Saturday, May 17, 2008

Prairie and flowering trees

I went out to our property today with our family friend/prairie restoration consultant. She asked me what our vision was and I said, "prairie." I think she was looking for more but I didn't know there were many options. I guess this is kind of like building a house, you don't know how complicated it can be until you start. Anyway, it was useful. She told me about soil, we talked about what parts would be prairie and how they would differ, different planting options, erosion, grasses versus forbes varieties and % mixes, and it was an enlightening tour of invasives/plants that should not be there. On the way out I said "well, at least we don't have garlic mustard like at my mom's house" and then we walked around the corner and there was a huge new patch of it. Curses that stuff is evil! I was kind of glad Joe was on his bike tour as I think he might have been a little too excited about the burning discussions.

I think we need to think more about what we want to do with the property in the long run and then sit down with our prairie and landscape advisers together and map it out.

On another note, I went to the Madison Arboretum with my Mom this weekend and we saw the flowering tree section. Everything was in bloom: lilacs, magnolias, and tons of different flowering crab apples. It was almost an olfactory and visual overload. If you live in Madison and have the chance to see this during the blooming season you should really make the trip. I am taking the kids and my cousin back tomorrow before all the flowers are gone. Anyway, it would be nice to create a similar but smaller flowering oasis somewhere close to our new house.

More later about the actual house. We are still waiting on the bids. We missed the deadline to apply for the driveway installation in July so we won't be starting until at least August. Probably just as well since we haven't picked our builder and are likely going to have to work on cost reduction.

1 Comments:

Blogger Bill and Tami said...

You can get 10 free flowering trees with your membership in the Arbor Day foundation. www.arborday.org
Membership is $10.
~Tami

May 19, 2008 at 11:30 PM  

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