We had to do more general chores today, and we quickly split into groups to do necessary jobs around the nursery. I ended up doing some watering (which I now do as I wait for the others to arrive), breaking up the soil (increasingly popular with the male members), label-making, as well as staking and turning the trees. This means tying the saplings to bamboo rods so that they grow up straight, and turning them around so that they don’t grow towards the sun (i.e tilted). One specimen was particularly hunched and was leaning on the netting portion of the roof. I readjusted the ties and attached another bamboo rod to the first to allow it to stretch to its full height. Well, I actually calculated its full sight and transported it to the floor first.
I feel it was really good for me to gain confidence in this skill, as I noticed that a lot of our older trees were growing a bit wonky. At first, however, I assumed that that letting such “weak” trees live is a bad idea, assuming it would weaken the bloodline. But I realise now upon reflection that trees are necessary even if they don’t reproduce. They still form habitats and cover for biodiversity, etc.
Also, to complete the cataloguing work for the day before (which I didn’t take part in) I helped make the roughly 50 labels needed for our tiny Aqualaria Microcarpa pots.
