Our forest is installed!

Today was tree planting day. At 8am we met Heidi and her gang from Friends of the Urban Forest on the street and started moving the trees out of the Regent's Cab lot, where they had been stored, in the pouring rain. Oh yeah - it was really raining. Sigh. Thank goodness for GoreTex...

At 9am our energetic volunteers started arriving, the rain kept raining, and we worked in groups from both ends of the street to insert trees. Each tree had a team of 4-6 people working on it, each with a ladder, a bucket of tools and a team leader showing them how to do the job.

About a dozen trees went off to other neighborhood spots as well, to be planted in front of various houses.

I had to work it out on wet paper in the rain, trying to figure exactly which tree should go where, but we now have 5 species interspersed evenly down the street by leaf color, growth habit (upright or weeping) and leaf size. Tricky! For some reason an extra Acacia baileyana "Purpurea" was delivered but hey presto: we had a spare hole for it!

Here is the list of trees we planted:

1.  Olea europea (Olive tree)
2.  Agonis flexuosa "Jervis Bay Afterdark" (Purple Peppermint Tree)
3.  Acacia stenophylla (Shoestring Acacia)
4.  Tristaniopsis laurina "Elegant" (Small-Leafed Tristania)
5.  Acacia baileyana "Purpurea" (Purple Fernleaf Acacia)

Each tree had the following work done to get it settled:

1.  Dig out the hole to the right depth.
2.  Remove from pot, trim roots and insert in hole.
3.  Back fill hole.
4.  Pound in 3 stakes while standing on a ladder.
5.  Nail on 3 joists to hold the stakes together.
6.  Remove the original tree stake it came with.
7.  Tie and then nail on three supports.
8.  Add a wire mesh cage to protect the tree.
9.  Water in well. Hahaha. No, not really. These trees weren't so much planted as drowned in the sodden dirt!

The rain kept pounding down in waves, but people kept on working. Finally we got a break and a little sun was visible through the clouds, and the end of the work was in sight.

By 2pm all 23 trees were in. Matt went to pick up pizzas donated in part by Goat Hill Pizza and drinks, and we stopped work, and chatted and exchanged scary tree stories, then finally called it a day. Phew!

Join us at 10am next week, Saturday December 8th, for part 2 - the sidewalk. We really need extra volunteers for that day, and the 15th too - can you make it?

Thank you to everyone who worked so hard today - the street is already transformed by the trees. Damn, it looks good! More photos to come soon.