Roots

Today I went out to plant a new plant. Innocent, right?

Directions said to make the hole about two inches deep. Piece of cake. I was directed as to the place that someone thought this plant would look could in its maturity. Heck, it was about 12 inches away from a dogwood tree I took down last year. So I retrieved my trusty shovel. No, that's not right. First, I got my spading fork. Dug down, hmmmm something seems to be there. It isn't a rock. Then I went for the shovel.

A bit of work and I began revealing a root. It was a root but it more closely resembled a tumor. This sucker would need to be cut out. So I went for my trusty Milwaukee Sawz-all. Zzzzzzzzt. Remove more dirt. Zzzzzzt. Damn, how big is this thing. After four sawz-all blades (designed to go through metal, but not old dogwood roots apparently) I was able to get an eight foot metal pry bar under it and lots more sawing (as I wore out those darn blades. Finally, I levered out a mess of roots about the size of a PC. There's lots more under there and the trunk still sits in the same location (unmoved, naturally!).

So, the plant is in the ground, in the right location, the dogwood root mass is slowly rotting away in some unspecified location, four sawz-all blades are in the trash, I've got to replace the blades next time I'm at a big box home store, the tools are put away. Darn new plant better THRIVE!

G