Post by rosalind on May 10, 2021 20:46:36 GMT -5
Our neighbor has cottonwoods. We get 16-26-ish inches of rain per year, some underground streams but not an actual stream or river where their cottonwoods are. The "cotton" is SO messy, they drive me nuts. I couldn't live by one.
I think you should try Mulberry - naturally purple sheep, your wool would be worth a fortune!
I don't know much about Birch, other than that they are our most "hardwood-esque" tree that naturally grows around here. What I mean is, they do grow out and drape a bit, they lose their leaves. Our best soil is around the birch. We tap the trees each spring. The hummingbirds love them.
The vine maples are super easy. Very hardy, quick to grow, they don't get too tall (maybe 30' max?). I pruned off all the side limbs, just like I would on an apple tree if I wanted it to get taller before branching out. You'd have to probably grow a row of them for shade rather than depending on just one. Our mature vine maple is huge and wide and provides a lot of shade, but it's also probably 100 years old... Dad brought us some vine maple firewood this year. Rock hard wood!
Apple is slower growing, but the sheep dearly love them. To eat, but even if they can't, they love the shade. They're water hogs in the beginning, but we have some huge old apple trees and I'm not good at watering, and the old trees do just fine on rainfall.
Chokecherry is technically poisonous, I think, but it's one of the shade trees for our sheep. Didn't know that til a couple years ago. The wood smells like cherries and the flowers are so pretty.
I think you should try Mulberry - naturally purple sheep, your wool would be worth a fortune!
I don't know much about Birch, other than that they are our most "hardwood-esque" tree that naturally grows around here. What I mean is, they do grow out and drape a bit, they lose their leaves. Our best soil is around the birch. We tap the trees each spring. The hummingbirds love them.
The vine maples are super easy. Very hardy, quick to grow, they don't get too tall (maybe 30' max?). I pruned off all the side limbs, just like I would on an apple tree if I wanted it to get taller before branching out. You'd have to probably grow a row of them for shade rather than depending on just one. Our mature vine maple is huge and wide and provides a lot of shade, but it's also probably 100 years old... Dad brought us some vine maple firewood this year. Rock hard wood!
Apple is slower growing, but the sheep dearly love them. To eat, but even if they can't, they love the shade. They're water hogs in the beginning, but we have some huge old apple trees and I'm not good at watering, and the old trees do just fine on rainfall.
Chokecherry is technically poisonous, I think, but it's one of the shade trees for our sheep. Didn't know that til a couple years ago. The wood smells like cherries and the flowers are so pretty.
