The Tree

I'm too tired to take a photograph of this tree, so we'll just pretend I did. Two years ago, right after I purchased this house, Pat and I went on the garden tour of Plainfield, IN. It was a fun day, hot but enjoyable. One of the last places we visited had plants for sale. I purchased three plants. The only one I know the name of is the Siberian Iris that I posted on Sunday. The other two are something or other.

Last fall my friends Eva and Jean came down to spend a weekend. Eva is a master gardener, and told me that the one plant should be in the shade, not full sun where I had located it. So today I moved the two biggest clumps of that plant, and then tackled THE TREE. The other nameless plant came with a small soft maple growing in it's midst. For whatever reason, I was not into gardening last year, and ignored the maple tree. This year I realized I couldn't put it off any longer, so I dug that sucker up. Good thing, because the main root was heading into the slab the house is situated on.

I immediately brought the five foot maple tree to the back yard, in hopes that it would root and take. Not likely, but you never know until you try. It was free and the cost was an hour of my time. I laid the tree down on the ground to dig a hole. Not knowing if I'd remove the tree from the first spot in one piece, I did not dig a new hole first. This is logical, is it not? Not if you have an Aussie named Gracie. While I was digging, Gracie looked at the poor tree, and decided this would be a great stick to tease Jake with. Her mouth (I swear this is true) was just closing around the main trunk when I turned around yelling "leave it". It is extremely windy today, storms are once again brewing, so I'm fighting the wind, the clay that exists all over this state, and the dog who is intent on playing with this new toy that mom has thrown on the ground.

I won. The tree is in the ground, watered and staked so it will have half of chance of staying upright. Gracie is asleep at my feet, having decided that she pushed her Diva act a bit too far with mom today. Life with dogs is never, ever boring.
Linda