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The aspen and lilacs and Nanking cherry seem to have taken root with few losses. I'd expected deer to take a measure of their tender shoots, but snow cover came early and heavy hereabouts and game animals have been scarce this year. I fret over the Austrian pine and Douglas fir. No signs of sun scald, but it's too early for new growth and their progress is slow.
A properly constructed windbreak can deter winds 10 times the height of the tallest tree, or so I've read. Planted in a bell-shaped curve with the tallest trees in the middle and shrubs on either end, the aerodynamic windbreak will re-direct breezes around a field, giving soils and tender seedlings some peace. There's a rule of thumb that says a windbreak of medium density will reduce wind speed 50 percent or more on the ground behind it for a distance up to eight times the windbreak's height. Those 30 mile-per-hour winds that whip through here would be flattened to 15 miles-per-hour for up to 160 feet behind a 20-foot windbreak.
Throughout the summer I tried to keep the weeds and grasses down so the trees wouldn't have to compete for water, but did not always succeed. In some places I have to pull away the dried corpses brushy weeds to find my saplings. But, as I said, my winter losses have been few. I can now envision a second year's growth and, faintly, imagine the windbreak of a decade from now. Two-foot trees don't break much wind, but they do break ground on the future. And I realize, as I walk this line, that they are planted against more than just the wind, but against any force that would drive us from this land: bankruptcy, death, relocation, condemnation. A windbreak won't stop time, but it may slow it down. |
Rural Delivery Commentaries and advice on rural living by Michael Hofferber Visit the Rural Delivery Blog |
