Who Inspired You?

My dad was a gardener. He grew vegetables. He grafted fruit trees. He grew gladiolus for my grandmother (his mother-in-law) because they were her favorite. He grew lots of peonies, and I have at least one in my garden that was moved from Iowa to Maryland to Virginia. And he grew a walnut tree, but it died the year he died. I was twelve, but I still remember that little tree.

I like to think that, when we lose a loved one, a part of that person lives on within us, and for me, that’s my Dad and I think he planted a love of trees in me. Throughout my adult life, I have moved many times with my military spouse, and although we planted a few trees as we moved from state to state, being retired in Virginia has given me the roots I needed to plant beyond my own property line. 

A 2018 Tree Steward Project in Freedom Park was the beginning. Our group researched how trees would have been used by the early freed black settlers in what was the Hot Water Tract of Green Springs Plantation especially trees that provided food for those early settlers. Although the focus was on native trees, the Settlement was inhabited in 1804, so other trees and shrubs would have been established in the area after being brought here by both the English and the Spaniards.

We applied and were awarded a grant from Trees Virginia to buy seedlings and to buy tree tags for existing trees in 2019. We planted peaches, apples, persimmons, and elderberries, which would have provided food, but we also planted black cherry and a few other species to increase the plant diversity of the woods surrounding the Settlement area.  Additionally, in December of 2019, a Girl Scout Troop asked to plant 100 Longleaf Pines that had been donated, so Freedom Park management asked me to help. The girls and I planted the pines the week before Christmas.

Another part of the Tree Steward Project was to remove the wall of Loblolly Pines from around the Settlement to have a more natural forest edge and allow more sunlight to reach the forest floor. This was accomplished through the volunteer efforts of Go Ape!, two Adopt-a-Park groups (Marriott and the Zeta Mu Mu chapter of the Omega Psi Phi fraternity), plus volunteers from Master Gardeners, Master Naturalists, and the Williamsburg Botanical Garden. It was a large undertaking with the last section coming down in the late winter of 2020, just before everything shut down because of Covid.

Unfortunately, in the fall of 2019, I placed a rather large tree order, 399 seedlings to be exact, to be delivered in the spring. When they arrived, the volunteer organizations I had counted on to help had stopped all activities. Nonetheless, I was determined to get them planted.

About 100 seedlings were potted up to grow through the summer and plant in the fall, but I still needed help with the remaining seedlings. I will not name names, but a small group of very good friends and my husband brought their shovels and we planted that tree order. It included chokecherries, crab apples, and beautyberries among a variety of other trees and shrubs. While most of the seedlings were planted in Freedom Park, a few were planted in Upper County.

By the fall of 2020, the terror of having nearly 400 seedlings arriving had subsided, and the state nurseries were taking orders again, so using restraint, I ordered a hundred more seedlings to plant in the spring of 2021. By that time, vaccinations were being distributed and my friends had mostly forgotten how much work it was to plant seedlings, so they helped again.

This was starting to seem like fun. Fall 2021 brought another seedling order, and because I was a bit distracted by a wonderful family wedding, I accidentally placed two orders, totaling 400 seedlings. Then in January, the Virginia Native Plant Society named one of my favorite plants, the Buttonbush, the Native Plant of the Year. After conferring with people from the Williamsburg Botanical Garden and the Native Plant Society who were willing to share an order of 1000 seedlings, the order was placed. What was I thinking?

The first two orders arrived in March and the latest Master Naturalist class had offered to plant in Freedom Park as a class project. They planted about half of the trees and the group of friends, now known as the Dream Team, planted the other half. With April showers came the 1000 Buttonbushes. Tree Steward and Master Naturalist volunteers planted most of these seedlings in James City County Parks and Jamestown Settlement, minus the ones going to WBG and the Native Plant Society. The work was completed in time for Earth Day!

It is a great feeling to plant a tree. Planting 100 is downright invigorating. If you have been adding the numbers as you read, the total in the ground so far is around 1600, but there are more trees to plant. I like to think that most of the volunteers who have helped plant these trees walked away with a sense of accomplishment. I also think that my Dad is part of my motivation and this leaves me feeling proud of my tree planting achievements. So, who inspires you?

Photos of Judy’s “Dream Team” of Master Gardeners, Naturalists, and Tree Stewards in action planting Buttonbushes in April in a JCC Park. Photo credit: Marion Guthrie, Master Gardener, class of 2019.