We have some serious labor this weekend on behalf of the earth, and our farm, and the people who will live here after we are gone. The plan is to surround the farmhouse with trees, a ring of shade and beauty and privacy.

At the end of every summer, we set out to rescue some unsold and fading trees, no longer being tended or watered by their sellers. Our trees are quite affordable – usually around $50 – and we have come to love the idea of rescuing trees.

The two Water Birches were not really rescued, they were just on sale at the nursery. They cost $$60. The maple tree (left)  is barely alive, it was dry as a bone, but we think we can bring it back to life with some watering and sun and attention.

We dig the holes, put in some peat moss fill the hold with water and drain it, then put the tree in, fill in the soil and pour some mulch around the tree and soak it with some more water.

This will take us three to four hours, Maria does most of the shoveling, I do some, and all the watering and spread some mulch and rush back and forth to the hardware store to replace broken water nozzles and get more soil or mulch.

This is the before photo, all the trees lined up. We have quite a little forest going out there. I’ll post the results of the tree planting later on.