This is not at all biking-related, although my bike trailer was almost involved, heh.
So, I think almost three years ago I found three seeds in a fuyu persimmon, which if you are familiar with persimmons you might know to be quite rare. Being the plant nerd that I am, I read about it, stuck them in a paper towel in the fridge to cold stratify them, and then three months later took them out to plant. Two of them were moldy and I didn’t have high hopes given that everything I’d read said it was incredibly difficult to raise persimmons from seed, but I planted them anyway. It never hurts, right? So I put them into three tiny pots that I put in our living room window where they’d get the best sun.
Two of the seeds germinated (!!!), and one actually thrived. When it was big enough, I moved it outside into a giant pot on our porch (I’m pretty sure although I can’t actually remember now that I initially built a mesh cage over it to make sure the rabidly hungry squirrels in our neighborhood didn’t gnaw it to death it in its tiny state). And over the last threeish years it has grown into a pretty robust little sapling — definitely too big for its pot at this point.
Sadly (well, actually, not sadly at all:), we already have a number of pretty legit trees, ranging from giant deodar cedar to my young-but-mighty blue elderberry, a fig tree we planted that we have to meticulously tend every year lest it take over the world, ironwood, Japanese maple, and on and on down to the many other tree-like things in our itty-bitty yard in which we also try to grow food that needs sunlight. There is really no space for another tree in our lot, even though I would love so very dearly to add a persimmon to our little urban forest.
Our neighbor, though, has a perfect spot in front of her house and also loves persimmons. So today was plant-a-persimmon-down-the-street day!
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(we had to move it by putting it on our lawn mower since it was too heavy to carry and we had nothing else with wheels that worked. My bike trailer was a great idea in theory but too small;) Picture by James:)
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Planting this tree in our neighbor’s yard took me a lot of emotional work. heh. I love this little persimmon tree so very dearly, and it was sooo hard to “give it up” and put it somewhere that isn’t our house. Especially because I feel very attached to it at this point and want to know that it’s getting good care. BUT, it’s right next door, and I am still going to care for it, and in that sense I feel like I’ve expanded my world into my neighbor’s yard too — or maybe rather, that our two worlds have become just a little bit more intertwined in service to our sweet neighborhood ecosystem.
The thing about it being at someone else’s house, of course, is that it is now largely out of my control. Our neighbor could decide she hates persimmons and wants to plant a new tree instead. She could move and a new neighbor could opt not to share the tree with me anymore or just not understand how special it is. She could accidentally nick it too many times with her weed whacker. She could do any number of things, all of which are not things that I have any say over even though they affect “my” tree. Heck, I mean who knows, there could be some crazy pathogen in her soil that kills the roots and despite all our best efforts the tree doesn’t survive transplant anyway. It seems silly, but it was really hard for me to accept this all (see aforementioned comment about being really attached to this tree;) BUT, it’s time to release it into the world, just like many things that I can’t control.
And y’all. I am so excited to have put this tree into the ground where hopefully it can thrive and grow:) This is just one of the ways that it feels like I can help tend my little part of the world — to create shade, to grow food, to provide habitat for our neighborhood birds. To create community by being co-invested with our neighbor in a shared tree. To be someone who can let things I care deeply about go forth into the world where I know not what awaits them.
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(yay sweet little persimmon tree!!! <3 and best neighbor:)