As you all have heard me bemoan, our new property only has trees around the house. The other 10 acres are barren. B-A-R-R-E-N.
So sad. The previous owner used Round-Up on every single smidgen of dirt. I guess he had a thing about weeds, or mowing, or tending to acreage…
Anyway, the good news was that this lack of trees (and a few other things) was part of the reason we could actually afford 10 acres in wine country. BUT, the bad news is that it gets hot here and the horses need natural shade. And, they need some interest in their paddocks.
The truth is, the horses actually have the best views of the entire 10 acres. They have access to the highest point – and they can see 360 degrees around the entire valley. Very nice. Gives them something to look at all day. There is always something happening somewhere…!
(A few of you readers have asked me to post a labeled, aerial view of our place, so that they could picture in their minds how this place is organized. I will.)
I wanted to start off with a photo of Wrigley (staying dry) BG and Finn, enjoying the sprinklers today. In the way background, you can see some of the newly planted trees!
THE TREES!
It has taken a bit of time and work to organize adding a row of trees into the uppermost paddock. This is the paddock that Finn, BG, Wrigley, Missy Miss and Mo share. Hubby built them a shelter when we first moved in, but otherwise, they have no trees. Not one. Not even a neighbor tree.
A few months ago, with an incredibly generous and so unexpected donation from Marty (thank you to the moon and back), I was able to build a 335′, interior fence to protect the trees from the horses and create an aisle (and deal with the falling down fence that was there…).
A few months later, we dug 27 (large) holes.
Today, with the same donation, we were able to purchase 27 trees and have them planted!
They don’t look like much, but to me, they are BEAUTIFUL. This row of new life will be called, “Marty’s Lane”.
Thank you. Such a boost for my soul – and the soul of this land.
This is the first stand we planted. It is the back of the skinny pasture and it heads down the hill into the 5 acre pasture.
This is looking the other direction. This stand is behind the shelter.
This gives you an idea of where we were working. The trees went into the top of the property, giving separation, shade and a wind break – in time.
Progress…
We have three different kinds of trees here. This is a California Pepper tree. It is evergreen so I used it where the horses could have shade and to also use as a wind break. We planted 6 Pepper trees and 3 Pepper bushes.
This is a Madrone. We planted 9 of those. The leaves are a natural de-wormer, I am told.
Lastly, we added 9 Chinese Pistachio trees for color.
Here they are – you can see about a third of the trees in this shot. All staked and watered. A job well done. I know it doesn’t look like much, but in time, it will be very nice for all!
This cracked me up… I am also adding an 18 x 18 shelter into the smaller, rectangular pasture. I had all the horses in there so that we could plant the trees in their other pasture- without disturbance from this lot. As you can see, they are eagerly awaiting the roof to be installed on their shelter… Of all the places to stand, they all stood under the ‘shelter’. From the left, we have BG peering through the fence, high-headed Wrigley, Finn at the waterer (dozing) and Missy Miss looking straight at camera. Mo is actually behind them all. You can see his legs.
