HOLE PROBLEM SOLVED, NEW EARTH AUGER

dejmakeup Mayıs 23, 2022

I posted a few weeks ago about our hole dilemma. I mentioned an earth auger as a possibility and I took everyone's advice into account. I was going to rent one but 2nd Family's "R" gave me some advice as well so I decided to pull the trigger. Here is my new yard helper:

Earth Auger from Lowe's

I bought a 'one man' auger at Lowe's. It came with the power head and a 10" (or maybe 8", I can't remember now) spiral bit for digging. I did some reading on the best way to handle them, started slowly (it has a throttle) and proceeded to make a hole!

Auger holes in clay soil

Then another, and another....until I had five holes in a row along the side of the driveway. I was a bit messy at first, until I got the hang of it.

I used my Rubbermaid Cart to carry the trees and bags of soil down the LONG driveway and put them at each hole (not as hard on the old body).

My shiny, new auger, not so shiny now but hey, it was a lifesaver so I'm OK with that.

I used a shovel to widen the holes a bit (since these were 3 gallon containers). I filled the bottom of the holes with a special garden soil (a type that prevents over/under watering) and then around the trees once I centered them in the hole.

Image courtesy of: http://aggie-horticulture.tamu.edu/cemap/vitex

This is the tree we planted. It is called Vitex, or the more common nickname, "Texas Lilac", due to it's similarity in appearance to the lilac. It's drought tolerant (ding), adaptable to many soil types including clay (ding ding), and blooms from Spring to Fall (ding ding ding). Click HERE for more info.

It is, hopefully, the beginnings of color at the farm.
Baby steps, right?

Update, I had this post ready last weekend when I made the holes but it was pushed down my list of posts and I missed it. So I'm putting it up today. This weekend at the farm, it's been a week since they were all planted, a week without watering and 90+ degree temps, and they all looked great, in fact a couple were already blooming. Yay!