Fourteen years ago this spring, we planted nearly 7000 baby trees in the natural areas of the farm, and they are really starting to grow up! We found some original pictures (snapshots, since it was before the digital camera era) of the planting process, and the 14 year comparison is interesting.
We found the original receipt, and here’s the list of all the trees we planted that spring:
Tree Type | Quantity |
---|---|
Red Oak | 1,900 |
White Oak | 1,100 |
White Ash | 400 |
Green Ash | 300 |
Black Walnut | 900 |
Tulip Tree | 800 |
Chinkapin Oak | 700 |
White Pine | 200 |
Bur Oak | 600 |
Total | 6,900 |
Now, 14 years later, they’ve grown quite a bit!

Spring 2014 – A good shot of some of the planted trees near the path in the ‘new land’ on the east side of the property
We originally estimated 30%-40% survival rate, since we didn’t want to use herbicides (recommended for higher survival rate), and this estimate still seems to be about accurate. Some of the trees fared much better than others, as there is quite a bit of diversity in water content in the soil, species of tree, and proximity to deer.