by George Collins » Mon Mar 04, 2013 6:12 pm
The chestnuts will, if all goes as planned, be the crown jewel of our farm. As such, they get the environment most favorable to them. Everything else has to take a back seat. I would cut down any tree, disrupt any plan, go to any reasonable (and maybe a few unreasonable) lengths to ensure their safety and productivity.
Presently, thanks to Hurricane Katrina, the 20 acres to the north of my house is a pine thicket. Before then, it had been the most beautiful stand of mostly hardwoods one would likely ever see outside a national forest. So happens that that 20 acres spans two hill tops: one on which my house sits which is red clay; the other, more northerly one is pure sand. Coincidentally, that sandy hill was the location where resided the last chestnut that was known to exist in this part of the world until the blight killed it. As chance would have it, chestnuts favor sandy soil.
That northerly situated, sandy hill is the first on the list for likely planting sites. Also, there they would be in a position so well protected, the only person likely to ever see them would be someone taken there for the express purpose of seeing them. That is to say, surrounded on three sides by a pine thicket/briar patch and on the fourth side there exists our neighbors who are red necks of the old school with a yard full of big dogs and a house full of bigger guns.
"Solve world hunger, tell no one." "The, the, the . . . The Grinch!"
"If you can't beat them, bite them."