This is the second in a small series of posts in which I share my “landscaping secrets”. I have put the term landscaping in quotes because I don’t do landscaping. Landscaping involves much work, some knowledge about plant life, physical labor, a planning ability, exertion of effort, and patience. Oh, did I mention the amount of work involved?  I included the word secrets in the quotation marks because if this stuff were secret, I certainly wouldn’t post it on the Internet.

Installment 1 of the series dealt with the Dwarf Sumac that I have allowed to establish itself in selected locations among my fields.  This post is about a grove of Silver Poplars that we have growing along a creek bed in the northern portion of our property, which we call The Terraces.

As you drive along the unpaved road on our property that leads to the house and barn areas, you can see over the treetops of some of our woods, as shown in the picture above.  Notice that where the red arrows are pointing there appear to be trees with leaves that are lighter in color than the surrounding trees.  What you are seeing is a grove of Silver Poplars that inhabit a small section of bottom land along an intermittent creek.  When the District Forester from the Arkansas Department of Forestry visited the ranch to consult with us on various conservation and renovation projects we had in mind, he was surprised to find a large grove of these trees on the property.  The forester could not recall ever seeing poplars growing naturally in the forests of the area that he had responsibility over, and so he surmised that this large grove of Silver Poplars had been planted long ago by a homesteader who must have resided here in days past.  A closer look at the poplar grove can be seen in the following photograph-

The Silver Poplar is a beautiful tree with a white bark trunk and small, roundish leaves.  The name “silver” reflects the color of the underside of some leaves, as well as the bole of the tree. The Silver Poplar is also called a White Poplar.  It is closely related to the Quaking Aspen.  The influence of the Aspen on the Silver Poplar is evident by the shimmering, quaking look of the leaves as they flutter in the breeze.

The picture above shows the beautiful texture of the white bark on the trunk of the Silver Poplar.  The distinctive coloration and texture of the bark, as well as the quaking of the leaves, help to make the Silver Poplar easy for non-botanists like myself to identify.

In the photograph above, the utility vehicle gives some indication of the size of these stately trees, which reach 100 feet tall at maturity.  The tree will propagate through the scattering of seed, as well as by suckers that emanate from the root system of the tree.  The following photograph shows 6 month old suckers that have sprung up from the ground near the poplar grove-

By now you may be asking yourself what part I have played in this post entitled Landscaping, My Way.  When we purchased this property, the portion of the property that the Silver Poplars inhabited was primarily cleared, bush-hogged, cattle grazing land.  Because a good portion of this 40 acres consists of fairly steep slopes, we decided to rethink the bush-hogging plans for this area.  Since I am not trying to squeeze every last bit of grazing space out of our acreage, there is no point to my bush-hogging steep, dangerous slopes, as my predecessors had.  Instead, I decided to cut only those areas around the Silver Poplars that was somewhat level, thereby creating an area that we now call the Terraces.  There are about forty acres in this area that now consist of numerous flat, near level bush-hogged meadows, surrounded by newly growing woods. 

In order to keep the Silver Poplars from taking over the area, I have been bush-hogging the suckers that emanate from the Poplars twice a year.  But there are some area where I have wanted the Poplars to spread, so that when I encountered poplar suckers in those areas, I refrained from cutting them.  The result of this strategy can be seen in the following photo, where the red arrow points to some of the young Silver Poplars that I have allowed to grow unmolested (notice the mature, parent poplars on the left).   This is but a small sample of the Silver Poplars that I have allowed to grow along the terraces.

The Silver Poplar is a quick growing tree, which has made it an ideal candidate for this reforestation project.  I did not realize just how quickly they would grow, but the following photograph shows the size of the young poplars after just four years-

For a good indication of the size of these four-year old Silver Poplars, compare their height to that of George, our full-grown Lab, as he waits for me in the middle of the trail.  The growth rate of the Silver Poplar is quite impressive, and will apparently allow us to enjoy these new additions to our woods in a relatively short time.

If you have been following this blog you might recall the following photograph from a previous post entitled Another Day In The Ozarks…Not!, which chronicled one of the many wildfires we have experienced on our property.  As I was frantically searching for the source of smoke emanating from somewhere on our land, I was impeded in my progress along one of our fire trails by a tree which had fallen as a result of a lightning strike.

Not long after that incident, but before I had a chance to muster up the chain saw to cut up and remove the fallen tree seen above, we were unfortunate enough to experience yet another fire on our property.  The photograph that follows may also look familiar to you, as it is from a previous post entitled To Quote Yogi Berra “It Feels Like Deja Vu All Over Again”, in which I recounted another in our series of fires.  This second photograph was taken after the second fire burned through the area where the fallen tree had lain, and you can see that the fire succeeded in burning up any trace of the tree.

