Earth Day Escapades

Do you remember me talking about this awesome red maple here?

Well, bad news, things aren't looking very awesome anymore. We had that crazy 80 degree weather over a month ago, everything bloomed, and a lot of tress around us got frost damage :( Mature trees know not to bloom until it stays warmer longer, but this tree was a baby and all its leaves were out.  We got a great deal on it, but we are very sad to see it go.

Fast forward to last night when we did some more tree planting.  First thing we did was get rid of the dead maple and replace it with something similar. We couldn't find any maples around us for a good price, so we ended up with a dogwood. I have always wanted one of these.

We continued celebrating Earth Day by planting more trees. I have discussed how we wanted to add shade and privacy to our backyard. No one around us took the initiative to landscape their backyard, so we figured we will hopefully be the trendsetters. We finally bit the bullet and bought some evergreens. 

We did some shopping around and research and discovered Norway Spruce trees are the fastest growing evergreen, with a growth rate of 2-3 feet per year. We borrowed Greg's boss' trailer and went to pick some up about thirty minutes away. Why? because their trees were at least half the price of every other nursery around. They are about six feet tall... not too shabby.  

First thing we did was figure out the spacing. Greg and I placed them about ten feet apart and staggered the center one in a little. I spray painted circles on the ground where we decided.  We dragged the trees in place and stood back to make sure we liked them.  It was time to dig.  

Hole was about 20 inches deep. That is one big root ball!

A few hours and 5 holes later, we had this:

We found the pear tree and dogwood at Lowe's.  They come with a one year guarantee and have decent prices on their trees.  Make sure you dig through them to find the best quality, they can differ greatly.

I am very excited to see our backyard finally having trees and seeing progress.  We will make sure to fertilize and water the new trees.  We were told the frost should no longer affect the trees, fingers crossed.

Just to refresh your memory, here is our backyard on moving day. Big difference, don't you agree?

How did you spend Earth Day? Hopefully not working as hard as us ;)

p.s. We made some bathroom flooring progress, update tomorrow!

xo, Erin