From Here to There

Here being the spot about three feet from my driveway and ten feet from the garage wall; there being a spot about thirty feet across and ten feet down the driveway.

The leyland cypress - about five or six feet tall now, and planted on my birthday a couple of years ago - was the long distance voyager.

With dragonflypug's son's help, Justin and I dug a hole (too deep, it turns out,) moved the dirt across the driveway, out of the wheelbarrow, and onto a tarp. Then we took turns circling the tree with the one spade. Eventually, we could get in there with the transfer shovel and use it to help lift. After a couple more times around, we finally began to be able to lift the rootball out. We carried it across the driveway, discovered the hole was too deep, and had to go bring the dirt back over. This involved all three of us lifting the tarp and dumping three cubic feet of dirt back into the wheelbarrow - my back will thank me for that later, I'm sure. Once we got a few shovelfuls of dirt in there, it sat nicely, and it actually went pretty smoothly.

Now we just have to move the wisteria tree, the crepe myrtle, and the heaths and heathers. I know that the last two are going on the back bank - this will be an improvement as they will no longer compete with tall grass and they will hold the hillside where grass doesn't want to grow. Win-win. The crepe myrtle dies to the ground every year - I'll put it somewhere along the foundation, maybe close to the dryer vent, to help it get some more warmth and more of a chance to flower and survive. The wisteria needs sun and, to keep the tree form, high maintenance - not really sure where it's going to go, though. After they are all moved, I'll be able to let that entire area become part of the meadow, which will greatly simplify care of the meadow and pruning of the wisteria.