The $11 tree experiment

After taking out a couple of dying trees, our backyard was starting to feel empty. I wanted to replace the smaller red bud with another flowering tree and I wanted to get it in the ground before winter. No more tree procrastination!

So off we went to Lowes to grab something, and surprise! They were all on clearance — 50% off! There wasn’t much left to choose from, but I guess it was late October. It’s been so warm around here lately, I didn’t feel like it was too late to plant.

Anyway, we picked up this Prairifire Crabapple for only $11.49! Crazy.

It’s kind of dinky and sickly looking now (then again, isn’t every autumn tree?), so that’s why I’m considering this an experiment of sorts.

Hopefully, this is what it will look like in the spring when it blooms. Such a pretty red!

My original plan was to set it back in the yard around where the other one was planted, but that area is very shady most of the day and the dwindling selection at Lowes was all full-sun trees.

So tree in hand, we moved up our planting spot closer to the driveway. It will get a lot more sun here, and when the tree gets bigger, it should provide some privacy from the street and the neighbors.

This picture makes me laugh. My husband isn’t very handy. (Sorry for outing you, Dan.) I’ve got him beat hands down in that department. Somehow he made it to age 35 without ever planting a tree, so I coached him along while he was digging the hole.

The leaves still hanging on are a nice deep red color. I’m excited to see what spring brings!

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In other tree related news…

The old stumps that were cluttering up the planting beds are gone! (We uncovered these stumps after removing a bunch of overgrown vines last year, and like many things, weren’t aware of them when we bought the house.)

My dad came over while we were out of town a few weekends ago and completely took them out. There is no sweeter gift than surprise yardwork, my friends. Spread the news.

This photo is not that exciting because showing you what’s not there is difficult, but the stump was right there in that empty space in the middle of the photo. A bit of a hole in the landscaping, but we’ll deal with that next spring.