Broken Back Weather

The weather has been perfect for grubbing grass and weeds out of the flower beds. But there is so much grass and weeds in so many beds that I tend to go from one bad patch to another without ever finishing anything. The rhubarb and blueberry beds may be the worst. Birds insist on burying acorns there and I don't get around to digging up the resultant trees until they are three feet tall with roots that go to China. I dug two such beasts out this past week and replanted them along the fence line in the Ponderosa Pine section of the arboretum. I broke lots of roots so don't know if they'll grow. But at least they won't grow in my rhubarb and blueberry beds anymore. 

The hole I dug in the blueberry area to get an oak tree out was so huge that I thought it a shame to just fill it back in without planting something in the waiting hole. The only sensible thing to plant in a blueberry bed is another blueberry bush. So Velta and I did a nursery run on her birthday and I bought two blueberry bushes (I couldn't decide between them.) That meant more digging out weeds in order to plant the second bush... on Tuesday.

Yesterday, Thursday, an email arrived saying my order from Burnt Ridge Nursery had been shipped. I did not remember placing an order. I dug through old emails and sure enough, I had ordered, back in January before anyone will ship to my zone, peach, apricot and nectarine trees, Dawn Redwoods, a Korean Nut Pine, and... two blueberry bushes. Oops.

Today the trees arrived and I spent the afternoon planting. I love planting trees but... there were a lot of them. And, not realizing the order would come so soon after the shipping notification email, I had trimmed Mr. Smith's hooves this morning, a backbreaking enough job.

Planting trees in the arboretum this afternoon was not bad since the ground is soft. The peaches went into the fruit and nut orchard area. Alas, there was not enough room in that area for the nectarines and apricots. So I planted them in the "orphanage" of donated plants from friends. The orphanage adjoins the fruit and nut orchard. The fruit orchard has now expanded. The Dawn Redwoods (all five of them... why did I order five??) and the Korean Nut Pine found homes in China.

I always mark new trees with bamboo stakes and ribbon but I was out of stakes, so that meant sawing down bamboo poles from the grove behind the house. That grove could use a lot more thinning but sawing bamboo is hard work. I only cut what I needed now.

The trees were finally taken care of, but where to plant two more blueberry bushes? Logically, they should go in the blueberry bed but there was no room in that bed after the Tuesday additions. The only solution was to turn the overgrown iris area next to the blueberry and rhubarb beds into an extension of the blueberry bed. That meant digging out lots more weeds and grass.

Tonight, I can slouch and type, but not much else. This weather is going to kill me.