We had a nice Christmas holiday. The kids came for a simple Christmas Eve dinner, and presents were opened at that time. I told them I'd done my duty by hosting the Thanksgiving feast, so I planned on taking it easy this year and enjoying Christmas without all the fuss and fancy. I set up a build-your-own taco bar and let Costco provide the desserts. I sat myself down and enjoyed visiting with the family, and it took just minutes to clean up the mess, with only one load of dishes for the dishwasher. I think I'll make this a tradition, only I would prefer a soup and homemade dinner rolls menu rather than tacos, which were Mr. Granny's choice.
We had some excitement to watch the entire Christmas week. Our next door neighbor had a professional tree trimmer come and prune her four big sycamore trees, and the two huge English walnut trees. They really cut the sycamores back drastically. I'm not so sure it's the best way to do it, as new growth is in the form of weak water sprouts, but it seems to be the accepted way of pruning these giants. I must say, they are quite ugly in their new nakedness! On the other hand, I was impressed with the walnut tree pruning. One of those trees casts morning shade on about half my garden, and had many dead branches that would break and fall onto our property with each windstorm. I had one fall on my head once, so I had to be especially careful about gardening if the wind was blowing! Now the garden will get a lot more light, and my body should be safe from falling limbs.
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A worker in the walnut treetop. Hi, up there.....high up there.
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Walnut trees looking so much better.
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My garden will appreciate having so much of the old growth removed. I don't think the squirrels will be too happy though.
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The last of the four sycamores being pruned. Or stubbed. They all end up looking bare naked like the one in the background.
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I wish I had a better photo of all the wood that was removed from six trees. Her entire front yard is covered about 6' deep or more, with just the driveway left open for the cars. Even the "lighter" pruning of the walnut trees left an unbelievable amount of branches. The branches are covering her hedge, and overflowing into our side yard.
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This one, as viewed from the bedroom window, looked a bit too close to our house. I had to go out to see if we had any damage from it, but it missed the house by about 6".
I figured they would be in today with the big chipper to begin clearing up the mess, but they must be taking a long holiday break.
Ugh. No that is not good for those sycamores. They cannot truly heal over their cuts and in a few years will likely rot from those cuts and need to be removed. She likely wasted her money and should have just had them taken down!
ReplyDeleteThe walnut looks good though! One year my family did a lasagna bake off for Christmas. My mom barely had to cook a thing! Another option maybe?
I agree on the sycamores. If you look at the 3rd. photo from the top, you can see a sycamore on the right side of it that was stubbed like that about 5 years ago. Notice all the water sprouts that stick straight up. It actually doesn't look too bad when in full leaf, but not nearly as nice as another neighbor's tree that was properly pruned about the same time. I see these trees stubbed like that all over this area. These are so-called "professionals", but certainly not arborists.
DeleteI'm all for easy! Lasagna, spaghetti, whatever :-) I used to do one big pot of clam chowder and another of corn chowder, with assorted breads, rolls and cold cuts. It was a dish up your own soup and build your own sandwich evening, with everyone else bringing yummy desserts.
We have a professional arborist come in and trim our HUGE live oak and silver maple every 2-3 years. At 1st the trimming looks drastic....after a few years, the pruning begins to make 'sense'. The trees respond beautifully. Not only stronger but more statuesque and stately.
ReplyDeleteThere is ALSO an added benefit. When you have a freak 2 day ice storm...and all of your neighbor's trees are cracking, splitting, tearing and crashing to the ground (and upon the occasional unlucky dwelling) yours are bearing the load bravely. Hopefully, both you and your neighbor can enjoy the same peace-of-mind in any future/similar situation.
Golly, I sure am glad we had those trees trimmed last spring!
Signed: Barbee in Dallas, TX
Barbee, I am relieved she had them all trimmed. The nearest sycamore to our house was beginning to rub on our garage roof, and could have caused a lot of damage if our son-in-law hadn't noticed and cut the branch back last fall. A large branch went down onto her son's Lincoln last summer, and put a good sized dent in it :-(
DeleteThose are some butchered sycamores! At least you should not have to be bothered by them for a long time.
ReplyDeleteDan, I hope the walnut trees take as long to recover as the sycamores do! It would not have made me a bit unhappy if those two had been removed completely.
