Since we chopped down all of the trees, it only made sense to plant more. In all seriousness, the ones that were there were weed trees that grew out of control. Hopefully, these will be more appropriate.
— a Japanese Maple (Emperor-1) and Dogwood (Cornus Florida) replace the overgrown Oleanders. These stay in the shade of the Pepper tree most of the day, so I think they’ll be happy.
— a Hinoki Cypress replaces the overgrown weird house plant by the door.
— a standard Japanese Maple (green) and a Suminagashi (red) Maple that will hopefully withstand the sun.
— a Japanese Sawtooth Elm (Zelkova Serrata) replaces the Privet and Mock Orange — this variety should grow to about 50 feet and protect the house from the afternoon sun. Eventually, we’ll have to cut down the Mulberry trees that were planted too close to the house and this will replace the shade that the Mulberry’s provide.
— a Variegated Maple replaces the old raised garden bed and will provide some necessary afternoon shade.
— an Autumn Blaze maple in Steve’s yard replaces an overgrown Oleander. Our deal was that I’d plant it if he’d water it.
— a new standard Meyer Lemon in the new garden area.
— finally, a Yoshino/Akebono Cherry in the front lawn…
The Cherry tree was not an easy one to plant. The soil in Concord is very hard clay. I had to rent a jackhammer (really) to get through the soil. But I learned a lesson: Digging holes is no fun.
When I went to pick-up the jackhammer, the guy at the rental shop told me it was easy to use. "Yeah," I replied, "I guess it doesn’t take a Ph.D to operate a jackhammer"… "Well," he said, "the way I figure it, folks get Ph.Ds so that they don’t have to operate jackhammers…". Truer words were never spoken.
