Plant-napped!

Plant-napped!

Well I can’t say I wasn’t warned. Ever since I potted my fruit trees and placed them in the front yard people have been telling me that someone will steal them. It was still a shock though when this morning we went out to pull up more carpet roses, and three of my six trees were gone.

What also surprised me was that they didn’t take the trees in the bonsai bags (with convenient handles). They simply plucked them out of the soil and nicked off with them. Victims of the plant-napping were the eureka lemon, the tahitian lime and the dwarf golden dorset apple. The dwarf tropical anna apple was spared, but not before they attempted to uproot it too. I guess something must have scared them off.

I will order replacement trees from Daleys, but I have decided that the only way I’m going to stop the rotten thieves is by planting in the ground.I was going to keep the hedge along the side of the lawn for a little while at least, but now I’ve decided that it is better to remove it and put the trees in there.

P removing the hedge

So this afternoon, instead of just pulling up carpet roses, P pulled out and mulched the hedge while I prepared the first part of the front bed for the vegetables. By the end of the kid-free window (nap time), we have the hedge removed and mulched, and most of the seedlings planted in the first 2 metres of the front bed. The kids woke up in time to help plant the last of the seedlings.

After church tomorrow we will prepare the soil for the planting the fruit trees. In the meantime, the remaining trees are in hiding 🙂