A very long time ago, on a sweet summer day, my brother, cousins and I were all playing at our Mammaw’s house. One of my cousins came running up to her with a tiny branch clutched in his grubby, little hand.
“Mammaw! Mammaw! I bwought you a twee!” he exclaimed proudly.
Now Mammaw would rather “take a beatin’”, as she would say, than hurt a child’s feelings. So, she praised my little cousin and with great purpose and ceremony, stuck the twig in the ground in the front yard.
“There!” she said, “that’ll be a good place for that tree.”
And so it was – it grew to a lovely black gum tree (Nyssa sylvatica) and I swear to goodness, she never even watered it!
For most of us, planting a tree is a much more work and a bit more complicated – and not always in the manner we expect. We often make our first mistake when we see an interesting looking tree at the garden center. In the throes of Spring Fever, when we are really not quite in our right minds, we grab the plant with both hands, shove it onto our garden wagon and think “I’ll find a place for it somewhere!” Come on! Admit you’ve done that!
It works better if you do some research first. It also works better if you don’t ask your Wonderful Husband assist.
Assuming you don’t make an impulse purchase like I normally do, your first step should be to go out and look around your yard. Look up, look down. Think about overhead power lines and underground sewer, water and gas lines. Figure out about how much space the tree will have to grow; how much sunlight and water it will receive, and finally get on the computer and do some research on likely candidates.
Please, please, please don’t buy or plant a Bradford or Callery pear (Pyrus calleryana) – they are taking over the world. Norway maple (Acer platanoides), Paulownia (Paulownia tomentosa), and Tree of Heaven (Ailanthus altissima) are also “no-no’s” – they don’t know how to behave nicely and play well with Mother Nature either.
About three weeks ago, I finally persuaded my Wonderful Husband to cut down the invasive Autumn Olives screening our house from the road. I’d been waging a war against Autumn Olives for years and it was time for those bad boys to go! It took us all weekend, but we got the job done.
As expected, we could see a whole lot more road and there were large bare areas where we’d removed the Autumn Olives. Which meant that we needed to buy trees to plant in their place! See, you knew I had a plan! We both agreed that we needed an evergreen, preferably a native, but at least not invasive.
The first problem that arose was that I wanted an American arborvitae (Thuja occidentalis), while my Wonderful Husband had fallen in love with Canadian hemlock (Tsuga Canadensis). There were also a couple of other problems: it was still pretty shady where we wanted the new trees and the soil (or what passes for soil around here) is mostly clay.
After checking the garden catalogs, Master Gardener publications, native plant lists, and researching on line, it seemed the Canadian hemlock might really be the best choice. Although not originally native in southern Indiana, it is a native of the eastern U.S. and grows in shade. I was a little worried because the Hemlock woolly adelgid (don’t ask me to pronounce that!) is killing these trees in the southern parts of the hemlock’s range. Still, this sap-sucking bug can be controlled, if needed.
Another concern was the Canadian hemlock needs well-drained soil and I’ve already told you about our “soil”. Happily, we’d been piling leaves and grass clippings in the area we planned to plant the tree and the soil was much better than I’d expected, plus the planting site is on a slight slope so I think the drainage will be fine and the tree will be happy.
The next grand debate occurred when we had to decide precisely where to plant it. This wasn’t too difficult – I got to stand at various locations pretending I was a hemlock until my Wonderful Husband found just the right spot.
I had asked WH (Wonderful Husband) to take photos of our tree planting project for this article. Unexpectedly, he discovered he was a Hollywood Director and Producer. As I was doing all the digging, he supervised my efforts, gently offering welcome advice (if you sense a bit of sarcasm here, you’re completely correct!).
The conversation consisted of me grunting with effort as I was shoveling and him telling me how to shovel.
“That hole’s not round! It’s too big! Put the dirt over here!” Such a Wonderful Husband!
When it came time to bring the hemlock over, I’ll admit he really was a big help as it was a heavy tree. As I pulled out my shop knife to cut away the burlap, I received true Hollywood-worthy direction: “Hold the knife like this. Get your shadow out of the photo. Hold it, hold it! Let me take a few more shots.”
I finally got to cut the burlap away and we carefully put our tree in the hole, tried to keep it straight and filled the hole back in. He took several more photos from different angles, making me move the rake, now move the shovel, pull out that weed, it’s in the shot. Gotta love a perfectionist!
Since this tree had shallow roots, some of the websites suggested leaving about two inches of the root ball above ground, which we did.
Mulching is a big part of our gardening regime. Mulch keeps down weeds and makes the weeds that do pop up easy to pull. As it decomposes, it enriches the soil, helps maintain consistent soil moisture and reduces the need to water. Whenever the local tree trimming service is in the area, they will drop off a truckload or three of woodchips.
The fresh mulch gets applied to pathways. But, after the chips have aged a season, they get applied to our garden beds as needed. It may not be particularly attractive, certainly it’s not dyed bright red or black, but it’s free. Our last “shipment” is two years old now and is beginning to break down. We applied about 6 bushel baskets of mulch around the tree, all gallantly shoveled and loaded by my Wonderful Husband. He did remind me to keep the mulch away from the trunk to avoid rot (really? I really needed to be told that?).
Eventually, we finished the job and I watered the hemlock in, apparently using the appropriate method; at least WH didn’t tell me how to use a water hose (perhaps because he knew I would be likely to turn it on him!)
It’s sometimes difficult living with such a Wonderful Husband!