So why were you guys moving the tree?
Wait… doesn’t everyone re-arrange their trees when they get bored? I got tired of looking at that side.
For real, though: the city wouldn’t approve the permit for me to change my garage into an art studio unless I replaced the parking I was losing. No one would’ve parked in my garage because it was too small and –I don’t own a car–, but that’s the way the law is written, so I could either try to fight a change through city council and delay six months and maybe lose, or I could add a driveway. That I didn’t want. For a car I don’t have.
SO. I met with the city manager and city planner and talked it out and decided on a “driveway” which meets the legal requirements but looks like a patio – pavers instead of cement, turning a right angle off the current driveway and coming in front of the living room. It’s actually a pretty cool idea, because the living room has always been really dark and the house uninviting, so opening it up there would make for a cooler yard.
Only there was this rhododendron in the way.
And I’d be damned if I was going to cut it down just to make room for the driveway I don’t want for the car I don’t have. So. The rhody got to see ten feet more of the world than most large shrubs/small trees ever see!
(Incidentally, it also – entirely on accident – did an almost full 180, so I’m actually looking at a different view of it than I did a week ago, lol).
Back when we were prepping to move to Bristol, my mum was near simultaneously moving to Cornwall – and her allotment (council provided gardening land) was up for grabs. The person who took it, who is clearly evil, said they were going to rip out the fruit trees she’d planted (amazing apple trees) and turn the whole lot over to flower production (it was an amazing source of fruit and veg, my mum had cleared it from being just brambles).
She had no-where to put another tree, so she said to Kathryn and I, go take what you can. We turned up with our Volvo 340 hatchback, loaded it with some smaller plants, and then set to and managed to dig up one of the, 7 year old apple trees. Eventually (as darkness fell) we got it loaded into the trunk of the car. Well, kinda trunk and roots in the car. Squished it down a bit, and pulled the bootlid down with a rope, then drove the 60 miles down the motorway home.
It lived in the biggest pot we could find for about 6 months, then got planted in the garden in Bristol. Took about a year, but it started producing loads of apples… :)
One should always save the trees :)
