Oh wow.... what an interesting set of circumstances and what gorgeous pictures! Not much like that in Oklahoma!
We really do have to know our soil and the chemistry of them, and the plants that like those soils... as well as what we can do to amend them for other plants for which the soil is not quite right.
In the 60s - 70s and 80s I subscribed to every gardening book/magazine printed and devoured the contents. These days I just concern my self with the structure of the soil. My mother subscribed to Rodale’s Organic Gardening in the 40s & 50s and did trench composting but she had warm soil to break it down...
The fantastic Redwood. My Granny’s third husband had sheds that he used to raise quail in. All of the frame work for the sheds was made of redwood.
We had to have the last one of those sheds torn down, so we asked the guy to save any redwood that was around 3 ft. in length. We haven’t been able to make the trip to Springfield to get them yet though.
These were truly great trees, and it’s nearly impossible to find any today, and you couldn’t afford them if you did.
We have two nice size cedar trees left on our 1 acre. Hubby recently cut the others down and used them to make rough fence posts - attaching wire trellis for his grapes.
We argue about the remaining two trees. He claims they will kill the apples. I tell him no they won’t because the Walnut tree will do it first! PS he ain’t never cutting the Walnut trees either.