I had to put my “slicker”on today (pronounced “slick-ah”) which is one of the words Cape Cod natives use to describe the waterproof garment the rest of us know to be a raincoat.
Rain or not, I had to move a large beech that I had collected several years back because, it was in the way and it’s almost time to demo the old house. I’d been meaning to do this task every weekend since mid February but, there was always some other need taking precedence.
I probably should’ve asked one of my buddies to give me a hand but, between the crap weather and my own personal issue with asking for help when I need it, I stubbornly decided to do it myself.
It wasn’t a large tree but, when I collected it, the tree had long rangy roots with all the finer stuff pretty distant from the trunk. I had this large decorative plastic pot that could accommodate the root spread so, in it went.
It survived a few seasons burried in the garden soil I filled the pot with during the initial planting. I knew there was no way in hell I could move it pot and all so, I removed the tree with most of the rootball intact. In hindsight, I should’ve wrapped the rootball in a tarp to carry the tree to its new location because, with every step, the soil fell away. By the time I got to the new location, the tree had effectively been bare rooted. To make matters worse, there were no fine roots to speak of.
I made the snap decision to repot the tree into bonsai soil. I didn’t want to decrease the tree’s odds of survival any further so, I kept the original (way too wide) root spread.
Rookie mistake?
Not cutting the roots back forced me to use the same humongous plastic pot. Now, I have to get a second job so I can afford to replace all of the bonsai soil I used on a tree that probably won’t survive.
Pay no attention to that ramshackle building in the background. That one comes down after the new house and attached garage are built.
