The Oak beside Kasteel Hoekelum

There are two oaks here of the same age and they are worth seeing together, because between them they show what open ground does to a tree. This is the one standing beside the house. It grew up close to buildings, with structures and other planting on at least one side, so it has done what a hemmed tree does: gone up rather than out, kept a narrower crown, and lost its lower branches early. The other one, out in the meadow in front, had nothing near it at all and spread instead. Same species, same planting band of 1830 to 1840, almost certainly the same original scheme. Different shapes entirely, and the only variable is how much room each one had. That is a more useful thing to notice than it sounds, because it is how you read any old tree. A wide low crown with heavy horizontal limbs means the tree grew in the open, even if a wood has since grown up around it. A tall clean trunk means competition. Kasteel Hoekelum is on the Edeseweg between Ede and Bennekom, and the grounds are recorded as visitable in the national register.