Last night the dogs were a little upset with me. They were well behaved on their evening walk and 99% of the time that results in 5-10 minutes free from their leashes to run free in the back of my bloc. We entered the bloc without the run!
Little did they know that we would enter the apartment again only to gather what was needed to plant the first tree in the back area – their playland. Tails wagged again as we exited with a bucket of water, a small magnolia tree and a spoon (I really need to buy a shovel).
The ground is tricky and there is a lot of sand. Cars sometimes park on a part of the sandy area so the area chosen had to be as risk free as possible. Another thing to consider was that Kiki and Nerica filled with exuberance run like crazy in the back and could accidentally uproot the tree. Also Kiki is a digger – each night she fervently digs a hole in the sand to lay in after running around like a wild child. So clearly the area had to be far enough from her favorite spot to dig in. Knowing their running patterns, finally the spot was chosen.
Now that a suitable location was found, I began to dig with my spoon (futile effort really) and then substituted that for a large rock. While digging thoughts of better tools passed through my mind and had to laugh since just a short distance away Kiki was digging her hole – hmmm I thought if only she would dig a hole for the magnolia!
Well the root system is young and not too large so it was not really that hard and today is somewhat cooler and cloudy allowing the magnolia to settle in without undue stress. Later today I will take a picture of the new magnolia and first official tree planted behind our bloc on str. Ciorcarliei. It is still too young to flower but here is a picture of the future 
m. susan foto by Kenpei
About Magnolia
Magnolia is an ancient and large genus of about 210 flowering plant species in the subfamily Magnolioideae in the family Magnoliaceae. Named after the French botanist Pierre Magnol it is said to have evolved even before bees appeared and was pollinated by beetles. Fossilised specimens of M. acuminata have been found dating to 20 million years ago. m. acuminata is native to North America and has been known to grow as tall as 30 meters. In contrast, our little variety of m. susan, planted last night is known to grow around 3 meters and the crown can be as wide as 2-3 meters. It is a slow grower and if not tended to and pruned, this variety can be bushy.
Now just waiting for some of my seeds to grow stronger for transplantation in the back as well.
Happy Urban Gardening!
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