Today Retta and I took our dogs walking, and we decided to stroll along the same trail that is shown in the pictures above.  When we arrived at the location where the former tree had previously fallen, and than been consumed by flames, we were greeted by the sight of another, larger tree blocking our fire lane.  The following photograph shows this second fallen tree, which you will notice is located right next to the remains of the lightning-struck tree trunk from the earlier incident (which is on the left in this photo, as we approached the tree from the opposite direction as in the first two photos).

My first thought when I saw the downed tree was to wonder if lightning caused the destruction.  Could lightning really strike the same place twice?  It would be quite a coincidence if two adjacent trees were downed by lightning in the span of 7 months.  The second thought to enter my mind was, darn, that’s going to be a big job cutting up and removing that tree from our fire lane.

The trunk is probably over 24″ in diameter at the point where it crosses over the fire lane.  While I am not inexperienced in the use of a chain saw (I usually have the local farm store sharpen about 30 chains for me each season), I am no Paul Bunyan either.  I thought that this particular tree might be too large a job to tackle by myself, so maybe I would recruit (or hire) someone more experienced than myself to undertake this job.

As I scrambled up the slope to get a closer view of the tree, the cause of it’s demise became apparent.

From the opposite side of the tree you can see that this tree was hollow.  Not dead, as there were fully leafed branches, but severely weakened by the structure of it’s hollow trunk.  It was probably knocked over recently by gusty wind conditions that often accompany the frequent thunderstorms that spawn in the Ozarks.  So now I am not certain if I will hire someone or not.  If I can determine that the trunk is hollow at the points that I would have to cut it for removal, than I will go ahead and do it myself, otherwise, I’ll start looking for help.

The picture above shows one of the two wildlife feeding stations we have set up along a creek in a field below our house.  We have created these sites so that the abundant game that inhabit the area will be attracted to areas where we can see them as we go about our daily routines.  The other feeding station, for anyone interested, can be seen in a previous post entitled Birds Of A Feather.  You may notice that in the lower left corner of the photo there appears to be a patch of ground that is rock strewn and has been vigorously disturbed in some manner.  This is one of the mineral licks that I have established near our feeders. 

Creating a mineral lick is a simple endeavor.  What I like to do after I find a suitable location for the lick is to gather up some downed limbs and build a small bonfire, which clears the area down to bare soil.  Then I place a commercially prepared dear and wild game mineral block directly on the soil.  Over time, the block will become eroded.  Some erosion will have occurred by direct consumption from the area wildlife, but a good portion of the block will simply weather into the ground where it sits.  Not to worry – the deer will actually lick the soil in order to get the minerals they crave.

This is what will happen over time.  This particular mineral lick was established four years ago.  I have decided against filling in the hole each year.  Instead, I intend to keep replenishing this site with new mineral block periodically, and observe how large the mineral rich “crater” will grow (it sure beats sitting around watching the grass grow).    The deer have pawed at the ground with their hooves in order to loosen the mineral rich soils, leaving only the Ozarks rocks behind in their wake. 

The picture above shows how simple it is to replenish the lick.  All that is required is to unwrap and toss a new mineral block on top of the pile of rocks that have accumulated in the pit. 

The mineral blocks contain a variety of essential minerals for deer.  Here are some of the ingredients in the blocks I use – salt, magnesium limestone, calcium carbonate, soft rock phosphate (phosphorus), calcium iodate, cobalt carbonate, sodium selenite, ferrous carbonate, ferrous sulfate, iron oxide, manganous oxide, copper sulfate, zinc oxide and lignin sulfonate.

If that weren’t enough to whet the appetite of wild game, the blocks also contain cane molasses and natural apple flavoring.  But the real question is this: do these mineral licks do anything for the deer, or am I just spinning my wheels in undertaking this activity?  Research seems to indicate that robust antler growth requires a minimum amount of certain minerals, particularly calcium and phosphorus, in the proper ratios (see Mineral Supplementation – Necessity or Never Mind?, by Brad Howard and Brian Murphy).  The commercial mineral blocks that are available in any farm supply or feed store are concocted of minerals designed to maximize the potential for antler growth in bucks by supplying the key minerals required for that purpose.  In many areas, the soil composition presents sufficient mineral content such that mineral supplements are unnecessary, while in other areas, the soil is lacking in some critical component.  To be on the safe side, I have opted to provide supplements for “my” game, just as I also opt to take a multi-vitimin for myself each day.

The fall and winter seasons are the time of year to begin to establish a mineral lick.  By establishing the lick at this time, it will be ready and available for use in the spring and summer, when the deer will make the most use of it.  And Retta and I will be sitting around, watching the deer take their daily dose of minerals.