The story is that the man took care of an Elm tree for a very long time. Two years ago, the tree died, and a local furniture maker has been carving this man a coffin preparing him for the ultimate tribute. The man has died, and his body will be buried in the coffin made from the elm tree that he cared for, for so many years.

I suspect there is a seedling somewhere nearby that has to be a descendant of this elm tree, and that tree should be taken care of by the same family. All Elm seedlings to 200 yards in every direction should be cared for by the sons and daughters of the man who took care of the elm tree. It would be the highest honor. One should be moved into the spot where the root system of the original is, and planted in the exact spot, so that when Herbie’s (the elm that was cared for for so long) roots begin to compost, they will then be food for the new tree.

This is the SOD that the The Workers left in my yard after digging up the sewage line for the people across the street from me.
They tore up some grass that was barely struggling, but making it, and replaced it with dead grass that has no fertile soil under it. This stuff was somewhere between tumble weed and a torn up rag. There is no saving that. one wind of 5mph and that grass would be in my neighbors yard dirtying it up.
Thanks The Workers, you rock. Speaking of Rocks. I have (since this post) had to place rocks on some of the sod to keep it from blowing into my neighbor’s yard when the wind blows.

This would be Hunters Glen Mud The City of Humble The Workers who left this grass in my yard. Today they are supposed to come by and “check it out” and I was told that they would leave a tag on my door to update the status, of the grass inspection.

I hope this goes well.

I just don’t get it. Why did they go so far into my yard?
The nearest construction is across the street, and everyone has water and sewage on both sides of the houses being built. Everyone has electricity, and that isn’t even remotely near where any of the local utilities are located. Why did they have to crunch my little pecan tree? I know it’s just a seedling and looks like a weed. but come on.
If my little tree wall is knocked over, I will be thoroughly upset.
Not much I can do about it though. It’s city work. and there isn’t a single person in that line of work that faces accountability.

Hope they replace my grass with new sod. That spot was sorta dead already.

If you recognize the photographs to look like a plant you are familiar with, Just a note, the cleome hassleriana smells very skunky.

When my house was being built last year. I snuck to the build site, late one night after the land was leveled and while the grass sod was still on the pallets. I went to the middle of the yard and dug me a hole and dropped 5 pecans into the hole. Then I covered the pecans and left for home. I showed up the next day to approve of my tree scheme, when I saw that not only did they lay the grass already, but the home builders also planted me a free tree. In the middle of the yard. Very close to where I planted the pecans.

That following summer, was the drought of 2011, here in Texas. I never saw the pecans sprout. So all year, I have assumed the pecans were destroyed in the dig of the tree. The drought caught the live oak off guard and left the little tree looking dead. Not a leaf anywhere, and all of the branches brittle. This was a lose lose.

Now for the story behind the pecan tree.

My father’s father had property in west Houston. On his property were approximately 5 pecan trees, that my grandmother had planted on my grandfather’s property. Years after my grandmother was no longer around, my grandfather was left to take care of these trees. and he did. His pecan trees grew to about 30 feet high and about 30 feet wide, from branch tip to branch tip. Years later I was born. One day while my mother and I were visiting my dad’s dad, I must have been 9-12 years old, I loaded a couple 5 gallon buckets with pecans.I had a plan to run out in the woods to the place my friends and I had a tree fort, and plant a bunch of pecans. I did. (the following year a Golf Course popped up in that same spot). A week went by and I still had lots and lots of pecans left. My mother decided to take the pecans and make a layer on the bottom of each of her flower pots and then refill the dirt and replant the plants that used to be in the pots. Time passed, and my mother noticed little trees growing in some of her flower pots. My mother uprooted a few and threw them away and then realized they were pecan trees starting to grow. So my mother planted a few pecan trees in her yard. 25 years passed and I see that these pecan trees are beautiful. I decide I am going to buy me a house somewhere and plant some of the pecans in my yard. So I started looking for a place to move to. Hurricane Ike came, and wiped out the pecan trees from the yard.( I missed a few weeks of work and my funds were tapped.) No damage to the house at all. but the pecan trees, totaled and their yearly crop of pecans, about 5-6 blocks away and all over the place.

The year before was a bad harvest. The pecans were all rotted with only a few good. So it was a bummed out year. Those pecans sat in a bucket in the dining room for the next following year. Until my brother’s son decided to play with the pecans. He scattered them all over the dining room and stomped the majority of the pecans into the carpet. We cleaned up what we could and saved a few. Maybe 100 or so. A couple months go by and I get a deal on a brand new house.

One year later I was out mowing my yard, and look what I found On My Front Lawn.

If you look close enough, I have mowed over this tree once.

*And now an update*

Wild growing plant

This of course is growing where I am wanting to lay grass.
Not sure if I want to relocate this or just uproot it and trash it so it does not disturb the grass.

Testing out patches of sod in my yard on the sides with no grass at the time. Come summer you will see if there have been any changes.
There are vines grass growing out now since these pictures were taken near the middle of the summer 2011.

The grass I am using is a st. Augustine Rally grass . All bought at Home depot for way to much money.

I am also kind of cheating a bit. When I do my edging up front, I am taking the long vines that grow over the concrete, chasing them back until I locate some good roots, I dig up that vine and take it to the back yard and transplant. This seems to be working because I have already mowed over that grass a couple times now.
I also do this in the area for the mushes, the mulch there keeps the soil soft so the roots are easy to pull up.

What ever your plan is, I show up and mow the front yard just $10.