DeleteHi Granny; just think of all the chopping-boards you could make with the walnut wood! When you see the branches on the ground like that it makes you realise how big a task they have when a tropical storm lays flat whoel areas of forest - like in the recent disaster in the Phillipines.
ReplyDeleteI hope your garden enjoys the new light, and has an even more productive year in 2014.
Mark, I'm constantly amazed at the amount of wood that comes down from my own pine trees! At least there are no large, damage causing limbs, but just a lot of annoying mess. Don't get me wrong. I am a tree lover, I just wish they would clean up after themselves, LOL!
DeleteWell, if your garden grew as well as it did with the trees blocking the light, imagine what it will do this year!!
ReplyDeleteSounds like a nice Christmas gathering. Simple is good--we used to go to my moms for pizza on Christmas eve. I miss that.
I'm anxious to find out, Sue! Maybe I'll get a decent flavored tomato this year.
DeletePizza delivery on Christmas Eve.....you're putting ideas in my head!
We had our traditional gathering at the Meeks house. They are our townhouse mates so we really had it at our house too as we opened the door between the living rooms so the space would be bigger. With over 60 people it was chaotic. But it is also pot luck so no one had to make too much. The Meeks cook the turkey and stuffing. I do the ham. The rest gets filled in by everyone else. I had to only do two loads of dishes to clean my side up so it wasn't too bad.
ReplyDeleteGlad your neighbor got his trees trimmed. It is annoying when you can't control it. Though we did bring an arborist here when we first moved in to cut our neighbor's pine trees back as they were hitting the roof.
Daphne, I think I was still full from Thanksgiving, so I didn't even miss having a big dinner on Christmas. I am really hungry for ham though. I might have to at least give in and buy one for our everyday meals. I did pick up a Jenni-o frozen turkey for 68-cents a pound, so we'll be having turkey dinner soon. At that price, I wish I'd had room for another one in the freezer.
DeleteI'm with you with how fast this year has gone by, and I second the simplified Christmas menu idea. Of course, I keep telling myself that every year, to keep things simple, but did I listen? :-) So glad to know that no more branches will fall on your head, Granny! Have a Happy New Year! XOXO, Mrs. R.
ReplyDeleteMrs. R., you don't even know the meaning of "simple meals"! I'd give anything to be one of those angels at your dinner table :-) Happy New Year to you too, my dear cyberfriend!
DeleteI agree with Mr. Granny about having soup and rolls over Tacos! Glad the evening turned out so well and you were able to enjoy! Happy New Year! Nancy
ReplyDeleteNo, Nancy. Mr. Granny was the one who wanted tacos. I wanted soup and rolls!
DeleteHappy New Year to you and your wonderful gardener!
WOW...I"m always amazed to see these guys in action. It's definitely part art, part science, part nerve. We have several very old trees that will be cut down during the coming months. Unfortunately all are pretty unsightly and rotted. Sometimes it's just better to start fresh. On the bright side, I'll have more room and sunlight for my fruit trees!
ReplyDeleteThomas, my big complaint is when people plant small trees near the property line, not taking into consideration how large they will get. Two of the neighbor's trees are near enough to our house to cause some damage...the sycamore seed pods pelt our siding, leaving oily stains, the branches hit our roof. The walnut trees are so messy, dropping branches and walnuts (wormy, inedible) and shading my garden. The trimming of all of them should add more sunlight to my garden!
ReplyDeleteGranny, your garden will be much happier with the extra sun. I do have to say that the sycamores don’t look very pretty in their naked state. Hopefully they will fill out a bit this summer.
ReplyDeleteRachel, they butchered another one today! It's the one on the right side of the third photo, one that had been pruned about five years ago and was just finally beginning to fill out. They cut it even more drastically than any of the others, cutting the main trunk down by about half!
DeleteThe walnut tree does look good! We just had our little family for Christmas Eve. Each one of us gets to pick something they want to eat and that's how we choose. We had lasagna, chili, oyster stew, crock pot meatballs, and the dill pickle/ cream cheese/ meat roll-ups. It was fun, but I needed something sweet afterward. Christmas Day morning Mr Farmer and I got called to the ICU for his dad. Everything's fine. It was a waste of our time, money, and Christmas. We missed seeing the kids play with their presents! We've both said we'd never make that drive again. I wish we'd stuck to that. But, the rest of the year went great. Now it's back to reality, except the kids and I aren't going back to school until Monday, we decided.
