Echo Beach Tide Pools

By Keith Alan Johnson
04-09-2000

      Yesterday Juli and I did a little landscaping. We started off at around 11:00 and drove to a nursery. We knew we wanted a Japanese maple, and an azalea or two. We also wanted to look into a Hydrangia.
      In the end we loaded up my little 1989 Dodge Colt with a five foot Inaba Japanese maple with, I swear, a 200 pound root ball, some 70 pounds of fertilizer and soil prep materials and two azaleas. We drove down the road with shocks fully compressed. The back hatch was wide open so as not to crunch the tree branches hanging out the back. I decided we needed to stay off of the freeway as much as possible on the way home. That's quite a feat in itself since the freeway is the only connection between Central and South Kitsap short of taking a 5 hour detour.
      The tree arrived safely home. The car probably had a few wisps of smoke escaping from under the hood, sort of an automotive sigh of relief. The next struggle was simply to get it out of the car. We managed to roll the root ball out of the hatch and into an old wheelbarrow. We wobbled a bit towards the corner of the house, and then slowly dumped the tree near where we wanted it planted.
      The next task was to dig the hole. The hole needed to be twice as big as the root ball. I guess that's another 400 pounds of dirt. Then we needed to mix the soil compound with the dirt from the hole. We had already filled the wheelbarrow with dirt and piled twice again as much by the hole. It's a very small wheelbarrow. So the dirt pile became a mixing pile.
Then we had to maneuver the tree into the hole. Deciding how to plant it was like setting up a Christmas tree. "It's leaning too far this way." "Is this the best side?" "Now it's leaning back." "Its trunk isn't straight." We both were making these observations by the way. We're both a bit fanatical.
      In the end 4 hours later we had the tree planted. It now stands by our house, looking all the world like it has always been there. It's none the worse for wear for having ridden horizontally, root ball first for 20 miles, its branches a mere three inches from the hard pavement, and finally getting manhandled, twisted and turned in directions it never grew in with relation to the sun. It stands in its new home and seems very healthy. The azaleas, however, still sit outside in their pots. We'll dig another hole later.
      I'm sure the maple will survive just fine. Trees are sturdy creatures. They even manage to break up pavement in order to get water. Even in the harshest circumstances plants will manage to survive.
      Ten years ago I got an amaryllis bulb for Christmas. It was suppose to be one of those plants that you watered, watched it bloom and threw away when you were finished. I kept it going. Every year after it died back I would keep watering it and it would grow again. It was rather amazing.
      Then came the move. In the two month process of moving from one home to another I had thought I had finally killed this amaryllis. I even left it out in the wet and frosty weather for an additional two months. I had let it rot and get covered in a red mold. Finally I pulled the slimy leaves off of the bulb and carried it into the garage with every intention of throwing the poor thing away.
      Yet three weeks ago, while taking out the garbage, I passed the small plastic pot with its large protruding bulb. To my surprise there was a small green leaf tip protruding from the bulb. There, in the dark garage, the plant was growing again. I set the ugly green pot with its ten year old Christmas foil wrap in the kitchen window.
      Now there is a thriving three foot tall amaryllis with a large flower stalk getting ready to grace us once more with it's beauty.

Life will find a way.

04-09-2000