Today, I helped transplant 30 palm trees 🌴

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Last night, I did some research about Bismarckia palms, a stunning tree with a stout base and giant silver fans that make quite an impression.

We had, already, planted 40 on our farm and now needed to transplant them, as they were too close together and needed room to grow.

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My wife sees it as a possible micro-business since, in just 6 months, they can be sold for several times the price of when we purchased them, as young plants.

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The first step, of course, is to carefully dig it out of the soil with a good shove, not damaging the roots.

I learned Bizmarckia grows in sand, loam, and clay — which we mixed in the large black bags (with irrigation holes on the bottom) which were to be the new homes for the palms.

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Next, step is to mix in the black top soil, rich in nutrients palms need: nitrogen, phosphorus & potassium, along with other micronutrients.

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One must be gentle with transplanting, as I learned from my father-in-law, since trees experience a type of trauma when removed from their native soil and before they take in their new home — something I experienced, as an immigrant, when I left Egypt a decade and a half ago to live in the United States.

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All in all, rewarding, honest work — and not easy, too ( I felt faint, more than once, sweating it out in the midday sun).

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I imagine I will feel a sense of pride, akin to parenthood, when these little babies grow up and spread their wings, as adults.

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