Maintaining a Windbreak--Part 1--Filling in the Gaps
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| Windbreak and new trees on right |
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We live in the West Antelope Valley, in a transition
area from foothills to the Western edge of the Mojave desert. It is
windy out here...I mean really windy. We regularly have sustained winds
of over 30 mph. Gusts up to 70 mph are not unheard of. What this
means is that an adequate wind break is a must. A windbreak is
essentially a line of trees on the side of your property where the
prevailing winds come from. In our case, it's the Western boarder of
our property.
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| Loading the trees into the truck | |
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We took advantage of a dust mitigation program
offered by neighboring Solar facilities, Mid America Solar and S Solar,
which offered area residents 10 free trees. We decided to use these
trees to fill in the holes in our windbreak.
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| Water delivery |
We picked the trees up in mid December and placed
them near where we plan to plant them. Since we have not added
irrigation lines or water to the back portion of our property, we have
been watering the trees using 20 gallon tubs and 2 gallon buckets run
from the back of the truck. Not the easiest way to water, but it gets
the job done.
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Fabulous husband getting started
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Figure out where your gaps are in the windbreak and
decide where to place your tree. Since the trees are super heavy, it's
best to use the container to gauge your placement and the depth of the
hole.
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| Not quite deep enough |
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Once the hole was deep and wide enough, we added a
bit of composted horse manure to feed the tree. Since the previous
owner of our ranch raised thoroughbred Arabians, there is no shortage of
this around here! We added about a gallon of water and then placed
measured using the planter to be sure.
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| Depth of hole equals correct depth to plant |
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| Low tech irrigation | |
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We
took the tree out of the container and cut the roots to loosen. These
trees had been in these pots way to long and had become root bound.
It's essential that the tree's roots be able to spread out and a tap
root reach the ground water.
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| Making cuts to the roots to ensure growth. |
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Now it's time to place the tree in the hole.These
weigh over 150 pounds so it took both of us. We oriented the tree
slightly into the prevailing winds and checked to make sure we were
satisfied with its placement before filling the hole.
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| Checking depth and placement |
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Now it's time to refill the hole and add a support.
You can use any sturdy stick, but living on a ranch, you end up having
all sorts of fence posts and rods laying around...just use what you
have.
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| Add a support |
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| Back fill the hole |
While filling the hole, after every few feet of soil
we added about a gallon of water. This is to give them a drink as well
as help our little trees be successful. It also helps with settling and
lets you know if you have any drainage issues.
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| Add a gallon of water several times during the fill |
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| Finish back filling the hole |
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Now that the holes have been back filled,
we add about 2-3 gallons of water. We check drainage and their level to
ensure the trees are where we want them. After the trees are settled
in, we will attach the tree to the support post with a piece of cloth to
support our tree's growth in the wind.
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| All done! |
So one tree down....nine more to go!!
You
might be wondering why I titled this blog post, "Part 1." The answer
to this is that maintaining a windbreak is a twofold process. What we
have been avoiding since we moved here about about a year and a half ago
is cutting the dead wood from the existing windbreak trees. This is a
tough one, because even though there are large sections of some trees
that are clearly dead, they still provide a break from the wind. We
don't want to remove too much.
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| Max with our puppies Rudy & Valentino August 2014 |
Like everything else in a rural setting, it's trial
and error. Living out here also forces you to do a lot of the work
yourself. It's tough to find an expert and if you can, they don't want
to drive all the way out here...lol!
For more information on how to do this in your area, check your local county agricultural extension office.
Hope you enjoyed our windbreak sage, part 1!
Cheers for now~
Marti
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