The fence line along our meadow was 69 feet from the center line, so all of our trees had to go. That meant all of our shade for the cows was gone, with the exception of one lonely tree. Here's the post I wrote about it. It all turned out fine, because PPL made good on their promise to replant trees in another spot for us!
We chose four Autumn Blaze Maple trees, which they planted about 30 feet further in from the fence line. During the hottest days of that first summer, the kids took 5 gallon buckets of water to each tree daily, to get them off to a good start and keep them alive. They're thriving now. Here's a picture of one of them last fall...
We've had wire fence around the trees since they've been planted, and the cows have pretty much left them alone until this summer. Now they've decided it's entertaining to pull at the lower branches, stripping them of leaves, breaking branches and causing damage...
Enough is enough! We're not going to have these trees damaged to the point that they die. So...we had tree boxes put up around them last week...
They're 7 1/2' squares, made with four round corner posts and 2 x 6's. The cows might still be able to chew on a few leaves, but shouldn't be able to break the branches in close to the trunk...
I like the way they look...in my opinion, kind of old fashioned!
Here's hoping for some huge shade trees in a few years!
I'm linking up with Good Fences today. Thanks TexWisGirl for hosting!
