Saturday scenes and scenery: New tree grows in the Mission (we hope)

Two weeks ago San Francisco Friends of the Urban Forest dropped off the trees in a neighborhood garage. Previously they had paid a contractor to cut out the concrete in the designated planting sites. Somebody got some stimulus money -- I hope.


A slightly blurry group of volunteer tree planters checked out the terrific spread of donated breakfast goodies. We needed some sustenance before getting to work.


There's an orderly system on FUF projects.


Soon the sidewalk was a mess of labeled trees, support poles and milling workers. Some of us have been through this before. I mentioned to another volunteer that I'd been part of a tree planting down that block about 20 years ago. Not long after, the tree have been demolished by a drunk driver. He sighed, resigned. "Yet, sometimes people get buzzed ..."


Labels to be stapled on the trees' support poles needed to be assembled. I don't imagine this helper could read them.


Pretty soon, it was time to greet our own tree. We turned out to have pretty healthy and easily dug soil under the sidewalk -- who'd have expected that?


Planters were instructed in how to free up any root-binding left over from the tree's incubation in a plastic pot.


A neighbor drove in a corral of stakes to protect our new baby.


She's an eriobatriya deflexa, a Bronze Loquat.


Now it is up to us to water her and clean out her enclosure for two or three years. Let's hope she makes it; Mission streets can be tough.