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It's winter now!

If you got married, had kids, you must have a heart and a vision for their future. You changed diapers, corrected homework, taught right from wrong. You’ll see them marry and have kids of their own. What environmental future do they have though? If you have paid any attention to the nonpartisan news, you already know we are threatened as a species! Our grand children will inherit an unrecognizable planet. What do we do about it? We vote that tRUMP into office, light our huge houses, drive those stupid big SUVs, use plastic with no regard for what happens after we chuck it away for removal.

Bring this stuff up at a party, your friends will look at you like you have five heads. At some point, though, it will be on everyone’s minds.

....is easier done than said. No typo. Do what you do well at work or what’s the point of doing it? Income? Ok, good answer for some but not for me. My job is my passion, the subjects of my passion get my love and attention. Income is secondary. Important yet comes second.

Ive told the owner of this nursery for decades about my feelings towards this particular tree. It’s RARE. It’s sexy. It’s unique. It’s PERFECT in all ways, or it used to be.

This nursery owner did not one thing that I told him to do to care for this tree to see to it that it passed through his fingers into the next generation’s possession and care.

I told him to feed it with 50lbs Harrell’s. He didn’t.

​I told him to treat it with merit. He didn’t.

I told him to have a tree surgeon trim it, he did it himself- SHITTY JOB he did too.

I told him to put a foot of raw wood chips in a 40’ circle at the base- he didn’t.

I told him to keep cars away but when I was there two days ago five cars were parked under it.

Its his tree, he can do whatever the hell he wants to to that tree. But in a larger sense, that tree belongs to all of us, and we want our lives filled with art, love, magic, history, awe. I always let people know when they own deadly trees as well as artistic specimens. This guy, even though he is in the nursery business, must be in it for the money, not the passion.

As as far as this tree goes, though, his lack of passion is a loss for anyone who has come to love that tree as they drive by. It WAS a unique form of weeping cherry. Here is a sad song to commemorate the soon -to-be-death of this tree:

I was in remedial English in college. I never understood why I found it so hard to write stuff for the teacher. I didn’t care I guess. Maybe I never had an inspiring teacher. Maybe I was a lazy good for nothing typical American student who took everything for granted. I dunno!

At lunch after graduating college I would go to the corner deli and get my milk and my RB on rye with lettuce, tomato, mustard, mayo, salt n pepper, oil and vinegar.

​Often I would see a NYT with an interesting article on the cover so I would buy that too and read whilst feasting. It became a habit, then a passion. Food for my tummy, food for my brain.

The Times brought the world into my head in a way nothing had ever penetrated my soul before. I saw how the English language was supposed to be used, how grammar worked, the strength of written imagery, creativity, and intelligence. This appreciation/education occurred slowly over a long period of time, one sandwich at a time. How can a NYT author make obscure foreign/national news items interesting to a blue collar worker?

​NYT authors helped me digest and understand politics, helped me cut through the utter bullshit politicians wish for you to believe (I do not need their help sorting through tRUMP’S total BULLSHIT- I had him figured for a fool and an ass**** after I heard him speak for the first time).

Reporters slap us in the face with sobriety sometimes, and I welcome their help!

This article caught my eye, dunno why, but shortly after I started reading it I realized it was written by an author that I have always strived to be like. She tells two stories, maybe three at the same time, hard to understand if you only think about raking leaves- pure genius.

I am going to write her a letter thanking her for this article, then join the NYT as a subscriber!

LINK:

​https://www.nytimes.com/2018/11/11/opinion/red-state-liberal-leaf-blowers.html?action=click&module=Opinion&pgtype=Homepage

A Quitting math teacher handed this letter out Friday before he was escorted out of the school.

I think its it’s one of the most intelligent and well written pieces that I have read in a very long time.

​Wait- why is such an obviously intelligent thinker not teaching our kids any more? What’s wrong with Trumbull???

Sounds like something is amiss in the famous Trumbull Educational District. Sounds like, if what this guy says is true, that the administration does not care about our kids, only how the district scores!!!?

What do we do with this now?

I know this letter is full of truths from first hand experience. My kid was/is having trouble in math so I told him I want to see his tests. Kyle said I can’t see them. I said why not? Because the teacher won’t let the kids take the tests home.

“Why not” I thundered???

He did not know why- just that tests are shown to the kids for ten minutes and returned to the teacher never to be seen ever again.

Additionally, they DO NOT grade nor even look at the homework. All a kid has to do it put XXX in the box for the answers and they get a 100% grade on all homework, then when they get the test scores back, it could be a 58% or a 72%... HUGE disparity between now and when I was a student and the teacher actually (actually!!!) taught! This is NOT FAIR though to teachers. They are ordered to do this and that by the school administration and even if they object, the teachers are basically told to do it or leave. I know for a fact that the Trumbull High School principal is a really great person and has our kids best interest in mind but he is told exactly what to do also.

I hope the teacher who left goes on to teach kids in a school system whose Administrators really care about its students.

The worst time of the year for plants is summer drought time, so my favorite time to plant lawns and plants/trees is as far away from hot time as possible, even if it is in December or winter time.

​Our industry has has done a very poor job in getting this point out there to the general public. Why plant in spring? Because you are sick of being inside, and you want to get out there and do stuff for the yard! Course, understandable!

Yet the biggest problem with our industry is that we all think like people and not like plants. When we think like trees do, we are in sync with them, and can provide for them to help them maximize their genetic potential.

The best example is feeding plants and trees. Almost nobody comes to me to buy food in the fall. Why? Cause people think the landscape is dormant. Why? It’s “people cold” and there are no leaves on the trees, people are more dormant, so plants must be asleep too right? HELL NO!

The birches out in front of the street expand their trunks more from oct-April than any other time of the year. Bark sheds off like crazy! They AINT dormant! Roots on our trees grow like crazy all winter, same on everything else too.

At the same time these plants are really active, there is record precipitation in the form of rain, sleet, and snow. The soil becomes nutrient-poor, and the plant’s ability to do its thing is limited. Fall feeding is really really important if you wish to maximize potential for performance during the “visible growing season.”

​Fall planting and fall feeding are two great examples of how to shy away from thinking like a human when thinking about your landscape. The more you think like a tree the better able you are to have a great relationship with your yard.

I used to push him so hard he would swing way way up to the tops of the evergreen trees. Sometimes there would be one of his friends on it also, scared out of his mind. Not easy to push such a big tire so high- tiring (pun intended)!

Now when I look at that tree I will see Quercus rubra in all its stately glory, yet I will always feel that something is missing, kinda like the boy in puff the magic dragon.

That little kid is grown up, and that tree has gone back to being just a nice tree.