Blue Ridge Country - March/April 2015 - 48

G Thinking Like a Tree
Text and photos by Elizabeth Hunter

Mountain
Garden

AND MORE PRECISELY, WHEN YOU PLANT, THINK LIKE THE SPECIES OF
TREE YOU'RE PUTTING INTO A HOLE, AND ABOUT ITS FUTURE THERE.

NOT LONG AFTER I MOVED to my
mountain cabin, I had to replace the
wooden posts holding up the house
with a cement block foundation. I
didn't have money to face the block
with rock and hated the way it
looked. So a friend drew a plan to
screen the block using picturesque little evergreens. Lots of block still
showed once we got the trees in, but
my friend assured me that they would
grow quickly, which they did. Trouble
was, they didn't stop with screening
the block. Soon they were obscuring
the view from my bedroom and office
windows. Planted too close to the
house, their roots threatened the
foundation I'd spent all that money
on. Not many years after planting
them, I had to cut them all down.
"Do yourself a favor and think
waaay ahead when buying woody
plants," writes Karan Davis Cutler,
author of Brooklyn Botanic Garden
Handbook #176, Pruning Trees,
Shrubs & Vines. "Those five-foot blue

BOUNTY ON THE LAND

SUSAN'S ESSENTIAL TEXTS
The two books Susan Hastings can't do
without:
"Manual of Woody Landscape Plants; Their
Identification, Ornamental Characteristics,
Culture, Propagation and Uses," by Michael
A. Dirr, © 1975 now in its sixth edition, revised
2009, Stipes Publishing, LLC, Champaign, IL.
"Pruning Simplified," by Lewis Hill, © 1986
by Storey Communications, Inc., originally
published by Rodale Press, 1979.
Another great information source: The
Arbor Day Foundation, 100 Arbor Ave.,
Nebraska City, NE 68410; arborday.org
-ECH
48 | BlueRidgeCountry.com

Sitting at Susan's, looking out across the tops
of the trees toward Humpback Mountain, is a
great and peaceful pleasure. A mug of coffee
warming my hands, I watch the crowns of the
tallest of her trees fired by day's first light.
spruces that perfectly frame the front
door can't be kept that small forever.
Boston ivy won't just cover a well, it
will cover the neighborhood.
Rhododendrons the size of laundry
baskets get to be the size of garden
sheds."
Better advice was never given -
nor, I'm betting, more often ignored.
Because my acre of land is mostly
wooded, and because I've always
wanted lots of flowers and veggies in
the cleared space, planting trees
hasn't been something I thought
much about. That is, until three or
four years ago, when I began staying
at the home of retired psychiatric
nurse Susan Hastings up in Afton,
Virginia, on my fall hawkwatching
trips. Susan is passionate about trees,
not just looking at them, one of my
great pleasures, but about planting,
pruning and nurturing them, helping
them to become what it is in their
DNA to be.
Susan lives in a house backed by
woods overlooking a former hayfield.
It's not a hayfield now. Instead it's
home to about 40 fortunate trees,
generously spaced and of varying
height and girth, all but one planted
by her since she bought the land 30
years ago. I didn't know that younger
Susan who set the trees out, but
there's something about the way

BOUNTY ON THE LAND

TO THINK LIKE A TREE
To grow trees successfully, "familiarize
yourself with who your trees are going
to be and put them where they will be
happy," Susan Hastings says. To that
end:
Choose trees that belong in your area. "You
wouldn't plant a redbud in northern
Wisconsin," she says. "It wouldn't survive."
Check species' natural range before you order.
Learn a tree's likes and dislikes. Does it prefer
wet feet? Some do, some don't. Is it an understory tree? It will need protection. Root systems
differ. Shallow-rooted species shouldn't be
planted where there's heavy foot or motor traffic, or where you mow regularly. Want a tree
for a windy location? Choose one with a
taproot.
Learn the size the tree will be at full growth,
and whether it's a fast- or slow-grower. (The
good news: breeders are miniaturizing many
landscape favorites, so if your space is limited
look for small cultivars.)
Does it need a mate to produce fruit or nuts?
If it does, you'll need to plant two. (The "magnificent pecan" in Susan's hayfield when she
bought her place "bloomed like crazy every
year, but never produced nuts." Once she figured out it needed a mate, she planted two
baby pecans. That's why it took the big pecan
so long to produce its first crop.) -ECH

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Blue Ridge Country - March/April 2015

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