When One Tree Comes Down...

Plant another in the Ground!  Yesterday we talked about taking down a dead tree in the side pasture. It is time to plant a tree or two to take its place.  The one that died was a water oak tree that has about a 70 year lifespan.  I like planting either fruit trees or live oaks, the former gives you food to eat and the latter provides longevity and plenty of shade.

It just so happens that I have a nice looking live oak tree that I planted from an acorn that has some special meaning to me.  I discussed that tree as well as others in THIS PREVIOUS POST.  This one has sentimental value to me and I call it our "Laura Lee" tree, after our oldest daughter and to me, represents victory and survival.  It was a beautiful Saturday and was a little cool, so we started a nice fire roaring with the remnants of the tree we had taken down. While the coals of the dead tree burn down, we'll put another tree to take its place in the ground.

Burn, baby, burn

The live oak tree we'll put in the ground is one I planted from an acorn seven (?) years ago, maybe.  I keep putting it in larger and larger pots as it grows and it has been in the flower bed in the back yard. Large tap roots grew out of the bottom of the pot and Russ and I had to dig them out and cut a few in order to free it from the ground.  I loaded the tree, some potting soil, some chicken litter and a shovel into the garden wagon and took it into the pasture.

Everything we need in the wagon

We picked out a spot to plant this live oak about 15 feet south of where the other tree had grown. Since it is by the garden, it will give nice shade from the morning sun, still leaving enough sunshine for the garden from about 11 am until it sets in the western sky.  We did some quick ciphering and calculated that by the time this tree grows to completely shade out the garden, we'll be about 125 years old and by then, we probably won't have the energy to garden at that age.  Maybe we'll downsize the garden at that age and just grow a small patio garden.  (Ha ha!)

We cut the plastic pot away from the "Laura Lee" live oak tree and then cut off a fork in the tree so it would grow straight and not have a weak spot.

We dug a nice hole a little bit deeper and wider than the circumference of the root ball.

One other sentimental thing about this tree is that it contains some Spanish moss that I borrowed off of a live oak on the LSU campus.  A couple of years ago, I draped it around the tree, but over the course of time, wind and rain blew it away.  I was pleased to see that at least a little bit of the Spanish moss attached itself to the little trunk of the tree and is flourishing.  Pretty cool, I think.

Spanish Moss in a live oak tree

Benjamin and Tricia pose by the newly planted live oak tree.  We'll keep it watered and take good care of it.

In addition to digging the hole for the tree, I'm diggin' Tricia's cowboy hat.

One other thing we had to do is position cattle panels around it to separate it from hungry goats and cows that would aim to eat every single green leaf off of the fledgling live oak.

As the dead, cut up oak tree sits in the foreground with its life over, a new beginning takes place as a live oak is ready to fill the void.

I think that I shall never see,

A poem as lovely as a tree...  -Joyce Kilmer