Out in Them Sticks: A Few Ticks and an Aching Back Later... the Monday Garden Club (a little early)

For a little background on our site improvement projects you can check out these posts here, here, here, and here.

Nick using the loader.

We poured our hearts out this weekend getting our yard screened in and things are really starting to take shape. I ordered 12 large pine trees last week from a local wholesale nursery and had them delivered on Friday to fill in the wide swath of forest the previous owner had unnecessarily taken out. These trees will help screen our reforesting project (nicknamed by a neighbor as little Arlington Cemetery) from our neighbors. While it only took us an hour to get all the material off of the delivery truck (which I'm very proud of considering our little crew of 3 including myself), it took us two entire days to get our 6'-8' tall pines fully planted in the ground. My MIL had the task of watching the kiddos all weekend while Nick and I experienced a few days in the lives of day laborers.

View of the pines from the yard.

View of the pines from the road.
(I apologize all the photos were taken at the end of day and are very shadowy.)

We recruited our neighbor and his tractor (with fork attachments) to get the trees off the truck and in the ground. Our neighbor has back issues so Nick and I were on our own to get the holes dug out and filled back in. Nick dug out the holes with our rented back hoe but we both had to hand shovel it back in with a mix of existing soil and amendments. It was a nasty task. My back is still aching.

For the most part we were able to be gentle, however, one poor tree was not so lucky and its guts spilled out when one of the fork attachments slipped and the tree fell through. I was absolutely devastated. I was checking it out today and it didn't look too happy. I do not expect it to survive the ordeal but am hopeful it will. I'm a bit of a nervous wreck about all of them. Though they weren't expensive, they did cost a bit of overhead in rental equipment and sweat equity.

Sunday, with the enormous task of the evergreen trees behind us, we worked on putting in the minimal landscaping around the house. I purchased only a modest amount of materials for the front understanding that we will slowly fill it in with time and as our budget allows. We will install these plants through next week.

I tried to stay native when possible, using Mountain Laurel, Eastern Redbud, Allegheny Serviceberry, Bearberry and Azaleas, etc. Some plants, however, I chose simply because they make me happy. I love lily of the valley (muget) because it reminds me of my time in Paris. I chose to use some Russian Sage because it reminds me a very special time in our lives (when we started our family in Albuquerque). Your landscaping should make you feel happy.

Hopefully we will get everything installed this week.

A lot is happening in the veggie garden.