Many have read Shel Silverstein’s book The Giving Tree about that altruistic tree that gave and gave to a selfish, little boy until there was nothing left to give.  I think of that sad tale sometimes when walking in the forest and see a very different story with a more satisfying ending.  Rather than sacrificing themselves for others, trees are doing their best to survive and flourish.  Luckily, byproducts of their efforts benefit animals, birds, insects, plants, fungi, humans, and  even one another. 

Sometimes when two trees grow into one another, the bark is worn away exposing the cambium layer.  When they heal, the two trees are fused together in what is known as inosculation (from Latin ‘osculari’ for ‘kiss').   We could learn a lot from these kissing trees about facing adversity and getting along.
 
Even in the middle of a busy week, I feel like I'm on vacation when I take a walk in the woods. Every step there is something different to see in the diversity of an unplanned forest where only the laws of nature apply.  Trees continue to give throughout their lives and long after they have died eventually becoming part of the soil itself.  

These photos show some of the ways that trees are benefiting their neighbors.

Joey Holmes is the beloved matriarch of Grantham and will be celebrating her 90th birthday on February 27th. I'm encouraging everyone who reads this to send Joey a birthday card.  She is living with her daughter Cindy Dyer at 141 Miller Pond Road in Grantham.  

I interviewed Joey during the pandemic summer of 2020 and the following was posted on August 21, 2020:

​This is about a well loved local legend who has a unique history with our small town of Grantham.  Her name is Joey Dunbar Holmes and here's her story:

In 1900, Joey’s great uncle Lorenzo donated money for a library in memory of his wife Ellen.  The library was named The Dunbar Free Library.  Eighty years later when Linda Moore was the librarian, Joey would check out books for patrons while Linda ran the story hour. Her volunteer work led to Joey’s being hired as an assistant librarian where she worked for forty years before retiring as Assistant Director of Inter-Library Loans.

Joey grew up in a house next to the library where the parking lot sits today.  After her mother passed away, the home was sold and eventually acquired by the library.  A much needed addition to the library was planned in 2009 which would mean that the homestead would have to go. The original plan called for clear cutting the lot with demolition of the house, barn, and outbuildings, and all the shrubs and trees.

Enter a Knight in Shining Armor--Andy Gelston.  Andy is Joey’s fellow library staffer who “didn’t want Joey, the town matriarch, to have to witness her childhood home being smashed with an excavator and hauled off in dumpsters.”  Rather than tearing them down, it took Andy and another local hero Otis TenHaken three months to dismantled the buildings.  All the reusable wood was sold with the proceeds going to insurance (in case Andy or Otis fell off the roof) and to the library’s construction fund.  Many people took advantage of the wood sale.  Joey enjoyed speaking with the people who came in to the library to pay for their materials.  To be honest, there were a few midnight requisitions.  (I hope those thieves got splinters.)   

I like to think of the wood from Joey’s well loved home being embedded in rooms and sheds all around town.  Grantham Garden Club member Janie Clark wrote “We too are enjoying part of it.....  The huge rocks in the rock garden here are from the foundation of Joey's house.  Matt Gallien moved them from the cellar hole to our garden." 

The original clear cutting plan also included destroying the flowering crab apple tree that Joey had planted for her mother as a tiny sapling on Mother's Day in 1957.  Despite his not being a restoration expert, Andy changed the plans to save the tree.  The tree that sits in the island outside the library to this day and is pictured below.

Like many of the gardener club gardeners’ homes I have visited, there are keepsakes and transplants to remind them of their earlier lives.  When I interviewed Joey at her home off Rte. 10, she pointed out the granite slab entrance to her house that once was the entrance to her old home next to the library.  Growing outside her window are the roses that bloomed outside her mother’s.  Her favorite tree flourishes by the town library for her, and for all of us, to enjoy.  

Thank you, Joey, for all you have done for the library and the town!

Photograph of the crab apple tree in all its Spring glory was taken by Sir Andy Gelston.  

Janie Clark's garden with her rock garden on the right.  

Seven years ago Renee Gustafson was looking for a project to complete her master gardener certification and liked the recommendation by Grantham Conservation Commission member Dennis Ryan to create a pollinator garden in Brookside Park.  Renee chose the site of the old apple orchard in the park and invited Kristina Burgard and Patty Eaves, who were also in the master gardener program, to join her.  Renee, Kristina, and Patty engaged with other people and organizations in and around Grantham to help them including:
 
- Eastman Charitable Foundation funded the purchase of trees, bushes, seeds, daffodil bulbs, and soil (lot and lots of soil).

- Dunbar Free Library loaned them a sun plotting gizmo. 

- Hortons Farm donated horse manure. 

-  Dunkin Donuts donated bags of coffee grounds. People dropped off coffee grounds at a pail located at the park entrance.

-Dennis Ryan and fellow Conservation Commission member Dave Wood cut down four white pine trees and pruned some of the apple trees.

- Dick Hocker, another Conservation Commission member and Renee's husband, erected a kiosk at the orchard area which Renee populated with information.
 
After months of hard work including lugging an enormous amount of soil and planting trees, bushes, seeds, and bulbs; Renee, Kristina, and Patty had created a garden area they could be proud of.  I happened upon it in June of 2021 and was so impressed that I wrote a blog post called The Secret Garden.  I never knew who was responsible for the sweet garden until recently.  (Picture of flowers are the last one in the collage below.)

A few years ago, Marty Gearhart moved to Grantham and joined the Grantham Conservation Commission where she has worked with them on a number of projects including making Grantham a Pollinator Pathway.  One link in the pathway chain that needed some more work was that well loved land in Brookside Park where Renee, Kristina, and Patty had made such a difference.  Marty formed a team with Renee and Amelia Lantz that I'm calling Phase II.  They went to the property together to discuss  what was doing well since Phase I, what needed work, and how they could help the aged apples trees. They invited three environmentalists to visit the area to help them make decisions about what to keep, what to cut, and what to plant.  Those three remarkable environmentalists  are pictured below. 
 
Recently, I overheard that the team was going to work on the site and asked if I could tag along.  When Amelia and Renee showed up with their chain saws, I knew this was going to be cool.  Marty brought her own tools and recruited Kathy Houghton who came with her pole cutter and Sierra Keat who was visiting from DC and looking for volunteer opportunities to fulfill her AmeriCorps requirements. With the team of five women in place, the sawdust was soon flying.  Amelia, Renee, and Kathy pruned while Marty and Sierra hauled away the cuttings to a large brush pile for animals which Dode Gladders calls "rabbitat." 

More advisers were brought in before major cuts were made to the trees. Jeff and Susan Figley who own King Blossom Farm on Dunbar Hill Road spent almost two hours answering questions about the trees and making everyone more optimistic about the future of these historic apple trees.  Janie Clark, who grew up near her Dad's 156-acre orchard in the Hudson Valley, also came out to help.  On February 2nd, I was there to take some pictures of Dave Wood pruning high in the apple trees to give the them more sunshine, more breathing space and less wood to help them use their energy to flower.  

​This year's pruning is done but the work isn't over yet.  In the spring,  I will send out volunteer requests to the Grantham Garden Club to help Marty, Renee, and Amelia plant flowers which will give people the opportunity to contribute to this fun project.
 
I admire  Renee, Kristina, Patty, Marty, Amelia, Kathy, Sierra, Lionel Chute, Dode Gladders, Gail McWilliam Jellie, Jeff, Susan,  Janie, Dave, and the Grantham Conversation Commission members  who have dedicated so much of their time, energy, and talent to making Grantham a better place for pollinators, trees, and flowers, and for us ordinary people to enjoy.