Gardening Journal #3

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Digging. That's what I got to do yesterday. Well first I had a few things to get ready to do. I did have to go to the hardware store and get some acidic plant food for my pine tree that I was planting today. Luckily they did have some. I also got a few bags of soil and some grass seed that supposedly grows in the hard to grow spots. We will see if it works… I started planting my dwarf pine. It's supposed to only get to 8 feet tall, and I wanted it out front so I had to find a decent spot for it in the yard. I'm really hoping it is what is advertised. I think it is, but we will see. It took me quite a bit longer to find the spot I wanted it to go than to actually do the digging. The digging was a lot easier than I thought it was going to be, though there was definitely rocks, I am pretty sure that that was the old driveway, there was plenty of soil still left over when I put the tree in the ground. The tree was pretty easy to get out of the pot. I turned it on its side and rolled and pressed on the container and it pulled right out easily. I did put some of the evergreen food in the hole first before setting the tree in and then covered the tree with the remaining soil I pulled up from the ground. I did have to take out quite a few rocks out before putting it back in the ground. I put more food on top and covered it in black mulch, which is what I used for the whole flower garden I have now. It will keep it safe from any possible freezings in the near future. I don't think I'll be remulching after this year, just because pines are pretty hardy after they have been established. Next I worked on my weeping cherry blossom. This tree gets to be about 30 feet tall. I already found a spot for it the day before yesterday so I only needed to start digging. I had to mow and I was stoked about getting this tree in the ground asap! It did take me a bit to figure out the placement, but since I did it the day before I could start right up on digging the hole. This one was not as difficult as I thought it was going to be and I was able to get it done in less than an hour! I thought there would be rocks and roots from a tree that was taken down last year because it was in the way of a new sidewalk. I had very little trouble with roots and there were no rocks! So I got the hole dug up. tipped the tree to the side, banged on the pot to loosen it up and the tree slid right out! MAGIC! i pulled on the roots to loosen them up a bit and got it in the ground. All by myself. I thought it might be a two person job, but if it is I managed to do it alone. I covered up the tree with the dirt and tamped it down so that there wouldn't be little mini sink holes and fed the tree with normal plant food. Then spread the mulch over it. It was not as hard as I thought it would be and I accomplished it within an hour and a half! Once done I did spread some seed around my yard. There were bare spots that needed special seed and I hope this grass seed works because I would have spent a lot of money for not much seed…. (well it had food and mulch in it too) but I could see the outline of the old house where it's corner was and part of my front yard was just short and brown and dull. So… here's hoping that I have some nice green grass growing soon!