Rewilding My Lot

Texas Mountain Laurel (Sophora secundiflora) was the very first tree that I planted here in spring 2023. It’s already a slow-growing tree, but my long-time readers may recall that this one additionally had a difficult first year with half the tree showing signs of possible iron deficiency or root damage. Eventually it seemed to recover from that, and then this year’s repeated challenge has been invasions of Genista Broom Moth caterpillars, which I have picked off by hand.

After a year and a half in the ground here, my little Texas Mountain Laurel tree is finally showing significant growth (the lighter green in these photos). There is less growth on the half of the tree that was sickly, but there is some growth there nevertheless and the leaves have darkened up to match the other part of the tree.

I have started a tradition of measuring my trees and shrubs at the beginning of each year, so I have data!

• 1/1/2024: Height 26 inches, Width 38 inches
• 9/13/2024: Height 38 inches, Width 50 inches

This makes me happy. Here are some more photos.