I love trees. I love buying trees. I love planting trees. I love watching trees grow and mature. I feel like the best thing anyone can do is plant as many trees as possible. I get upset when I see trees being cut down. Heck, just the sound of a chainsaw makes me nervous. Considering that some of my close friends’ husbands are Fallers has made for some interesting ‘elephant in the room’ conversations when when we have dinner together. But I must admit they are handy men to know when one needs a hedge removed.
I bought this Full Moon Maple about 5 years ago and planted it in one of two large concrete containers that I ordered from the Concrete Jungle in Nanaimo. There is a large sumac tree in the matching container.
These pots are extremely heavy and they were the last items on the moving truck. The movers did a great job of unloading and making sure none of the branches were broken.
In the last couple of months I noticed the leaves on this tree curling and looking sick. I was also suspicious because the soil in the pot was staying moist even though the days were very dry and I wasn’t watering this pot very much. So an intervention was in store.
What a stinky mess I found when i dug this tree out of the pot. Yuck! Rotten soil and water clogged roots. Poor tree. See the crushed old pots and Styrofoam mixed in with the soil? I even found some of my old broken china.
Hmmm, water just sitting at the bottom. Not cool.
Hopefully you can see here how discoloured the leaves are. I spent a lot of time washing all the bad soil off of the root ball.
By comparison, the sumac has been very happy in its pot and has grown quite a lot in the last 5 years. It was time for it to be excavated and replanted in the garden. I had just the spot. It also happened that where this pot was sitting was where I decided to plant the maple.
After digging a huge hole and filling it with yummy compost, I gingerly replanted this tree. I carefully replaced all the moss around the trunk because I wanted it to look like a natural planting. I will keep an eye on it and maybe give it a good pruning this fall. Fingers crossed!
The sumac found a home in the new front garden to balance out the other one at the other end. It settled right in and seems quite content.
It means a lot to me to plant these trees in the ground here because it represents a long term commitment. I have waited many years to find a home for my beloved trees and plants and I look forward to watching them blend in with the landscape. Amen.