Spring has sprung, the grass is riz, and
the buds on the Androscoggin is aburstin’.
Yeah, yeah I’m no poet, but just the same
at this time of the year I feel pretty chuffed about my Populus androscoggin trees!
Mind you I like them all year round, even the
grey back when they are naked, but because they are a balsam poplar, the wax on
their bursting leaves and buds is fragrant. There are some two hundred trees
alongside our house, so the fragrance pleasantly wafts around the property. I
wish I could describe the smell, the most similar being the propolis that bees
make from catsear. I guess that’s no help either! Catsear is a dandelion-like
weed and propolis is a glue bees make to maintain their hive. It is made from
material they gather mixed with wax extruded from glands on their body. It is a
recognised health product.
Anyway I have been fighting gorse pretty
much all of my working life, mainly to establish exotic forest but also to
maintain pasture. There are a number of methods, which don’t matter here, but
for those of you who have gorse as an indigenous plant, here in New Zealand it
was introduced as a farm hedging plant, but it has escaped to become an
invasive weed species.
Our property comprises two ancient river
flats, terraces, between them is a shady, steep, southerly face. The elevation
between the bottom terrace and the top terrace is around sixty metres, so on a
map, it doesn’t look to be much area but on the ground the total area amounts
to nearly two and a half hectares. When I took over the property in 1967 the
face was covered in gorse which was four metres high! Sorry I know figures can
be dull!
Anyone who reads my stuff has probably
figured out that I have a passion for trees, and it is trees that are the best
way to combat gorse. I have used three genera along my southerly face; Pinus,
Eucalyptus and Populus. With the first two, I had to cut lines through the
gorse and keep the seedlings weed-free until they could manage on their own. On
steep ground and with tall, vigorous gorse it was hard work, and maybe not
everyone’s cup of tea. The complication was bunnies! In the month of February
1975 I shot 46 rabbits in a small area of Eucalyptus that I had to totally
replant. I have harvested some of those Eucs, amazing when I think of it, I
sowed the seed, pricked them out, grew them on and then planted them out. Gun barrels
they are now, getting on for fifty meters tall and my hands don’t meet when I
hug them!
The Poplars were somewhat easier, I cut
light-wells in the gorse and in the centre planted Poplar poles of about two
metres long with a small end diameter of around two centimetres. They took no
care at all after hefting a crowbar to drive in the holes about a third to a
half meter deep for the poles. The trick for anyone trying this is to cut the
poles and to charge them with water before planting out! Soak them for a month
before budburst time when the planting should be completed. In the nursery we
made cutting about the size of pencils, so they don’t have to be big poles at
all.
Gorse is a light demander, so cutting down
available light will eventually kill it. The fallen autumn leaves seem to cut
more light because the sit on the green parts of the gorse. While the Poplars are
in leaf, they compete with the gorse for moisture too. Once the gorse has gone,
and because Poplars are deciduous, during the winter the soil has a chance to
recharge moisture levels so sheep are able to feed on the grass that grows.
Another little bonus for the sheep is the pollen-rich flowers that fall just
before budburst, during lambing!
My trees are now large, getting on for
twenty metres and the edge ones are fat, too big to hug! Androscoggin have a
strong root system including on the soil surface, which binds the soil
together, thus preventing erosion!
Edge trees grow large branches too and the
fallen leaves deter planting too close to houses. Those branches can be brittle
during strong wind but a good source of fuelwood. The timber is very good for timber
truck decks, beehives and as firewood Androscoggin burns well but leaves more
ash than pine or eucalypts. The autumn colour is brilliant, at least in years
when the rust not around. Poplar rust was feared to decimate Poplars in New
Zealand but over the thirty or so years it has been present (arriving from
Europe) they have built up a resistance to it except in very wet years.
At this time of the year I celebrate my
Androscoggin Poplars, for their rebirth, their fragrance and the benefit they provide
to our environment!
