The story of my walnut tree

It all started when Eliza and I each got a walnut from my Grandma and Grandpa's walnut tree. I think we were about 5 and 6 years old. We each planted our walnut in the front yard and waited for them to come up. Eliza's never grew, but my walnut started to shoot up out of the ground. We put a stake up by it so that it would not be mistaken for a weed and Dad carefully mowed around it.

One day, our neighbor offered to mow our lawn, and you guessed it, the walnut tree and stake were gone. Well, later it came up again! We staked it again and watched it grow. It grew to be about a foot tall when a deer came and ate it right down to the ground one night. We thought it would never come back after being completely mowed and chomped down twice, but it did! This time we put a wire fence around it and it grew and grew until it was about 2 feet tall. Then Dad decided that it was not in the best place for a tree, so we dug it up and transplanted it into a different part of the yard. When it started growing again, it looked like the most interesting plant ever! It had no middle branches, it only had five coming out of the sides. It resembles an upside down umbrella. I thought it would make a great tree fort tree some day, if only the main trunk grew to be over 3 feet tall (which it never has). Now the branches are almost as high as the other trees and it is starting to resemble a normal tree, but I was beginning to think that it forgot that it was a walnut tree. Usually the walnuts start to come about 10 years after you plant it, but no luck with my tree. Finally, this fall my Dad found this...

A walnut! In a few years I am sure we will have an abundance of walnuts and the squirrels will have a great time planting them everywhere. So if anyone would like a walnut tree in a few years, they are very hardy trees!!!

~Katelyn