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Volunteer groups plant trees Sunday
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| Charles Hunter, Keokuk Garden Club ornamental tree expert, teaches volunteers the basics of tree planting Sunday at Rand Park. The group planted more than 30 trees in Rand and Kilbourne parks Sunday afternoon. |
By Cindy Iutzi/Gate City Staff Writer
A stiff, chilly breeze under a cloudy sky and about 35 unplanted trees kept volunteers moving briskly Sunday afternoon at Rand and Kilbourne parks in Keokuk.
The group of Keokuk Rotary Club members, Konnections kids, Midwest Academy students, Keokuk Garden Club members and Boy Scouts took a quick course in tree-planting from Garden Club ornamental tree expert Charles Hunter and then deployed with shovels, mulch and fertilizer to find their trees.
Twenty-nine of the trees were purchased by the Rotary Club with a $4,350 Trees Forever and Alliant Energy grant. Six trees came through an Iowa Department of Natural Resources grant that was to involve community youth. Alliant Energy bored holes for the trees in both the parks.
“Our main goal was to get bio-diversity in case there is a blight or a disease that goes through and preserve and beautify the parks,” said Mike Pribyl, co-chair of the Rotary tree program.
Last year Rotary planted oaks and maples.
The variety and location of the trees this year was determined by Lisa Hoffman, a forester with the Iowa DNR, and Hunter.
Japanese snowbells with a thick, straight trunk topped with leafless branches full of red berries, delicate looking Japanese maples, a Chinese dogwood placed near the pavilion, a magnolia, balding cypress, paperbark maple, evergreens and other trees now dot the park, recorded in a master plan developed by Hoffman and Hunter.
“Rather than a shotgun approach, we wanted a master plan, a plan that looks into the future,” Pribyl said.
The park board will be able to use the master plan to guide the type and location of future tree planting and memorial trees “so we just don't throw trees into the park,” Pribyl said.
Before deploying volunteers, Hunter explained the necessity of packing dirt on the floor of the hole so tree roots could spread laterally into the surrounding soil. He demonstrated each technique, including sprinkling fertilizer around the inside perimeter of the hole and covering it with a layer of dirt before placing the tree.
The bottom of the trunk should be level with the surface of the ground, he said, and loose dirt must be shoveled around the root ball - no large, tight clods.
Rotary member Mike Hickey drove a couple of loads of dirt in a front end loader to people planting trees located in hard-packed clay areas.
Build an earth berm around the base of the tree with the highest area at the downhill slope, Hunter said. The more mulch the better, but keep mulch away from the trunk. The plant must breath and that space will keep rodents from burrowing in and using the tree as a handy food source this winter.
All the trees were planted by about 3 p.m., and the group at Kilbourne, headed up by co-chair Richard Thomason, returned to Rand Park.
“Then I cruised around the park with the Midwest Academy kids on my trailer and we picked up all the items that were left,” Pribyl said. “It was a good day.”
In Spring 2009, Rotary will carryout a maintenance plan on its South Seventh Street trees. The trees that are not doing well will be removed and replaced with new stock.
The group of Keokuk Rotary Club members, Konnections kids, Midwest Academy students, Keokuk Garden Club members and Boy Scouts took a quick course in tree-planting from Garden Club ornamental tree expert Charles Hunter and then deployed with shovels, mulch and fertilizer to find their trees.
Twenty-nine of the trees were purchased by the Rotary Club with a $4,350 Trees Forever and Alliant Energy grant. Six trees came through an Iowa Department of Natural Resources grant that was to involve community youth. Alliant Energy bored holes for the trees in both the parks.
“Our main goal was to get bio-diversity in case there is a blight or a disease that goes through and preserve and beautify the parks,” said Mike Pribyl, co-chair of the Rotary tree program.
Last year Rotary planted oaks and maples.
The variety and location of the trees this year was determined by Lisa Hoffman, a forester with the Iowa DNR, and Hunter.
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“Rather than a shotgun approach, we wanted a master plan, a plan that looks into the future,” Pribyl said.
The park board will be able to use the master plan to guide the type and location of future tree planting and memorial trees “so we just don't throw trees into the park,” Pribyl said.
Before deploying volunteers, Hunter explained the necessity of packing dirt on the floor of the hole so tree roots could spread laterally into the surrounding soil. He demonstrated each technique, including sprinkling fertilizer around the inside perimeter of the hole and covering it with a layer of dirt before placing the tree.
The bottom of the trunk should be level with the surface of the ground, he said, and loose dirt must be shoveled around the root ball - no large, tight clods.
Rotary member Mike Hickey drove a couple of loads of dirt in a front end loader to people planting trees located in hard-packed clay areas.
Build an earth berm around the base of the tree with the highest area at the downhill slope, Hunter said. The more mulch the better, but keep mulch away from the trunk. The plant must breath and that space will keep rodents from burrowing in and using the tree as a handy food source this winter.
All the trees were planted by about 3 p.m., and the group at Kilbourne, headed up by co-chair Richard Thomason, returned to Rand Park.
“Then I cruised around the park with the Midwest Academy kids on my trailer and we picked up all the items that were left,” Pribyl said. “It was a good day.”
In Spring 2009, Rotary will carryout a maintenance plan on its South Seventh Street trees. The trees that are not doing well will be removed and replaced with new stock.
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Reader Comments
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bluff park neighbor wrote on Nov 10, 2008 3:28 PM:
and what trees on south 7th ?? the ones that were planted to cover Rairdens???they should have to do something to cover their mess...and sure Alliant dug the holes and who is going to pay for that???? "