This past Friday I received the first part of my order from Spring Hill Nursery, so Sunday I spent most of the afternoon planting and weeding. Usually, wedding entails dandelions and wild strawberry plants and even some stinging nettles. However, all of these foes, while abundant and annoying, come out of the ground without much of a problem. This was especially true Sunday because we’d had some rain over the weekend, so the soil was moist and easier to dig into. I got a lot done on the weeding front Sunday, so when I looked toward the back of the yard and saw two small saplings growing by the side of our garage, I thought “Well, I can pull those out too.” Famous last words.
The first of the two small trees came out rather easily. It was younger and the moist ground let the roots grow with minimal tugging. Then I moved onto the second tree. I pushed it. I pulled it. I twisted it. I swore. I got out the shovel. I began to dig. I dug from the left side. I dug from the right side. The good news? After digging for about five minutes, the tangled nest of roots slowly began to appear. The bad news? These roots apparently went to China and then kept going. At this point I snapped the first half of the sapling off because it was getting in my way. And I kept digging. By the time I was done digging, I had a very deep, very narrow hole by the side of my garage but it was worth it. With one more solid tug, the roots let go and out came the sapling. The whole ordeal took about forty five minutes. And where was my husband you ask? Asleep. On the couch.
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| The two saplings. The lower tree was the easier of the two to remove. |
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| The giant root bulb of the second, larger tree. |
In other news, our shrub rose has produced its first bloom of the season:
Brianna Pike 