Container Grown or Bare-Root?

Along about this 
time, a young 
person's fancy 
turns to love, 
while mine turns to 
love of planting trees. 

My yard has reached
tree saturation.
Come spring, I'm
going to try to sneak in 3 small trees I've started from seed. Time these tiny
little buggers faced the outside world.

Many times I've been asked if I prefer "container balled and burlapped
 or bare-root trees." Hands down,  I prefer the bare-root but I have
planted many a tree from a pot.  After three years of growth, compare
the two.  Usually the bare-root will be more stable ..... IF the tree has
had proper early structural pruning. A deep strong taproot with one
central leader is what we are aiming for.

So many people plant a tree and if green leaves appear, they forget
about it.  Don't do that. Plant it, prune it, water it, feed it, love it. 
You'll be amazed at the true love-affair one can have with a tree.

Adios dear bloggy friends.

Parka Up

Very little snow but cold, cold, cold.  Don't let that sunshine deceive you. 

Bits and Tads and Pieces........
Since my water pipes froze and burst, I get paranoid whenever the temp drops.
A gorgeous sunny day but around 10 below zero. I hear MN is gearing up for
record cold. I grew up there..... Holy Yipes, how can it get any colder?

Yay for Colorado's legalized marijuana law. Do you recall the post where
I talked about my quarter-size patch of skin cancer on my face? I was going to
use blood root but I was indecisive because B.R. is so powerful and a
little scary. I use the commercial Hemp Oil on my face and I started applying
extra to the sore. Immediately it began to dry up and within 3 days a fairly
large chunk fell off. Within 2 weeks, it was just pink skin and I had been
fighting that for over 2 years. Was I positive it was skin cancer? Yes,
confirmed by 2 medical people. If we could make the oil ourselves, it
could be much more powerful.  Watch Hemp Oil dissapear from the shelves
now.  An herbalist here, who makes the Black Salve from blood root
that is sold in the health food stores has just been fined $90,000 by the Feds.
He's out of business .... just like they are trying to do with all supplements.

I'm reading a good book.... "The Brothers" by Stephen Kinzer.  Follows
the lives of the Dulles brothers, Allen and John Foster and their dirty
little interventions into ruining other countries. John Foster, ego maniac
as Sec of State, was totally responsible for sending troops into Vietnam
after both Britain  and France said it couldn't be won. Allen founded the
CIA and used it as his personal henchmen.

Today, Keith from "Musings of an Unapologetic Dreamer" asked the
queston, "Are people inherently good?" Here we have 2 brothers who
actually thought they were exceptional because of the way they
were raised and thought they worked for the good of the country. It
appeared that humility was never introduced into their lives and
through their one-sided view of the world, never took personal
account of all the blood that was on their hands by sending American
boys to foreign lands to kill innocent people and for WHAT REASON?
The US would have been far better off without the Dulles brothers. A
great read.