One of the first projects I set was to start growing some windbreaks, starting on outside edges and accounting for the more frequent wind directions first. I ordered trees from a web page treetime.ca which I had not previously used. The government programs all expected me to reforest the farm land, and not just plant breaks. I was not able to find one promoting windbreaks or hedgerows that offered any plants or plant discounts. If anyone knows of one...
Being a bit late in the season, some of the options I was hoping to purchase were sold out for the season, but in the end I got 2 boxes of plants this year.
180 x Sundancer Poplar (Populus x ACWS151) developed at the Agroforestry Center in Indian Head, SK. It is very columnar at only 3m wide and 12m tall. It is seedless and considered very hardy (drought and salt tolerant)
270 x White Spruce (Picea glauca) 6m wide and 25m tall. Native to Canada.
This Tuesday the Poplars arrived and Wednesday the spruce arrived for a total in the end of 450 trees needing to be planted as quick as possible. I will probably add some next season that I missed this year.
I spaced them both in row at 3m (a bit wider than recommended for the poplar, but right on for the spruce. I staggered the rows planting the poplar 2.5m in from the fence line and the first spruce 5m. A second row of spruce I put in the southern field at 9.5m in. I suspect I add a 3rd row, of some other evergreen next year for a truly dense break on the road side which is also the prevailing wind side. I tried to come up with some creative non linear planting model, but putting that into practice would just take too long.
I also purchased seeds for silver buffaloberry (Shepherdia argentea) which I plan to plant closest top the fence. As a nitrogen fixer, local to North America and with high salt tolerance and low height it fitted well. The added benefit of the fruit for wildlife. These I will grow and transplant a bit larger once they can compete better.
Now I am sure everyone has heard for the tree planter that plants 2000 trees a day, well, clearly I would not cut it. Yesterday I planted about 140 trees and came home and lay on the couch feeling all the aches. That leaves me with about 2 more days of planting these out. And yes, my lines are not all perfectly straight.
In the mean time, issues with my tiller and tillage plans have delayed the planting out of any seeds or annuals. I have got some of my genetics planted and some more arrived this week from a order I placed at bambooplants.ca. Ironically a local company that required me to ship the plants. They have some great cultivars, but ironically some of the plant labels came out during shipping, so when you ordered 2 cultivars of the same plant, its not ideal. These I am also planting in rows 3m apart. its wide enough to mow between yet not damage the plants and some will require that space. Not the progression I had hoped, but progress none the less.