Today I had one goal. Pick up and plant the tree that I requested. My local Subaru dealership was doing an Arbor Day partnership thing and today was the day to pick up the tree.
I slept in a bit this morning. I started with breakfast thinking that I’d get going pretty quick, but I ended up leaving the house a little after 9:30. That was probably a good thing since tree pick up started at ten, and I didn’t plan to shop down there.
The pickup was easy and quick. There was less dirt involved than the email led me to believe as the pot was wrapped in paper for transport. They had five varieties available, and I chose a sugar maple. Its truck is about as big around as a pencil right now. I picked one with only a few leaves.
On the way home, I stopped at my friend’s place to give her her key back from when I was feeding her dog. I had a nice conversation and got some hugs. Then I went home and ate lunch. And then it was time to start digging. Well, my first step was to bring the trimmer out and whack the grass around the spot. I chose where the former owner had planted a tree before. Her cows killed it and the others she planted along the fence line.
My next supplies were shovel, hoe, pocket knife, and tape measure. The instructions indicated a hole three to four times as wide as the pot to a depth that would allow the correct part of the trunk to be exposed. I used the dead tree’s trunk as a center and marked a circle around it using the tape measure to determine the radius and the shovel to mark the border. Then I whacked the ground with the hoe to loosen all the roots of the various plants growing there. Then I started digging, but the grasses were hard to dig, so I used my gloved hands to tear the plants out instead. I piled them onto a ground cloth.
Once the dirt was exposed, I started using the shovel. I put the dirt on a fold of the ground cloth, and eventually I got a second ground cloth and piled dirt on that. I was able to completely dig up the dead tree. Its roots looked like they’d barely had any time to grow before the poor thing died. I ended up digging a little too deep, but it was easy enough to back fill by hand. I smashed chunks of dirt down into the hole and then pounded it flat with my boots.
Before I began to back fill though, I went inside and got a small handful of Ambrose’s ashes. I clenched them in my fist so I wouldn’t shed them all over the place. I sang my mantra for them, and put them in the hole. The backfilling means the roots will have to reach to get to the ashes.
I got the tree out of the pot and looked at the roots. The internet said to cut the roots if they were compacted. So I did that, and then started piling dirt in. I filled it up, and then used the grasses that I’d pulled to line the circle with a little berm. Then I went over to a part of my yard where there’s old hay and I used my wheelbarrow to transport some mulch to surround the tree – but not too close to the trunk.
My neighbor had drive by to check the mail (and he delivered mine right to my hand for me), and he mentioned using stakes for my chicken wire fence that I planned to put around the tree to protect it from deer. So I got the screw in stakes that Ambrose bought for our short-lived tarp garage and used a u-stake to drill them into the ground on four sides around the circle. Then I used some twine and the bamboo stick the tree had been potted with to do a stake to help the tree with the fierce winds that this hill can get.
Finally, I yanked the chicken wire from the garden bed it had been pinned to with plants. Some of them smelled edible, but I’m not 100% sure that they are. That bed in particular is just growing tons of weeds. I had to get a wire cutter from the house because I had way more wire than I needed just for the tree. I used the stakes around the tree to position the wire, then cut it where I needed it. I tried cutting the wire to wind it onto the screw in stake, but it seemed easier to just weave the wire over the stake.
The tree having been planted, it was time to water it. I read that you should water the layers as you fill the dirt in, but we’ve had a lot of rain in the last week and the dirt was nice and damp as I dug. I did water afterwards, but I wasn’t sure how much I should be watering. I looked up some resources and I think I’m going to try the bucket watering method. Five gallon bucket, drill hole in bottom or low on the side, place near tree, fill bucket. Easy. The internet also suggested that new trees need shade and I did not plant it in shade. I might put some cloth on the chicken wire to help with that, but I’d need to remove it when the wind kicked up or it might take the chicken wire on a sail.
After that, I went shopping in town for the week’s groceries. They had water chestnuts today, so I bought a couple cans. I like to have a good stock of them. I bagged my jalapenos even though I typically don’t put those plastic bags on my produce at this store, because the cashier has a jalapeno allergy and she’s been having to use a tissue to scan my jalapenos. I figured it was worth a bag to make sure she doesn’t get exposed.
I finally washed the dirt off the green onions my neighbor gave me. I’m going to cook with them tomorrow. I hope. I have so many things on tomorrow’s to do list. I really want to hike, but that is going to make tomorrow a very full day. I’ve got family zoom. I’m going to try and get exercises, meal preps (breakfast and dinner at minimum, bonus if I can do lunch soups), cleaning, and a hike.
I did exercises after dinner this evening. The knee/ankle program has glute focused movements this week. It feels good to work those muscles. I think when I finish the shoulder program week 12, I’m going to drop back to doing one program at a time and keep going on the knee/ankle. Trying to keep up with doing two at the same time isn’t sustainable when I’ve got mowing to do. And a tree to water.
