Measuring Time with Trees

I am a tree planter. Not necessarily because I’m a “tree hugger,” although, yes, I am concerned about the environment and living sustainably, but because I like to measure time with trees. Whenever I have moved to a new house or need to memorialize a meaningful event, I plant a tree or multiple trees. There is something I find so satisfying in looking at the growth of the trees over time and thinking of the events of the past when the trees were first planted.

My measuring continued when we bought the Greenville Arms 1889 Inn in 2004 and took over the stewardship of this historic property.

The Greenville Arms seems to have attracted other tree planters before to us. The Stevens, who owned and started the Greenville Arms 1889 Inn in the 1950s, planted a row of three maple trees in the back grounds (I think one for each daughter), a Dawn Redwood tree, and most likely the trees that define each area of the back acres.

When we purchased the inn, it was a thrill to be taken on a garden tour with Tish Elliot, one of the previous owners and fellow avid gardener and tree-planter, as she named each tree and shrub they had planted during their fifteen years at the inn. This included most of the row of maple trees that are now in front of the inn. These have grown so much that they can practically hide the inn from Spring to Fall. They are magnificent October Glory’s that put on an incredible Fall display of bright red-orange foliage that peaks towards the end of October and early November so that the show at the Greenville Arms is debuting when a lot of Fall color has already started to disappear around us.

And speaking of disappearing, the first Spring after we had arrived, we went whole hog with planting fruit trees in the “back forty” (what we call the back four acres of the property). We had come from the Bay Area of California where the lots sizes were a quarter acre or less and now suddenly had an expanse of six acres to play with. We planted four varieties of apple trees, four varieties of cherry trees, and two varieties of apricot trees. We had high hopes of being fully supplied with fresh fruit during the summer. Alas, Upstate New York does not enjoy the same “stick-it-in-the-ground-and-it-will-flourish” characteristic that we had in the temperate year-round weather in California, not to mention having to deal with hungry deer! Of that splurge of trees, only two made it through winter. A Black Gold cherry and a Starkrimson cherry, planted in the area just beyond our fenced garden, were the only survivors.

Today those two trees are over 20 feet tall and put on a beautiful cherry blossom show every Spring. This lovely display is all we have been able to enjoy from those two trees because the squirrels and birds are a lot quicker to harvest the cherries than we are. Still, every time I see how tall they have grown, I marvel at the amount of time that has past since we first came to Greenville.

After that initial tree-planting debacle, we sporadically attempted a few more trees, a mulberry, a sycamore, and a Japanese maple in the intervening years without success. We probably would have put more effort into tree planting, but as any innkeeper or owner of an older property knows, maintenance and repairs often take precedence over all other outlays of cash.

Finally in 2016 we were able to divert funds to tree planting. This time we not only purchased trees but the material to fence the young saplings off from the voracious appetites of the roving bands of deer. We planted four Chestnut trees (the deer will be pleased with these once the trees are big enough to start dropping lots of chestnuts on the ground) and four more cherry trees in the cherry orchard. (Can you call it an orchard with only six trees?) The cherry varieties were a Sweetheart, a Hedelfingen, a Lapins, and a Kristen Krymsk. Maybe with all these additional trees, we might some day get to eat a cherry or two. Yes, I know there are ways to protect the cherry crop, but we are not serious cherry growers, just tree lovers!

Of historical note, the wooded slope that borders the Greenville Arms in the back of the property was once a farm orchard. I had recently seen an old photo of the orchard and thought wouldn’t it be fun to have an orchard once again.

I have kept a record of almost every tree, shrub, or perennial planted on the property since 2005, so if you are visiting, have an interest or curiosity about our gardens, I’d be happy talk gardens, or to tell you the time measurement of the trees.

Related Links:

Story’s Nursery: This is our favorite local nursery, about 15 minutes away from the inn. They are known for their wide selection of interesting varieties and very knowledgeable staff.