Basically, the way it works is this:
1. Find little tiny tree sprouts growing from seeds in the spring.
2. Pull up/dig up the trees and plant them in a pot
3. Water them
So, all you have to pay for is dirt, a few pots, and water. Except that Julie and I don't pay for water in our apartment. And, for a few of the trees, I didn't buy dirt, but used compost that was made from leaves at church and some of our fruits and veggies.
I planted around 16 Japanese Maple Trees, 2 Silver Maples, 2 Redwoods, and an Avocado earlier this year.
I still have 3 Japanese Maples, 1 Silver Maple, both Redwoods, and the Avocado died, but new shoots came out of the pit last week, and it's growing really fast. (The avocado actually started growing in a compost pile at church, and most or all of the pits in there were from avocados that Julie and I had eaten).
Here are my trees (you can enlarge these pics):
Those are the Maples and the Avocado (which is in the front row on the right).
Those are the Redwoods. I took these pictures with the webcam on my new computer, which apparently horizontally flips all the images. The word "tiki" on our tiki torch fuel is backwards. Interesting. And off-topic.
Anyway, on Sunday I was at my grandparents' house for my birthday. I got a sweet new Gas grill, which is in the background of the next picture. While we were there, I found a pretty big Japanese maple growing behind a vine on a trellis. Because of its leaves and location, it looked like marijuana.
Today, I went and dug it up and planted it in a bucket. I'm not too optimistic that it will survive the transplanting process, but I'm hopeful. Here it is.
I'm kind of afraid that a neighbor will look over our fence and think it's pot and report it to the cops. Japanese Maples do kind of look like pot. And really, who grows trees in a backyard that is probably 20' x 12'?
My plan is to get these trees to a decent size and sell them or plant them, if we own a house by then (or plant them at church, if we want to plant Japanese Maples anywhere).
Japanese Maples were going for $150 at Home Depot and $185 at Costco last I checked.
So, this is a pretty smart investment. I think I've spent about $20 on all the trees so far.
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2 comments:
It'd be tough to plant the Japanese maples at church, since they live best in partial sun and little wind, but i think starting a little "nursery" is awesome!
Yeah, I thought about the shade issue. If I were to plant them at church I'd probably plant them either between the redwood trees and the sheds (which gets shade from the Oak trees at the bus barn) or along the back fence (which gets shade from the pine trees the neighbors have).
And since they are from my parents' house, I know this variety does OK in more-than partial sun (it's sunny all morning, and the tops of the trees are never in the shade).
But, I don't think we need them at church in any case, so it's more of a concept.
I'd probably most like to sell them. I'll probably do this every year, and someday when I have a bigger backyard, I'll do it in much larger quantities.
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