My poor doomed trees

Wednesday, 4:40 am

By Kate

Jul

13

2005

Yesterday was a rather busy day. With the sun shining brightly and with the temps in the lower 70s, it was the perfect day to work outside. The lad and I accomplished a lot—mowed the lawn, did a thorough weed whacking, trimmed shrubs with the hedge trimmers, and completely yanked everything out of one of the herb gardens. Over time, it had become mostly a bed of chives and lavender. I love them both, but I’d like a little more variety. Terry had decimated most of the herb bed—she liked making her bed in the pretty smelling herbs which, of course, killed them after a while. She always smelled good, though.

By the time we were finished, around dinner time, we were both exhausted. The lad bounced back a lot more quickly that his ol’ mom. I crashed pretty early last night. And I was up early this morning—in time to see the sun rise. I took a look around the yard on my way out to get a gallon of milk and a few staples...it looks pretty good out there now. Today promises to be another sun-filled day, so the projects continue, sans the lad. He’s going off with buddies, having fulfilled his obligation to do yard work. He did a really good job and was a huge help.

Except for one small detail. I noticed, this morning, that he trimmed a little too close to the two dogwood trees and managed to strip a sizable amount of bark off them. For some reason, my blood pressure didn’t soar. In fact, I don’t think it even moved. Go figure. I’m wondering if there is a way to save the healthy tree. The other one is just doomed, anyway, so I’m not even interested in trying to save it, anymore. But, is there a way to fix patches where bark has been removed? I’ve seen some trees repaired with a tar substance, but I don’t know how effective it is for a tree that has been partially-to-mostly girdled.

Maybe it’s time to just admit defeat and replant with new trees. Next time around, the trees won’t be planted as deep and I think I’ll put some kind of protective cover on the lower trunks to protect them from such accidents. And I’ll treat the soil generously with compost and other nutrients to get them off to a healthier start. Maybe it was just meant to be.