Ok, folks - we did it! We replanted our lost trees on Omaha Parkway - it was a big success with 25 neighbors coming out to help us plant five trees. We needed everybody, because digging holes and placing trees in them is harder than you think! Here's some pictorial evidence of a great morning planting trees...
Digging was much harder than we anticipated, and we did run into roots from the former inhabitants of these holes, so we had to dig around to find the perfect spots to place these trees. It was a good thing that Karl Dawson from the City of Portland brought pick axes with him - in fact, he thought of everything, including some good soil with which to backfill the holes. We had plenty of mulch (bark chips from the former elms) but good hard soil was hard to come by, so his pickup load of soil was helpful to anchor the trees.
The next project is to wait for Spring - Karl will again gather us together to go over watering procedures for the summer months. We are also going to work on building benches for the parkway so we can sit and watch the trees grow tall! Besides, Quinn & Piper (the young Van Patten/McVee children) need to play in the trees while they're small and remember that they helped plant them. Those two kids were incredibly hard workers - helping to dig the bark shavings out of the holes and then stamping in the good dirt. They're the only ones among us that will still be here when these oak trees are big and bountiful!
I didn't take as many pictures as I should have - if anybody else wants to send me the pictures they took, I'd be happy to post them here. We had a wonderful turnout of folks and we are so pleased to have trees back in their rightful places.
Update: Monday 11/16/09 - take a look at the photo stream (above) to see all the photos I've collected from folks....keep sending them and I'll keep updating the photo stream - it's great to see all the folks who helped out!
