We Are Losing Trees Today

[Winchester]

We are losing six of our trees today. At first, we thought we'd only lose two; that was before the tree guy was here and showed us what the wind from the other Friday actually did. Four huge Colorado blue spruce trees, one mountain ash, and one maple. Between the saturated ground and the 50 mph wind gusts we had that day, well, they need to be taken down. One of the spruce trees split in the wind that day and landed in our vegetable garden. Another is pretty much hanging in the tree next to it.

We planted those blue spruce trees 33 years ago, when they were about six inches tall. They are huge.

The mountain ash was a great shade provider at our picnic table in the back yard; it was a 2-foot "twig" when we planted it. I would put white lights in the branches to sparkle when we were having picnics and it was so pretty at night. The emerald ash borer is now throughout PA and is doing major damage, so we can't replace it with another ash tree.

And that particular maple tree was given to us by my parents' neighbors when we moved here; he took it from his own back yard. It was about two feet when first planted. The tree guy was telling us about some kind of blight that's affecting maple trees. We have several maples in the yard, so it may not be pretty.

I know, they're only trees, but it's also memories and I'm sick about it. They don't grow that tall overnight, that's for sure, and, even if we were to replant them, I doubt we'd live long enough to see them grow that tall again. It's sad. Trees make the yard a yard!

There is a kind of elm tree that is resistant to Dutch elm disease. Rick is looking into maybe getting a couple of them.

 

[jcat]

That's a real shame, and it's going to look very bare without them.

 

[sivyaleah]

So sorry for you. Mature trees add to much value to a home.

Our neighborhood has lost so many huge old trees in past years due to weather. First, after Sandy where dozens fell (including many across the street from our home that made the view quite nice) to the recent 2 or 3 bad nor'easters that made the ground too saturated for their roots to hold onto and the high winds too. One of the reasons we chose this home was how densely wooded it appeared for a suburban town.

So, I feel for you. It's a lot to lose at one time

 

[di and bob]

I'm so sorry, to have big trees is a blessing and to lose them is heartbreaking. They take so long to grow, and to buy big ones is so costly.....I have planted two of those Elms now and are pleased with how they are doing. 4-5 foot growth in their first year! Drawback, they have those famous seeds that get everywhere, but only in the spring. Another fast one we like is the cottonless Cottonwood, very rapid grower, I love to hear the wind through their leaves. The only drawback, sticky seed pods, but only for a little while. We have three ten year olds that are well over 50 foot high. Good luck and post us with what you decide on!
PS trees are covered under your homeowner's insurance, you would be surprised on what they are worth. Big ones like that, several thousand dollars. we got 1200.00 for a 4 year old Ash that a drunk driver ran over, it saved our house from being hit!

 

[foxxycat]

I am sad to hear you will be loosing your trees. It is amazing how many memories our yards/trees hold for us isn't it? I have a pine tree that needs to come down-it's getting taller than my house and it started out as a small 4 foot sapling and now it's 20 feet or so-this summer going to cut it down with the chain saw before it falls on our shed. It's sad to see it go but I can always plant another pine tree there-it's just getting too big and bushy. But I rather take down a tree than to have it crunch my home or shed=so they have to go despite my sadness in seeing changes to my yard. I am so sorry you are loosing your spruce trees and others-they gave you many years of joy! Sending you hugs!

 

[micknsnicks2mom]

i'm so sorry to hear that you're losing those trees!

i only have one still very small red maple on my (small bit of) property. since my lot is small and i have a septic tank and leech lines, i've always thought that having a (cedar) pergola put in in the back yard would work out very nicely -- down past where the leech lines are. i'm mentioning this because a pergola might be something for you to consider. and adding a pergola can increase the value of a property.

 

[MoochNNoodles]

I'm sorry. I've been sick over losing trees here so I understand! They are not quickly replaced and they add so much to a property.

We fell in love with our property partly because it had so many mature trees. The ones we've added have grown a lot too. I've been taking pictures of DD by the red bud trees we planted when they are in bloom. They were 12" tall when I got them for free for attending a home trade show. They are taller than DD now.

The last pine that shades my garden may go later this year. Its technically on the neighbors side but its closer to our house than hers. But the tree guy who was recently here for another says its top heavy so its risky. It dropped small branches all over our yard in a storm recently. The one next to it came down in a storm a few years ago. That whole side of the property used to be pine trees. And the neighbor is facing selling her land after having it cleared. So the tree probably needs to go too.

 

[Kreatorcat]

Man,that suuuucks! Sorry to read that. Huge tree fanboy here,so I know what you must be feeling.

Whenever we had to have trees taken down,dad would slice out a couple of round cross sections. We used them as stepping stones,and would use a router to carve stuff into them like our family name and such. Then he would use a maul to split the wood for the fire place. My dad was a badass with wood. He could read the rings,and show us where the hard rains had effected the tree. Then show us what rings signaled the beginning of the trees end. He could always tell when the tree would have flamed or quilted figuring in the wood. He even let a large log sit on the ground in the back yard for a long time before cutting it up to show us how spalted wood happens(I love spalted wood,and have a guitar with a spalted top).

