Why, you ask, do I intend to remove such a useful tree? Well, the deck is several feet off the ground at that point, and the stair railing appears to be losing the battle.
And the tree is already about fifteen feet tall and less than fifteen feet from the house, and seems eager to get larger.
And it really doesn't have space to expand its roots.
The slight bulge in the retaining wall is not an artifact of the camera.
So my plan is to remove the top six feet or so and use it as a Christmas tree this year, and see if I can persuade it to be a shrub after I remove its growing tip, and if not, out it comes.
That's good thinking. We planted a blue spruce in my very small front yard when my younger son was born 22 years ago. It was so tiny at the time, I would catch sight of it through the kitchen window and think that someone left a half full trash bag on my lawn. Now it towers over the house and its roots are beginning to introduce themselves to my driveway. I can't bear to take it down.. it's my son's after all. ;)
ReplyDeleteExcellent idea! Seems a good warning to the tree to keep a lower profile, and saves cutting down some innocent pine somewhere else.
ReplyDeleteI sincerely hope it behaves once it's had a trim.
ReplyDeleteWhat kind of tree is it, anyway? I can't tell. It looks rather lacy.
Hilary, have you talked with an arborist? I've never used one, but I hear they can suggest ways of pruning a tree that will leave it still looking like a tree.
ReplyDeleteCrabby, next year I will go back to my old practice of poaching a tree from the side of the road. I have very conservative taste in trees--if I can't get a cedar, I won't have a tree, and NO ONE sells cedars.
This tree, BL, is not the kind of cedar I'm familiar with, but it's some kind of juniper relative. It "smells funny." It has a strong smell when you brush against it that is not like any tree I've ever known.
It's too bad the previous owners didn't keep it properly trimmed. Although, then you wouldn't have a tree for Christmas so handy.
ReplyDelete