The Kansas Forest Service brochure for tree and shrub seedlings arrived in the mail yesterday.  The form notes that the special pricing on these trees is available to anyone willing to plant them for conservation purposes … not for landscaping or nursery purposes. That seems fair to me, especially since I believe in hedgerows and shelterbelts. Last year I planted some 200 Forest Service tree and shrub seedlings  … this year I am tempted to put in another shelterbelt … using this program, I can plant 100 trees for less than $70.

 

Shelterbelts became popular in the Great Plains and Midwest as a result of several land rushes. My great grandfather, Oscar H. Will, and his son George, capitalized on the need to shelter fields and pastures from the wind, and to populate tree claims with timber by supplying millions of Cottonwood, Ash, Boxelder and other seedlings to homesteaders, farmers, the railroad and various municipalities. Those early shelterbelts were created with seedlings that sprouted freely along the banks, and on the sandbars, of the Missouri River north of Bismarck, North Dakota (Dakota Territory initially). Oscar, and later, George put together crews of young men to pull dormant seedlings, bundle them and float them down the Missouri River to Bismarck in flatboats. Some collecting crews ranged as far as the upper reaches of the Missouri, deep into Montana.

 

Shelterbelts save money by reducing convective heat loss from buildings and providing shade. They also filter dust from the breeze, which substantially lowers summertime home maintenance expenses. Shelterbelts reduce livestock feed costs in all seasons because they protect animals from exposure to extreme weather, and they protect tender crops and gardens from the ravages of hot dry winds.

 

When Kate and I built our first farm in South Dakota, we planted more than 2000 feet of 5-row shelterbelt to protect the building and garden sites from cold north and west winds. More than 90 percent of the seedlings survived the first season. The Soil Conservation Service (as it was called in the early1990s) required that we cultivate the ground bare between the tree rows for at least three years after planting. That we did, and today those Ash, Locust, Blue Spruce, Russian Olive, Manchurian Apricot, Nanking Cherry and Lilacs have achieved a height and density that gives the homestead’s current owners plenty of privacy and wind protection. The fact that the tree planting created a few acres of wildlife habitat is an added bonus.

 

Unless you already live in the woods, you can save some money on your heating, cooling and snowplowing bill by planting a shelterbelt. Ideally, the shelterbelt should consist of a minimum of 5 rows of trees and shrubs situated around 150 feet from any buildings in the protected area. Check the USDA’s website for more information on designing a functional shelterbelt. And as Kate would say: “No time like today to get those trees in the ground.” Well, perhaps not today, but today is a good day to plan for your shelterbelt and to order the trees.
 

 The numbers are in for 2008 and they look good for the seed industry. They look even better for folks who want to grow vegetables from seed and save money in 2009.

By some estimates, garden seed, especially vegetable seed sales, were up by anywhere from 40 percent to well over 100 percent compared with recent years. In fact, some industry watchdog organizations suggest that seed companies in North America and much of Europe experienced their best year ever in 2008. We’re talking record seed sales … AND they project another record for 2009.

So, what is the fuss all about?

Easy, people are looking for a safer food supply, while adapting to a tighter economic outlook. If you have never grown a vegetable garden, or started your own garden plants, there’s still plenty of time to save money in 2009 by growing your vegetables from seed. If you are like me, you will be amazed, and thrilled, by all the different varieties of vegetable species from which to choose. If you are looking for that little early-maturing tomato called Bison from your youth, you can find seed and save money by growing your own in 2009.

 

Even the American government recognized the value that a garden-growing public could offer to a war-embroiled and slow economy. They no doubt also recognized the community building value in making it easy for folks to grow with one another in the garden patch. At those times, it was much more important to feed the folks at home and share the excess with others than to worry about E. coli-infested spinach … oh, that’s right, we hadn’t pushed our agricultural production models so far, back then, that E. coli and other fairly benign microbes had yet to figure out how to be pathogenic.

Our government called those programs War Gardens during World War I and Victory Gardens during World War II. I don’t know what to call the new wave of gardening frenzy, but I do know that it is exciting, and will, no doubt, play a role in healing our culture.

When you consider that a package of tomato seed might set you back a couple of bucks, and that you might get 50 viable seeds in that pack, it doesn’t take much math to figure out that you can grow hundreds of pounds of tomato fruit from that $2 pack of seeds. Even if you factor in the value of a little labor (it can be hand labor, mind you), a small piece of ground, a source of supplemental water and a few miscellaneous supplies, those tomatoes will be cheaper than cheap. But more importantly, the growing, nurturing, eating and processing will pay that elusive dividend of extreme satisfaction; no amount of store-bought or farm-stand-bought tomatoes CAN EVER bring that. Farm-stand tomatoes, when grown locally, do have added value in the dividend department, because at least you are supporting the local economy at its root level.

 

Add the pleasure you will receive from spending time AT HOME and WITH FRIENDS and LOVED ONES working in, marveling at, and generally enjoying your garden, and those tomatoes pay even more. And if you happen to have an extra-giant bounty, think of the joy those tomatoes will bring as you share them with others in need … or sell to pay for that tank of propane when winter arrives.

