It turns out that moving the weeping mulberry tree was very easy. It helps that Ian had dug out the birch tree stump yesterday so the hole was already there. When we first uncovered the roots we thought that they were wrapped cables because they were about a quarter to three-eighths of an inch in diameter and butter yellow. I always thought roots were brownish like the trunks are; I never expected them to be bright yellow.
Anyways, the mulberry tree's yellow roots are quite shallow and so it was easy to dig them up and move them to the hole Ian had already dug. We put the soil back in, stood back, and Ian said that it should have been moved six inches over that way. I kind of agreed with him but we decided it wasn't worth moving it. We went up to the greenhouse and wandered around the garden and every time either of us looked back at the tree we said, "yeah, it really should be moved, but it's not worth the trouble."
Finally, just as we were about to go in and call it a day for outside chores, I looked back at the tree and said once again that it should be moved so pulled out the shovels and moved it that six or eight inches over that way. We were both much happier with the placement of the tree now, at least from outside. To be perfectly placed from the great room it needed to be moved a few inches over the other way. We're not going to move it again, however!
Hopefully the tree will survive the transplant. It's dropped its leaves already so we figure it's dormant enough and should happily settle into its new location. It definitely has more space for its roots than it did before; in its previous location, it could only grow roots in two directions. We tried not to pack the soil around the roots too tightly so it should have lots of room to grow new roots. However, we're a bit worried that if we get big wind storms, it won't stand up too well. We'll have to wait and see how the tree holds up.
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