Monday, May 5, 2008

Arbor Day Revisited

Well, I planted a tree on Arbor Day.

I planted a Japanese Maple.

I've always wanted one and now I have one.

The trick is, can I keep it alive?

It seems to be doing rather well so far, but it has only been a little over a week since I planted it.

I have it in a pretty good spot with mostly morning sun and mostly afternoon shade. At least for the time being. I have almost no trees on my 4 acres here in the desert. I've planted several trees this spring so far, the Japanese Maple being the latest edition to my new "forest".

My first tree I planted was last summer and since I was new to the horticulture of Southern AZ, I made the mistake of planting a Cottonwood. Now don't get me wrong, it is doing beautifully and all, but it requires ALOT of water. So I rectified that and planted several non-fruit-bearing Mulberries. They are drought resistant and use little wate. On top of that they grow fast and make good shade trees. So I'm guessing in about 5 years or so I should have some nice shady areas on the property. I still plan on planting more trees. I am unfortuantely going to have to stick with the low water variety because of the whole "desert" thing I have going on down here...hahaha.

I will take some photos when I get the time to download them to my computer, until then, here's a picture of a Japanese Maple:



Enjoy!

......

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