Tree Story
I am in the home stretch of my spring fling of gardening. Beds are mulched. Weeds are pulled. Plants are in the ground. Everything that should be green is green. Yesterday and the day before we got more than an inch of rain, and more is scheduled today. And it’s the best sort of rain. Slow and steady. Grasses are growing, the trees are replacing depleted stores, and the ground is softening, which is more good news for me, because I still have a few spots that need cleaning and repair.
One such spot is a new bed I put in a while back along the north fence beneath one of the chinquapin oaks. My prep work was less than satisfactory and the coastal bermuda has found its way to the surface. I have to pull up the landscape cloth and start anew. The soft ground will make the task a little bit easier, and I need to take advantage while the getting is good. My new plan is to get out the grass and try to repair the soil with mulch and plants. It worked beneath the big oaks, and it should work here.
Of course, it may be a fool's errand, the little oak in question looks the worst for wear, and my arborist son is convinced it’s on its way out. But I think it deserves a chance at a little love and tenderness even if it is going. So, I’ll dig and plant and do my best to give it good ground in which to spend its final days because what if I do enough to help it find a way and it finds it. Wouldn’t that be something? But either way, I’ll know I didn’t quit on it, and I tried. And that’s worth something for me.