Beginner Gardening: Leaning Tower of Mesquite, 2 by omchodoy

omchodoy wrote:
I live in Tucson. I stink at gardening but I keep trying (unsuccessfully mostly). Last spring (2011) I planted a Chilean Mesquite tree in my back yard. An early picture is attached (the one with the 2 small stakes, in case they don't show in order). There've been a few problems. I'd read that you shouldn't prune a tree for the first 2 years; however, over the course of the first year this tree was growing solely outward and not upward, and the branches were bringing the tree down even after I'd switched to bigger, sturdier, better-placed stakes. So I had to prune it by cutting the branches nearest the ground and trim some of the outward-most branches (I did this at about 6 or 8 months of planting, I think). It did well and started to grow upwards a little bit. Winter hit, and it only had a short period of "no leaves", which is typical for mesquites in Tucson. The trunk fattened up quite a bit and it was sturdy so I removed one of the stakes, and a month later, I removed the second. I'd read that mesquites shouldn't be staked too long so that the trunk "learns" to be stronger. It did well, growing both outward and upward (more out but at least some up). I did notice a little leaning but not much; I also noticed the bottom of the tree seeming to "rise" out of the ground a bit. It withstood several windstorms without a hitch. Until yesterday. I got home from work after a consistently windy day (though nothing like the 50 mph winds we had a week or two ago) and found the leaning tower of mesquite with the bottom really sticking out. Question (finally!): What can I do with this tree? It has new growth; in fact even today I noticed new leaves! Can this be re-planted? If I try to re-stake it opposite the direction of the leaning the bottom really rise up, though still in the ground. I suspect I didn't dig the original hole deep enough or wide enough, as the "basin" I'd created for it did disappear pretty quickly. Is this tree salvageable?