Side tracks --- a common theme in my life

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A few days after we moved into this house, I did a survey of the yard and what was there, making mental notes of what I wanted to change. As I looked I spotted a tree sprouting out of the top of a post. The tree is a Sitka Spruce. In nature, these trees can reach 100 meters in height. This one will never grow more than 18 inches as I am adapting it to be a Bonsai. It is the one in the black pot. I love nature and I love growing things, but I never intended to grow Bonsai Trees. (Bonsai is Japanese for 'tree in a pot") This is one of the side tracks that I have found myself on. That original tree is now five and a half years old. I did not expect it to survive my pulling it from the post and putting it into a pot, but as you can see, it has done quite well. This year is the first time I trimmed the roots, I never knew a tree could survive that. I had always believed that if you cut the taproot you killed the tree. But that is not true. Care must be taken but it will not kill the tree. I had two other spruces but I gave one to my granddaughter (along with a book on growing your own Bonsai) for her birthday. She is also into growing things. The other trees (in the background) are red alders, a common tree in this area. These keep sprouting out of my garden so I put them into pots and will adapt them to be Bonsai as well. An interesting fact about the Sitka Spruce is that this species of tree was very important to the American war effort in World War I. Because this tree grows on the Oregon Coast and is constantly subjected to very strong winds coming off the ocean, the wood is very strong and flexible at the same time. It was ideal for building the early aircraft used in the war effort. In fact, it was so important that the US Army assigned an entire platoon of soldiers to harvest and prepare the trees for use in building the aircraft. There is a famous airplane, built by Howard Hughes towards the end of WW II, which was also built from this wood. It is called the Spruce Goose and today resides in the Evergreen Museum here in Oregon. The plane only flew once. If interested here is more on that plane: Photo is mine.