The cycle of life. Imagine what your trees could have said it they could speak. Betcha they would tell you how happy they were living with you. Find peace in that.

 

[DreamerRose]

It's sad to lose so many trees. Our city mainly planted ash trees when it was being developed, and it's been decimated by the emerald ash borer. I lost two of my parking strip trees several years ago. Their shade added so much grace to the yard. I replaced them with a ginkgo and one of those hybrid elms. The ginkgo is very slow growing, but the elm is growing very fast - about 5 feet a year. It's a beautiful tree, too.

I also have a huge ash in the backyard, and I've had the tree service treat it for the borers. So far, it's doing very well. It used to lose a lot of dead branches, which were probably due to the borers, but I didn't know. It's stopped shedding the branches now that it's being treated.

 

[PushPurrCatPaws]

Man,that suuuucks! Sorry to read that. Huge tree fanboy here,so I know what you must be feeling.

Whenever we had to have trees taken down,dad would slice out a couple of round cross sections. We used them as stepping stones,and would use a router to carve stuff into them like our family name and such. Then he would use a maul to split the wood for the fire place. My dad was a badass with wood. He could read the rings,and show us where the hard rains had effected the tree. Then show us what rings signaled the beginning of the trees end. He could always tell when the tree would have flamed or quilted figuring in the wood. He even let a large log sit on the ground in the back yard for a long time before cutting it up to show us how spalted wood happens(I love spalted wood,and have a guitar with a spalted top).

The cycle of life. Imagine what your trees could have said it they could speak. Betcha they would tell you how happy they were living with you. Find peace in that.

Actually, Winchester , this ^ leads me to an idea: maybe if you know, or can find, a good woodworker in your area, you could save much of the wood from the trees which need cut down today. Then you could have a woodworker make a set of live-edge wood shelves for you, or some wood keepsake or memory boxes... or any number of things! Cutting boards for your kitchen? I'm sure that wood is very valued by woodworkers/ artisans -- you could even donate some of the wood to the local woodworkers.

 

[blueyedgirl5946]

Winchester I know how you feel. It is a great loss. I am living on family property passed down over a hundred years, where I grew up. There were three huge trees, two oaks and a pecan. There is now one oak left. I am going to miss my pecan tree when the weather gets hot and my screen porch is not shaded. It is expensive to have to cut trees and clean them up. Our insurance only paid a little bit on it and the rest we just had to fork out.
I am so sorry. The wind can wreak havoc on property. That is for sure.

 

[Winchester]

Thank you for your kind words, everybody. They ended up taking 7 trees. One that we really hoped we could save is now gone, too. It's a big change to look out our back windows and see those gaps. Our insurance will pay very little to help with the bill, but we'll get something anyway.

They did save some of the wood for us. I asked Rick about your idea PushPurrCatPaws , but he didn't want to go there because, at this point, we simply don't have the money for woodworking right now. I asked him about sawing them into stepping-stone size pieces and he said he could try it....I'd like to put them in the flowerbeds. Some of the wood will be used in our back-yard camp fires this summer.

micknsnicks2mom I've been wanting a pergola out back for a while now. We keep talking about it, but that seems to be as far as we get.

But man, those gaps are large. We're going to have to fill them in and we'll check out the new elm trees.

 

[vyger]

This is a project I did a few years ago that you might find interesting. None of the wood came from a store but rather was stuff that I cut or was given to me by a friend that cut it.

Making Dementia Puzzles for My Dad

And another fun punny one.

Sorry for Your ASH Getting Chewed

By the way, when you look through these you can see the pictures bigger, just click on them and picture panel opens. Also a lot of the pictures have notes, text, embedded in them. They pop open when you move the mouse across them when they are opened in the bigger format.

I do have another one with a lot of videos of driving around next to the river getting wood but the videos arn't that great and a lot of people find it dull. If your interested let me know.

 

[Winchester]

vyger I love the Ash Getting Chewed one! When our mountain ash was younger and growing madly, we always said "That tree is making a real ash out of itself!" I dearly loved that tree for some reason. It gave us wonderful shade at the picnic table and we miss it already.

Your father was very handsome and your mom was just beautiful. It's really difficult dealing with somebody who has dementia. (We have a friend who has dementia and, when we visit, I always remember how he was, he was one of the hardest-working men I've ever known in my life and he was always trying something new and different.) I loved your puzzles. You do beautiful work.

 

[doomsdave]

Winchester , you might want to consider a Tulip Poplar, or Tulip Tree (botanical, Liriodendron). The foliage is neat, the blossoms are pretty, and it gets large quite fast. It will drop a lot of leaves in the fall, but if you had (and miss) an ash, that shouldn't be a problem.

I'm originally from Ohio, and they were all over the place there, though they will need room.

