Catherine Violet Hubbard Foundation

This Sunday, March 18th 2018

Sunday at the Sanctuary- Historic Stone Walls for Wildlife

Join us at Fraser Woods Montesori School

173 S. Main St Newtown, CT

1-2.00pm

Dr. Robert Thorson, UCONN professor and founder of the Stone Wall Initiative, will share the exciting, hidden life behind stones! Author of the children's book "Stone Wall Secrets", Dr. Thorson will also be signing books and answering questions.

2-3.00pm

Join Becky Newman, Education Director from Earth Place of Westport, as she introduces stone wall wildlife including Box Turtles and Amphibians!

In addition, Master Stone Mason Andrew Pighills will take participants on an interactive journey of exploration including:

Hands on stone wall building demonstration

Children's stone wall building activity

How to explore, date and identify your stone walls

Please register at this web address

https://cvhfoundation.org/event/sunday-sanctuary-historic-stone-walls-wildlife/

An update on tree damage

I pruned the various damaged branches and limbs from the two willows, and took cuttings from the newest growth.

The silver leaf cuttings above and the gold leaf cuttings below, are planted in the wetlands where there is a constant supply of water

The willow is one of the easiest plants to strike from cuttings. One can also make willow water which is used to encourage plants other than willows to strike from cuttings.

This is due to the high concentration of Indolebutyric acid, a hormone that stimulates root growth found in the growing tips of willows, and Salicylic acid, a hormone which is similar to, and acts like an aspirin in signalling a plants defenses.

Simply cut young present years growth from any willow tree, remove leaves and cut into one inch lengths. Place in a waterproof container and add cold water, leave for several days or weeks. The more twigs, the stronger the brew. When finished strain off the liquid.

To use, just pour some willow water into a small container and immerse your cuttings overnight to soak up some of the willow water, then plant accordingly.

The resilient and not so resilient tree

Amazingly the River Birch, laid low by the weight of snow

has sprung back to its previous shape once the snow was removed.

The Lilac at center survived pretty much unscathed, as did the Dogwood behind and to the right of the old well. It recovered its normal shape, even though the snow covered branches were touching the ground

The Golden willow, back center looks to have come through undamaged, 

but on closer inspection, one of the main stems, left, has bent passed the point of no return. As this is a fast growing willow, I will probably cut out the bent branch and select a couple of well placed shoots from the multitude that will grow from around the cut, to bring it back to shape. 

The Hawthorn fared even worse. I will cut back all the broken branches and see how it grows back. This tree has fearsome thorns, so I may raise the crown above the highest broken branch for ease of grass mowing.

The silver leafed willow also incurred some damage, but once the damaged branches are pruned, it will soon regain its beautiful appearance.

Willows are easy to propagate from cuttings, simply push the clean cut branches in to reliably moist soil, and you will soon have rooted young trees, like these seven willow cuttings that I struck in spring 2017 and will be ready for planting out this spring.