The Trees Are Coming!!!

Yay, today is delivery day!!! My trees are coming from the garden centre, so I can start digging and playing in the dirt. Of course, it is absolutely miserable out, chilly and pouring rain. I think I'll have to hold off on the digging, or I'll be knee-deep in mud!

When we moved into this house four years ago, there was snow. When the snow melted, it revealed dead sod. And weeds. Lots and lots of weeds. We are on a corner lot, and it was completely embarrassing! This was a former model home, and the people who bought it lived here for about two years. Unfortunately, they didn't take care of anything very well, particularly the grass. The garden consisted of masses of builder shrubs that had not been pruned, and the aforementioned "grass". There was no fence, no deck or patio, just the concrete builder-supplied steps from the back door. And the ugly, uneven cement slab walkway. Granted, as there was documented domestic violence occurring here, the other people may have had more pressing issues to deal with other than landscaping (they sold because they were getting divorced - she finally left him, and took their baby daughter). We knew that the grass was going to need some help (we bought the house in October, took possession at the end of January, and moved in on March 12), but didn't realize the extent.

After many consultations, we discovered that best course of action was to scrape off the dead crud and start fresh. One backhoe, two truckloads of topsoil, a whole bunch of sod, and $5000 later, we had a yard that wasn't an eyesore. Add a fence, a deck, a new walkway, some flowers, and we were on our way. So far, regarding trees, we have a ginkgo, a mountain ash, a horsechestnut, a serviceberry shrub, and there was once a magnolia. It was a short, more shrub-like one. It was going to bloom last year. The neighbourhood rabbit ate the blooms. And then it ate the leaf buds. The magnolia died. The rabbit is lucky that it didn't meet the same fate! (rabbit stew, anyone?) Seriously, I don't mind sharing my garden, and it's cute to see the nibbles out of the bluebell leaves, but I draw the line at the expensive stuff.



So, when I went to buy my new magnolia, I had two criteria - cold hardy (I'll still coddle it and protect from the wind in the winter, but the hardiness rating is important), and tall. That was the only tree I was planning on buying this year, until I discovered that Make It Green, my favourite garden centre, was having a sale on caliper trees. Those are the slightly larger trees that come with the rootball in burlap and bound with wire. So, the approximately $400 black walnut that I had been coveting was on sale for a reasonable $100. Well, of course I had to get it - I had planned on buying one next year or the year after, but c'mon - what a deal!! I also found a tall, cold-hardy magnolia called "Daybreak". It's similar to the Magnolia Soulangiana that I had at our old house, but the flowers are deeper pink. And it's tall!


While waiting to arrange delivery, I made the mistake of browsing. Somehow, I ended up with a Sargent Crabapple as well. It was in the caliper tree sale, and since it had some die-back on a few branches, I scooped it for $25. Like I could pass that up!!! It's a smaller crabapple, and I thought I had the perfect location. And then I looked it up. It seems that this particular crabapple is shorter than most - only 8 feet tall. But it gets about 12 feet wide. Twelve!! Obviously, the original spot I pictured isn't quite going to be large enough, so I'm scouting out new locations. Guess I'd better pick one soon - the trees will be here in a couple of hours!