Month: March 2022

making a smoke

John Deere 4020 diesel
The pause that satisfies. Making a smoke, getting ready for the ride back to the shop after a day of ordering in Charles Hill field, readying to plant corn. Jack Jasper, Rosni Farm, 1975.
Day’s end. Jack used to live in the house on the top of the hill, before Jack I think Sterling stayed there. In 1975 I did.

welcoming committee

airport security moving with deliberate speed
three on foot, one on Segway

Segue is a verb that means “to move without stopping from one topic, song, etc., to another.” Segway, on the other hand, is a trademarked name for an electric transportation device. Most of the most commonly confused words in English are old pairs: affect and effect, or discrete and discreet.

Street Trees

STL
There is a concept in urban street tree gardening called tree stocking. The term refers to tree density. If you plant a tree every thirty feet or so, you end up with continuous limbs and leaves over the street. A canopy street! The trees shade the asphalt, they shade the sidewalk. It is not rocket science. Garrett Street. used to be a canopy street. It was a great place to walk.
You can start a tree in a flowerpot. Put it in the ground with a tube around it. There is a prevailing newspaper wisdom that neighborhoods don’t have trees because of structural racism. Certainly that is 5% true. The City of Charlottesville has demonstrated a pronounced reluctance to plant trees in the public ROW. Why is that? I don’t know.
If you like shade, if you like trees, plant one a year on your street every year for ten years. Plant noble native trees like these Sycamores in Saint Louis. The planting will transform the neighborhood, it will transform your life.

Read Gregory McPherson’s article about urban trees.
In 1975 Charlottesville had a Street Tree Planting plan, never happened.
2014, the trees on Garret started to fall.
Why Trees Matter by Jim Robbins. 2013