Emerald Green

You can't see the neighbors for the trees.....Or at least I am hoping that will eventually be the case.

It all started with a chat with one of my neighbors and we both had remarked how open everything felt with the removal of the giant elm tree last fall. Having had to take down a few trees that were encroaching on those same power lines, my neighbor was feeling particularly exposed.

I echoed that sentiment.

I like to think of my gardens and back yard as my own personal retreats. A place that I can go in the quiet of the day to do my planting,tilling, weeding and just general thinking...sometimes even outloud to myself.

My neighbor has a love affair with Emerald Green Arborvitae trees, and even though they would not be my first choice. I contacted him when I found some on sale at a chain home improvement store about an hour away.

Numerous calls back and forth to all the stores in a 100 mile radius was not yielding good results. Sold out was the reply we kept getting at our querry. So it was decided that on the off chance my neighbor could get a raincheck, we might, fingers crossed, be lucky enough to have another shipment come in before any seasonal sales were over.

It was later that day I got a very excited phone call from him that he was at the store. They had gotten some trees in and to come now...RIGHT NOW. Tomorrow was not soon enough. Yes we could pay for them and have them hold them for pick up in the a.m., but nothing would do but to drop everything, acquire some sort of transport and to be there ASAP.

With the help of a couple of others, we managed to get there in time, get the trees bought, and loaded for the long trip home. There is nothing quite like trying to wrangle 20 6-7 ft evergreen trees on a windy day on the freeway. And despite only having to pull over once for retying of loosened rope, and that brief moment upon hitting construction and finding us going down the wrong side of the road, all turned out okay.

We got home, just at dark and unloaded the evergreens in the drive.

I do not know why it never dawned on me just how heavy a potted 6 or 7 foot tree is going to be. I lifted a couple of them, but then realized, there is no way I was going to walk a greater distance than 3 feet while carrying a tree.

Thankfully, I have a great neighbor that was so darn tickled at having his favorite evergreen trees, that today he came over to plant some of them for me. Half of the trees I bought for a border between our two back yards, and the other half he bought to line the alleyway to provide more coverage for him from our other neighbors.

I wonder though, how much my neighbor will enjoy his Emerald Green Arborvitaes after he plants his share of the trees tomorrow. Not to mention the additional 10 trees he went up the next day to get for a family member of his that he will have to plant as well.

It seems rather fitting that we should be planting our trees on Arbor Day week-end.

Go plant a tree, you will be glad you did down the road. My trees (if the live!) already have a great story to tell and my neighbor and I will be giggling about it for years to come.