I think that I shall never see, A poem lovely as a tree.

"The best time to plant a tree is twenty years ago;

the second-best time is now."

We are big on planting trees. I think it must be an Armstrong thing. That spouse o' mine, growing up in South Dakota and Australia... But, I think I caught the plant-a-tree virus upon saying, "I do." We, that spouse o' mine and I, have planted trees every place we have lived. Here? More than 63 trees. (And I have not added up last year's or this year's.)

We have a number of oak trees waiting to be put out somewhere. We started them from acorns. It's pretty easy. The hard part is keeping the bunnies and grasshoppers away from them. A few years ago we were walking the Capitol grounds in Washington, D.C., and there were a kabillion acorns all over the place. So we gathered them up (not all kabillion), and brought them home to rural Kansas and planted them. And they grew. And grew. They were our Capitol Oaks! But, alas, the bunnies got ahold of them before we even knew we HAD bunnies.

These oaks are native, from K-State University campus acorns. Not so note-worthy, but also not bunny-eaten...yet. And, since Daughter #2 lives just a jaunt from the D.C. Capitol grounds, I have it in my mind that she can deliver us 2010 Capitol grounds acorns for our 2011 Oak Tree Project.

Daughter #1, plus that spouse o' mine, a niece, and a nephew-in-law were chatting this weekend about our oak trees. (in miniature, at this point.) And I lamented that nowdays (omigosh, I AM LAMENTING ABOUT NOWDAYS. I MUST BE GETTING OLD.) people do not plant for the future generations. No fine oaks lining drives to be enjoyed 50 years down the road (and no pun intended on that,), no wonderful pine trees or chestnuts or other elegant and slow-growing trees.

Someone's sitting in the shade today
because someone planted a tree a long time ago.
-- Warren Buffett

We see "instant-gratification" landscaping, like ornamental pear trees, or little-bitty shrubs. The landscape people must know as well as I know, the slow-growing trees are the ones which will last for generations. Not these little piddly shrubby things - they grow fast and die early.

Here is a really brief-and-by-memory list of some of the trees we have out out here on 15 acres, in the past 8 years: consider all plural:

Oak
Willow
Peach
Maple
Birch
Pear
Apple
Sycamore
Pine
Pine
Pine (lotsa varieties!)
Cedar (yuk; but...a great windbreak for Kansas winter winds)
Cherry
Most likely more that do not come to mind off the bat.

In a way, it's sad to think that someone two generations from now will reap the enjoyment of our horticulture. I would LOVE to see our place 100 years from now.

But you know what? It feels pretty good, knowing we did our BIG PART for the future.

A seed hidden in the heart of an apple is an orchard invisible. ~Welsh Proverb