ArbVee Transplantational Activity

After work, I got back out to the front garden to do some more digging and scratching around the Arbor Vitae. I really had no idea how much of a root ball I was going to be dealing with. The shrub had been there long before we owned the house. So I was thinking there were going to be long roots going all about, here and there, willy nilly.


I really wasn't expecting to "Git R Dun" tonight. But it turns out the root ball was very close to the surface and nothing major in terms of  a network of long branchy roots shooting out in all directions, here and there, willy or nilly.


I hosed everything down with the water hose hoping to soften the dirt a bit, and that did work to some extent. 


I am fond of saying there is not a square inch of ground around this house that I can put a shovel to and not hit a root. That was true in this case. But the added bonus was rocks. Mostly, you're medium sized rocks. We have terrible soil in the yard.


But, after some more digging, I started rocking the trunk and it very easily yielded. I got the shrub up and had the new hole all ready for it. It went much faster than anticipated and now I have this big area of soft, semi-cultivate earth. 

It filled that hole in the fence line very nicely and really opens up the front of the house. I really should bring in a rototiller and chew that whole garden up. But I think we'll just add some good dirt to the top after we get the bricks in.