Last week the weather was rather hot and the ginkgo in the berm was looking a little droopy. I don't water there much and the tree had been in that spot for three years - it was one of the first things I planted when we moved into this house. I cut up a little circle of lawn and put in the ginkgo seedling I grew from seed I harvested from a tree in our previous neighborhood. The tree thrived and grew to a height of 8 ft over the few years.
I gave the tree a nice, deep watering and went on with my life. Last night I looked out the kitchen window to see the ginkgo tilting at an angle. When I pulled it out there were no roots and just a chewed lower trunk left.
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| gopher damage to ginkgo |
I wondered why the gophers left the tree for three years and I also wondered why hollyhocks still stood in the berm, when in years past those hollyhocks would have been long gone.
I am now accustomed to the loss of plants to gophers, and I do feel sad about the loss of this tree. It is somehow different to grow a nice tree than to buy a nice tree. I felt a certain pride in the tree. I was also excited at growing a seedling ginkgo, which creates diversity in the gene pool, unlike grafted male trees.
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| Ginkgo |
The tree will not go to waste, the leafy branches will become mulch for the persimmon tree in the back yard and the trunk will perhaps become a bean pole or a stake for something or other. Perhaps I could fashion it into a spear with the special power to pierce the earth and get a gopher every time.
