More Oak Trees

How time flies!  It feels like yesterday that I harvested acorns to try my hand at raising trees from seed.  It was an amazing feeling to see my first seedlings sprout to life.  Now that the acorns are ready to drop once again, I could not help but harvest a few this year to add to those growing now.

Perhaps this could be an annual ritual - we will see how the plantings go of the current Oak seedlings in a few more weeks.  I collected over sixty acorns in 10 minutes - what a wonderful way to re-vegetate a property and all for free!

Once I arrived home, I placed them in a plastic bag with a couple of tissues and popped them in the fridge - Our winters in Tallarook, Victoria are cold, but not always cold enough to allow acorns to germinate, so I use a fridge to emulate this process; this is called stratification.  I included a few tissues in the bag to help absorb some moisture and protect the acorns from rotting.

I know these trees take many years to grow, but can you imagine the benefits, not only for myself, but for generations to come?  Beautiful shade in the summer, wonderful leaf litter to feed the worms in autumn and wonderful acorns to feed animals like pigs - a dream landscape!