Arbor Day At The Karate Massage Parlor

A client tells me he has been getting massages for his neck troubles and the place he goes is in desperate need of some landscaping. He asks me to dig up some of the sapling trees from his garden that I have allowed to grow at his request and plant them at the massage studio.

I did a drive by a couple weeks ago because he didn't really answer all the site questions I had when he told me where it was. He's talking trees and I am thinking sidewalks, parking, utility lines above and below ground, buildings, neighbors, you know, the things you need to consider before you go planting trees.

He was right. The karate massage parlor was in desperate need of some landscaping. It was a very plain building in an ocean of grass. There was not a single tree or shrub to be seen.

It was a good day for transplanting. It was partly sunny and cool. The sapling trees were still dormant in late winter. The ground wasn't frozen and another big rain is coming.

I still had questions, but the karate instructor man couldn't meet me there so I did the best I could. I scoped out where the utilities were coming in to the building and what was happening in the surroundings.

Those five brown spots in the lawn are a few of the freshly planted things. There is one redbud in the foreground and two baby doublefile viburnums just to the left. Way out on the lawn next to the railroad tracks are two chestnut trees. I planted the chestnuts to help hide the parked train cars in front of the industrial building right across the tracks. On the other side of the studio I planted one more redbud and another chestnut.

They all came up with good root balls. Plenty of rain and years of decomposing mulch make for easy digging. Let there be trees and shrubberies.

This part of Waynesville is the historic Frog Level of town. My guess about how it got its name was right.

Now there will be more trees on the edge of a historic part of town thanks to some chronic neck pain and a man who can't bear to throw away perfectly good trees and shrubberies and his gardener who has a similar disposition.