Posted on by activejon

Jon’ny Appleseed at last.

I don’t credit my schooling with much other than instilling me with the urge to rebel but I do have memories of hearing a rather mythical story of a guy called Johnny who went across America planting apple trees. He probably was slaughtering the natives and spreading smallpox too but at the tender age of 7 or 8 I was not yet aware of such realities behind our comforting school assemble stories. So to cut to the chase, I’ve harboured a desire to plant trees since then. Years as a delivery driver in and around London have given me a deep sense of guilty complicity in the polluting of the environment too. So now its time to make amends and plant them trees! Only took me 46 years to get around to it and I’ll probably be permanently horizontal before most of these trees reach their prime but hey ho lets go….

Wednesday found me taking an increasingly rare trip outside of Kordun , all the way to Zagreb! I came back with the car full of booklets about the Zapatistas and a selection of sixteen interesting – hopefully in the future – young trees. Sanja ordered a Ginko and a “fake banana tree” which turns out to be a Paw Paw or Indian Banana (Asimina triloba). Needless to say her choices were the most expensive by far but as Thernadier says “what can you do?”
Waiting in the barn for their day of departure to their final destination my selection of little trees speculate on where they will end up and whom will be next to whom for the rest of their lives!
The Likvidamabar cost about a tenner which is a fortune in my books, but if it grows to look anything like the beauty on the nursery website Ill be very happy.
As you can see this beautiful Gorski Javor (Accer Pseudoplatanus) – Yeah I bought it just cos the latin name, cool or what! – is surrounded by long grasses and weeds. I plan to keep those at a safe scythe swing distance from all my trees so one can inspect them without fear of disappearing down a dog hole or tripping over a snake. When the trees are big enough I will place benches under the ones with the best canopies, but that might be some time off.
This is a Brekinja (Sorbus Torminalis) known to the English as a Chequer(s) tree, or the rather weird – and attractive to me – name of the Wild Service-tree!!!
This beauty is a Sugar Maple tree or Šečerni Javor in Croatian. Just imagine one day we might have our own alternative to sugar supply!!!
Time to pack it in for the day, me thinx. The last tree to go in the ground was the Jarebika (Sorbus Aucuparia) which looks good as a silhouette dunnit?

2 Replies to “Jon’ny Appleseed at last.”

  1. I asked the woman in the nursery about that and she said only the Ginko tree would be at risk, but i doubt that’s a money back guarantee!

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