So dad really really loves the garden. After all, he and mom started it before I was born, and both of my parents are really glad I’ve picked it up again, now that they can’t do the sort of intensive labor that a vegetable garden needs.
Mom still helps out, G-d bless her, watering during heat waves when I’m at work for instance, checking on tender seedlings, and quite a few times I’ve come down to a very clean work table and a weeded garden just because she was bored and wanted to help me out. Mom’s the best.
Dad on the other hand is not as steady on his feet as he used to be, and after a few falls in the back, (he was ok- but it could have been much worse) dad doesn’t garden anymore. Trust me though- he wants to. I’ve definitely put in plants for him, he does get out and look around from time to time (with care) and he loves the blog so he can keep up- (Hi dad!) but he’s permanently off watering and weeding. (Which he probably doesn’t mind!) It’s my greatest joy to bring up produce for him, he’s a huge fan of the alpine strawberries and Bok Choy.
Now sometimes, since he knows I’ll put in plants for him, he likes to yank my chain. I tend to take things very literally, so it sometimes takes me a while to get that he’s kidding me about the orange tree he wants me to plant or the rare tropical fruit.
(Though I’m still looking for a banana that will fruit in San Francisco- stay tuned.)
But! A few weeks ago he made a joke about how I should grow a redwood. After patiently explaining to him that we didn’t have the room, and that I grow edibles not trees- It finally dawned on me that he was joking and my parents and I had a good laugh at my complete lack of joke-sense.
And then in Sausalito on one of my days off I found this:
I’M GONNA DO IT DAD, WHO’S LAUGHING NOW!
(All of us, all of us are laughing now.)
The idea is, we don’t own this redwood, we are fostering it. I’m going to grow it in increasingly bigger pots, and see how big I can get it. When it’s just big enough that any more growth means we can’t get it through the garage to the outside, I’ll find a permanent home for it.
Maybe Muir Woods could use a new redwood?
That’s a future problem.
The current problem is- how do I do it?
So after some research and a poll of my coworkers I determined that redwoods like acidic soil. Good thing I have some azalea mix left in the soil shed!
Ah, but redwoods also need superior drainage- so it’s also a good thing I have a lot of perlite left from potting the chayote.
The soil was mixed in one of my left-over gallon pots. Then I extracted the redwood plug from the weird plastic cylinder and cardboard surround. A mix of sure start in the hole and I potted it up!
Of course what redwood would be complete without shredded redwood mulch! Now, before you think that’s a tad cannibalistic, shredded redwood (gorilla hair) is usually taken from the outside of living redwood trees, and not from dead ones. So if you think about it, a naturally growing redwood seedling on the coast would be sprouting in soil covered in the fallen outer bark of its parents, so this is probably ideal.
I watered it well with a shot of tappin roots for extra oomph and now I’m just going to see what happens.
It’s weird that the best case scenario of this folly is a forest ranger taking my redwood away after 5 years to go live in a park, but I’m committed to this, and so is dad.
Dad and I should also be committed.
But I’ve known that for a while.
The Neanderthal Gardens 
This is so lovely!! Serendipity, a tree, family. Looking forward to seeing how the tree grows.
Sending good strong growing thoughts your way! FYI, my daughter grew a saguaro cactus from seed. Began when she was in college, and kept it going for 23 years..in Ohio and Wyoming, no less.
You’ve got this!
Oh no! You did WHAT?! Wow.
I remember those tiny redwoods in airports. They were purchased as souvenirs of California, and probably went off to climates where they could not survive.
The good news is that redwoods are remarkably conducive to bonsai culture, even if not actually done as a real bonsai. If their circling roots get pruned every few years, their canopies can easily be pruned for confinement. Well, you know. They are redwoods. They were grown as hedging shrubbery during the Victorian period. Yours seems to have been grown from tissue culture. If so, does it happen to be designated as a specific cultivar, such as ‘Soquel’? Seedlings are genetically variable, which, although not so great for refined landscapes, could be more interesting as a single tree.
its so dumb. At sloat we have proper redwood bonsai starts! but dad makes a dumb joke and i happen to be in Sausalito later that day and guess what they were selling at the bookstore… its total tourist food. But I am determined!
Well, it is not too terribly dumb. At least it is something that can stay potted for a long time. If it were a pine or eucalyptus or oak, you would not want to keep it confined for very long without working it into a bonsai.