![\"This](\"http:\/\/glenvillaartgarden.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/10\/Crabapple-allee-013-3.jpg\")
This path was a convenient short cut across a flat farm field.<\/p><\/div>\n
<\/p>\n
I was taken aback. We needed 100 trees, 50 each side, planted at 18 foot intervals.<\/p>\n
The number made me stop and think. Was it worth It?\u00a0 The mental picture of trees in full bloom took my breath away and I decided it was.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
![\"These](\"http:\/\/glenvillaartgarden.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/10\/HJs-1-of-1.jpg\")
These crabapple trees in front of my daughter’s house are\u00a0a variety called ‘Dolgo.’<\/p><\/div>\n
<\/p>\n
I began to research the best varieties for\u00a0our situation. I wasn’t sure if I wanted pink or white blossoms\u00a0or if I wanted both. And how should I arrange\u00a0them?\u00a0 Should I alternate\u00a0the colours, mix them at random or establish some other kind of pattern?<\/p>\n
As\u00a0I often do when I face a decision like this, I called my friend, the landscape architect Myke Hodgins. We talked about the possibilities and he suggested the pattern I’m using, a single line of white blossoming trees on each side of the path, with a\u00a0square of pink ones to mark each end. He also suggested that I continue the trees across the driveway to create a tunnel of pink, an idea I found immensely appealing.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
![\"A](\"http:\/\/glenvillaartgarden.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/10\/drawing-1-of-1.jpg\")
A preliminary drawing gives a rough idea of the planting plan.<\/p><\/div>\n
<\/p>\n
I narrowed the selection to six possible\u00a0varieties and made the final choice based on what could be sourced locally in the quantities I needed. That meant ordering 24\u00a0Malus x moerlandsii<\/em>\u00a0‘Profusion’ (violet-red blossoms,\u00a0bronze-green foliage and bright red fruit) and 100\u00a0Malus ‘<\/em>Dolgo’ (white blossoms and overall reliability — plus the crabapples make a very tasty jelly.)<\/p>\n We began to prepare the site in\u00a0mid-August.\u00a0 I thought\u00a0it would be an easy job. The field was flat, the path was straight and all we had to do was widen it a bit.<\/p>\n I was wrong on all counts. Very wrong.<\/p>\n The path wasn’t straight.\u00a0It\u00a0ended far too close to a telephone pole and to a tree I wanted to keep. And it was much too narrow, particularly\u00a0considering the ditches we’d have to dig.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n The path looked straight from the other end, but once I looked at it carefully, the wiggles were too obvious to ignore.<\/p><\/div>\n <\/p>\n To avoid the tree and the telephone pole, we shifted the path towards the truck you see in the photo above.\u00a0We widened it from 8 feet to 12 feet. We added another six feet on either side, to give enough space for walking\u00a0once the trees spread\u00a0to full size. Then came the ditches, essential in a sometimes soggy field. And suddenly we\u00a0 were looking at a plowed strip 60 feet wide.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Step 1 was harrowing the field to make the job of straightening and widening the path quicker and easier.<\/p><\/div>\n <\/p>\n Then the real work began. Equipment was hired. Ditches were dug, necessarily deeper and wider than I had anticipated.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n The ditches are deeper on\u00a0the downhill side of the path than on the uphill side so that water doesn’t\u00a0accumulate on the path or around the trees.<\/p><\/div>\n <\/p>\n Neighbours noticed and politely inquired. Were we building a landing strip or a new road?<\/p>\n <\/p>\n The big mess got messier. But at least it didn’t rain while the work was going on.<\/p><\/div>\n <\/p>\n Finally, though, the work finished. And then the wait began.<\/p>\n We were ready but the trees\u00a0were not, which was unfortunate since the weather was ideal\u00a0 — dry, sunny\u00a0and cool. And while we were waiting, it started to rain. And it rained, and rained, and rained.\u00a0\u00a0All the holes we’d dug filled with water. And still the trees didn’t arrived.<\/p>\n Until finally, they did. This morning an enormous truck arrived, heavily\u00a0laden with 124 crabapples and one little willow.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n The covering protects the trees from wind damage. Does anyone else think it looks like a very large hair net?<\/p><\/div>\n <\/p>\n The\u00a0trees were unloaded beside the road and the\u00a0planting\u00a0began.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Each tree is enclosed in burlap and held in a wire basket. For transport, each has a thick paper sleeve to protect the trunk.<\/p><\/div>\n <\/p>\n The trees are heavy so each\u00a0has to be chained and lifted into\u00a0a waiting hole.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Imagine doing a job like this without mechanical equipment!<\/p><\/div>\n <\/p>\n Planting\u00a0will take a full day at least. And\u00a0before the holes are re-filled with earth, each\u00a0tree\u00a0will need to be adjusted\u00a0to ensure\u00a0the line is straight.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n The work site is cold and wet now, making the job messier than it would have been a few weeks ago.<\/p><\/div>\n <\/p>\n I’ll post a photo once the work is done. I know the trees won’t look like much then, but consider how they’ll look\u00a0next May!<\/p>\n A final note: Recently, I\u00a0found a note I made in 2012 after\u00a0visiting gardens in England. \u00ab\u00a0Use a straight tree line in the garden. But where?\u00a0\u00bb<\/p>\n Clearly some ideas\u00a0take time to germinate!<\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" When is a straight path not straight enough? When is it too narrow? Last March, I decided\u00a0to transform\u00a0an unused farm field into something spectacular by lining the path that ran through it\u00a0 with crabapple trees.\u00a0When the ground was barely\u00a0thawed, I paced out the length to determine how many trees to order. I…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":12718,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[24,38,21],"tags":[254,749,105,37,750],"class_list":["post-5760","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-design","category-glen-villa","category-plants","tag-changes-at-glen-villa","tag-crabapple-allee","tag-crabapple-trees","tag-glen-villa","tag-the-avenue","category-24","category-38","category-21","description-off"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/glenvillaartgarden.com\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5760","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/glenvillaartgarden.com\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/glenvillaartgarden.com\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glenvillaartgarden.com\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glenvillaartgarden.com\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5760"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/glenvillaartgarden.com\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5760\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glenvillaartgarden.com\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/12718"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/glenvillaartgarden.com\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5760"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glenvillaartgarden.com\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5760"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glenvillaartgarden.com\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5760"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"I](\"http:\/\/glenvillaartgarden.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/10\/The-Avenue-002.jpg\")
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