It's maple planting time.

With the vernal equinox just around the corner it’s time to think about gardening and landscaping again. Tree planting in particular. The sooner the better. November is the best month to plant trees in Ashe County, but March is the next best.

And elder Sugar Maple holding court in the forest.

Sugar maples and red maples are two of the most popular landscape trees to plant around the house and along a driveway. Both transplant well and are vigorous growers. If you tune in to old farmhouses around the county you’ll notice that they very commonly have equally old sugar maple trees planted in their yards. While sugaring in these mountains seems very novel to us now, it was once common for folks to do al little sugaring in the winter. Maples need to be given plenty of room as they grow into huge trees, especially when planted out in the open. Field trees will have broad crowns and wide trunks when given full access to the sun. Maples in the forest are much taller, with smaller crowns as they live in competition with surrounding trees. Specimen maples are admired for their wide spreading form, the shade they offer and their fall color- sugar maples have golden-orange foliage, and red maples find their name from their brilliant red autumn foliage, not to mention their red flowers which are the first of the trees to bloom in spring. Best of all you can tap them to make syrup and candy. It only takes a few trees to make syrup yourself.

Red and Sugar Maples line the driveway at the bottom of the field on Waterfall Farm.

When planting your trees be sure to add phosphate to the soil as you back-fill the hole. Phosphate stimulates root growth so it is the most important nutrient at that time. Once the trees are established a balanced fertilizer will give them everything else they need. It will take a while for the root system to get established so be sure to water the trees through the heat and drought of summer and fall.

So now’s the time to plant a tree and maybe some winter in the not too distant future you’ll be boiling down sap and making your own syrup.

We hope to see you at our syrup release party on Saturday March 25th beginning at noon at Molley Chomper in Lansing NC. All the details and info about this event are available in our previous blog post. The next day, Sunday March 26th at 2:00 pm, we will make our remaining inventory of syrup available for purchase on our website. Online orders will have the option to have syrup shipped, or arrange for an in-person pick up at Waterfall Farm at a future date and time that suits both parties.