Timber!

We took down a large maple on Saturday that was in the middle of the garden area. It had multi-forked at about ten feet, and had several large trunks (its the tree in the forefront on the right). Two of the very highest ones had already died, with one of them coming down in a storm last year, but overall it still looked to be in pretty good shape.

The reason that I took it down is that it was creating too much afternoon shade on the northern plot. After it came down, I found that it had been infested by carpenter ants. They had gotten in from the bottom, somehow, and done a lot of damage. The scary part was that there really weren't a lot ants left in the tree.

As she was coming down, the main trunk where the first fork had formed, split in half from the insect damage. I can't believe that it was still alive, let alone looked to be healthy. A peek into the base of the trunk was scary.

When all was said and done, I easily got half a cord of wood out of the puppy!

On Sunday I also seeded some corn, lettuce and onions in flats.

• Bloody Butcher Corn
• Hopi Blue Corn
• Golden Bantam Corn
• Stowell's Evergreen Corn
• Paris White Romain Lettuce
• Iceburg Lettuce
• Sweet Spanish Yellow Onions

I also reseeded basil, cilantro and sage because I had terrible germination rates. Only a couple of basil and cilantro seeds germinated, and no sage seeds at all. Looks like I'll have to buy some seedlings from a local farm for early season use.