The bodies of these 5 young men, all under 35, muscled, lithe, and competent, bring on the dreams.
I’m lost in a derelict warehouse during a fierce, windy storm. Giant muppets leer. Ricky Martin sings on a tiny stage, pointing to me, warning me but not telling me which way I should go. A vine presses on my throat.
That pressure, the lump in the back of my throat, wakes me up.
People say gardening is relaxing. Total Myth. Total Myth. After thirty years, I still get nervous about a tree planting like the one that starts today. Big tractors will swing 5,000-pound trees by chains, into holes, over young bodies and my middle-aged body. So much can go wrong. What we’re doing the rest of the week is the kind of gardening that produces anxiety while I’m awake and stress dreams when I’m not.
The trees can go wrong quickly too. Did you know that a palmetto bud is like a glass vase? If you drop a palmetto, its bud shatters. Since a palmetto only has one bud, the tree will die. It may look ok, but it'll die next year. Roll the root ball of a tupelo wrong; it'll never leaf out. Plant the Vitex too deep and it’ll never grow.
The crew of guys, all plant lovers, and l work all day, three days straight, planting trees. I’m the oldest and the only gay guy. Not too many years ago, that would have been a thing. A wedge. Not anymore. These young guys don’t care. After work, we’ll shower, hang out, and then have supper together too. We’ll show each other Insta pics and outrageous videos. We’re all staying on the job site in a sweet little cabin by the marsh. Y’all might think nights get raucous with a bunch of guys away from home. Nothing could be further from the truth. Back when we did this frequently, we had a short story club. Everybody read the same story on their phones, then, over pizza and beers, we’d discuss.
This time, my plan is to collect a few stories from the crew. Quotes anyway. Who wouldn’t take advantage of spending a few days with;
2 20-something young hunter boys, I call them the Bo-Skeeters.
2 still single millennial men, the Adulting Boys, struggling between video games and turning 40.
One new guy who’s yet to earn a nickname, he’s still Carlos. Just Carlos.
And me, the self-identified Gay Zaddy. If they have another name for me, I plan to discover that too.
I’ll share it with y’all on Friday. Or Saturday. Assuming we all come back intact. I want you to get to know the fellas who'll be planting a Platanus alleé,
a Cercis grove,
a Magnolia screens
a Salix focal point
a Platanus alleé
a rondo of weeping Ilex
Sorry y’all, if I”m going to use nicknames for the crew, I guess I ought to use common names and descriptors for the trees. Nah, all that’s on google. The trees are awesome, beautifully grown specimens, but it's the tree planters that will make this colorful work trip.
*Actually, if you want to know about the plants and the garden design, we’ll try to get pics up on Instagram and Facebook.