The little tree which grew

Many years ago, when exactly i cannot recall exactly now but it must have been sometime in the early-mid 1980s, my Nan had a tiny little real Xmas tree for Xmas (natch). The tree was a live one in a pot and after the Pagan festivities had ended she gave me the tree (which was around 30cm tall) which i planted in the little plot in my parents' garden which i had been given.

For years the tree hardly grew, it didn't seem in danger of dying but just didn't change a great deal, someone told me the tree had been sprayed to stop the pine needles from coming out. Which is actually a good idea, my parents once had a real Xmas tree that hadn't been sprayed and we were still finding needles in the carpet a good 10 years later.

Then slowly, maybe as the effects of the spray wore off, the tree began to grow. Well as you can see from this picture it has grown quite a bit. I am pretty sure it is now taller than the house and so huge its roots have begun to destroy the garden path. Whilst not an expert on Xmas trees i suspect it is now more or less at full size. An interesting addition to Erdington flora.

This second photo is dated (or was printed anyway) in July 1991 as can be seen the tree was still rather small. So much so i have had to add an arrow so you can see where it is!

Planting trees is an interesting exercise in long-term planning (or the lack of in this case). I should have planted it in a more central location in the garden as its spread makes traversing down the garden path troublesome and the root damage has already been mentioned.

But then again i guess many little trees are planted and never really amount to much. One at least has been allowed to reach for the skies.