Then and Now... The Tale of the Trees

or:   How many holes can one crazy woman dig in her yard?  At last count, it was 18. 

The realtor photo of my house:

The view from my neighbor's porch on May 18, 2010:

How did I get from the first pic to the second one?

I had promised myself that as soon as I stopped renting, and actually owned the place, I would plant trees. I needed shade in that huge front yard.  I had a picture in my head of what I wanted -- trees along the perimeter of the lot, down by the curb, with azaleas in between them, and a fence weaving through them, mostly hidden by the shrubs but occasionally peeking out.  Then someone told me that we weren't allowed to put fences in the front yards, so I dropped part of that dream. THEN I called before I dug, and found out that the gas line runs EXACTLY where I wanted to plant my line of trees.  No problem, thinks I... I'll just move back a wee bit. Except that wee bit was EXACTLY where they put the french drain, which keeps my yard from being a lake when we get a heavy rain.  *sigh*

So I dropped my original thought, and decided I would "scatter" trees throughout the yard, trying for a more natural look, versus a straight line of trees.  In Feb 09, I closed on the house. In early March, I went to WalMart and brought home 3 dogwoods - one each of pink/red/white. Then I was at Lowes, and they had japanese cherries for only $25 each, so I brought home 2 Kanzaan and 2 Yoshino.  Home Depot had a Forest Pansy Redbud, and Lowes had a Summer Wonder Crabapple - both of these have purple leaves. Finished the selection with a river birch clump, for a total of ten trees.  I had already decided the side yard, such as it is, was for the critters, so the crabapple would go there, and the other 9 were destined for the front yard.

As you can see, fitting trees into my PT Cruiser is a bit of a challenge...

 

 

I thought I was going to let my brother plant the trees for me when he came to visit, but that would mean waiting 3 more weeks, and I'm not that patient. LOL So I bought me a little Mantis Tiller, after my aunt gave it a rave review, and found that with a Mantis tiller, you can plant a tree in an hour, as long as you cut the sod away before you start to till.

Fifteen minutes with a mantis tiller give you a hole as deep as the pot the tree was in:

We'd had a week where it rained every day, then the rain stopped, but was due to start up again in another week. So I took advantage of the non-raining week, and planted a tree on every lunch hour (the benefits of working from home). And every night after work, I'd plant another one. The crabapple was the last to go in, and it started to sprinkle on me as I was filling in the dirt.

After I'd planted them, it rained every day for another week, and except for the month of June, we had at least 1/2" of rain every week from March through September. So I definitely picked the right time to plant the trees. :)

I lost the two Yoshinos -- they drowned. :-(

Not having  lived here during non-drought times, I didn't realize that some areas collected water and didn't drain well. Now I know.  So in the fall, I bought two replacement trees from Nearly Native Nursery. It was after I planted all the trees that I started learning about the value of native plants, and found out about this semi-local native nursery (55miles one way for me). I went down there in October, and brought back a Black Gum Tupelo and a Franklinia Alatamaha (first discovered in 1765, and named after Ben Franklin).  Franklinia's have not been seen in the wild since about 1805, but when the man first discovered them in 1780-something, he brought a couple back to PA. Every Franklinia you see today is from those the guy brought back to PA.  And they were mentioned in an episode of Bones, back in the first couple seasons :)

Both trees survived the winter, and look great.

The yard with the new trees last March:

Then how they looked last May, about 6 weeks after planting:

Boy, the yard looks empty in those pics. I don't think I realize how much I've done, until I see the "before" pics...

Here's that oak tree last May - the one that's as tall as I am, now.



This year, it still looked a little bare, and I learned that black gum tupelos need a pollinator, so I headed back to Nearly Native and bought the 4 Tupelos they had -- with five, I stand a good chance of having both male and female plants.  Went back a couple weeks later and picked up 2 more trees, a couple Alabama Azaleas, and a couple other shrubs.  Then I was at Lowes one night to buy soil conditioner, and made the mistake of looking at their trees. Came home with an Eastern Redbud and a japanese crabapple.

So there are 7 more trees in my front yard, and one more in my side yard.  Oh, and then there's the 4" tall magnolia seedling I brought from a friend's yard last fall. So that makes 16 front yard trees, I think (I put Franklinia over on the side, where it would get better drainage)

The front tree in this picture is last fall's Tupelo. The left-most tree is a Kanzaan cherry.  There are 2 more Tupelos in this pic, and an Alabama Azalea.



The smallish tree in the foreground is the Silverbell - Halesia Diptera. Eastern redbud behind it and slightly to its right, and a Kanzaan Cherry to its left. This side is more bare - that's becuase I plan to build a pond there in the next couple years, soon as I figure out the best spot for it.  It's either going between the island and the trees, or between the mature maple you see on the right edge, and the silverbell. I'm leaning towards between the island and the trees, because then I can still create a path from the mailbox to the porch.

I thought I was done with my tree-planting for another year, until I was at the flea market last weekend buying a new birdhouse, and ran across a royal purple smoke tree. I'd never even heard of those, much less seen one, so I had to grab it. Planted it on Saturday after I got it home, then realized on Tuesday I wanted it on the other side of the yard, so I moved it last night, and planted a red buckeye (formerly in container) where it had originally been.

And now I'm done with trees in the front yard until next year, or maybe next fall.