An excellent interpretation Sparkle! Well done!
I could not help to notice that there was a big difference in attitude between Gideon and his cousin. He went through all the trouble to prepare himself to work hard in building and maintaining his relationship with people. On the other hand, his cousin was so irritated and greedy and all he has done was buying a few small seedlings. He was not even prepared to plant it himself. He brought it to Gideon but he did it with a wrong attitude and probably with a wrong motive. It was also not something that he gave, he just returned what he probably loaned before. To me it is clear that Gideon’s cousin was not prepared to do anything to maintain relationships.
The seedling probably represented the work that we have to do now to protect our relationships in the future (hedge).