music~maker

I've been playing around with bonsai trees for over 20 years. My bonsai time has broken down into three distinct phases so far:

Phase 1: The noob years - For the first 4-5 years or so, I mostly just killed other people's crappy trees, and learned the basics of re-potting and pruning. I have zero trees remaining from this time period.

Phase 2: The indoor years - I spent about five years trying to grow trees in an apartment & office building. I have exactly one tree left from this time period, a practically un-killable "too little" ficus. Lesson learned: trees are happier outside.

Phase 3: The outdoor years - After the 3rd reboot (about 12 years ago), I finally got some permanent outdoor space, decided to learn how one actually grows trees from scratch, and embarked on a decade-long series of experiments. Learning to develop trunks, nebari and major branches has been the primary focus, since the trees I had before were generally always past this phase or just not very good.

I've recently started shifting focus back to refining more developed material, and can easily imagine refinement becoming the focus of the next decade.