DURING THE EIGHT YEARS i have lived in my current house,i have planted twenty five trees, and have turned a barren construction site into a pretty nice shady wooded area, with nice thick grass and a little shrubbery. Weeds? Bad, but not too bad.
The one missing pieceis a redbud tree, requisite for genteel arkansas living. Had a small one once, and it was doing right fine until a day dreamy teenaged lawn mower chopped 'er right on down...devastated, i stayed away from the sub species for several years, - but redbud fever eventually returned. I also stayed away from hiring people to mow my lawn.
Too many mutilated redbuds, and trees wounded with weed eaters. One day recently i discovered a volunteer redbud, about two feet tall, standing robustly less than an inch from my paved driveway, beneath a twenty foot pin oak, with limited opportuinty for future success.
Siezing the opportunity, i transplanted it to a much more favorable location. It was a tricky and painful surgical procedure, for the little thing was deeply embedded in rocks. At length i was forced to sever the tap root in order to excise it.
Now it stands next to a row of boxwoods, filling in a gap in a row of property border trees and shrubs. After three days it looks puny, but still has its leaves, and looks to have an outside chance of survival, though i wouldn't count on it.
I know people who don't plant trees in their yard because they don't like leaves, don't like dealing with them. Of all the nerve, for those pesky decidiuous trees to grow and shed leaves! Of all the importunate gaul!
Why bother to contribute to the reversal of global warming and atmospheric carbon accumulation, to add beauty and coolness to your yard, when all you will get for your trouble is leaf raking? Who needs outdoor exercise? Please pray for my baby redbud. I don't mind raking leaves.
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