The way I see it, if the pleasure from that $2 pack of tomato seed replaced the pleasure of just one latte at the local coffee shop and the fuel needed to drive there and back, you are at least $10 ahead. That’s right, folks, vegetable gardens can pay big time if you only let them.

If you are skeptical of my analysis, check out Paul Gardener’s personal blog and follow his annual fresh food tally. He and his family produce a significant dollar-value of crops in minimal growing space. And they don’t factor the weight of family fun, joy, etc., into the formula to inflate those numbers.

Look for all kinds of gardening resources on this website and at Mother Earth News for everything you need to know about how to prepare for and plant a vegetable garden from seed that will save you money in 2009.

Early last week, while walking with the dogs through our various patches of woods, Kate noticed a large number of tree saplings and seedlings in the under story. She also noticed a number of small Eastern Red Cedar trees and a few isolated Osage orange saplings growing out in the meadows. Her question to me on New Year’s Day was whether we oughtn’t just save on our landscaping budget this year by transplanting the free trees that were provided all over the farm by Mother Nature.

I was all for Kate’s idea, I mean who doesn’t want to save money in 2009.

Years ago, in South Dakota, when we were just starting out we had very little in the way of discretionary funds. We also had a bare piece of ground to build our homestead on … it was a lovely piece, with a creek running through it, but it was treeless, except for the massive Cottonwoods that populated the low end of the pasture and one lone Green Ash that grew up through the old windmill tower, its roots reaching clear down to the water level in the old dug well.

Closer inspection of that piece of ground revealed a Cottonwood tree seedling nursery at the confluence of one of our waterways and the creek. With a strong need to get some large trees going quickly and to stabilize the creek bank to the west of the house, Kate and I spent many early spring days over the course of a few years digging cottonwood seedlings and saplings from our natural nursery (some about 10 feet tall) and transplanting them about a half mile away by the house. Those free trees are more than 50 feet tall today … they help protect the house from wind and they stabilized the creek bank.

Last Saturday, Kate and I identified a few small oak and Osage orange saplings to transplant. These free trees all had substantial taproots (which got shortened considerably) so the digging wasn’t as easy as if they were year old seedlings. Transplanting the free trees was really easy once they were dug, however. And since they are perfectly dormant, and will remain so for the next few months, they should have plenty of time to establish sufficient root mass to support themselves (with some nurturing) in 2009.

The trick to transplanting free trees is to dig them while they are dormant. A little extra effort with the digging to get as much root as possible will pay a large dividend. Keep the roots moist until you get the trees planted in their new location. Water the trees as you backfill the planting hole and be prepared to give them plenty of water as they come back to life in the spring.

Transplanting free trees isn’t the only way to save money in 2009. We plan to make and root cuttings of the lone Cottonwood on our place … and our corkscrew Willow too. We also plan to collect a few bucketfuls of Osage orange fruit and plant the seeds.

I will report on these Save Money in 2009 topics and plenty of others right here. Stay tuned.

Somewhere around six weeks ago, Kate called me at work to let me know she had purchased five large Black Hills Spruce trees at a local nursery. She noted that they were too big to fit into her Subaru Outback. I was assigned the duty of picking them up on my way home from work … oh joy, I thought.

Since we had already planted a couple hundred trees and shrubs early in the spring, I wasn’t thrilled to have a bunch of big container trees to plant, but I dutifully picked them up … each weighed about 250 pounds. It wasn’t that easy to get them into the bed of the old IH pickup, but I managed. The thought of digging those five big holes made me weary.

I dropped the spruce trees next to the corral by the stock tank so I wouldn’t forget to keep them watered. I finally found the motivation to put them in the ground yesterday.

As with virtually any chore around the farm, the tree planting went much easier than I expected. Since the root balls were relatively large, I chose the shovel with the Dig Rig attachment on it to make the holes. The Dig Rig is an affordable attachment that increases the shovel’s capacity while providing a comfortable step … it reduces stress on your feet, knee, leg and back. I had used the Dig Rig equipped shovel to dig potatoes and plant a few perennials over the summer, but it really made a difference with digging the five large holes for the spruce trees. I didn’t make the holes as large as the arborists typically recommend, but our soil was mellow and moist, so I figured the trees would settle in with no problem.

After planting the end trees, which I am pretty sure are Norway spruces not Black Hills, I paced off the total distance, did some quick math and determined that the other trees (two Black Hills spruce and one Colorado blue spruce) needed to be planted at 6-pace intervals. One by one, the trees went into the ground (along with a 5-gallon bucket of water) like clockwork.

Years ago at our place in South Dakota, Kate and I planted about 50 Colorado blue spruce of similar size, along with about 1,000 seedlings. The seedlings are now about 8 feet tall … the 50 big ones are closer to 15 feet tall. We will be pushing 70 years of age by the time these trees get that large, but as Kate always says, “You plant trees for the next generation.” Hopefully the next generation will enjoy these spruces as much as we do.