PLANT OF THE MONTH
February, 2009
Plant of the Month Feature
by Don Krambeck
Bickelhaupt Arboretum
Roots Board Member
Pinus cembra
Swiss Stone Pine
In 1969 my son, Jim Krambeck, a practicing lawyer in Des Moines, IA and I were offered a ninety-acre farm It was a farm with six acres of timber, mostly green ash and miscellaneous other deciduous trees.
The crop land was rolling but productive and the price was reasonable so we bought it and farmed it.
On this farm where were two small spring-fed creeks which were beginning tributaries. These small creeks started on our land in Hampshire Township, flowed through Lincoln Township and then through the industrial and commercial area of West Clinton. As these creeks joined other streams the enlarging stream was named Mill Creek. It flowed under a large concrete bridge at Iowa State Highway 30 and into Beaver Slough , a nine-foot channel which enters the Mississippi Rover just above Camanche, Iowa.
The larger of these two creeks started just behind the house and farm buildings and this ditch, or "gully" as it was called, and was used as a depository for junk of all kinds.
In the spring of 1970 we hauled several truck loads of barbed and woven wire, beer, wine and whiskey bottles, dishes, rusted horse drawn equipment, boards, rotten fence posts, old furniture and much more to the county landfill. Had I had knowledge of antiques, and an interest in them, the neighbors told me many dollars could have been harvested from that gully!
We were proceeding to build a fish pond with plans designed by the Soil Conservation Service.
Two large Caterpillar bulldozers (D8's) proceeded to shape the ditch into a pond contained by a dike. Numerous springs were uncovered and I requested the drivers continue pushing dirt onto the dike until their tracks could no longer function.
With difficulty, one of the dozers was able to pull the other out as the springs quickly filled the pond to a depth of 23 feet at its deepest point. We then shaped the banks and dike with a tractor pulling a disk and a spike tooth harrow to prepare for seeding and planting.
The dike was seeded with bluegrass. The east bank was seeded with brown and blue grass and planted with a Wisconsin Weeping Willow, near the edge of the pond along with several Blue Spruce.
The west bank of the pond was planted with Eastern White Pine in two rows of twenty each. The Isaak Walton League tree planter was used to plant these. My Ikes friends rode though planter while I pulled the planter with my tractor.
Eastern White Pine was selected because they served as an excellent wind break from westerly winds. Since my grandsons were quite young at the time, it was advantageous to have soft needles trees.
Those forty Eastern White Pines are now mature at a height of 35 feet with 100 percent survival.
The arboretum has Eastern White Pine growing in several locations and used for many different reasons. In 1957 Mr. and Mrs. Bickelhaupt planted a row of them to protect their home from the strong north winds during the winter months. These serve a dual purpose of also screening neighboring houses and the street. They make a wonderful backdrop to the building adding a value of aesthetics. The Bickelhaupt Arboretum has designated this at the outdoor museum as Founder's Trees.
We also have an individual specimen planted in 1973 and standing more than sixty feet tall which screens the neighboring houses. The natural shedding of needles in the early fall are raked up each year and used for mulch.
About the author: Don Krambeck will celebrate his ninetieth birthday this month and has been a ROOTS Advisory Board member for nine years. He is a WWII veteran, pilot, retired business owner, farmer, conversationalist, community volunteer and friend to many. It is only fitting that his remembrances be printed as Plant of the Month.