New York Renovator

Well, by now I thoroughly expected to have snow on the ground. There is none! It has been chilly, and ice forms on the driveway every morning, but no snow. It’s unusual.

We got all our trees planted: 5 privet hedges, 1 red maple, 1 willow, and I moved the douglas fir that had been growingin our front flower bed. I hope it survives– I had to chop up the rootball quite a bit and the ground was slightly frozen. It was tough plugging the tree in the ground. I hope it lives, because it is such a lovely tree. It smells so wonderful, too.

The privets have a home in front of the fence in the front yard. I hope they grow nice and fast, to screen the very ugly row of parked cars that sit at my neighbor’s house. The willow and red maple are in temporary spots. Their final home will be the backyard, but they are too young to be thrown into the cruel, cruel world where rabbits, deer, and neighboring urchins chop, stomp, and devour anything and anything I put back there. Over the past ten years, I’d estimate that I have planted 10 trees in my back yard, and only TWO survived. Deer and neighbors killed the rest. You’d think the neighbors would have better things to do than harrass my trees in my backyard… Tree-planting is quite the exertion around here.

Our projects have been winding down for a few weeks. We’ve been very preoccupied with cleaning things up, shutting things down, and preparing for the coming winter season. We’ve also been busy for weeks in an endless raking competition between us and the trees. There are still leaves on our trees, and the trees refuse to drop them! We’ve have been out nearly every day for two weeks, raking, with obviously more raking to go.

You’d probably think I am crazy but I just got my order from the National Arbor Day foundation– more trees! I ordered a total of 12 and 5 came in. So… we’re going to be busy. Hopefully, the kids and I can get them in the ground today. We have snow on the ground, and it’s biting cold, but the trees must be planted. I think NADF waited a bit long to ship the trees, wouldn’t you say? They wait until a frost to ship them. After a very warm October and November, with no frost (very unusual), snow and cold temperatures came very suddenly.

I’ll try to remember to take pictures of our little escapade of planting trees in the snow. I can’t say I’ve ever done it so late!