Getting Ready for Goderich...

I have a backlog of all my pictures with all the loading and preparation we did for the parade of trees that we participated in this past Saturday, November 10th, 2012 in the Town of Goderich.  It was a huge success.  But I will have more on that shortly.  I think I should go into some detail of how it all coordinated before the actual parade.  The nursery was a hub of activity this past week, from digging to loading.  And of course, these are not just small trees - they are huge.  With many milestones and unexpected things happening we managed to get it done.  It was all very exciting and we are still in the process with much more to do.  But here is a glimpse of the hard work behind the scenes.  Most of these trees are too big to be dug with a tree spade and require hand digging and to be drum strung.  It is better for the survival of the trees as we know exactly where the roots end.  As you can see from the pictures it is a lot of hard work and requires special transportation.  Out of the 150 trees we have for Goderich - this is only a glimpse.  We are still digging.  If anyone was at the parade and saw the first planting on Saturday - there are still bigger specimens to arrive. As you can see from the pictures below - we still have alot of trees still to come..

Replacing The Trees Lost in the Goderich Tornado...

It is Halloween already!  Geez - where has the time gone???  We thought the Spring was busy - nobody prepared us for the Fall!  We have been busy this past month selecting and digging large tree specimens for the Town of Goderich.  A little over a year ago the most powerful tornado to hit the province in years swept through the southwestern Ontario town of Goderich, killing one person and devastating the picturesque community on the shore of Lake Huron.  Century-old buildings, churches and homes were either damaged or destroyed as well as many of the old trees.  Winds of roughly 280 km/h carved a path about 500 metres wide through the town's centre - right through the downtown core.  In the downtown core is the Court House Square that was home to hundreds of large trees.  Only 3 remain.  It has taken the community over year to generate a master plan and start the re-building the town.  That is where we come in - we are replacing some of the trees in the town square.  But they couldn't be just any trees there had to be large specimens to re-create the canopy that was once there.  The trees will range anywhere between 30 - 50 feet and will require a large crane to to lift them.  They will be moved into the Town of Goderich on large flatbed trucks - some of them will only fit one per truck.  Quite an effort was put into selecting the trees through the Director of Operations and Parks Superintendent of the Town of Goderich, as well as Landscape Architect based out of Toronto.  Most of the trees are native to Southern Ontario and include Oaks, Maples, Chestnuts to name a few. I have includes some pictures of the tagging and digging process and will be updating frequently - here is the beginning of a great project that we are so happy to be involved with...

Black Oak Tagged

Dawn Redwood being drum strung

Freemannii Maples

Kentucky Coffee Tree

Beginning to dig Pin Oaks

Showing the proceedure....

Tagging Red Sunset Maples

Scarlet Oak Tagged

More Scarlet Oaks

Birch Trees Tagged

Red Oak

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Blue Beech

Green Vase Zelkovas Tagged

Digging of the Elms

Elms at the end of the day

Kentucky Coffee Trees after digging

The Elms beig dug

Starting of another day of digging

Root ball of the Dawn Redwood

Pin Oaks

Finishing up the Pin Oaks...

Fall

With all the activity happening around the yard it has been almost impossible to find time to blog.  I did find the time to take pictures though!  This fall showed some amazing displays of fall leaves - it was stunning.  It is almost impossible not to take a million pictures of the red burning bushes that are all around the yard they just automatically catch your eye.  As the days get shorter it is most important to get out early and catch the rights sunlight.  Today there is a high wind and all the leaves are blowing off the trees.  Soon there will another landscape to take photos of!  Please see the pictures below and drink in some of that fine autumn glory!