I had a few palm trees that had been planted in small pots. Last couple years the trees stopped growing and eventually started to die. I presumed it was a natural process of birth and death. Then a friend came over, she is a landscape artist, she looked at my trees and immediately identified the problem. She said that my trees were being suffocated, their roots had no where to go, so they had no room to grow. In order to resuscitate my trees I had to get bigger pots.
Next day I went and ordered 10 big pots and we replanted the trees.
When we tried to take the trees out from the old pots I saw that the roots were so tightly packed that we could not take the trees out without breaking the pots. Sadly I had to break almost all the pots ( we managed to save 2).
The trees are now in bigger pots and they already look healthier and happier than before.
The day the replanting was taking place there was mud everywhere. Broken pot bits, earthworms squirming from under the pots, my dog went crazy in the commotion and then to top it all it started raining I had hired a few big men to help with the gardening who were being paid hourly wage. For a couple hours we all had to just stand around and do nothing but wait for the rain to stop. Eventually the rain stopped and we continued with the transformation.
Today after about 5 days the back yard looks lovely.
I learnt so many life lessons during the process :
- In order for something to grow to its full potential it needs to have a strong root system and lots of room to grow. The stronger the roots the higher the tree.
2. Sometime you need to break the pot to save the tree. The old adage — you need to be cruel to be kind holds true. Sometimes we need to shake things up pretty violently and cause hurt and pain to experience growth. Reinvention means breaking the old and cleaning up a lot of mess.
3. Tiny seeds may grow into big trees. When we see just the sapling or a seed we have no idea how big the tree can grow. If we are not careful or aware of its full potential we may have regrets in the future. A tiny thought planted in our mind can grow into a beautiful tree or start rotting and may damage the whole being. Be careful of what you plant in your inner and outer garden.
4. Things always don’t go according to plan. I had hoped to finish the job in a day but due to the rain we had to do it over two days. There was mud and grime everywhere and it took extra effort to clean up the mess. There will always be hurdles and deviations in your path, as long as you know where you want to go, you will get there.
5. Nature does not like haste. The trees will grow on their own pace. I did what I could and now I need to wait and watch and see if the trees will flourish. I did my best, now I hope for the best ..