The first attempt to grow Ghouldrassil failed miserably.
I spent a large amount of time just planting trees all over this damn island I found. Trying to get a very big tree spawn in the middle of an island is a huge pain in the ass.
In the meantime I spent the off time running around the mainland, which was virtually barren of cave systems, so mining for materials became more difficult than necessary. Other than that, I was hollowing out the inside of the tree island, meaning to make a kind of 'grove' of sorts. The tree would be growing directly above the center of the cavern, and the man-made root system (combined with lots of water and flowers) would make a neat place to live. I would also possibly make the main base of the tree extend down into a kind of throne. This would all be done, of course, with stump blocks cut from other trees.
Anyway, here I am, loaded up with tons of pickaxes made from my dwindling supply of iron. I got down into my shaft to hear a huge amount of thumping. I crack open a fresh cavern, and out flies a sea of green and black, which pushes me back into the pool of lava behind me.
There goes my armor, wood supply, papyrus I found along the way, 4 iron picks, 4 iron shovels, 4 iron swords and 4 iron axes along with a fair amount of Redstone.
I scrapped the save.