by Jane Harris
Phase One of the collaboration between Middletown Connecticut's Urban Forestry Commission, Water & Sewer Department, AIC, Middletown Garden Club and the CT Chapter of The American Chestnut Foundation (CT-TACF) is off to a roaring start!
The new Middletown orchard is in its test stage: the twenty American chestnuts planted May 30th will be carefully watched to make sure that this is a viable site for the future plantings of hybrid and back-crossed American chestnuts.
Kathie Green, Jane Harris, Dick Carella and Elaine Carella (from left to right) beam at the happy conclusion of their first-ever American chestnut planting! Photo courtesy of Jennifer Allcock. [click on photo to see larger version]
Under the careful supervision of Jennifer Allcock, Board member of CT-TACF, three members of the Middletown Garden Club ? plus assorted willing spouses ? assembled their tools and supplies, and carefully planted the nuts sent by TACF Regional Science Coordinator Kendra Gurney.
Many hands were involved in the preparation work: James Sipperly, soil scientist for the Middletown Water and Sewer Department, made sure that the area was mowed and the normally locked gates left open. Jane Harris, an arborist and new Board member at CT-TACF, had taken soil samples to the CT Agricultural Experiment Station, then staked out the planting plan and sprayed the weedy area with herbicide. The Middletown Garden Club provided the planting supplies: peat moss, perlite, vermiculite, stakes, weed block, etc.
Ken Ahnell of The Connection, Inc. brought a work crew from the Alternative Incarceration Center to dig the foot-deep holes in the untilled soil.
Most important, other members of CT-TACF had sent supplies ? protective tubes, flags, and the all-important American chestnuts themselves!
Members of the Middletown Garden Club will monitor the need for watering until drip irrigation becomes available.
