13 Trees Gardeners Planted, Then and Now: a Spruce Instead of a Wedding, a Beech With a Door

When I was nine, I planted an acorn in a yogurt cup at my grandmother’s, and she moved it to her backyard fence, where it wouldn’t argue with the tomatoes. Every October, along with the frost report, she tells me how much taller than her roof it has gotten. Tree planting is the slowest kind of gardening I know. These 13 trees started just as small, and somebody kept the photos.

Six years ago, Katherine and her partner planted a willow tree and sat in the grass under it for a photo. They have taken that photo every year since. In those years came an engagement, a wedding, two pregnancies and two children, and the willow kept growing along with them. Now she takes a photo of the kids under it every year too.

“While this tree digs deeper roots and grows more branches, we do as well.”

“I’ve been pruning a living door into this weeping beech for 20 years 2005 to 2026.”

Weeping beech, planted about 1980 on a property I’ve maintained on eastern Long Island. Left alone, a weeping beech turns into a solid mass of branches to the ground — no view in or out. The door started as an opening cut to reach a sitting area created under the canopy.

Later a gate went in at the end of the driveway to keep the deer out, so I carried the cut through to the other side and it became a tunnel to the street.

The area under the tree is really a nice spot — private and even in mid-summer it’s nice and cool.

Don’t be too jealous — the tree did the impressive part, I just kept the door open. Plant one and in twenty years somebody will be jealous of yours.

Two years ago, they planted 60 mango trees. At first the saplings looked like almost nothing, and the family carried water to them by hand. The trees lived through heat, heavy rain, strong winds and typhoons. Today some are taller than the people who planted them, and some are already bearing fruit.

“What feels insignificant today might feed you someday.”

“Our Wedding Tree”

When my husband and I got married in June 2020, we decided we did not want to have a wedding, a dress, or rings. Instead we decided to water a potted tree, wear our favorite band t-shirts, and to save the money for a house.

In September, we bought our house, planted the tree in our yard, and we “put down our roots” in Red Cloud, Nebraska! This photo was taken 3 days after we moved in. It’s a blue spruce (named Bruce!) and he is over 5 feet tall now!

Bruce, the blue spruce. (NOT to be confused with Jim, my husband.)

The amount of money we saved was nearly 1/3 of our home purchase. And the tree was so meaningful. I would recommend it to anyone who isn’t hung up on an expensive wedding.

We liked to plant a new tree each year, we have added a peach, and a pear tree in the front yard. There was a maple when we moved in. I love my husband, and our yard, and our home.

Give it time, and tenderness, and it will grow big and strong. (Like a marriage!)

Taken this morning, strong and proud!

In 2021, Koya’s son knelt in the red dirt and planted a little mango tree. In 2025, he walked back up the path to the same spot. The sapling is now a thick green tree taller than he is, and he pointed all the way up to the top.

“Watching both grow is pure joy!”

“Planted this dawn redwood 6 years ago today. Been doing my part to repopulate earth with these prehistoric beasts ever since.”

I have multiple growing on my property. Some standing alone in a field. Some in my pond. Some in a group. All grow and are happy

Impossible to overwater in my opinion and experience. I have some growing in water

1 tree, all the sun, all the nutrients, all the grow

A little compost every spring is all I feed it. I water it mid to late summer if I can. It will extend the growing season.

“Four years, then and now”

Watching our Bloodgood grow up has been an absolute joy

P.S. Adding a pergola and the associated midday shade has done wonders for this tree’s vibrancy.

P.P.s. Corgi is also still with us, don’t worry

Yep! It’s been such a benefit, too. This was one of the first trees I planted at our house. Luckily it’s been patient with me as I’ve learned, specifically re: soil health.

It’s always been pretty consistent. It’s fully leafed out by mid-April or so each year since it was transplanted, with very little lagging or recession. Biggest growth spurts occurred in years 2 and 3.

In the meantime, here’s a photo from the day I bought her at the nursery (April, 2021).

She’s my favorite.

“Four years later, I’ve seen my first cherimoya (custard apple)!”

Sometime during the pandemic, I harvested the seed from the fruit and planted it. Whenever I saw cherimoyas in the store or at the farmers market, they are $9.99/lbs. Therefore, I figured I’d try my hand at growing them in my Los Angeles backyard.

I now have about twenty trees. I’ve seen two fruit now.

Thanks! I really thought it would never happen. They grew so tall but had remained barren. Four years felt like an eternity

No, they self pollinated. I think I need to hand pollinate to see more fruit I guess. Will do that next time I fly home.

Cierra and her family planted this tree the year her son turned one. She held him on her hip next to a skinny sapling tied to stakes. Seven years later, the boy stands under a full, wide tree, and she realized she had been watching them both grow.

“We planted this tree when my son turned 1... and somehow I didn’t realize I was watching them both grow.”

When she was pregnant with her first child, she wanted a tree in the front yard to photograph her kids with every year. They picked a redbud for its heart-shaped leaves. Every new baby, the first and last days of school and the tree’s anniversary meant a photo. After eight years the tree dried, so they found a new redbud, this one with three stems, for their three children.

“New phase of life, new tree.”

Their first redbud lasted eight years, long enough to fill an album of first and last days of school. When it was gone, they found another one with three stems, one for each child. Most people who plant a tree never get to see what it turns into. These people kept the photos.