ReplyDeleteOh, Langela, I'm so happy the holidays are finally over! I even took my decorations down two days after Christmas. I swear, I'm turning into a Scrooge! I am so ready for spring, warm weather, sunshine and seedlings :-)
DeleteOurs came down two days after, too. They would have been down the day after if we'd been home! I always look forward to putting them up. But then I can't wait to have my space back. At first it's cozy, then it's just cluttered. It dies make the house seem cleaner and bigger though, when we get everything put away. Plus Mr Farmer always shampoos carpets the week he's home. We start the year with clean carpets, fresh furnace filters, and usually something else organized. His vacations are never vacations for me, but I really appreciate it!
DeleteI'm ready for warmer weather, too. We are going to be 14 below zero overnight this weekend. Brrrr!
Looking at these photos, it occurs to me that those trees might give your garden some troubles.
ReplyDeleteHow do you deal w/ the problem of greedy tree roots gobbling up all the water and nutrients you put down for your veggies?
I have a devil of a time w/ it-actually lost entire crops because the tree roots suck up every available molecule of water before my poor tomatoes of veggies get a chance! Any secrets you are willing to share greatly appreciated. :) Thanks. and Happy, Healthy and Prosperous 2014
Barbee, the walnut tree is the only one that is next to the garden, and I do fight the root system as well as the shade. That's why I have the dog kennel in that corner, with a raised bed inside of it. I plant shallow rooted veggies there (mainly spinach, lettuce and cabbage) that don't have to fight with the tree roots. I've also found pole beans and peas do well there, but I tried beets in 2013 and the roots just wouldn't develope. Unfortunately, the neighbors behind us have a volunteer silver maple tree growing right next to our fence. It's only about 10-12' high right now, but before long it will grow large enough that I might possibly lose most of my garden spot. I am so tempted to buy some Roundup and "accidentally" spray it! After all, it is an offspring of our old maple that came down in 2008, so I feel like I should be able to do something about it!
DeleteSo glad you are back! Good to hear you had a wonderful holiday...it did go fast 2013...and I bet 2014 will pass quickly,too:-) I have no idea how those guys climb around up that high! I use to climb trees as a kid until I feel out of one on my back and it knocked the wind out of me-lol....well, I don't climb them anymore-tee hee...Happy New Year!:-)
ReplyDeleteRobbie, they used a huge lift with bucket the first day, and that took them clear to the tops of the first three trees. The final two sycamores and both walnuts were done by the climbing guy. It was fascinating watching him way up there! He did hang in some precarious places....I looked out once and he was way high in the tree top, feet against the trunk, hanging in a prone position and held only by a rope clipped to his harness, cutting branches above his head!
DeleteHappy New Year! It always fascinates me how they can swing and climb around in those trees so high and make it look so easy! They will fill out this summer and look a bit better, but they sure do look strange in the winter with those stubs. I do feel the squirrels miss their "tree highway"!
ReplyDeleteRobbie, the squirrel highway runs across the top of our cedar fence, then about a 3' jump to a hanging walnut branch. Now the nearest "hanging" branch is at least 12' above the fence. Too bad they aren't flying squirrels!
Deletelol...too funny---but sometimes they do try to fly and fall where my dogs are waiting!
DeleteLove that header photo! I see one of my treasured gardening books. The trees - not so much. But more sun on your garden is a good thing!
ReplyDeleteDave, my 1977 Crockett's Victory Garden is entering its 37th. year of nearly daily use! It's worn and dog eared and well loved, believe me. I follow it faithfully (sans the pesticide uses) through my entire gardening season, from my seed starting in the February chapter to the end of my season in the October chapter. From November through January it's my "dream book"! I doubt there has been more than a week in the last 36 years that I haven't held that book in my hands! I'd sacrifice every book in my house to save just that one book. I wish they would rerun the series on PBS, or come up with another that was that good. I've yet to see any garden program that could compare.
DeleteShallow rooted crops. Interesting solution, I will try it. Thanks.
ReplyDeleteOn that silver maple, ahem, that happens to be one of my trees. Lovely and fast growing (both above and below ground) but brittle and short lived.
Silver maple limb almost skewered me once. I was cleaning up the garden after a wind storm....that limb came loose and shot straight down imbedding it's sharp pointed end in the soil like a javelin. YIKES. I'll pass on that. :)