Mulching around trees and flower beds offers several benefits, such as soil moisture retention, reduced weeding, and keeping yard equipment a safe distance away from plants. Shredded bark is a popular mulch to use, which requires periodic touch up as it gradually decomposes. However, I have seen landscapes where a lot of mulch was routinely added every year whether it was needed or not, creating an overly thick layer of mulch that can injure or even kill the plants you are trying to benefit.

By Steve Roark
Volunteer, Cumberland Gap National Historical Park

One sure sign of Spring and warmer weather is to take a walk in the woods and see the first wildflowers popping up. One of the earlier blooming flowers in our area is Bloodroot.

On a cold January morning in 2007 the Washington Post conducted an experiment. They invited Joshua Bell, one of the most famous classical violinists of our time, to play music at the Washington DC Metro Train Station. No introductions, no fanfare, simply stand on a busy walkway and play. He did six famous pieces written by J.S. Bach on a violin worth 3.5 million dollars.

The American Beech (Fagus grandifolia) is very common in our area and is to me one of the nobler trees in the forest. It has never been in high demand for timber, and so many beech trees have been left to grow large and majestic. The bark is silvery gray, smooth, and easy to identify even from a distance.

A pastor friend of mine was developing a sermon about being rooted in spiritual maturity and wanted to know about tree roots and their importance to the tree in order to make some analogies to emphasize his message. It was such a good idea that I thought I would do the same thing here.

Humans seem to have wanderlust hardwired into their psyche. Our ancestors from countless generations have always moved on to new places. Even in modern times we still yearn for new territory. An average American will live in five homes in a lifetime, and in between we take vacations to see new places. We have the advantage of road maps and high-tech toys like GPS that can tell us exactly where we are and show us how to get to anyw here we wish, but in earlier times direction had to be determined through observing nature.

With the bitter sub-zero weather we had a few weeks ago, I’ve kept my eye open for a type of tree damage called frost crack, a long vertical split in the tree trunk. I didn’t find a fresh one but did find one or two cracks that had healed over.

by Steve Roark
Groundhog Day is really another celebration of the birth of Christ, but few realize it because it has undergone a lot of change over the centuries.
February 2 used to be called Candlemas Day. a feast day commemorating when the Virgin Mary, in obedience to Jewish law, went to the Temple in Jerusalem both to be purified 40 days after the birth of her son, and to present her child to God as her firstborn. This is documented in Luke 2:22-38. It has been a celebration since the 4th century and was observed with lighted candles, hence the name “Candlemas.”

Before World War 2 there was a lot more cleared farmland than there is now. Before chemical fertilizer and lime was readily available, per acre yields for farm crops were much lower and so more land was needed to farm. This was not a problem, as most farms had large families with a built-in labor force. But over the years the land eroded, kids left the farm, and the farmer got older. So gradually the steeper, rougher fields or field edges were let go, and the forest reclaimed them. There are indicators you can look for to tell if a forest was once a field.

When the forest is laid bare each winter there is a tendency to think of it as a bleak and dreary place. But the basic structural skeleton of each tree can be seen at this time, with every branch, twig, and bud visible, thus revealing how it has grown in the past, and how it has prepared for the future. So put on a coat, go outside and go take a look.