I just murdered a maple. Asahi zuru, a nice and healthy little graft. No it hadn't leafed out yet. Backed over it with the effing lawn mower. What a prat I feel... :( -E
I'm so sorry for your loss. That really bites. My husband came close to doing the same thing to one of my babies; luckily he "only" stepped on it. I planted a bamboo stake near it for visibility and told him if he stepped on it again I'd plant the stake in his rear (well, that's the g version of what I said). LOL
emery, that thread title "murder" sure caught my attention! murder is an intentional act and yours was an accident, albeit a tragic one. it takes a sentient being to appreciate the death of another being. now that Asahi will live in a different way - in your memory & in your empathy for all life. Sorry it happened.
Thanks both for the kind thoughts. Mike it may be manslaughter, but still feels like murder. This has not been a particularly easy couple of days (for that and other reasons.) My bile level is still pretty high. Oh well what is, is. -E
I have a case of attempted murder... Our story begins late last fall when I put a new acquisition, a Kamagata, in the ground. The tree seemed to struggle with the hard winter we had. I anxiously awaited Spring, but when Spring arrived the tree continued to struggle. Further I didn't really like where I put it. But I didn't want to move the tree until it looked a little less stressed. So finally, the tree looked recovered enough that two days ago I moved my Kamagata from a distant location to a closer one so I could more appropriately appreciate this tree. I noticed the ground in that location was more wet and had more clay than I had anticipated, so I used plenty of bone meal. But I continued to fret about the tree having wet feet so I decided to put it in a large pot. I had planned on transplanting this afternoon, but felt under the weather so I postponed until tomorrow. About 8:30pm Hubby noticed the dog was MIA, so I went to investigate. I'm sure she ran away in fear for her life. She knew I'd loose it when I found the Kamagata she viciously attacked for its bone meal. My poor tree was lying on its side, completely out of the hole. There was no more dirt in the root ball. As a matter of fact, the roots were as snarled as a rat's nest. So it's getting darker, the tree's roots are completely exposed, it's getting colder, and the dog is not to be found. So I decide to put my tree in its pot. In The Dark. I only had one bag of potting soil and this is a large pot. So I supplement with compost and with some leftover mulch from last year. Oh ya, and some bone meal. I'm sure the mix is too rich. I'm pretty sure that when I spread out the roots I damaged some. I think when I tried to cover up the roots with dirt I probably accidentally torqued them back toward the tree. And when I pushed the stake further in (the poor tree was listing pretty badly), I heard/felt some roots complain. It'll be a miracle if this tree lives. Oh, and the dog did come back. She smells like dead fish.
Lol winterhaven, I think I would have attempted to murder the dog. Hopefully all will be well if the roots didn't dry out too much, they can take some surprisingly rough handling. (Btw I preferred the first version, bed hair seemed more descriptive.)
LOL - Yep, the bed hair was more descriptive but I typed that while my blood was still boiling. After I slept on it I worried it might have been offensive so I changed it. And yes, if the dog had come back any earlier, she might have gotten hurt. As it was, she got a very cold bath. Re: the tree, I don't think it's roots were uncovered for too long. I had looked it over in the late afternoon weighing whether another move was worth risking shocking it against protecting it against potentially wet feet - little did I know! Argh! Serves me right for procrastinating. So I'll just have to baby it and see what happens.
