Couple of weeks ago I hired a professional to come bring my oak tree down. From the street it looked great, but from behind it was plain that lightning, bugs, and/or parasites were sucking the life right out. One of the major limbs was splitting and hollow. It looked dangerous. I'll be using all the parts of the tree. The minor logs are going around the edges to make borders and planting areas. The thick slices are getting hollowed out to make planters. The branches are for making mulch. But the planters and borders will break down! Yes, they will, and they will do it in about the same time it takes for the new plants to mature, which is great. The woody material will eventually be rich new soil, and I can put in new borders made from something else. I kept a tall stump. That's where the Little Free Library will eventually go, but there's a ton of prep involved before that. In the meantime the library can go on a bench. ...
Let's talk a minute about wild strawberries. These are not wild strawberries. When I was a kid, by the time grown-ups got around to telling me that these are poisonous, I knew that wasn't true. My friends and cousins and I had been eating these for years. They have virtually no flavor. But if you put a bunch of sugar and milk on them, they're fine. We all thought these were wild strawberries. I was in my 50s when I learned that actual wild strawberries do have flavor. They have more flavor than store-bought strawberries do. Wild strawberries are native to the US. These things in the picture are mock strawberries. And they are not native. I may try to cultivate wild strawberries in this project.
I went outside to do a little mowing and weed eating instead of moving my daily 5 logs. But I got aesthetically distracted and wound up moving many more than 5 logs. And not doing either of the other things. Why do logs look so much better standing up than lying down? Anyway, I straightened up the Little Free Library area, giving it more structure. The plan is to put vining or screening plants alongside the tall stump to help screen this area from the house. Some LFL patrons have reported feeling like they are being watched from the host's house and I don't want that. People should take all the time they want choosing a book. People should be free to sit down and read awhile. Two of the logs are about right for sitting on. They lean, though, so I've placed them to lean together. I may want to more firmly attach them, but so far they don't even wiggle.
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