MY ACROSS THE STREET NEIGHBOR PLANTS MY FAVORITE TREE

If you gave me my dream garden, it would include lots of land and one giant live oak.

We've taken vacations just to see places in the Old South with massive live oaks.

These are in a plantation along the Mississippi River.

The draped Spanish moss on the spreading arms of these forest giants are the quintessential symbol of the southern states.

Here in Houston we love our live oaks. We stand around them, rest under them and hang around in their branches. This one is near downtown.

A hundred years ago, Houstonians planted many of these giants along city streets so that they would provide shady avenues in the future.

One summer I volunteered with the Texas Forest Service to find the largest ones to make certain they were still alive and healthy. It was a treasure hunt that I thoroughly enjoyed.

This was one of the largest with a canopy span of over 115 feet! (over 35 meters!)

Another favorite was this one in River Oaks.

It had its own ecosystem.

 Texas is a big place, but live oaks grow over most of our area. Fort Worth, Dallas, San Antonio, Austin, New Braunfels, Corpus Christi and The Texas Hill Country all have splendid examples of the Southern Live Oak (Quercus virginiana) and its close cousin the Texas Live Oak (Quercus fusiformis). Here's my wife under a mott of live oaks in Brenham, Texas.

And so my neighbor has looked to the future and planted a live oak across the street.

Perhaps if I live long enough it will look like this one.

But for now it looks like this.

But I have a front row seat to watch it grow from here in my garden.

Thank you, neighbor!

I'll take a photo each summer so we can both watch it grow.

That's it for today.

Thanks, as always, for stopping by.

David/:0)