Our Little Maple is Growing Up!

During our first year here (five years ago), we planted hundreds of trees (literally). Our house felt like the proverbial house in a field. Not exactly what we were used to, and certainly not the way we wanted to keep it. Most of the trees we planted were small spruces planted for a wind block, just little sticks, really. Some of those didn't make it due to unfortunate mishaps with my lawn mower (heh-hem). But there were quite a few four-foot tall shade trees, too.

My husband's favorites of these were the oaks. There were pin, white, and red oaks. My favorites were the maples. One of the Maple varieties we planted was called Autumn Blaze. Sounds great, doesn't it? But a couple of the others promised beautiful colors, too. I love dramatic fall colors!

When we finally finished planting them, we connected up all of the hose and watered, watered and watered! We even had a nice (no, incredibly nice) neighbor water some more when we went on vacation! But probably the hardest challenge we faced in getting our little babies established was in keeping the cicadas and deer from decimating their tender new growth. Wouldn't it just figure that the year we plant dozens of shade trees would be the year of the cicadas? Anyway, the pests took a heavy toll on the first year's growth. With many of the leaves missing or dead, it was hard to tell what, if anything, our new little trees would do in the fall.

But they have been growing steadily ever since. Some of our little four-footers have now reached a height of 20-25 feet!

I have my eye on this maple, especially. I can't believe how big it has gotten, and its colors are beginning to shine! Over the next few weeks, I'll be posting more pictures of our little "tree babies" (lol!), so hopefully, you'll get to see their show, too!