Tree rant

[valis2]

My poor sister and Husband have heard this rant quite a bit for months. They're both sick of it, so now you have to hear it. heh.

Our property is about an acre and a half. About half an acre is taken up with pondage and some of the opposite shore of the pond. Our house, like most houses here in MI that have swampy stuff near them, is set up on a hill that is level with the road, and then it slopes down in the back to the pond.

If I had to take a guess, I'd say that when Husband's grandmother and grandfather came into full possession of the property sixteen years ago, either all existing vegetation (including trees) was flattened by them or just before they took possession. There is only one set of trees on the property that existed before they started building. It's a stand of huge maple trees and a beechnut tree.

Their neighbor (on both sides) planted creepy pine tree barriers the entire length of both property lines. Yes, he owned both pieces of property. Long story. Anyway, the pine tree barricades are quite tall now. I actually like them because I am antisocial.

So the remaining trees were planted on the property by Husband's grandmother and grandfather. I believe, though, that it mostly came from the grandmother.

One thing I have is a deeprooted (pardon the pun) love of trees. Like, huge. I love trees so much and I absolutely adore them. To cut down a tree is a horror. I mean, if it's dead, it's understandable, but if it's not, it makes me horribly sad.

So now that I've lived here for a few months, I've gotten a little troubled over the tree placement on the property.

All of the trees are either placed a) too close to each other, or b) randomly, or c) both. There was no foresight whatsoever given to how big they would get and what would happen in the future. It's only been sixteen years, and I can already see that we are going to have to pay for major tree removal in the future. Now, that is the sort of thing you expect with naturally placed trees, but when you've placed them yourself--bwuh?!

An example. We have three low-growing, wide-branching trees (I can't remember what they're called, only that they're from the east coast) on the north side of the property. They're hella-cool climbing trees. Except all three are planted in a line, hellaclose to each other. AND too close to the pine tree wall, which had been planted just before they moved in. So now they are interfering with each other, and the pine trees. The middle tree will need to be removed, at the very least, which just makes me want to cry, because they're so beautiful.

There's a hawthorne tree in the backyard which is falling over and will most likely have to be removed.

There's a river birch which was planted so close to the pine trees (you can see it in my pond pics) that it, too, will at least have to be trimmed. It's starting to cause damage to the pine next to it. Also, it blocks the best view of the pond. If it had been planted on the left side instead it would be so much nicer.

Instead, on the left side there is a random assortment of flowering trees and a giant bush of doom. One tree is now dead, and another tree is cracked and dying. Both will have to be removed.

Up front we have a two locust trees and an apple tree. The apple tree is too sheltered by the other trees and needs more light.

There are three small maple trees planted near the road. There's a ditch next to the road, and they are right at the top of side of the ditch closest to the house, and they're too close to each other. Plus, they're not really that great as privacy trees. Their placement really makes me scratch my head.

So the electric company wants to string lines in front of our property, and we've signed the paperwork, and they're taking out those three maple trees. I would have had to have one of them removed, at the very least. So this makes me ecstatic, because now I can plant my own antisocial pine tree fence next spring. hooray!!

And that tells you everything you need to know about how annoyed I am by the tree placement: that I am actually excited about tree removal is pretty much unprecedented.

Comments

[kakiphony.livejournal.com]

Before you think about removing and/or replanting you should get someone from the extension service or the forest service out for a consultation. I think they do them for free. (They used to.) They helped my uncle plan his tree and orchard placement on a parcel that is very similar to yours (complete with pond).

[valis2.livejournal.com]

Oh, how awesome! That's a great idea. I'm so very interested in this, thanks for the comment!!

[oddmonster.livejournal.com]

Yup, I second that. If they won't do it for free, call up your handy dandy nearby university and ask for the tree-related department. Dollars to donuts there's someone out there (professor, grad student, flock of freshman undergrads taking that tree course for breadth credit) whose day would be made by tromping all over your property loving up your trees.

[valis2.livejournal.com]

dude, these trees need some lovin', bad. They're all higgly-piggly, but not in a structured smart way, or in a natural way. They're just...higgly-piggly.

[lady-branwyn.livejournal.com]

whose day would be made by tromping all over your property loving up your trees.
So true! My father is an arborist, and when I was a kid, he used to embarass me by trespassing in people's yards to look at their diseased trees.

[catyah.livejournal.com]

EEE! Fellow tree-lover, I should have guessed!

(I don't know if trees fall under a "gardening" header, but until I get an icon about trees, it'll have to do.)

We've got a big old beautiful maple in our backyard, which I love dearly. (I think you've seen it in some of the pictures I've posted.) Everytime the in-laws come down for a visit, though, we get the same old speech from the FIL, entitled "When are you going to cut down that tree?" He is of the strong opinion that it's cracked and is someday going to come crashing down on the house and/or garage and/or lean-to.

We've had several tree trimmers out over the years, and they've all said that it's just fine. I figure that any storm that takes down our tree will have taken out a lot of other trees, too, and what were you going to do, insist that *every* tree would have to be cut down? Feh.

I've learned just to smile and nod and say "Uh-huh" a lot when he gets on that topic and totally disregard it.

Anyway, keep us posted on the trees!

[valis2.livejournal.com]

I adore trees so much! I love the itty bitty copse of maples--they're so beautiful, and they're big, full-grown trees like what I grew up with. I love them so much.

The other trees? meh. Not so attached. I don't like their placement. I'm not a fan of ash/locusts, anyway. I adore OAKS. ohmygod, give me some oaks. But there aren't any on the property whatsoever--a crying shame, that.

And yes, I can imagine that conversation. *rolls eyes* Keep on with your bad maple self, girl!

[little-tristan.livejournal.com]

Boy, do I have a horror story for you. I used to work in a tissue culture lab where we cloned fruit tree root stock. One of our big deals was a cherry tree, the Gisela series. We mostly did the #6 line, but other labs did a big business in #5. The year after I started there, a lab in a nearby state was notified that they had a problem. They'd sold hundred of thousands of G6s to orchardists, who'd planted them according to specifications, only to find that they were getting too big, too fast. DNA tests proved them to be G5s, which are much bigger and need to planted farther apart. It took years for the trees to grow enough for this to become evident, and you can't thin an orchard like you can a yard, so hundreds of cherry orchards nationwide had to be cut down and replanted. The lab, of course, went out of business, its reputation destroyed, and many of the people involved had to change careers.

If you'd ever seen us in the lab, me and six women who didn't speak English, wrapping jars of clones in Saran wrap and writing G6 on top with Sharpies, you wouldn't take our word for it, either.

That said, you really do have a lovely place and I hope you get the trees sorted without too much loss of life. And the girls are right about the University extension services. They live for that kind of thing.:)

[valis2.livejournal.com]

Wow, that's absolutely amazing. What a crazy story! I am so intrigued. I can't even imagine what a nightmare that would be!

Here in MI we take cherry production very seriously, so I wonder if there were orchards here that were affected. Probably likely. *nodnod*

I am definitely wanting to get the trees sorted out. That would be wonderful!

[little-tristan.livejournal.com]

Oh yes, it was a nightmare. Everyone who bought cherries from that lab for, like, the previous ten years, had their trees tested. There were lawsuits and everything. I read about it in a trade journal, so it was a pretty big deal.

[greenpear.livejournal.com]

It would be great if you could move one or two of the trees. It takes so long to grow them to that size.

[valis2.livejournal.com]

Hmm. That is a thought. And yes, you're right--I would hate to have to just cut them down if there's an alternative. Especially a couple of them, because they're so pretty.