Deb and I own thousands of trees on the Essen Wildlife Refuge. Nevertheless, the trees aren’t always in the right place. A gravel road passes by on the far side of our property, and I’m getting tired of the dust from vehicles passing by. So this year, I’m transplanting trees from one side of the refuge to the other. Most of the trees that are small enough for transplanting are lodgepole and ponderosa pines, which grow tall but are not bushy near the bottom. So yesterday, I did something someone with thousands of trees would not normally do: I bought three more!

My three new trees are two-foot-tall Colorado blue spruce, which grow thick and bushy pretty much from the ground up. One thing only Deb knows about me is that I am horrible with plants. I don’t think I’ve ever taken responsibility for a plant that lasted more than a month. Granted, the main reason for that is because I lose interest.

But paying $59.00 for each blue spruce will give me incentive to keep my new trees healthy. And like Woodena, the tree I rescued from a landslide and transplanted (see my May 13 post), I will give these trees names, so they feel more like pets. This year I’m determined to be a responsible adult and take care of the 18 trees I have transplanted. I will let you know at the end of the summer if Deb will let me play with plants ever again.