Good morning from the garden!
Over the past week I’ve been working hard on embracing change. I fully admit, I’ve never been a fan. Especially when the change is not by choice.
Ironically, just last week I wrote a blog post from the garden about having patience, and changes in the garden that take years to come to fruition. But sometimes the opposite happens and a very drastic change takes place in the garden overnight.
Recently my neighbor/handyman Ken decided to have the enormous shade tree in his back yard cut down.
Ken and his wife planted this tree as a small sapling when they moved into their house back in the late 70’s.
After nearly 50 years of growth, it was huge. Not only did it shade Ken’s entire backyard, it also shaded a good bit of our backyard and also our house.
But lately Ken had been worried about the the age of the tree. As I’ve mentioned so many times lately, we’ve had a lot of rain this summer and much of it has been accompanied by high winds. A tree had come down on a house a few blocks away from us and Ken became convinced that the same could happen with his tree.
He had a local ‘landscape & tree’ company come out, and they agreed with him that there was a possibility the tree could come down in a storm (um, isn’t that pretty much true of all trees?).
So he decided to have it taken down (although I practically begged him to reconsider). Since the pine tree that sits on the property line between our two houses was pretty lopsided after being overwhelmed by the giant tree and would surely look awful with that tree gone, he decided to have that one removed as well.
Last Monday the tree removal crew arrived with a giant crane. They set it up in Ken’s front yard, and then lifted just one guy and his chain saw up and over the house and into the tree canopy.
He attached ropes to each huge limb before he cut it, and then the crane lifted it up and away.
Little did I realize that they were actually going to swing those giant limbs over our house!
I have to say, it was a bit unnerving to see limbs the size of full trees dangling in the air above our roof.
They then lowered them onto the street.
That’s just one limb! There were probably about six or seven limbs that size that came off the tree.
There was a crew in the street that then cut them up and loaded them into a huge truck.
It was quite the production.
Once the dust cleared, I was horrified by the destruction. OK, horrified is a strong word. How about devasted? Or maybe heart-broken? Really, I was just simply sad.
Sad because that beautiful tree was no more.
It really didn’t help that it was a brilliantly sunny afternoon, and suddenly my once gloriously shaded backyard was blisteringly hot. In addition, all of the more unsightly details, like the utility poles and the far neighbor’s giant pole barn were much more noticeable.
Although that tree was nearly 50 years old, maples can live from 100 to 300 years. And as it turned out, it was perfectly healthy inside. I suspect that tree would have easily outlived not only Ken, but Mr. Q and me as well.
On the bright side (pardon the pun), I now have a section of garden that will qualify as ‘full sun’. I’m trying to see this as an opportunity to grow some of those flowering plants that have eluded me in my mostly shady garden. I plan to re-work that flower bed next spring by adding some sun-loving plants.
I also decided to put in a hydrangea hedge along the property line where the pine tree was. It will go from the end of my existing garden to meet up with the lilac hedge along the back. I purchased six Quick Fire Fab hydrangeas to fill it.
Aren’t they gorgeous? They have a similar growing habit to the Limelight hydrangeas that I love so much, but they bloom about a month earlier and the flowers start out white then turn a lovely blush pink, followed by a deeper pink by fall.
It will take several years before they get to their full height of 6′ to 8′ tall, but when they do get there I think they will be stunning. Let’s hope I have better luck with this hedge than I did with those lilacs!
Before planting, I prepared the bed by adding some cow manure and tilling it into the top 6″ or so of soil. OK, well, by “I” I really mean the super hardworking high school student that I hired to help me with the heavy lifting. We then added some Espoma Bio-tone Starter to each hole as we planted the hydrangeas (this product is supposed to help the plant develop a strong root system to get established more quickly). Once the shrubs were all in the ground, we mulched the bed with some black wood mulch. I don’t like to use wood mulch on perennial beds, but I do like to use it under shrubs. It reduces weeding, helps retain moisture, and that black color really makes the plants pop.
The sight of that row of gorgeous hydrangeas has cheered me up a little, but I have to admit that the loss of that shade tree has really thrown me. I know, it was just a tree. There are so many more important things in life. I’m trying hard to embrace the change, but I’m really going to miss that tree.
q is for quandie 
I understand your sadness over the tree. We had to have one taken down last year and it is a huge change. I keep telling myself it was for the best. Hang in there.
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It is a huge change! But I’ll get over it … eventually 😉
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It’s amazing how they take down those big trees…must’ve cost a pretty penny. It is a sad story though, that a healthy tree had to be taken down. On the bright side, your hydrangeas are gorgeous!
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It was crazy expensive! I asked Ken if I could share the cost, and he didn’t mind. So if anyone is curious, it cost just under $10,000 to remove the two trees. That did not include grinding the stumps! That would have been an extra $2,500. So the stumps remain.
