Oak Panic

So yesterday started out great. Did inside stuff and then outside I went. I planned on getting as many of the oaks I had germinated in pots planted out. I had kept them in pots for several reasons. One I wanted to make sure they germinated and got water. And two after one season in the pots the acorns are no longer bait for the rodents. So off I went thinking how great it was to be planting out these awesome trees. I got all my stuff together on the cart. Coming to a good place to plant, I reached into the Cork Oak pot and tried to gently pull one out. And this is where the trouble began.

In the oak pots were many trees not just one or two. Some had fifteen trees which had sprouted. As you can imagine this was a bit of a problem when it was time to take one out at a time. Oaks have long roots and lots of tiny feeder roots. These were Cork Oaks from acorns I scavenged in Chico. Chico has some old Cork Oaks which must be over one hundred years old. They used to line the Esplanade but many have been cut down. Anyway, I finally got them free from each other and the soil and planted several on the North swale which had been the scene of so many olive tree deaths. Then I came in for lunch. Stephen asked me what I had been up to. I told him planting. I told him planting oaks on the north. Kind of near the pump house. Kind of near the well. Uh oh.

I had thought I was so smart to find emitters whose plants had died so no new lines needed to be run. But I had neglected to keep the well in mind. The pump house is right in the north wind sector which is really quite bad in the spring. This cold, biting wind dessicates just when things are trying to leaf out. And then this same sector has hot winds as well in the summer. So tough barrier plants need to be here. And yet.... Nobody wants to be the one who planted trees which ruined a well.

So I am going to move one of the trees. Then I moved onto the Valley Oaks which needed homes. I pulled my heavy cart down to the pond guild. Here we have a few oaks already planted and some California Sycamores. I looked around for the water line. I kept losing it in the already lush grass. I had already pulled apart the oak trees and their roots were getting dried out. So this is the part of the story where I panicked. I had at least ten trees to plant, I couldn't find the line and planting oaks is a huge decision. Potentially these trees can get 50 feet tall and just as wide. I couldn't just stick them anywhere. I had to think long term. But I just kept going around in circles. Finally, I put the oaks back in the pot and put mulch around them with some water and went back up to the house.

After rethinking and regrouping, Stephen came down and helped me sort out where the water line was and what other places were good for the oaks. It was not that I didn't know these things. But sometimes I get overwhelmed with the amount of details and my thinking gets away from me. Sometimes we just need another person to say, "yeah that looks right." So we planted all the Valley Oaks down below the south swale and today I finished planting oaks from Magalia amongst the pond forest guild. I then went back and put tall bamboo stakes near each tree and mulched them very well. You always think that you will remember where things are, or be able to find them later in the season but this is always WRONG in grass country and most likely in other places too.

So I guess what I wanted to say here is if you get overwhelmed by planting and planning, don't despair, you are not alone. Just sit down, regroup, go back over your site map and go from there. Things don't need to get done quickly most times. Give yourself time and needed breaks. I know most of the tiny trees I plant may not survive. But I really do treat each one as though it will. So decisions with trees are weightier than others. But it is a great blessing to plant trees and we each should plant as many as we can, if not on our own land than on someone else's or join public planting efforts.