The Little Tree that Could

Back when my son Jason was in first grade he brought home from school a little seedling for Arbor Day.  It was a White Pine.  The year was 1986.  I planted it in the back corner.  And forgot about it.

The back corner of my lot is rather damp.  There were Russian olives and honeysuckle growing there. Over the years, glossy buckthorn took hold and it wasn't until the late 1990's that I decided to rip everything out.  It was quite the task.  I left it open for a few years and then more recently I planted wild grasses.

When I was doing the clean-up, I discovered the pine tree.  It was only about one foot tall.  It appeared that deer had been eating the new growth each year.  So, I carefully dug it up and moved it to a new location.  As it grew, rather rapidly, I looked forward to having a nice tree.  And then, when it was about three feet tall, the top got eaten off.  I wrapped it to protect it.  It grew a little more with its crooked trunk and then some stupid stag came along and gouged the trunk.

I eventually moved it again - and fenced the yard.  Here is was nicely growing by the deck in 2015.

It has no lower branches cause they all got eaten by animals.

With protection from deer, this tree is doing very nicely.  Since all the yews have been removed from the deck area, it really shows itself off.

If you look closely at the bottom of the tree you can see where the deer ate the top and the resulting curve in the trunk.

Anytime I think I have no patience, I look at this tree and realize that for 20 years I have been nursing it.  And I wonder what it would look like if I had nursed it for the 30 years it has been in the yard.  I now have a little spruce tree that I have been growing for several years.  It is about six inches tall so I doubt I will ever see it full grown.  But someone will.