It’s the time of year, as they say, when spring is in the air. Mower engines rattle off their winter slumber. The garden store feels like Macy’s at Christmastime. Gardeners plot their strategies. And spring acts like therapy for this office-bound professional. Seeding grass and spreading mulch enliven me, but ‘tis the grand oaks and aspiring saplings I love the most. Trees: The lions of the vegetative kingdom.
I can’t recollect when I discovered my inner-arborist. But, I quickly learned that planting a tree is not easy work, especially in Colorado’s clay soil. Some experts (or at least a few “old wives”) instruct us to stake our new trees into the ground, protecting them from strong winds and the dangerous world beyond the warm embrace of the nursery. But if you want a strong tree, you’re wise to ignore that advice, no matter the depth of your sympathies.
In her dissident research paper, The Myth of Staking, Dr. Linda Chalker-Scott took on powerbrokers and entrenched tree stake interest groups, saying:
Tree staking is done with the best of intentions but without regard to long-term tree health. Rather than helping a tree develop root and trunk growth that allow it to stand independently, improper tree staking replaces a supportive trunk and root system. This artificial support causes the tree to put its resources into growing taller but not growing wider. When the stakes are removed (if they ever are), the lack of trunk and root development makes these trees prime candidates for breakage or blow-down.
While Chalker-Scott allows staking in some instances—namely for exceptionally top-heavy trees—she never permits it for longer than one growing season. Wait longer, and any short-term benefits will be awash in long-term issues because of the stunted root system. Fine Gardener, the moral authority on all flora matters, goes even farther and warns that, “Staking a tree…can do more harm than good.”
When the wind howls and the rain falls, the young tree’s roots react and push deeper into the soil. The winds make it stronger. In contrast, staked trees do not fully mature, despite their stability. What saplings need more than protection is the opportunity to grow. To stand on their own roots. Provide your tree that chance along with healthy doses of sunshine and water and watch it thrive.
If our Creator embedded the anatomy and ability in trees to flourish, certainly He has created all people with the innate capacity to do the same. It prompts us to examine how we stake versus how we water. With our kids, friends, needy neighbors and the poor around the world: Are we staking or watering? The costs are too high to avoid the question. Let’s call a stake a stake and get into the business of helping people grow as their Creator designed.
Great post. I appreciate the deeply “rooted” metaphor. Trees from Rwanda to the Dominican Republic need the opportunity to grow and the freedom to flourish. Let’s help cultivate rainforests!
Good stuff and an interesting metaphor, Chris.
Thanks JD & Chancey.
Chris,
I am always looking for memorable, multi-faceted illustrations for when I teach and this certainly qualifies. Thank you for working this one out.
In my little niche of parenting, families, and youth I see times for staking and times for independence and growth. As a parent and teacher of students, I still waffle between when to stake and when to let them live and learn. Here are a couple of the topics that have cooked my waffling:
“Should I let my 13 year old read Hunger Games (or Harry Potter, Twilight, or watch Glee)? It seems like senseless, child-pawned violence and I do not want my thirteen year old thinking on such things.”
The whole concept of schooling – home schooling, private schooling, and public schooling. Some parents stake and some parents let loose. Both have potential dangers and potential for Christlikeness.
In my little realm, I feel like I have seen equal failures and equal successes in both staking and letting loose (even when the staking and letting loose are wisely done). I see the family reading Hunger Games together, discussing the good and bad, with wisdom and insight being gained about the world we live in. Yet I see students watching Glee with their parents (who have good intentions) with their kids still buying into the extremely noisy worldview presented. I see home schoolers thriving and home schoolers dying (in the same family). I see the same show with public schoolers. I see Christ-loving parents making different choices from different, biblical wisdom principles.
Here are some principles I have landed on when it comes to all of the above:
As a parent, there are times of staking and times of letting loose. Choosing between the two is a matter of prayer and seeking out biblical wisdom.
We cannot make the sun shine or the rain pour. It doesn’t matter if we stake or let loose, if those crucial elements aren’t present our trees die. Our Father, Jesus Christ, and the Holy Spirit and the abundant grace within, are the only means by which we thrive. This does not minimize my first point, it only enhances the depth and beauty of this one.
Thanks for giving me the opportunity to work something out that I have been thinking through lately. I appreciate you, Chris!
Appreciate the terrific thoughts, questions and applications, Matt. Thanks for taking the time to share.