Every year, we plant one or two young trees in honor of the farmers who planted maple trees and Lilac bushes all around the farm about 200 years ago. I doubt that they lived to see this big and beautiful trees, they did it for the people who came behind them.

So we are doing it for the people who come behind us.

I will surely not see the white birch we planted today grow to its full and graceful height. But I am seeing the trees we planted a few years ago – maples, a beautiful young cherry tree and six white birches – get taller and begin to fill out.

We got the new baby birch a few days ago.

I water the plants every day and I like to imagine the farmhouse in 50 years encircled by the maple trees and birches we have planted her, along with lilac bushes, a Magnolia, Rose of Sharon, Hydrangea bushes and four different gardens.

Earlier this year, we added a Sycamore tree to the front  lawn, quite young but already blooming.

I already see the Dahlia and wildflower gardens and the two out front.

The good woman we bought the house – Florence Walrath –  from was over 100 years old when she died, and her gardens were tired and a little barren. But they still yield some beautiful flowers, her spirit is very much alive here.

Maria and I have become skilled at finding good spots, digging deep holes, clearing out some rocks, adding peat moss and mulch. Maria does most of the digging, she is fast and sure. I do the watering and mulch-spreading.

We are grateful for the beautiful old apple tree by the pasture and the aging birch in the side yard.

To us, this is a debt we owe the next generation, and also Mother Earth.  The farmers who came here thought of us, and we think of those to come.

Our farmhouse will be surrounded by big and beautiful trees for a long, long time. The farm has brought out the planters and diggers in us.

Gardens now surround the house.