Make room for the young

The avocado tree is gone. Fortunately, the heat wave is over. Nevertheless, my office located upstairs in the front of our south-facing house, gets very hot in the afternoon. Anyone who ever doubted the cooling effect of properly placed trees should come to our house. That old avocado tree made the house far more comfortable than the air conditioner ever did.

My office window is in the middle. The bedroom windows on the left bring in lots of afternoon light, even with the new opaque window shades.

I have started moving my containers of veggies into the front to take advantage of the sunniest garden I have ever had. Yes, the lettuce and Swiss chard do not need full sun, but they need more than they were getting in the back. Furthermore, the front is not full sun, just baking afternoon sun and if it is too hot for the lettuce I can easily move the pots.

Pots of edibles: French tarragon, thyme, mint, lettuce, Swiss chard, Italian parsley, cilantro.

I made a yummy salad with the thinning I did to the pot of lettuce seedlings. (see below)

Before the ailing avocado was removed I planted a couple of Engelmann oak acorn sprouts that were given to me by a friend. The enormity of the tree removal dwarfed the little sprouts and I decided not to try to dig them out and replant them. Alas, I was too stressed out to think about them. What would happen would happen. I am happy to report, they made it. I had thought they were buried beneath the mulch and debris, stepped on by the arborists, lost in the chaos of chain saws and machinery. But no! I found them and they are fine.

One of two Engelmann acorn sprouts that are just getting started in my yard. (Thank you, Rachel.)

The city requires replacement trees whenever a tree is removed from a yard. Whether the tree was diseased, damaged, or dead, replacement trees are mandatory. If a tree is being chopped down because a developer wants to cement over the ground for a parking lot, the same tree replacements are called for. The rule is the rule. Not only that, the replacements must come in the form of 24-inch boxes. Although it has been known for years that younger, smaller transplants do better than these larger specimens that frequently have suffered from being pot bound some time during their nursery stay, the rule is the rule. These tiny Engelmann sprouts, coming from acorns of our own local, but diminishing, population, are not adequate replacements.

Enough complaining. The city will be satisfied – money always works – and I will nurture these little babies. They belong here!

Tomatoes, bitty lettuce, meyer lemon, and mint all from my garden. Honey courtesy of the bees who work for Bill.