In the spring our neighbor pointed out a giant dead spot at the top of the trunk of our maple in the back of our yard. We couldn't really see it from where we usually are, but it was obvious from his yard. Well shoot!
We also had a sweetgum tree with a lot of dead branches. Bummer #2.
In beautiful fortuitousness, I did a plant swap with a woman who ended up being an aborist. I asked her for recommendations on tree companies who would tell me honestly how the trees were doing (versus the dime-a-dozen companies whose entire job is basically to remove trees and it's in their financial interest to do so).
I had 2 companies come out and both agreed: the sweetgum, which had more dead branches by the day, needed to come down. The maple could probably be saved and helped, but it was a double trunk tree, one of which was leaning to the right (you know, over 2 of our neighbors' sheds 😳). So they could chop off the dead part at the top of the straight trunk, but were worried that it would mess with the balance of the tree because of the double trunks. The solution would involve hundreds of dollars in trimming, shoring up the diagonal trunk, and fertilizing. And there's of course no guarantee that would actually save the tree.
We're just not in the position to be able to pay for that now and end up having to pay to remove it anyway in one or a few years.
Both would have to come down.
I was crushed.
I loooooooooooove trees.
I get angry and sad when I see trees coming down, especially since most of the time people are removing trees because they're inconvenient and pay no attention to the horrendous damage they do to our way of life in taking away something so essential to clean air and the way the ecosystem functions!
But dying trees are a different story, especially ones that have in their path 3 sheds, 2 houses, 4-5 fences, not to mention chickens! Definitely a situation of needing to be responsible neighbors.
I wanted to wait until after a summer party where I strung lovely ribbon banners between them and enjoyed our beautiful, abundantly green yard! And let husband get his last few months with the perfect hammock trees.
Then there was a delay in a company getting back to me and we were traveling and suddenly it was October! And they needed to come down immediately if we were going to be able to plant new. Thankfully I contacted the other (of course more expensive) company and they had me scheduled in 2 days and were incredible to work with.
The day arrived.
7:15 in the morning I went out to mark the sections we wanted to save for woodworking projects, and as I was so close to the tree, was surprised at how big it is. You don't appreciate the diameter of these trunks until you're up close. Stab in my heart as I looked up at this giant. And tears came. Yes, I cried over a tree. It truly hurt to think of losing these gorgeous, probably 30+ year old trees and to imagine the bareness of that half of my yard when they were gone.
7:30 they arrived and the tragedy commenced.
Thankfully it was SO fascinating to watch. They are truly gifted in their work. My toddlers - even the constantly wriggling 1-year-old - were mesmerized. The 3-year-old and I spent 3 hours throughout the morning going from window to window and the deck watching the process. That really did help a lot what would otherwise have been unbearable to watch.
Yikes it would be truly awful without the remaining trees to slightly fill in the gaping hole. The cherry tree in the foreground looks dead, but that's just because it's the first to lose its leaves every year. Thankfully it's alive and well since husband started pruning dead sections off.
The yard is definitely naked. So bright and so bare in that corner. I'm worried that my shade garden will get too much sun now too!
I cannot stop being thankful for the remaining oak and my glorious black gum that I DO still have. And for the lovely trees in my neighbor's yard that still give some visual interest to that corner.
The trees ended up being way more rotted than we'd guessed too. That was very helpful confirmation that we absolutely did the right thing. And I got a yikes-ton of mulch out of it too!
Meanwhile - this wonderful arborist had mentioned a Maryland program where for just $25 you can get a native tree and plant it yourself. I was in!
Unfortunately I dropped the ball big time all summer on deciding what trees we wanted and travel in September took my mind away, so that I finally contacted her in early October sure it was too late. But because the trees were able to be removed so quickly and the folks in charge of the program said they think they could squeeze our order in AND most importantly because she had already been out to our yard and we did a "virtual visit" video call before she had to head out of town, she was able to put together the needed plat and talk through placement for the species I was interested in and WE'RE GETTING OUR TREES!!
They'll be 4-6' tall. A far, far cry and nowhere near a replacement for the 30-40' trees that had to come down, but it's at least the right move to help the need for more natives. It also helped ease some of the grief of losing the trees - getting excited about something new to watch grow over the years!
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