As I have posted before, our Country House property has NO shade in the "living" area of the property. The only shade is oaks & pecans along the fence line, way far away from the house & barns.
We purchased three big oak trees a couple of months back - over 15', to plant nearer the house area. They were waayyy reduced due to the 'top heaviness' of them. Brought them home to the City House & kept them alive for 2 months. Almost lost one. But did drastic surgery to help it along & it lived!
They survived the drive albiet a bit ragged to the County House over Labor Day weekend. It was hot & humid & a lot of hard work for two 50+ year olds. But, we got them planted! Thank goodness for a heavy duty auger & good shovels.
Husband augered & I dug dirt out of the holes w/a lot of his digging help. The trees were in 30 gallon pots. That's about a 40" wide x 24" deep hole, dug in clay soil (if you can call it that). Here's a couple of pictures of 2 of them:
This was hard work but very satisfying. We also got more newspaper & mulch around the fruit trees & willows. And, pulled about 150 bricks out of an old firepit that we are 'filling' in. Saved the dirt from the dugout trees to fill in that hole.
Overall, a very long two days & needless to say we were very tired. But, got all the hard work done Sat. & Sun.
I got up early on Mon. & walked around the property line. I found what I think are Morning Glories, with bees going crazy gathering pollen (husband was busy stalking a gator that had invaded the pond - hopefully he 'got' him). Anyway, the flowers & bees were lovely (not great pics but I'm just documenting anyway):
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We decided to wait until winter to work on the raised garden beds. We are just too old to work w/blocks & leveling & such in the heat. We have 3 years to get them prepared anyway (actually 2 years & 8 months, but who's counting?)
