Before Hurricane Irene the middle of our back yard had a large oak tree with a beautiful Japanese red maple in front of it.
In 2011 the layout of the garden was slightly different.
The area was underplanted with painted fern, begonia and azalea.
These trees once graced the middle of the back yard.
Unfortunately these beautiful trees were knocked down. We’ve removed all but the giant root.
Rootball of the fallen oak tree.
Earlier this summer our friends from Turkey brought us a smoke bush (which grows to a height of 10 feet and spreads from 8 to 12 feet) to put in the yard to remember them.
Smoke bush ready for transplanting.
We’ve decided to put this smoke bush in this place where the trees fell. We had already built a Pinterest inspired table from the stump of the Japanese maple which remained after everything else was cleared.
Oak slab Pinterest table.
While Charlie was digging the hole for the smoke bush he hit a glass jar that had obviously been buried at the base of the oak tree many years ago. The jar broke and inside it was a smelly dead bird carcass. Yuk.
The hole has been amended with compost and water before the bush is planted.
Charlie put the smoke bush between the Pinterest table and small dogwood tree.
The smoke bush is planted on the left with the Pinterest table on the right and a small dogwood in the middle from this view looking toward the Wee Little House.
When the smoke bush grows to full size it will hide the root if we never remove it. That’s unlikely because we usually gnaw away at some thing until it’s gone.
We’re grateful for good friends. How do you remember your friends?
