was unhappy with the camera on my old phone, so the following are some notes about the summer that never made it into a post:

• The patch of trilliums is hanging on, but not getting larger.
• I saw bats and fireflies one evening
• I saw a few monarchs fluttering along the Avenue.
• I attacked the dog strangling vine patch again. It is just as big a patch as it ever was.
• The path that the mower had cut through the sumac last year filled in as predicted with a thick covering of young sumac.
• A squirrel was hanging out in the old birdhouse. It had stuffed the hole in the back wall of the house with grass to make a more comfy home.
• I took off the lowest branch from the big oak tree this year. It is now quite a handsome tree.
• I also limbed up some of the poplars to try to get some light down to the slower growing maples in the 2009 and 2010 areas.
• I planted a maple and a spruce seedling on the north side of the berm with a couple of stakes to protect them from the mower.