Tapestry
About
We
live in rural Mount Vernon, Iowa on 4+ acres. The hillside lot
is bordered by timber on three sides. It is home to whitetail
deer, wild turkey and other assorted critters. While mowing
the lot, the fawn (left) was spotted near a stand of trees.
Does typically give birth to twins in the spring. It is not
uncommon to see a herd of deer grazing with dozens of wild turkeys.
Our other hobby is gardening and landscaping. We have been fortunate to have acquired an extensive daylily and hosta collection from our friend Forrest Johnson. Forrest generously gave us his entire Stout Award Daylily collection. We have two huge daylily gardens. The Stout Award garden is located on a hillside overlooking the house. It required over 40 cubic yards of mulch.
A second daylily bed located on the south side of
the house contains an assortment of the Forrest's favorite
daylilies.
(pictured below)
Over the past ten years, we have planted over 250 native hardwood trees and shrubs from bareroot stock. The assortment of trees includes burr oak, white oak, red oak, pin oak, sugar maple, river birch, black walnut, black cherry, shagbark hickory, and ash. Shrubs include lilacs, cranberry, service berry, hazelnuts, and dogwoods. To prevent damage by grazing deer and antler rubs, all trees must be planted with protective cages.
The Red and Pin Oaks pictured, were planted in Spring 2002.
They were 6"-12" bareroot trees when planted. They now stand
15' to 20' tall and are almost 4" in diameter.