If you look very closely at this, you can see a LOT of faint brownish reddish leaf pairs, all over the place. This is what a future Maple Forest looks like. On my front lawn. (that's Charlie, inspecting the lawn)
Two years ago we had the second year of a two year drought, the deep-down kind that no one really paid a lot of attention to, as far as weather pundits were concerned: rivers dried up, everyone had brown lawns, and even (and most horrifying to me) 100 year old trees were wilting, literally wilting, by July. Very little snow cover, no fall rains, no spring rains. Last year was closer to normal, and the old Rock Maple in my front yard recovered, somewhat. We had fall rains, lotta snow, spring rains.
We never bothered, for two years, to mow the grass. It went to seed and the birds loved it.
This year I decided it might be a good idea to start mowing again, since we seem to be having a normal if cold spring. This is what I found, all over the yard where the maples are. It's a patch maybe 50ft. by 50ft, and there's another on the other side of the driveway as well.
I said to my husband, if we had had to go away from here for three or four years, we would be coming back to a yard literally crammed with three foot high maples...
I think I figured it out. When a mature tree is stressed, as these were, they produce early seeds and drop them, Thousands. It's a way of ensuring that this tree, by golly, will at least have babies. Last year they sprouted into two-prong seedlings, and I didnt see 'em because I didn't mow.
Yesterday I hit this spot and I thought, oookay...what IS this. It's quite pretty, until you realize what they will turn into very quickly, lol.
The big old maple survives, still. I suspect it will outlast us. I surely hope so.
We have had so much rain (and wind) the past few months and tree seeds have spread all about. If I don’t remove them quickly, they take root and it is harder to dig them out. Mother Nature just wants to take her land back.
ReplyDeleteIf they're where you can just mow them down, that usually suffices. Sooner or later they weaken and give up the fight.
DeleteThen again, I don't fuss too much about what comes up on this lawn, it's all reclaimed field anyway, and as long as it's green, Im cool with that.
This is why we can never avoid mowing. Living in a tree rich area, high water table, cooperative squirrels and birds, we would have a mixed forest of cherry, holly,oak, maple, in no time. I routinely pull rogue trees out of flower beds. It's really good though. Despite our industrialization, nature wins.
ReplyDeleteI agree. As annoying as it is, what is says, is, no matter what we do, nature refuses to give in. It pokes through unused tarred areas, or even tarred ones, it would come up in our cellar if there was enough light, and that can be strangely soothing to think that as soon as we let go of the macadam and the malls the trees will come back.
DeleteThere was a time here, in NH in the late 1800s when NH was 90% cleared land. You could practically see from one end of it to the other. I have photos of my father in law as a little boy, standing on the front lawn, and behind him the only thing you saw was horizon. And a few mountains. Not a tree.
and now, they tell us, that NH is about 80% forested. What goes around, comes right back.
I've heard of maple trees.
ReplyDeleteand that reminded me of this:
Deletehttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A7Xm30heHms