Today’s a big day in my landscape and my garden.
We’re having a big, old tree taken out.
It’s a huge mulberry that was likely a “volunteer” long, long ago. (Because, really, no one chooses to plant a mulberry. They’re generally considered “trash trees” that birds deposit as little . . . gifts . . . in the landscape.) It grew along the fence, just inside our property line. In fact, it’s grown so huge that it has shifted the fence over the years with its girth.
Mulberries are not attractive trees, really. And – thankfully – this one is a male mulberry, thus non-fruiting. (I’m sure if it had fruited, the former owners of our house would’ve gotten rid of it. Because mulberries are messy when they fruit.)
You can see it in this photo. It’s the big tree on the far left, just inside the fence.
The neighbors (we’re on our third set) have always disliked the tree because, of course, we share the shade — and the leaves. And, for them, it hangs right over their pool and driveway. We’ve been good neighbors about it, having it professionally pruned regularly, and monitoring its health and stabilty.
Over the last few years, though, it has lost significant branches in storms. So it’s slowly been . . . losing itself. And becoming more of a nuisance.
In mid-May this year, we had a huge thunderstorm with damaging winds. The mulberry lost a few big branches in the storm. The biggest one crashed through my garden, taking out half of my beloved bottle brush buckeye and topping a small white pine. It also made a big mess, just generally. Unfortunately, a big branch also came down in the neighbor’s driveway. Tom and the neighbor did what they could to clear the damaged branches, but there was also a loose branch tied up in the canopy of the tree . . . so we all had to tread carefully.
It was time.
The tree clearly needed to go.
And today (finally) is the day.
(There are several . . . non-bloggable reasons . . . it has taken nearly 2 months for the tree removal to happen. We had neighbors moving out and neighbors moving in to the house next door, and we need to use their driveway to access the tree. And it all got very complicated. So. Here we are.)
Anyway. I hate getting rid of trees. Even “trouble trees” like this one. But I know it’s time. It still makes me sad, though. Not only losing a faithful tree, which is part of our threatened ecosystem (which truly pains me), but it will change an entire corner of my beloved garden. It will cause an immediate “hole” in our landscape view, for sure. And it will also change the very nature of that corner. The mulberry has stood as the anchor in my shady, woodland garden. With it gone, that corner will be open. And sunny.
It will be . . . very different.
I’ve been busy moving some of the plants that will be immediately damaged by the sun exposure (some big hostas, for example). And we have plans to plant new trees in that corner very soon. But it will take years for the new trees to grow big enough to preserve the shade and create that “woodland” feel.
So.
Change is afoot!
It’s time to work my adaptibility muscles again in the garden.
Like Tom says . . .this is an opportunity to try something new.
It’s always something in the garden, y’know?
Just like . . . life.
Onward!
I’m sorry you are losing a tree! I have lost several trees on my lot because they were damaged and at the end of their lives, huge oak trees that were very old and close to the house. Limbs had come down on the roof during storms, but we tried desperately to save them. The change was stunning. They were west facing trees, so now I have a lot of sun on the house/roof that heats me up in the summer. I am trying, like Tom, to be positive. I do get an additional amount of sun in the winter, but… Good luck enjoying the changes to that corner. I know you will make it yours.
Oh boy. I get ALL of that! We had major tree removal in my ca 1880s-era neighborhood a couple of years ago during sewer/street construction — some of my neighbors opted NOT to have trees replaced, which pains me to no end (not only because of the shade they’d eventually provide for MY house) — which completely changed/damaged the character. Some of those old trees HAD to go (just like your mulberry)… but it’s no less heartbreaking. Hang in there, Kym. It’ll take a while to settle & get used to it, but there’s no doubt in my mind that you’ll make that area something special.
(I can now clearly see my house, unobstructed, from two blocks away as I approach… and I think, “This is probably similar to how the neighborhood looked when it was brand new!” Somehow, that makes me feel a little better.)
I’m saying a sad goodbye to your mulberry. I’m not a big fan of them, mainly because we used to have one at the bottom of our yard and I often had purple bird poop on my laundry when it was fruiting. My neighbor hangs on to his old trees well past their time. One is a big maple that has lost limbs that took out the power to his house at least twice. In a storm a week ago, one limb came crashing down across our driveway, but he was out there chainsawing it into pieces in the rain and dark. Now the tree has only two large crown limbs left and it looks terrible. I fear it will have to be cut down, but it will leave a big hole. I hope you can come to see the change in a positive way.
You know you’re doing the right thing, but I’m sorry about your tree. We had to take out our old apricot tree last summer. It should have been done earlier — squirrels had nearly killed the tree, eating its bark. It was a good decision, but a sad day.
Even the right decision can be difficult to absorb and I’m sorry you are losing this tree and the special wooded corner it created. I do want to know the unbloggable part of the story, though! I hope all goes well with the removal and that trying something new feels like fun and not a burden. We had several trees taken down this spring, including a HUGE pine tree that I really hoped would fall on the garage one day. None of it impacted my garden, though, it just provided Dale with more lawn to mow.