I don't know about you, but I am getting a little bit tired of the missile projectiles falling from the oaks in my yard and on the paths. I have felt like I should walk the dog with my bicycle helmet on my head! The last two days have been extra vicious with the winds picking up. Somehow they are even finding a home in the very back of my garage as they bounce off of the driveway and right into the open space I treasure.
The oak trees are just doing what they are supposed to do to prolong their species: during times of drought, they produce a lot more "seed" in the hopes of having progeny to live on beyond the life of the parent tree. This had just been excessive this year, IMO.
I have never actually counted the number of oak trees in my yard. Most of my yard is heavily wooded in the front and back and this has not been something pressing on my To Do List in the past 12 years we have lived here. I guess I can count them that after the storm, if I have the thought while I am wandering around picking up sticks.
This past week, while blowing leaves from Point A to Point B, I also had to deal with the piles of acorns which I had piled up over the past few weeks on the driveway and sidewalk (have been busy with other things and I hate picking up acorns!). I found it amazing that some of the acorns I was bagging had already started to send out their taproot, preparing to find some excellent soil to begin their new life.
Well, my goodness, this just gets my goat! How dare they!
I don't need any more oak tree seedlings sprouting in my flower beds, People! That dang taproot digs deep over the winter to establish the acorn as a formidable foe in the spring when the leaves sprout. I hope I don't have many taking hold because, in the spring, I much prefer to enjoy my bulbs instead of pulling up the sprouting oaks.
I read in one of the garden columns in the Washington Post some time ago that only one out of 10,000 acorns grows to maturity. The sheer numbers of them this year leads me to believe that their percentage may grow in the next few years!
