When Words Collide, Sentences Form

Tree Extraction 101

Today's blog post is being brought to you by the color green, since I spent 2.5 hours of my day moving a gigantic pygmy palm, and another 2 hours attempting to move a second gigantic pygmy palm. It's too much to comprehend, I know. First the Cliff's Notes version, then the full illustrated version.

Two years ago, I helped The Mom do some work in a little garden in front of my parents' house, where we planted 5 little pygmy palm trees. Cute, yet attractive, little trees. They came in little 10 gallon or so pots that I tenderly carried around the store until they landed in a basket, went through the check-out at Home Depot or Lowes or a like store, and then eventually into the ground at our house. Part of the goal of these trees was to fill in a space that was vacated recently when my parents had to remove a palm tree that had gotten too big for it's britches and was taking over the area in front of our dining room - and threatening to eat our siding. The tree was moved to the front of the property where it now lives and prospers:

I include this tree not just to show the great beauty of a palm, but to show that The Mom doesn't have great judgement when it comes to putting trees in front of our house.

Anyway, the pygmy palms that were planted didn't live up to their names...instead they became giants, taking over the front of the house. So the goal was to remove the trees and replant them in line with the above relocated palm.

Easier said than done! Today we got ONE moved. In two and a half hours. Then we took a break for lunch. And started working on a second tree. And didn't get it out of the ground yet. Despite two solid hours of work.

Now the full, illustrated version.

As we began our mission, the three of us (The Mom, The Dad and The Steph) evaluated our five "clients" and choose the one closest to the garage with which to begin. We dug around the palm with our shovels, as you do when preparing to dig up any tree. And when I say "we," I mean The Dad and The Steph. The Mom watched. Or as she puts it, "supervised." After much digging, we began to feel like we were getting somewhere. And by somewhere, I mean closer to lunch. So we grabbed some rope, The Mom brought the tractor over, and we hooked up the tree and began pulling. We struggled, and chopped at the root bulb with shovels and used railroad ties as levers, and dug and sweated and pulled with the tractor. And let me tell you, this struggle was not without pain, for these palms have (what I consider to be) deadly prickers on them! SEE:

Eventually we conquered this massive beast and pulled it from the ground. Leaving behind a giant hole...

...which was bigger than Denny.

Next, we had to get the giant displaced pygmy palm to its new home at the front of the property line. But remember, we had to spend two hours just yanking it out of the ground. This thing did not like moving.

First, we tried putting it in our little trailer and attaching that to the tractor and pulling it that way. That was rather unsuccessful, to say the least. So we resorted to just tieing it to the tractor and dragging it. And off it went, leaving a little poop-like trail behind.




The tree had quite the journey. The Mom dragged it past our greenhouse.



And then past her little boat.


And then past the pond.



And how could I not capture this happy little parade on film?

We then got to the giant pygmy palm's final resting place, where we discovered that our pre-dug hole was not quite big enough for the little guy.



But then, through the magic of television and blogging, it was!




And through the magic of having a place to put the dirt from the hole to make it big enough.



Finally, our gigantic pygmy palm had a new home. Isn't he gorgeous?

But our day wasn't over, yet. We still had 4 more trees to move...although at this point in time we had decided that 2 of the 4 were going to have to suffer a brutal and horrible death rather than being transplanted, because it was better for them to die than from us to collapse in solid exhaustion from attempting to move them. However, we did want to save these two beautiful specimens that were covering for the aforementioned giant palm previously moved about 2 years ago from this same locale. We went after the one on the right, first.

And dug and dug and dug, attempting to get under the tree so that we could get to our no-fail plan of digging, chopping at roots, pulling with the tractor, prying with long wooden planks and pushing on the count of three. So the tractor got hooked up.

(This is what the tree saw from his view.)

Here is The Dad attempting to pry the tree up with a railroad tie while I pull with the tractor. This is what might be considered an "action shot" since I am currently on the tractor facing backwards, attempting to yank a tree out of the ground and capture the moment for all to see.

And we basically got nowhere. So The Dad proudly brought out the big guns...the chainsaw!!

Don't panic! We didn't chop down (that) tree! He went after the dirt and roots around the peripheral of the main root bulb. And no, we still haven't gotten the tree out. We gave up for the day and went out to dinner. Maybe Friday I'll have a success story to share with Tree #2. Because this tree is NOT going to get the best of us. The other 3 trees, they may have to die for their persistence and excessive growth. But not Tree #2. He will live and enjoy and long and lovely life at our property line if I have anything to say about it!

posted by Steph @ 6:54 PM