Sunday, May 10, 2020

Red Oak Volunteer

When we moved into this house there was a huge half-dead cherry tree in the backyard.
Shasta loved the tree.
Unfortunately, once we built the new garage I was worried the huge dead branches would come down and damage something. Ultimately, we decided to remove the tree back in 2013. At the time, I didn't notice that there was a little volunteer red oak at the base of the cherry tree.
Shockingly, it somehow survived the removal and grinding of the trunk. The little red oak tree just kept growing without any attention from us. This is how big (and overgrown) it got by June 2019.
When we received the $3 heucheras from Santa Rosa Gardens last July, Jeff cleared out around the base and pruned the red oak back to the central leader and planted in some of the clearance plants. I think it's looking quite a lot better this year.

7 comments:

  1. Looks fabulous! The little tree that could. Isn't Mother Nature amazing?

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    1. Yes. That little volunteer worked out pretty well this time. It's amazing to me how quickly it grew once it didn't have to compete with the cherry tree.

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  2. I love your yard! So welcoming and refreshing. A perfect little retreat. :)

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  3. It's a pretty area, Sharon. It always amazes me how quickly some plants can grow! (I'm guessing a Volunteer plant is a self-sown one? I haven't heard it called that before!)

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    1. Yes, this is a tree we didn't plant. Likely, a squirrel planted it for us. It was already there when we moved in; we just never got around to pulling it up. Now I'm glad we didn't.

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