When you live on a pile of rocks, as I do, planting a tree is a righteous ordeal. Most of my yard consists of an extremely thin layer of something once removed from topsoil. Below that is a layer of cobbles ranging in size from a large coffee mug down to a chicken’s egg. Finally, underneath that is a hard-packed fusion of larger rocks, smaller rocks, and sand.
I have been
hand-digging a hole for a future apple tree in an on-and-off fashion for about
a week now. So far, I have removed eight five-gallon buckets filled with rocks
of various sizes.
Alongside the hole, I
have two piles—one from the thin top layer and another (much larger) pile of
what I term as “training” dirt. This is what remains after I have removed the
biggest rocks from my digging. I call this stuff training dirt because I will
mix a bit of compost with it and use it to surround the root ball. In my way of
thinking, as the roots splay out into the training soil, this slightly improved
native earth will train them for what’s coming when they reach the hard-packed
native ground beyond.
I am sharing a
photograph of my planting project. Please note the can of Cold Smoke beer I
placed in the wheelbarrow (as a reference for size) alongside the most recent
array of rocks I unearthed.
—Mitchell Hegman
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