This is, as you may know, bareroot planting season. This is the best time to transplant and plant bareroot plants because they are dormant. Bareroot plants are much easier to plant because they are light (no huge soil-filled pot attached) and you don't have to dig a ginormous hole - just one big enough to fit the roots. Bareroot plants are also much, much cheaper than pot-grown plants. On the website I ordered my plants from, bareroot plants are about half the price of their pot-grown equivalents. Unfortunately, they can only be delivered in the winter so you have to be on the ball. All this rain and gray weather has not put me in the gardening mood, but I knew if I didn't order my plants now I would regret it once spring finally arrives. The plants aren't removed from the ground until you order them and then they are shipped by overnight courier. By the time they reached Dorridge they had only been out of the ground for a little over 24 hours.
One long skinny package and and one big white package. Jeff saw them and was like "Wait, I don't get it... do you have to assemble them or something?" No Jeff.... these aren't Ikea plants!
The skinny package is actually a tree. The roots are in the black bag at the end. The bag was filled with water-soaked shredded cardboard to keep the roots from drying out. The tree was wrapped in about a mile of bubble wrap and tape that took FOREVER to undo. It really harshed my gardening buzz.
This is the hole I had dug in anticipation of the little tree's arrival. Look at those tiny roots! Look at that huge hole! When I was digging it, I wanted to make sure that a tree could actually grow here. About half a foot down, I had to dig through another patio (it was brick and pretty crumbly from being underground, but STILL). Thankfully, the soil underneath is good so my tree has a chance. Digging a huge hole allowed me to mix the soil with compost before I filled it back in. Also, since I dug it ahead of time, I was able make sure that we have adequate drainage - we've had some seriously heavy rainfall, but nary a puddle in the bottom of the hole. Sweet.
Next up - hedging. Can you believe there were 50 laurel plants in that white bag?! They were in bunches of ten that looked like this.
After walking around Dorridge, I've seen hedging of all sorts and laurel is by far my favorite. It has beautiful glossy green leaves and it is an evergreen shrub - so it looks good all year. It grows quickly and does well even in shady areas with poor soil. All it needs is good soil drainage and that, luckily, we have. I planted the laurel along the outside of our fence. The soil there is actually far better than the soil under the patio, but I still mixed in a little compost. The root systems were pretty tiny so I didn't have to dig very big holes. For the laurel plants and the birch tree, I sprinkled "friendly fungi" on the roots before I covered them with soil. The fungi and the plant (via the roots) develop a symbiotic relationship that helps the plant grow big and strong.
Let me tell you - the sun may have been out but it was COLD, like 40 degrees (I'm a wuss, I know). I had regular gloves on underneath my gardening gloves to keep the tips of my fingers from turning into ice cubes, but that made the rest of me really warm. I must have been quite a sight when the neighbors came over to take a look (at the plants, not me). First of all, the dogs were barking like crazy in the yard so I was alternating between niceties about the weather and yelling, in my mean voice, "PLATO! SASCHA! SHUT UP!!!" I was also sweaty and my nose was running like crazy from the cold. I wiped my face with my gardening glove on halfway through the conversation so I had sweat, snot, AND dirt on my face. I'm so sorry they had to see that.
Anyway, despite being completely disheveled, I think I passed the neighbor test. We all agreed it was the perfect spot for a hedge and were surprised that a previous owner hadn't done it sooner. In fact, they told me the first thing they did when they moved into their house was plant a hedge so I felt like we really connected on that. Joan did most of the talking while her husband nodded approvingly. I still don't know what his name is but Jeff and I call him "Sweeper Man"because he sweeps/rakes their yard EVERY DAY. They don't have a single leaf on their lawn. It is amazing.
I felt bad for this little plant all alone in the yard so I dug him up and put him in a pot by the kitchen door. Much better. I had about 7 extra laurel plants so I plopped them in under the kitchen window. The white of the house really accentuates their scraggly-ness, but I think it will look nice once they fill out. To be honest, they might just wither and die because the soil there is fantastically bad.
I had a bunch of extra patio pavers lying around since I took quite a few up to plant the tree and the laurel by the house. I re-laid them on the path behind the garage to the garden shed.
I did all of this in ONE DAY. I didn't even think it was possible. And there was still time to watch "Friends" before Jeff came home.
After about the first hour, the dogs were like "Ok, this is OFFICIALLY BOO-RRRING." As if I had tricked them into thinking that watching me dig holes for 5 hours would be fun.
Oh yeah that's right. 3 for the price of 2 baby, the perfect end to the day!
