10/20/2020 – For our 25th Anniversary present for each other we bought three 35-gallon Bracken’s Brown Beauty Magnolias from Oak Hill Tree Farm.
10/21/2020 – Used Frank’s post hole auger to start the holes for the two on the south side of the pond. Made the hole 6″+ larger than the 35-gallon pot. Mary cut the pots in two places and we rolled the root ball out of the pot and into the hole.
Filled in the holes about 2/3’s and flooded them. After lunch filled them and shaped a high place around the root ball to hold water. Flooded them again.
The one nearest the new fence and the pond—that is an area that was in the old pond woods—had a lot of grey clay and hard packed soil. The soil at the one nearest the road that was in the originally cleared area between the old barn and pecan orchard was firm but there was no grey clay.
10/22/2020 – Planted the third one in the northeast corner of the pond yard using the same process described above.
Tilled around all three the 18″ width of the tiller. Went around three times and got about 6″ deep to improve the compacted top layer of soil.
10/232020 – Installed three T-posts at each tree and used green web strap to tie off the trees.