 

[Winchester]

Oh wow, doomsdave That's such a pretty tree. I love the flowers. We'll look into it. Thank you. Fallen leaves don't bother us; we figure it's all part of the fall season. Go out and rake the leaves and throw them on the compost pile. The big thing is that it has to be cold-hardy as it can get really cold here, much like Ohio. Thanks.

Here's one that we were looking at: Royal Empress, the cold-hardy version of the Golden Empress. It's a fast-grower, about 5-8 feet in a year.

We'll probably plant three trees this summer.

 

[Kat0121]

We are losing six of our trees today. At first, we thought we'd only lose two; that was before the tree guy was here and showed us what the wind from the other Friday actually did. Four huge Colorado blue spruce trees, one mountain ash, and one maple. Between the saturated ground and the 50 mph wind gusts we had that day, well, they need to be taken down. One of the spruce trees split in the wind that day and landed in our vegetable garden. Another is pretty much hanging in the tree next to it.

We planted those blue spruce trees 33 years ago, when they were about six inches tall. They are huge.

The mountain ash was a great shade provider at our picnic table in the back yard; it was a 2-foot "twig" when we planted it. I would put white lights in the branches to sparkle when we were having picnics and it was so pretty at night. The emerald ash borer is now throughout PA and is doing major damage, so we can't replace it with another ash tree.

And that particular maple tree was given to us by my parents' neighbors when we moved here; he took it from his own back yard. It was about two feet when first planted. The tree guy was telling us about some kind of blight that's affecting maple trees. We have several maples in the yard, so it may not be pretty.

I know, they're only trees, but it's also memories and I'm sick about it. They don't grow that tall overnight, that's for sure, and, even if we were to replant them, I doubt we'd live long enough to see them grow that tall again. It's sad. Trees make the yard a yard!

There is a kind of elm tree that is resistant to Dutch elm disease. Rick is looking into maybe getting a couple of them.

I'm so sorry. DH and I planted 2 Colorado blue spruce trees when we still lived in Colorado. If we had stayed there, I was going to decorate them as living Christmas trees once they got bigger. Those trees are beautiful. I looked at a picture of the house on Google maps not long ago and they are still there and have gotten so big in the last 15 years. They aren't just trees. They really do make a yard.

 

[doomsdave]

Winchester , it's bad news to lose that many trees, but you have a chance to try something new. There are many wonderful trees that could be planted more.

Decades ago, I worked in a plant nursery, and helped people select trees. It was rare that someone would have an opportunity that you have, though I know you didn't plan on it. And, you're not worried about a bit of leaf litter.

One of my favorites was the Sour Gum Tree, Nyssa sylvatica - Wikipedia . The pictures in the link don't fully do justice to the sheer glory of the autumn foliage. I remember visiting an arboretum when I was a kid, and they looked like giant, pink-and-red magic lamps, glowing pink from within. And, the birds love the seeds.

I'll be curious to know how the Empresses do. We have them out here in California, too. Many people use them as fast trees for quick canopy, until slower trees catch up.

As long as you have plenty of space, maybe treat your self to a dogwood Cornus or two?

 

[betsygee]

Winchester Just seeing this thread. So sad about losing all of those trees at once! We've lost probably 10 of our huge Monterey pines over the past few years. Our next door neighbor just had to have two cut down on their property, too. They've been stressed from the drought and either die or are in serious danger of falling on a house. What I miss are the critters--we used to have a lot of scrub jays, woodpeckers, and squirrels around our property but we don't see them much now with the habitat going. The woodpeckers especially preferred the pines to oaks.

 

[Winchester]

I do have a bit of good news (I guess you could call it good news). The insurance guy talked to Rick. We have a $250 deductible on our insurance policy. They're going to waive the deductible and give us a check for $500. We paid $800 to have the trees removed, so that covered over half of the cost.

We're putting the money in the bank to use for the new trees this summer. We've been doing quite a bit of research on trees in our area. On one hand, it is good to plant trees in your yard that you know will do well in your area. OTOH, it's nice to plant something a little different, too. We're trying to look at trees that are a bit drought-resistant (once they're established) because we've been dealing with drought around here for the last few years. We've always liked to have lots of trees on our property, even though they can be a pain to mow around sometimes.

We really don't care about leaf litter or flower litter; it's just part of having trees. We clean up after the trees are done shedding in the fall and use the leaves as mulch and compost. Except for the black walnut tree, which is kind of poisonous to other trees close by. Black walnuts release a substance called juglone, that will inhibit growth of trees planted close to them. They do not play well with others.

We have a dogwood in the front yard, surrounded by burning bushes, and it's really pretty when it blooms. I've always wanted a weeping willow, but boy, they can play havoc with septic systems. We don't have a lot of space, a little under 1-1/2 acres.

Earlier this week, we had a terrible wind storm again and the ground is still pretty soaked. We kept looking out the back windows at the remaining blue spruce trees. Now we're paranoid.