(Aaaaaaand I just realized I somehow don't have any pictures of the house with the tree in front of it. Really Erin? A whole year in this house and no pictures from that angle? Really? Fail. Luckily I am an excellent internet stalker, even to stalk myself, so here is the Google streetview of our house, obviously taken before the tree came down:)
And here is the house during the work:
Anyway it was quite the project. A work crew showed up at 7:30am on Wednesday and worked until dinnertime. The kids were fascinated (and a little bit terrified.)
It was loud. And grindy. And involved multiple trucks. And saws.
Ask me how I felt about all the noise.
But the good news is... we no longer cringe with every gust of wind, that a tree is about to crash into our house or our cars or our guest house or our neighbors' house. And our backyard has enough clear space to finally put a swingset in. And the pool now has a lot more afternoon sun. (Just in time for fall! Woo hoo?)
And, thanks (?) to Mark asking them to leave us our ground-up chipped up trees, we now have... mulch. Mulch for days. For years. (We will never use all this mulch.) (Read: someone please come take this mulch.)
(Also: what's the over/under on how many weekends til Mark and Nick are over dealing with spreading all this around, one wheelbarrow at a time? Now taking bets. Winner gets to climb to the top of the mulch mountain and stake their family flag. Yknow, to class it up.)
The work in the backyard we have been wanting and needing, but y'all -- losing that beautiful tree in the front yard was painful. Painful. So because we kind of hate our new bare space, someone help us figure out to plant to replace our tree. Something that grows not-too-slowly, will be big enough to de-naked our front yard but won't get so big it's scary, and has pretty colors in the fall. No oak (too slow, too big), no boxelder (I have bug issues), no bradford pear (too stinky). Some kind of maple? Plant nerds, help us!
And I hope this is the last tree-drama blog post I ever write.
3 comments:
My plant knowledge can fit on a seed (see what I did there? :) so I have no clue if these even look pretty in the fall (probably not) but crepe myrtles are my faves. And easy and small.
The only person I know who has some plant knowledge is Katie Huffman... I am officially referring you to her. =)
Emily may be on to something with the crepe myrtles. I know they grow faster than oaks, and they do best with lots of sun and it looks like they would get plenty in your wide-open front yard (plus really pretty flowers in the summer).
Your bradford pear aversion made me laugh. I never knew anything about bradford pears until Furman... Now when I smell that smell and can name that tree, I feel quite knowledgeable. Oh, the things that Furman taught me! =)
Be careful with maples that close to your driveway. If it must be a maple, Japanese maples are GORGEOUS in the fall, don't become huge, and grow quickly. (oxford comma forever!) However, they have roots from Hell that spread out everywhere secretly. You don't know they're there until your driveway buckles. I third the crepe myrtles- my parents just uprooted their maples and planted some CMs. This is my mom, whose dad was Plant God. She vouches for CMs and awesomeness.
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