Tree Planting Time!

The weather in Oklahoma tends to go to extremes, seriously scorching one day to down right frigid and cold. You could probably say that about many locations, but we had screaming heat this summer with numerous record highs broken by long streaks of 100+ degrees, many days within those 100+ degree days were hovering around 110 degree mark. The last time Oklahoma had such temperatures was during the 1980's and the dust bowl of 1930's--think Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck.

Anyway, it seems the heat has broken and now the temperatures are twenty degrees BELOW the normal values for this time of year. It's downright chilly. There is no more swimming in the pool, even with heated pool water, because the air temperature is too cold.

This is the time of year when my thoughts turn to gardening . . . and my allergies (itchy throat, watery eyes, headache and overall feeling lousy).

The air is brisk. The grass has slowed down its growing phase and is collecting nutrients to prepare for winter's dormancy. Weed pollen is blowing in the wind. Spiders are preparing for hibernation, with webs all over the place as they suck the juice out of any hapless insect that happens by. Leaves on the trees and bushes are dropping off, but I'll be surprised if we get much of an autumn color this year.

And we unwrap the tape from around the maple tree in the front yard (our front yard gets pounded with the west sun), only to discover ants have managed to find their way inside and destroyed the tree. This was the tree we had planted in May 2010 when we put in a new sprinkler system and sodded the yard. We've battled moles and gophers all year to discover the tiny little ant will cost us $$$ to replace the tree. The tree isn't dead yet, shoot, it's even sprouting new leaves, but it isn't going to make it. There's simply too much damage. Hubster was pushing on the rotted spot of the trunk and if he put any weight behind it, he would have snapped the trunk in half.

So, on Saturday, we went to our tree guy, Rutherford, and picked out a tree. His crew is bringing another Autumn Splendor maple for our front yard. I love these guys. They planted all our trees (2 loblolly pines, 2 oaks, one river birch (different from the one they replaced), 1 purple mountain ash, and a maple (not the one in the front yard). Their prices are cheaper than a nursery, and they guarantee the tree for a year, plus they remove the old tree and take it away. Other than this maple, we had a problem with one river birch that they replaced. It never did well in that spot, so when we had an ice storm that took most of it out, we replaced it with a maple tree.

So, on Monday, after my walk and before Weight Watchers, I'll be supervising the tree planting.

Because this really is the best time of year to plant deciduous trees. I have a few evergreen shrubs that didn't survive the summer heat. I'll replace them in the spring, since that is a better time to acclimate them.

Later, Peeps! I have some more gardening to do. I have to deadhead roses, pull out summer plantings and replace them with fall flowers, clean up dead debris, etc.