Trees must not like to grow in cotton fields

Six years ago, with the help from my father, I planted 15 evergreen trees across the western edge of my backyard.

The idea was to create a windbreak, as well as a little shade and privacy. In the neighborhoods of the Greater Armorel Metropolitan Area, where the houses have sprung out of the cotton fields, there isn't a lot of any of that. Some folks get the privacy via a fence, but unless you're short enough to climb under a cotton plant, there just isn't a whole lot of shade to go around.

The miracle about these trees is they've survived — that they're actually growing, providing the long-sought windbreak. And with my neighbors on either side both erecting privacy fences, I actually have something of an enclosed backyard.

Still, it's a wonder that the evergreens have lived. Because, frankly, nothing else has.

Either my wife and I are severely tree-challenged, or there's something wrong with our soil, because we just can't get trees to grow. We've tried on several occasions. We've planted at least three different oak trees. Most times, they'll last a season or two, then croak. We had one tree that would sprout leaves like normal in April, only to have them turn brown and fall off by late June. Two years ago, we planted a pair of willows. They both made it through the first year, but only one was still alive this spring. And the one that's alive looks green and healthy, but it's shown scant signs of growth. It looks like we stuck it in the ground yesterday.

It's all such a change from the street I grew up on. The street was called Maple Drive — an appropriate name, for the street was lined with tall maple trees that provided ample shade to the collection of old white houses throughout the warm months. Perhaps the biggest tree on the block was located in our side yard — its trunk must have been 10 feet across in diameter. There were two newer, smaller maples located in front of our house, near the street. One had the misfortune of having grown crooked at the trunk, something for which one neighbor blamed me. (The old busybody called my mom, tattling that I was "hanging" on the tree, making it lean over ... I was about 5 at the time and all of about 30 pounds.)

Actually, though, I always wanted more trees. I used to beg my dad to build me a treehouse, but he believed such things belonged in the backyard, and unfortunately, our backyard was pretty much a wide-open space. I had high hopes when my parents planted a tree back there when I was about 8; but alas, even when I left for college 10 years later, the tree was still not big enough to support a treehouse.

I guess my own kids are in the same lot when it comes to treehouses. Even if the evergreens continue their development, I doubt 8-year-old Katie or 6-year-old Drew are going to want to be climbing them anytime soon. And if they tried to climb our pitiful willow, well, we might have a case where a young person truly is to blame to a crooked trunk.

We might have to try our tree-luck again soon. These hot days of summer are a constant reminder of our need for shade. Maybe we just need to dig a bigger hole. Or maybe we need to water it more. Or maybe we just need to fertilize the heck out of it.

Or maybe we just need to accept that fact that when you live in a home built in a cotton field, it's just never going to easy to create a mini-forest in your yard.