Planting a Tree
Posted by Wayne
Yesterday I decided I had enough of our house being the only one in the neighborhood without a mature tree in the front yard, so I decided to plant one. I shall realize the fruits of my labor in approximately 20 years.
I have often wondered why our house had no tree in the front yard, I’m betting that there there was one there early on that died. We probably won’t be here in 20 years to see the full grown tree, but I think it will be nice for the people who live here then.
I really get a kick out of doing things that only people in the future will see the value of, and I always have. At my parent’s house there are baseball cards in ziplock bags and trinkets that I hid all over the place as a child that someone will discover someday upon remodeling. I fully intend to insert my fairly large baseball card collection into one of the walls/ceiling when I finish our basement. It’s probably worth a few hundred dollars, but the thought of someone busting through the wall in 100 years and discovering the collection is worth more to me. I can at least enjoy the thought of that, while I don’t really enjoy the thought of having a baseball card collection anymore.
I guess this is the same principle of the tree. I had a thought today that I should take a picture of the new tree and hide it somewhere in the house so that someone can discover it someday and be amazed that the huge tree out front was once but a small tree.
I went to a tree nursery today and looked at several different types of trees, but the prices seemed pretty high for the size of tree I was looking for. I decided that I liked maple trees. I ended up going to Home Depot and finding a really nice sized and healthy looking maple tree for $100 (the same exact tree was about $240 at the nursery). I also bought 2 bags of compost to fill in around the tree once I had the hole dug out.
My wife and I spent a few minutes taking turns standing in the yard pretending to be a tree while the other stood in the street trying to decide what would be the best location for the tree, and we eventually decided on one.
My first step was to cut out a circle from the lawn with a shovel about 6 inches wider than the tree’s root ball. We happened to decide on a spot that I didn’t think had any sprinkler lines might be running through, so that made the digging a little bit easier. It’s pretty easy to install and repair sprinkler lines, but it’s not fun work.
Once a circle was sliced into the lawn, it was easy to pull it up like sod after a little bit of undercutting with the shovel. I then dug down about 2.5 feet which was about 6 inches deeper than the tree’s root ball.
The top of the root ball is supposed to be level to or slightly above the ground level, so I filled in the bottom of the hole with the compost mixture about 6 inches deep before putting the tree in the hole. I then filled in around the sides of the hole with the compost, watered it down, filled in more compost, and repeated the process until the entire hole was refilled back to ground level and slightly above.
I installed some stakes and wire to hold the tree upright in high wind until the roots take and can hold the tree up on it’s own. I bought two canvas strips with grommets (88 cents each at Home Depot) for holding the tree. The strips are connected to wire which attached to the steel stakes. I pounded in the stakes with a sledgehammer.
The whole process took about 30 minutes. Perhaps I’m in the wrong line of work and should become a hole digger.
Total planting time: 30 minutes . Total Cost: $110
4 Responses to “Planting a Tree”
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May 18th, 2008 at 2:02 pm
Wayne - This is a great post. I too love the idea of leaving stuff for future generations. Our dining room table is from the early 1900s and belonged to Dale’s great-grand parents and we have a picture of them and their family/friends all gathered around the same table almost 100 years ago. The idea that we are using a table that they used has such a wonderful feeling to me. Once when I was a kid we remodeled our house and in one of the walls we found a dairy that a little girl who had lives in the house in the 1930s must had hidden and forgot about. A unique surprise.
May 29th, 2008 at 8:42 am
I just read the article on planting a tree. we have some very old maples in our yard. sugar maples to exact. here in michigan they are very common. it has long bothered me to see people clearing everything so they can have this large expanse of lawn. true as many trees as we have means a lot of work come fall but we have some of the most beautiful color. we also have several very staight and old black walnuts. they would be very valuable should they be cut. no happening even though the walnutss fall into the vegetable garden. recently lost a very old wild cherry tree to a wind storm. a small was growing from the base. this has been left instead of taking it out with the old tree’s base. our gift to the next generations we hope. we have found several things hidden away in our house as we remodel. old bottles, newspapers. the house was built in about the late 1930s t0 early 40s. we do know that there has been a home here since the 1860s. so it is with pride that we try to keep our old trees going and selt various new ones to replace as we need to. more people need to do this it our part to being green. not to mention they are home to a colony of bats, pair of owls and a pair of cooper’s hawk. we enjoy being called tree huggers because that is what we are.
May 30th, 2008 at 4:44 pm
Hi Wayne,
I stumbled upon your blog today and I am very impressed! You’ve inspired me to move forward with some of my home projects. Keep up the good work.
Chris
June 14th, 2008 at 11:37 am
thanks for your story. Not only am i needing/wanting to plant shade trees (we have over dozen fruit and nut trees) but your hiding stuff within the home so that future curious one or remodelers will find them…that is so cool. I know that if i were to come upon someone else little hidden treasures from 20,30,40 years ago, i would be jumping around as if i’d found a trunk of gold. i think you’re doing a good thing, an unselfish act which will, someday, provide joy (we hope). I couldn’t help but think that technically this is unselfish, but it also gives you a little legacy or some level of immortality. You probably know what I mean, yeah? On a more practical note, thanks for the tip on nursery vs. Home Depot. I’m wanting a fast growing shade tree. I’ve done some research re the variety and planting. However your step by step instruction was really the best and simplest. Here’s to the future generations and love of trees, etc. etc. Hope you and your wife have a great weekend.