365Caws is now in its 14th year of publication, and was originally intended to end after 365 days. It has sometimes been difficult for me to find new material, particularly during the winter months, but now as I enter my own twilight years, I cannot guarantee that I will be able to provide daily posts. It is my hope that along the way I may have inspired someone to a greater curiosity about the natural world. If so, I can rest, content in the knowledge that my work here has been done.
Sunday, February 21, 2021
Horticulture In Action
Day 131: Emboldened by my success at producing one rooted slip of contorted filbert in my entire horticultural history with the tree using multiple methods over a period of five or six years, I set out this morning to determine whether the experiment was repeatable or only a fluke. Since soil layering had been the only means with which I'd had any luck, I made eight "staples" out of aluminum wire, tied flagger tape to them (it won't fade like the cloth strips did), and headed out into light drizzle with a trowel, a sharp knife, rooting hormone and assorted other pieces of gardening gear to tackle the project. I was able to find eight conveniently contorted bends in branches close to the ground, scraped wounds on the bottoms of each twig and dosed it with Rootone, then buried each one two to three inches deep, mounding dirt donated by the resident mole around each staple before packing it down. Now the project is in Ma Nature's hands. The timing is right. The sap is running. New growth has begun. Will I have to wait five years again to get results? If that's what it takes, I have the patience for the task.
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