The Mid-Summer Yard and Garden Tour - Something's Growing!

I've spent a LOT of time outside this past week, cleaning up the mess from the recent storms.

Besides the major tree damage to our buckeye and the neighbors' maple last week, some good-sized branches broke off and fell out of the top of the 95-foot tulip poplar in the back yard.  The tree guys didn't mess with them because the branches didn't fall on the neighbors' house, which was why we called them and their giant claw machine. 

I went out and dragged the branches to a relatively convenient spot to cut them up.  We have two gas-powered chainsaws, but they're difficult to start and to keep running (even That Man has to work hard at it).  They make oily messes and are LOUD to boot, so I made the executive decision to buy an electric chainsaw so I could cut up those limbs without a lot of wasted effort.  It's been too hot to suffer that way.  The new saw is easy to start, relatively quiet, and went through the fresh wood like butter.  Because the chainsaw doesn't belch smoke and fumes, I could smell the wood as I cut.  Tulip poplar is super fragrant!

All tulip tree stuff.  Under the rack is a
pile of tulip poplar seeds. Dry, they
make great tinder for starting a fire!

About a week before the storm, I'd taken delivery of a nice new EMPTY firewood rack.  Well, it's not empty anymore. That Man says that's what caused the storm to knock down the trees - nature abhors a vacuum, and the wood rack needed something to fill it up.  My new chainsaw and I obliged.

I heard the storm that caused all the damage may have actually been a tornado that didn't touch down.  I saw the trees on the street behind us blowing in all directions rather than just one, and our buckeye tree appeared to have been twisted when it broke.  The tree guys took it down to the ground and hauled it away with the neighbors' big maple tree, so we didn't get any of its wood.  Poor tree.  We'll miss it.

Here's what a Nut Weasel looks like.

Buckeye trees are notorious for their fertility.  Every year they produce thousands of buckeyes that litter the ground and make it difficult to walk - kind of like walking on a carpet of golf balls.  We used to pay The Girl and The Boy five cents a buckeye to pick them up.  They'd usually fill up a couple of five-gallon buckets each at about $40.00 a bucket.  That's a lot of buckeyes! 

Since there aren't any kids to bribe to gather buckeyes anymore, I looked for a tool to make gathering them easier.  I'd decided to buy a Nut Weasel for this fall, but now it's moot - I don't need it.

Possibly the last living
connection to our buckeye tree.

It's not just the buckeyes themselves that are problematic, but the little seedlings they make!!!  In the spring, there'd be a sea of baby buckeye trees.  The ones in the yard were easy to take care of - you just kept mowing the grass regularly and eventually they give up, but there would always be a bunch hiding in the beds of peonies and daylilies along the side of the house.  I must have done a thorough job of eradicating the stray seedlings that usually crop up in the flower beds because there just aren't any to be found there.  HOWEVER...!  I discovered ONE in the grass under the tulip tree.  It's apparently the only remaining offspring of our late lamented tree.

So...  I've decided to dig it up and move it to the garden, and maybe one day we'll have a sapling to plant in the yard, and it will grow up and make thousands of buckeyes of its own.  THEN I'll buy myself a Nut Weasel!