Another Day

Another Tree. And more digging.

This time it is a Pin Oak, Quercus palustris.

It likes wet feet and acidic soils, which means our yard. The large tree directly behind the wheelbarrow is a Willow Oak, Quercus phellos, which likes similar conditions, and seems to be doing well. Which hopefully bodes well for the newcomer. It joins the White Oak, Quercus alba, we added last year.

You may have read about the insect apocalypse. Doug Tallamy, in his excellent Bringing Nature Home, notes that Oak trees support 534 species of Lepidoptera, the butterflies and moths. 

So if you are going to plant a tree, plant an Oak.

Trees also sequester carbon. And are thus a way to fight climate change.

And of course the acorns provide food for other types of wildlife, and home for one type of ant (Temnothorax curvispinosus), which I've not yet found in our yard, but have found no more than five miles from here.

Get digging!