The drought killed the plum tree. You see, i have a sulfur well and some plants tolerate this water source better than others. Loquat and fig trees hate it. If i want to keep them alive i have to buy drinking water for them. This would be too expensive so i just no longer try fig or loquat trees. Although, if the trees are watered exclusively with rain, they do perfect no matter how little or much they get. The plum tree was not quite as picky but when it didnt rain for a whole year the only water it was getting was the unfiltered well water. When it had enough of the sulfur it dropped all its leaves in 3 waves and then died. During this i tried watering it less…more…and then watering with drinking water. When i watered with drinking water a long and skinny stick emerged from the ground next to the tree. Initially i became excited thinking it was an offshoot from the still intact root system of the dying tree, but the leaves were shaped a tad differently and i wasnt sure if it was not just an overzealous weed taking the resources meant for the dead plum tree. After several months it showed no signs of the stem turning woody or the leaves becoming wider. Disheartened, i decided not to get my hopes up, label it a weed, and quit watering it. This was about the time it began raining a quarter of an inch each week. i thought the thing was dead and what was growing there was a weed so i made no effort whatsoever to keep it alive for at least 6 months. It was winter so it looked dead whether it was or whether it was just in a seasonally inspired dormant phase. Come spring i looked at this thing and realized it was brown…as in woody. I bent it hard and it bounced back up. There was water in the stem. The thing was alive. It was pliable rather than brittle. That meant this thing, that now looked suspiciously like a dormant baby plum tree, was about to spring back to life. I began watering it when it didnt rain. Sure enough, one day i looked at it and instead of a smooth brown stem there appeared to be buds. The next morning green leaves were unfolding. This plum tree had started from scratch, putting out a newborn tree from the roots right as it breathed its last breath. It was so tiny and it would take so many years to mature but i was in a financial position with the adjustable rate mortgage that made new purchases negligible at this point in my time on the homestead and so i would take any remote sign of life as something to make a go of keeping. It was at this point that i got the idea to use the dead parent tree as a stake to tie the new young tree to when it got big enough. It taught me a lesson i knew at one time but needed to remember. Dont count something out just because the odds look bad.
The incident with the plum tree got me thinking about the pecan tree that had been run over and snapped in half when somebody drove through the gate one foggy morning before dawn. He had fixed the fence to make amends and did a beautiful job. Its the only section of fence i have that could really be viewed as functional. We were square and i meant it when i said it. I could tell he put a lot of effort into the fence piece and i really appreciated the sturdiness of it. It would prevent future incidents for sure. He took the time to take the flattened deer cage and make it circular again and stretch it around the rebar surrounding this snapped nub of what had once been my beautiful young pecan tree. I thought it was pointless as there wasnt anything left but a nub but i found it interesting and heartwarming that he took the time to put it back together. in line with the theme of “its the thought that counts”, he thought about it, and that was enough to dissolve any anger for me. I watered the nub for months, subscribing to the “just in case policy”. Maybe it would sprout leaves and still live. When the weather became warm and no leaves emerged the small gray nub looked pretty sad. I decided to stop walking all the way to the end of the path where the pecan was located. There was no reason to go there any longer as the thing was clearly dead and most of the tiny branches on the nub appeared stiff and brittle instead of pliable. I gave up. It was too painful to look for signs of life each time and become constantly disappointed upon arriving and seeing nothing each day. I did not water the pecan tree for at least 4 months. As i said before, it rained a fraction of an inch each week so it was possible that nature sustained the thing in my absence. When i saw the plum tree come back i got to thinking about the pecan tree nub. I hurried over to the end of the path where i knew the tree nub to be. As i turned the corner and looked in the direction of its deer cage, a pop of jungle green greeted my eyes. It was alive and it had all sorts of long green leaves sticking out of it! I was so astonished! The pecan tree, snapped in half near the base, had come back as if nothing happened in the spring! What a resilient little thing! I immediately began watering it. Like the plum tree, it too would now have decades before it was mature enough to produce anything but it wasnt dead and that was something. As long as this thing had a will to live i would water it.
A month later the pecan tree had even more leaves and appeared to be growing strong. I didnt have money for replacement trees. I was pretty glad these two came back. i would do my best to keep them alive through the winters despite their new juvenile vulnerability.
