Trees: The good, The Bad and The Ugly

Trees:

I spent a lot of my childhood learning about trees. This knowledge has helped me when it comes to the landscape around our home.  Growing up we heated our home with a wood burning stove in the basement. Most Saturday mornings my father would wake me up before dawn so we could cut a load of wood. In the process my father taught me all about trees.

When most people look at trees they typically see the trunk, branches, and leaves.  People may enjoy a tree for its size, its beauty, its shade.   I often find peace in nature especially when I'm around trees and water.  I found this on the Power of Positivity site and it reminded me of how many great lessons we can learn from trees.

I took this photo below at Voyager Park a few years ago.  I sat on this bench for awhile to relieve some stress and suddenly felt a feeling of peace coming over me.  As I walked away I turned around and took a photo of the changing leaves with my cell phone.  It wasn't until I downloaded it onto my computer that I saw the ray of sunshine through the trees pointing right at the bench where I was sitting.  

Although I really do have an appreciation for trees and nature; after owning several homes, I now look at a tree and I think of the problems it may cause my home. The root system underground is at least as big, if not bigger, than what you see above ground.  I also think about the type of trees in a yard.  Do they lose their leaves? How much raking will they require? Do they lose anything else? Crab apples? Walnuts? Do the tree branches need trimming? Are there any dead branches that may fall down or do damage in a storm? Are there branches touching the house, wires or gutters? How old is the tree? Will it get bigger? These are the questions I now think about when buying a home or planting new trees.

The Historic District has a specific list of trees that they want to continue to flourish in the neighborhood. Although I plan to respect this list when we add new landscape, I am more concerned about which trees need to be cut down.  My priority is making our home last.  When we moved in, only a foot from our garage stood a giant black walnut tree.  The root system already damaged and busted the concrete in the garage.  Concrete has nothing on live tree roots. A tree will always win no matter how well your home is built. The walnut tree made great shade in our back yard, but also dropped golf ball sized walnuts.  These walnuts can cause damage to a roof and can even put dents in vehicles. Once the walnuts land they crack open.  If it rains before you can pick them up, they turn into a black stinky mess all over the yard.

Years ago black walnuts were soaked in water and used to make wood stain.  The walnuts themselves can be eaten and the wood from the tree trunk can be sold and made into high end furniture. The original owner of the land on this block (According to my neighbor Claire - Her father owned this land) planted a walnut tree in each lot. I'm sure he hoped to make money on them, but in my eyes these trees are nothing but problems. For me it was an easy decision-the tree had to come down.  We hired professional tree cutters to remove the tree piece by piece. We kept most of the wood for our fireplace, but sold the trunk to offset the cost to cut it down.  I don't feel too bad because Claire cut down the walnut tree in her yard too.

We also took down a crab apple tree in the front yard because the red crab apples landed on our sidewalk.  The movers unknowingly got them on their shoes and stained our carpet. The tree also prevented light from coming in through my favorite window. Despite its beautiful flowers in the Spring, it had to go. Finally, we trimmed the pine tree in our front yard so the branches weren't touching the gutters. We have been slowly making progress on our yard, but I plan to do more research before I plant anything new.  I apologize if our yard looks a bit bare at the moment. Hopefully, if I make the right decisions, I can make this home last and prevent issues for future home owners.

Thanks for reading about my thoughts on trees: the good, the bad, and the ugly. Do you have problematic trees in your yard? I would like to hear about them.  Also, please post a comment about your favorite types of trees so I can research them and see if they are on the Historic District list.