The Street Provides

I went home for Christmas, and came back to SF to find that the trees I had planted had their nursery stake, and a regular stake removed. The nursery stake was actually a good thing to remove since you don't want that once you plant it in the ground, and I just hadn't gotten around to removing that.

But someone also removed the stake I put in to help my Magnolia survive strong winds.

My hunch is that it actually was SFDPW (SF Department of Public Works) that rightfully came and did some maintenance. Since only they would know to remove the nursery stake. Although I was puzzled by them removing the stake I had installed.

Either way, I was going to Nob Hill Hardware to buy a new stake, I came across this piece of garbage:

It looked like a broken down mobile rack for moving laundry or luggage or something. Either way, I just pulled off a metal rod. It came off with a clang onto the street. At which point I went and got my hammer and hammered this thing into the ground.

I then tied this rubber thing to it to attach it to the tree and just stapled it together.

It's jerry-rigged as hell, but it saved me some money, repurposed some garbage, and helps this tree survive, so it's a win all round.

I probably will have to adjust it though since I noticed that the tree still had a little more sway than I would like, but that shouldn't be too hard.