Time for the Biggest Ladder I Can Find (Finally!)

In one section of my garden (Zone 3, for those who are keeping track), many of the seeds I sowed are not germinating. When I set up my new square-fot gardening rasied beds this year, I got the information early on to trim at least three feet off of the top of three arbor vitae bushes that stand across from Zone 3. Now, these bushes are way tall. I mean waaaaay tall. My husband and I have been scratching our heads (and thus procrastinating) about how, exactly, to trim the top three feet from 20-foot bushes. The result of our head-scratching delay is that Zone 3 gets only a few hours of sun each day, and that’s clearly not enough for these seeds to germinate. So, seeds of chamomile, rudbeckia, coreopsis, coleus, butternut squash, watermelon, peppermint, and other glorious plants have likely rotted in the soil. <Sigh> One thing I love about working with nature is that the results of my action (or inaction, in this case) are so easy to see (unlike working with people, where I might not know the reaction for hours, days or weeks!). It’s time to climb up on the tallest ladder we can root out of the basement (ours or a neighbor’s), place the saw as high up the arbor vitae trunk as we can reach (no long-handled lopers will cut through these babies), and cut away. I’m excited to see the results of this experiment — I wonder what a few days of intense sunlight (finally!) might do for the seeds that are buried in these beds. Maybe they’re not rotting, after all. Or, maybe they are and it’ll be time to sow the seeds again, or sow new seeds, or plant seedlings that I’ve thinned from other beds. Whatever the outcome, I’ll keep you posted. Now, I’m off to find a ladder…