A woman with room to spare decides to plant an orchard even though she admits that means thinking twenty years ahead. She starts in November with a spade and four apple saplings by the road, then keeps at it for years, working up the rise. Pears, cherries, and quince flourish; the plums get blight and have to be replanted. She even sets out nut trees, though they grow too slowly for her to harvest or sit under. The phrase “uncoupling crop from objective” sums up her attitude: the reward is not the point. She keeps choosing trees for others, not herself. When she thinks of mulberries for the hens, she orders one more tree “even this late in life” and plants it while the old hens look on amazed. The speaker’s tone is gentle, admiring, and slightly amused. The mood is patient and generous—work done not for oneself but for people not yet alive.
What to Do About Trees — Summary
What to do about trees, for she had room: Have an orchard. But isn't that thinking About twenty years ahead? So she went
To the tool room for her spade in November; Took that and four apple saplings down Onto the flat by the road, and began. Years she
Did this, working up and around the rise Of better ground. Pears, cherries, quince Abounded, but the plums got blight, and had to
Be started over. She was too old to harvest Or even get shade from nut trees, they're so slow; Uncoupling crop from objective, she anyway set
Them out, along with the rest. Last, she Thought of mulberries. The hens could have Really used those. Oh, well. She ordered,
Even this late in life, and planted once more, Even as those old hens looked on amazed: Something to offer folks not yet alive.