SEPT 2024 - New Life

When I first moved to my house in Santa Fe there was hardly any landscaping. The area behind the garage had been used as a dumping ground, with an ugly shed barely attached to a wall. It took a while to clean up the mess, get rid of the shed, and remediate the soil. Having no idea about what or how to plant in a landscape so different from the east coast, I hired a man who sold produce at the Farmers Market to help me decide what to do with the space now that it was cleared of debris.

“Plant trees,” he said, with no hesitation. “And, I know just the place we need to go to buy them.” We drove to a tree farm not far from Taos. Before we got out of the car, he said, “The guy is a . . .” he seemed at a loss for words. I shrugged. How weird could a man be who sold trees? What could be so difficult?

The tree man knew the man I was with and greeted him warmly, with a hug. He turned to me, staring, as if to assess my character. “So, you want to buy trees.” It wasn’t a question but it seemed to require a response so I nodded. “Trees need a lotta care. You willing to take good care of them?” Why else would I have driven all this way to buy some trees I could probably have bought in Santa Fe? He kept looking at me as if to decide whether to sell me trees. “You sure you’re willing to take good care of them? Give them lots of love?” All I could do was nod, wondering if the long drive was worth it. I guess he finally decided I was okay because he said, “Good. Let’s find you some trees.”

I told him I wanted to plant fruit trees. He walked briskly to an area and showed me some apple trees. “Buy these two. They like each other. The apples are crisp and not too sweet. Okay?” Since I knew nothing about apple trees I agreed. “You should buy this sweet little plum tree, too,” he said, marking the three trees. I thought about buying cherry trees but as I was about to ask, he said, “That’s a good start. You don’t want to buy too many trees at once. They need a love of love besides watering and fertilizing. And make sure you only use organic matter. No crap from the hardware store.” He gestured to the man I was with. “He can plant them for you, but they’re your trees. You’re the one who has to take care of them.” I nodded. Seemed to be the only appropriate response.

We left with the three trees. On the way home I asked why we had to drives such a long distance to buy trees. “He loves trees. He assesses people and will only sell to people he thinks will take good care of the trees. Also, and I know it’s hard to believe, he matches trees with people. In my experience, every one of my clients who’s planted trees bought from him—their trees do really well.”

The trees from the tree man got planted. I learned how to take care of them. In time I planted some cherry trees, not from the tree man, which in a good season produce four cherries. Despite my care, the trees became lunch or dinner for deer and who knows how many other animals. I know they have to live but after they decimated two of the trees, I had a 12’ wire fence built around the whole area.

One afternoon I went out to see if the plums were ripe enough to pick. Much to my horror, the plum tree was broken in half with leaves and branches scattered around. Judging by the paw prints, a bear had come down the rock wall, knocked over the fence, and devastated my plum tree. I didn’t mind it eating the plums; what upset me was the damaged tree.

I had the fence rebuilt with stronger ties to the posts. A tree expert sawed off the broken limbs of the plum tree and did what he could to repair the rest of the damage. “Don’t know if it will recover,” he said, “but keep it watered and fertilized and send it love.” He sounded like the tree man near Taos. It was the end of the season. I’d have to wait until spring to know if the tree would recover.

All during the winter I kept the trees watered and fertilized with organic matter. I sent the plum tree extra love. In the spring, I watched the plum tree, waiting to see any sign of life. When I saw the first green shoots I was filled with joy. The first plum I picked tasted better than coffee chocolate swirl ice cream, my favorite food.

Have you helped something that was severely damaged recover? What did you do?
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Sept 2024 Monthly Stories