On McDaniel's campus, by the parking lots and beside the chapel looms a little tree. I cannot recall it's particular species, but it's trunk's diameter cannot be more than the span of my hand. Some landscaper decided after this tree was planted that he or she did not appreciate the direction in which the tree had decided to grow. He's leaning back up the hill as if to reach up the slope instead of falling down it. In an effort to correct the tree's posture, a white PVC pipe has been plunged into the ground next to it, with a wire roping the little tree to it. It doesn't appear to be doing much good since the tree is strapped so far up the trunk.
I've seen this before, when I've walked to Walmart. In an effort to disguise the vast cementation of fields, the landscapers of the local super Walmart planted a host of evergreens along the side road to disguise the truck terminals and pull-ins behind the building. In an effort to keep the pines growing straight on the slope next to the road, the little pine saplings were staked. These same neglectful landscapers never removed the wire ties or the stakes so that the pines grew into their bindings and weakened at the middle, the pinnacles of the pines dying, sometimes actually falling off. Now there are a few still clinging to life, but most have been halved so that not only can one still see the ass-end of the super Walmart, but they've also got these halfling pine trees to enjoy.
This makes me wonder if all the troubles I face as a gardener are all for naught. I spent the weekend mulching, which entailed pulling weeds of many varieties - dandilion, chickweed, grass, clover, wild morning glory - and then edging the lawn where it meets what I've decided shall be a garden bed. I sprayed the weeds growing up through the gravel of the parking pad. I went so far as to sprinkle a weed deterent which will keep seeds from germinating and growing before I laid down mulch - consisting of ground trees which were once living and cut down by some other human being because they didn't like their placement or growth habit.
Am I taking on the qualities of a god in choosing what shall live and what shall die? Is this a decision I should be making, or should I let my backyard garden grow amuck? I've never seen a garden full of weeds and remarked, "That's beautiful!" but is that because I've been trained to see it as hideous? Am I really cultivating nature or destroying it as I rip out one thing and put something else more 'beautiful' in it's place?
I guess it comes back to that PVC pipe holding up the sapling. The robin sees no difference in a curved trunk or a straight one when she builds her nest. She's only concerned with the branches and any possible predators. My guess is that she does not alight on the limbs of this curved tree and chirp in disgust at its shape. Why not let the little tree lean inward toward campus instead of suffering its binding like I suffered through braces? Though I was happy for straight teeth, is this tree going to rejoice in being forced straight like all the other trees? I doubt it. I'm sure the campus squirrels will find it just as good to make a nest in as well.
If someone finds the tree untethered in the future... I left my wiresnips at home.
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