Some trees can grow anywhere

[Bill]

This little pine is growing out of an outcropping, no soil what so ever. I guess I wonder where it gets it's nutrients?

 

[restorer]

You need to come to our Southwest Desert and check out some Joshua and Bristlecone Pines. Not only do you wonder, how do they grow from solid rock, but why? Almost as amazing as that Ice plant growing on road bed in California. Mother nature is marvelous.

 

[keyman512us]

It is amazing where they will grow....and how they will grow. "My Favorites" are the ones (pines usually) that grow from the sides of "rock cuts", either highway or railroad ones. Even though they seem to perch themselves in the most precarious places...they often times thrive. There is a 'rail trail' a couple of towns over that has a "nice cut" done back in the 1800's that is so "serene" with nature that enthusiasts have collectively improved the access to it. They have turned it into a beautifull trail for all to enjoy...it's sometimes hard to remember the work that originally went into "making that path" when you see how "mother nature has taken over".

For years the roadbed was lost in time...I guess in this day and age, people eventually realize they "need some scenerey" or should I say "Greenery"...

 

[titan]

I pulled a 3 ft. tall alder out of a roof drain today;no soil to be found only rainwater......those things are tuffer than bullets.

 

[ChrisN]

I pulled a 3 ft. tall alder out of a roof drain today;no soil to be found only rainwater......those things are tuffer than bullets.

Man! you should think about cleaning your roof gutters / drains a little more often!

 

[titan]

Actually, the drain was on the roof of a Canada Post office;and it was the only thing moving fast in that place!

 

[BrotherBart]

I leave the gutters alone for a few weeks in the spring. The little Poplars start growing and when they are a foot of so high I go up and pluck them out. The root system on them brings everything else out clean with it.

Less time on the edge of that two story roof with the downhill sloping yard into the woods.

 

[fespo]

Look what I found with the last load of wood tha was droped off. I saved this little guy

 

[builderbob]

Here in western Oregon this year it seems like all the pines, whatever kind, had growth spurts. We have three in our yard, and one of them must have put on close to three feet this season. Making it now about twelve feet tall. That one is a Ponderosa.

Another one, an Austrian Pine, put on about 1-1/2 feet making it about nine feet tall.

We did have a cooler sping and early summer this year with strategically spaced rains even into early summer. Maybe that did the trick.

BTB

 

[elkimmeg]

I leave the gutters alone for a few weeks in the spring. The little Poplars start growing and when they are a foot of so high I go up and pluck them out. The root system on them brings everything else out clean with it.

Less time on the edge of that two story roof with the downhill sloping yard into the woods.

BB be carefull there I hope you use a safety rope for that ladder.. I spent a long time freezing on a roof before someone came by to put the ladder back up

I went up to do the chimney flashing tie I was almost done when I looked down and no ladder the wind blew it down. this also was the time of no cell phones.

I learned a valuable lesson that day to tie the ladder off

 

[Bill]

I plant about 30-60 pine trees a year, the small 12" ones. I have had a lot of problems with the deer eating them and the dry spring killing them. They don't grow to fast the first few years and then all of a sudden they shoot up a foot in one year. I remember as a kid in Boy Scouts we used to go to a pine forest and trim the lower branches and plant these seedlings. I remember the quiet sound in the woods, the smell of pine in the air, the silent walk on the thick bed of needles, and when you looked up all you saw was green. The best thing about pine trees is they are green in winter.