Fall Planting Marathon

The last few weeks have been a blur. My husband and I had our property resurveyed three weeks ago and then had the 30+ year old silver maple removed from our backyard. Our weekend plan of attack was to put in a split rail fence along the border of our property and our neighbors, plant six columnar junipers and four viburnums along the fence line and transplant several shrubs and trees. Of course we picked the one weekend in October where our area set a new weather record of 90 degrees. My husband rented a power auger for the weekend. We figured we would drill all the holes for the posts along with three to four holes for every tree and shrub we planned on planting. I was eternally grateful that we got the auger. Our soil was like concrete and full of rocks and tree roots. I now realize why my grass is in such horrible condition. There was not one ounce of evidence that there was any decent top soil under our grass. Apparently the top soil was removed when the house was built and nothing was ever added after the completion.

Amazingly, we got all the fence posts in, along with three junipers. The next day we finished getting the last of the junipers in along with the four viburnums. I lost four pounds during those two days. Although I was grateful for the loss of a few pounds, it is not the way I would recommend losing weight.

Each evening I would come home from work and plant one or two more shrubs before it got too dark to see. One evening, I actually put on the little head light my husband gave me for Christmas, just so I could get finished. I managed to get a new tree planted and another relocated. I also relocated one viburnum that got flooded for days after a severe summer storm that dumped several inches of rain in a couple hours.

The end results are fabulous. I can only imagine what everything will look like in a few years when the plants mature. It will be fun watching them grow. Seeing the fruits of ones labor is so rewarding.