THE GARDENING CONTINUES

4/28/2026

Arborvitae—often called the “tree of life”—are evergreen trees in the genus Thuja. They are widely used for privacy hedges, windbreaks, and low-maintenance landscaping.

I HAVE AN ARBOVITAE JONES!

Last year, I planted sixteen arborvitaes in my front yard. Four of them did not make it through the summer. I couldn’t figure out why because I had hired landscapers to do the work. I replaced those four, thinking the problem had been solved.

But I had already begun to learn something I didn’t yet understand.

I had always been told that these trees were hardy. But that isn’t quite true. Once removed from their natural environment, they can be as delicate as any other living thing. Strength, it seems, depends very much on where something is rooted.

I planted eight more last week, this time in the backyard. That brings the total to twenty-four arborvitaes on my property so far. Somewhere along the way, I slipped into a kind of green arborvitae obsession.

And now, again, as spring moves toward summer, one of the trees is turning brown.

So I began to look deeper.

I went on the internet and looked up the history of these trees. Arborvitae were used for medicinal purposes by Native peoples, and early French explorers noted this and carried the plant to Europe. The tree is native to parts of China, Japan, and Korea. Its seeds, leaves, and twigs have been used in traditional remedies, though there is not enough scientific evidence to support most of these uses.

Still, one quality continues to draw me in: its ability to help clean the air. These trees can trap and absorb pollutants—benzene, formaldehyde, ozone, even carbon monoxide—while releasing oxygen back into the environment.

That was one of the very important reasons I wanted them around my home.

But what I have learned did not come from books or the internet. It came from trying—and sometimes failing—to grow them perfectly.

Recently, I hired new landscapers to plant the newest eight in the backyard. Without asking, they mulched everything, even the trees in the front yard. It looked neat, finished—but not quite right.

I did my research again and learned that mulch should be kept several inches away from the base of the tree. Too close, and it can do more harm than good. The landscapers had mulched tightly to the base of the tree.

Landscapers I have found plant trees as their summer occupation, but they do not necessarily know anything about them. And perhaps that is not surprising. If you are working a job that lasts only a few months, you do the work, go home, eat, sleep, and then move on.  When the season ends, you have to find another job. It is a hard way to live. You don't have time to look up every tree you plant, or you may not want to.

Yesterday, I spent the day pulling the mulch back, one tree at a time, making space for each trunk to breathe.

This weekend, I will apply a fungicide spray. After that, I will wait and then fertilize them all.

There is always something more to be done.

So here I am, gardening with all these arborvitaes.  But I have also started my flower and vegetable garden. This to me is heaven

I have always loved gardening and have done it every chance I have had, in all my life.  I come from a people who worked the earth; at one time it was for their livelihood. First as slaves on the sugar cane plantation and later in the gardens in their yards to grow food.

Gardening is creating. It is watching, waiting, and each time, each year a new learning.  When I am gardening I imagine I am healing the world, healing all the pain and violence, taking the hand of every child that is endangered.  When I am gardening, I am giving back to Mother Earth………….