Tuesday, April 28, 2009

My Rail fence is blossoming!



I had my husband and foster son cut down the large horse chestnut tree in the front yard. They asked why, and I said, "because I really hate stepping bare foot on the thorny chest nuts when they fall, and it only blossoms for a day or two then the blossoms rot all over the lawn and continue spilling seeds and junk for days.
The chestnuts are apparantly poison. We went to the internet for recipies and tries different ways to use them but they were bitter and nasty to taste, and powdery like the poison ones were described, so I finally convinced them to cut it down just before it bloomed. Our foster son was thrilled to wield the little chain saw and he was pretty careful, except when he waved it around while it was still running even thought the motor was off. One warning and he stopped that.

He chopped and sawed the main branches, and we left a stump about two foot high which he carefully cut level for a little stool in the front yard by the flower ring.

He had to go, so I continued with the bell hawks, cutting the branches into two foot lengths so they wouldn't fight me putting them into the back of the pick up since we no longer have use of the trash trailer to take them to the dump.
My husband cut the branches off of the longer larger branches which I had dragged over to the driveway. Those I explained I would make into a rail fence around the garden, where they would both look "cute" and could be emergency fuel storage for the cook stove we ar buying when we get some extra money.
OK, he said.
Or maybe it was OK?
So We cleaned up the front yard that afternoon and drove the smaller branches to the dump where we were allowed to unload for free because it was all "green stuff."
When we came back I got busy digging holes by removing rocks, and burying the post ends in bought dirt Ihad in the garden as uprights.
I used the uprights I had carefully cut for the job, which had branches sticking out a few inches like a crotch of a tree which held the cross bars.
My husband came along a few days later to knotch and fit the cross bars so they would be stable and safe around children and me so "nothing would fall upon us."
As we did this we notices the cross bars and uprights were blossoming.
We left the blossoms, because after all, the chestnust aren't where the grandkids walk and play, and I always wear shoes to garden, and the floweres really are pretty for a day or two. We don't have to try to eat the chestnuts, they can go to the compost pile along with the other weeds and organic waste.

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