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My neighbors have a redwood tree in their backyard. It's about 4 stories tall and makes me glad that there are other houses in the way for it to fall on before hitting mine. Every once in a while, their tree gets amorous and I find redwood seedlings in odd places in my yard. Usually I just pull them out as the weeds they are, but there's one in the little strip next to the sidewalk that I've let grow.
In addition to the usual hazards of having a potential tallest-living-thing-on-earth in one's front yard, this seedling doomed itself by planting itself directly under the phone wires.
But you see, the tree and I have a deal. Most Christmases I'm on the road, visiting family, and often don't get a Christmas tree because ... well, because I'm usually way too busy to set one up in advance, and there doesn't seem to be as much point if I'm going to be the only one enjoying it. So when a year rolls around that I'm going to be spending Christmas at home, I've got a redwood sapling with about half a decade's growth on it.
For those not familiar with redwoods, one of the things they do is to continue springing up tenaciously from any roots or stumps left behind. This is why you sometimes get "rings" of redwoods (sort of like a ring of standing stones): a large old tree died for some reason, but a bunch of suckers came up from the edges of the old root system, circling around the space where the original tree stood. So after I cut my Christmas tree there's always something to keep growing. (That lighter blotch down near the bottom of the bricks is the cut stump.)
I kept meaning to shape the tree a bit over the years, but of course I never got around to it, so we've got a fairly scraggly thing, taking up way too much space. (But note the pruning shears in the foreground, sitting on the back of the couch.)
The choice is either to take a lot off the bottom (reducing the branch density) or a bit off the top. I ended up cutting about 3 feet off the top, which makes it look a trifle odd. I was tempted to set up the off-cut separately upstairs in line with where the tree stands, but it wasn't worth the effort for the joke.
I trimmed back the branches to last year's growth point, which not only reduces the diameter to a manageable level, but means that the tips of the branches are able to support the weight of ornaments. And here we are.
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