Thanks to all that came out for our Veteran’s day maintenance of the trees we planted on the Arlington Boulevard/Rt. 50 shoulder!  While we were out, we re-staked the trees, did some weeding, and replaced some of the trees that have not made it.  What a difference three years make!  The largest eastern cedars we purchased from Great Outdoors of Falls Church, who also did the planting, are beginning to fill in the western part of the shoulder.  Some of the Sumacs we purchased from Earth Sangha are starting to take off and colonize that area.  Hope you caught their beautiful fall colors when their leaves were changing a couple of weeks ago.  One or two hollies we received through the Arlington County tree give away in conjunction with Tree Stewards are also hanging in there on the eastern part of the shoulder.  The native flowers we planted last winter are surviving too.

In terms of next steps, now that the work on the Manchester and Rt. 50 corner is almost completed, we can start restoring the center part of the shoulder.  Later this winter if we get a warm weekend, we can remove vines from the trees in this area to help them better survive and thrive.  If people, time and energy permits, we can start removing some of the bush honeysuckle as well.  In the spring, we will transplant some of the Sumac colonies in the eastern part of the shoulder to the western part to augment the trees we have already planted there.