{"id":5759,"date":"2017-10-24T19:13:22","date_gmt":"2017-10-24T19:13:22","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.siteandinsight.com\/?p=5759"},"modified":"2017-10-24T19:13:22","modified_gmt":"2017-10-24T19:13:22","slug":"the-grandchildren-trees","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/glenvillaartgarden.com\/fr\/the-grandchildren-trees\/","title":{"rendered":"The Grandchildren Trees"},"content":{"rendered":"

The year after our first grandchild was born, we planted a maple tree in her honour. A few years later when our second grandchild was born, we did the same.<\/p>\n

We continued to do this. After\u00a0each birth, another tree was planted. We planted the trees in a straight row, on\u00a0the slope of an old farm field where the growing conditions were right — plenty of sunshine and soil that wasn’t too wet or too dry.\u00a0 When the fifth grandchild was born, there wasn’t enough room in the row, so we started a second one. When that row filled up, we started a third, and then a fourth.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"One

A grandchild ignores her tree while her father assesses its height\u00a0 She’s a lot taller now and so is the tree. He isn’t.<\/p><\/div>\n

 <\/p>\n

All of a sudden — or so it seemed — we had ten grandchildren and ten maple trees, planted in a triangle like the pins in a bowling alley.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"Ten

Ten maple trees mark the birth of ten grandchildren.<\/p><\/div>\n

 <\/p>\n

By last summer, the trees were\u00a0big enough to have an impact. But the long grass in the field hid the triangular shape.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"There's

There’s a shape here? You could fool me.<\/p><\/div>\n

 <\/p>\n

In order to emphasize the shape and to draw attention to the trees themselves, we started to mow around them.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"The

The mown grass exposes the tree trunks, setting the trees off from the field.<\/p><\/div>\n

 <\/p>\n

Mowing helped make the shape clear, but\u00a0it didn’t help enough. We\u00a0sprayed a white line\u00a0on the grass.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"Spray

Spray paint\u00a0did the job quickly but it didn’t have enough visual weight.<\/p><\/div>\n

 <\/p>\n

That helped a bit more, but the spray paint didn’t last very long.<\/p>\n

Recently I returned to the problem, searching for a solution that would showcase the trees but wouldn’t require too much maintenance.<\/p>\n

I think I’ve found it.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"How

How long will the spray paint last? Time will tell.<\/p><\/div>\n

 <\/p>\n

A steel\u00a0bar mounted on steel legs now\u00a0marks each corner of the triangle with a sleek silver\u00a0line. Next summer we may spray paint the legs that hold the bars above the grass\u00a0silver as well, or we may leave them to gather even more rust.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"A

A close up of the steel bars shows how simple this solution is. Fingers crossed that it does the job.<\/p><\/div>\n

 <\/p>\n

The spray paint didn’t end the necessary tweaking. Because almost three years ago, grandchild #11 appeared on the scene. Where\u00a0could we put her tree? The triangle was complete.<\/p>\n

If her tree wasn’t part of the pattern, did it have to be a maple? Her mother suggested\u00a0we choose a tree that bore fruit — appropriate for a little girl, she said. Until a few weeks ago, this youngest tree stood in the same field, not far from the other grandchildren trees but not part of the group either. Her cousins didn’t like that. They\u00a0said she was being left out.<\/p>\n

What could I do but listen?<\/p>\n

Now the youngest (the final?) grandchild’s tree is in place. It stands opposite the tip of the triangle, elevated on\u00a0a berm like a conductor leading an orchestra.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"Grandchild

Grandchild tree #11 faces Grandchild tree #10. She is planted about 4 ft higher than the other trees.<\/p><\/div>\n

 <\/p>\n

And to make sure the others know who is in charge, we planted a crabapple!<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The year after our first grandchild was born, we planted a maple tree in her honour. A few years later when our second grandchild was born, we did the same. We continued to do this. After\u00a0each birth, another tree was planted. We planted the trees in a straight row, on\u00a0the slope of an old farm…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":12700,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[24,38,21],"tags":[29,37,748],"class_list":["post-5759","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-design","category-glen-villa","category-plants","tag-garden-design","tag-glen-villa","tag-grandchildren-trees","category-24","category-38","category-21","description-off"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/glenvillaartgarden.com\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5759","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/glenvillaartgarden.com\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/glenvillaartgarden.com\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glenvillaartgarden.com\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glenvillaartgarden.com\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5759"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/glenvillaartgarden.com\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5759\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glenvillaartgarden.com\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/12700"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/glenvillaartgarden.com\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5759"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glenvillaartgarden.com\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5759"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glenvillaartgarden.com\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5759"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}