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I am always saddened and devastated when a tree gets cut down, last summer alone more than 30 trees were cut down within a three block radius of our home. More homeowners just don’t want the trees and the raking, etc. My town doesn’t like what we call a gum tree because it drops little balls and again people don’t like it. With that comes more bats that are getting into homes, baby owls that are misplaced more wildlife trying to find homes even deer. For us we don’t have central air and our house is hot in the summer and if you do get outside the shade is minimum. And the sad part is that they are not replanting!
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Oh boy, that is a bummer Diane! We also don’t have central a/c, so I’m sure the loss of Ken’s tree is going to make our house much harder to keep cool in the summer. I guess I can look on the bright side, we only lost one tree, not 30!
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Linda, I am with you on the loss of your tree, but let me share a tale of an unanticipated tree down that could have been a tragedy. August 6, 5 tornados swept through northern Ohio causing untold destruction and power outages to 330k. Some has still not been restored. Three of my grandkids would have been in the living room playing on their tablets and doing summer reading but my daughter in law got last minute dentist appointments and they were not in the room when their giant backyard tree was suddenly in their living room. This tree was not healthy like yours, but the perfect storm takes what it wants. In 5 months they will be back in their reconstructed home with a completely blank landscape to recreate. And, the kids will be there helping to plan it. Only God can make a tree and a child. Your friend Ken is a wise and crafty man. Happy planning.
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Tornados are very scary things. I imagine there were many, many trees that came down in that storm. How lucky that your grandkids weren’t at home when it happened!
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For a woman who is so creative, you are mistreating yourself terribly by not allowing yourself to feel the disappointment and loss that chopping down that tree has brought about. The entire environment has been permanently altered. The bird population will diminish and plantings that have thrived in shade will die off from the full sun. You are witnessing on a smaller scale, the impact of the expansion of cities into the natural environment. In addition a tree that size acts as an acoustic barrier against noise, and can even be a barrier to car exhaust. What a shame to no longer enjoy the shade that tree provided. I live on Long Island, and over the last 50 years have witnessed the consequences of this kind of thinking. Neighborhoods that were visually inviting and beautiful are barren and sterile looking, because residents decided to remove trees from their property due to the increase in thunderstorms. It seems it may be time for you to plant a tree on your own property. In ten years time it will become your own beloved shade tree with plenty of memories. And you can have it periodically inspected and trimmed to ensure it’s health! (Yes, the hydrangeas are beautiful and a lively addition!)
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You are so right about the acoustic barrier!! That tree stood between us and a very busy road that’s just on the other side of the next neighbor over. We have definitely noticed how much louder the traffic noise is while sitting on our deck. That road is also the main route for the many emergency vehicles with loud sirens that go by each day. We are no strangers to tree loss, we’ve lost 4 different trees in our front yard over the years, and the canopies of those trees were right outside our bedroom windows. We definitely noticed the difference that made to the volume of sound carrying into our room at night. The last one came down in a storm in the middle of the night (you can see a photo of it in this post), just missing the house. I have to admit, I’ve been reluctant to replace that last one after losing so many from the same spot. It seems like the topography there creates a sort of wind tunnel during storms. As for the backyard, unfortunately we just don’t have a good spot for another tree in our yard (we do already have a pear tree back there, plus the potting shed, our backyard is rather small really). But maybe I need to get brave and try again in the front yard!
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They will be Beautifull and you will love them!! Where did you buy them from, I would like to buy too!
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The hydrangeas are from Abrahamson Nurseries. I found the first 3 at their Stillwater location, but they only had the three. They sent me up to the Scandia location which has rows upon rows of hydrangeas, and probably a dozen different varieties (I was really tempted by the Berry White variety too).
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The hydrangeas are beautiful. They will fill in nicely. When you get use to that tree being gone, and buy all of those beautiful sun loving plants you will enjoy them too. It just will take a bit of time😊
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Yep, time heals all wounds, right?
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I know how you feel!!! At our old house our neighbors cut down a tree that they couldn’t see, (but was a concern for them-branches laying on roof, etc) was technically on their property, but felt like it was on ours and was huge and beautiful and left such a terrible hole when it was gone. I called my mom crying when they cut it down and she thought someone had died bc I was so upset!!😬🤦🏼♀️ We planted a cherry blossom tree in its place and also built a pergola patio so it eventually improved but it took time. It’s crazy how a tree like that can have such a huge impact on our environment. But, I KNOW you will make it so beautiful again and in time, maybe even better! Those hydrangeas will be amazing!❤️
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Thanks so much Amy! I can tell that you know just how I feel. I’m going to baby those hydrangeas for a while and hopefully they will grow fast and become the glorious hedge I’ve always wanted 🙂
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I love trees too so I understand your sadness over losing a lovely tree that helped shade your yard! Trees take years to grow and it’s sad to see the giants come down.
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Yep, it is sad. At my age (60), you really do start to think about how long it would take a replacement tree to provide the same look (ie. too long!)
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Oh my gosh those photos are AMAZING! Thanks for sharing, I always wondered how they did that. Way to snap into action with the hydrangeas, they will make a lovely border.
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It was quite startling to see them lifting those giant limbs up and over my house!
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