My Garden ~ Trees for the Swampy Area

I’m attempting to reforest a swampy area fed by underground seepage from a spring . A hardpan layer lies beneath a layer of clay loam. Digging the planting holes has had it’s difficulties – rock hard in the drier months and very boggy at other times. A pick-axe was useful at times. While I planted exotic trees because of their affinity with growing in wet situations, I also planted native trees such as Cabbage Trees and Tree Ferns. I also planted two small Kahikatea seedlings  – these are slow growing and are planted for posterity.  We happen to have many Totara trees. Some are about 20-30 metres and still growing at about 80 to 100 years old. Tree have an important significance in stories Maori people tell of Tane, the god of the forest.

Thinking about trees and people in this way, reminds me of two quotes I read in the United Nations Environment Programme: Billion Trees Campaign : 

“The great French Marshall Lyautey once asked his gardener to plant a tree. The gardener objected that the tree was slow growing and would not reach maturity for 100 years. The Marshall replied, ‘In that case, there is no time to lose; plant it this afternoon!’” John F. Kennedy

“Trees are poems that Earth writes upon the sky. We fell them down and turn them into paper, that we may record our emptiness.” Kahlil Gibran

This purpose of this post is really to experiment with using Rockyou slideshow to show captioned pictures of some trees I planted in this swampy area behind my garden.  

| View Show | Create Your Own

---

Possibly related posts: (automatically generated)

• Spring Garden 2009
• Tree Pot
• From the Desk of Ed Hume: Living Christmas Trees