it was an accident I swear !!!

we have a great black pine - large and mature-  along the property line with the troublesome neighbors. It's a great twisted tree- very japanese looking and two of the limbs were projecting over their driveway and so I decided to do the nice thing and trim the tree ( before they hacked it) and while I was doing so I saw a small pine growing up in there pathway to their back yard.  I assumed it was a baby off shot from my pine and so I decided I would cut it off at the base before it got any bigger and caused a potential problem.

In the process of looking for the base the tree just came up out of the ground and it became clear to me that it had been planted by the contractor- and not very well if after two summers no roots had entered the surrounding ground. Well here I was with this small pine in my hands and my husband shouting "put it back". But it was in a lousy place, wasn't being fed or watered. so I decided to treat  it as a part of my tree and planted it well in a side section of my yard.

Later in the bathtub jim and i had quite a "heated" discussion about this and I finally simply said I was leaving it where I had planted and viewed it as a part of grooming MY tree -- a slight fudge I know. Okay I did the wrong thing but it started with the best  and most innocent of intentions. and then I wasn't going to replace a tree under an existing tree.

Meanwhile I also planted peonies, removed a dead juniper and planted two new ones, got some spreading roses in the yard in one of the few sunny spots and removed a really ugly shrub hedge so we could see the hollies and mossy rocks I had arranged in the front  yard.   Jim is lining up his yellow strings for making the front yard decking straight and after he gets the landscape cloth and base beams on the ground I am going to enlarge my teensy little water hole into a very small  pond lined with large rocks I dug up--- years of leaves and pine needles had buried an old rock wall and so I brought these great pieces of basalt up to the surface of the ground as the edging top my little pond.

when it isn't raining you have to work really fast before the greyness strikes again. when the front courtyard is done of course I shall post photos.