up a tree (without a paddle)
Aug. 14th, 2014 10:50 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
psocopteraI need Advice, o people of lj.
The problem: Big 75-year-old linden tree in our backyard is not doing well.
At a minimum, the top and some high limbs are dead and need to come off (and we certainly want to do that before a winter storm sends them through somebody's window or something, we live in a suburb, this is not the place to embrace the natural tree circle of life). Tree guy today thought that with an aggressive program of pruning, fertilizing, and ongoing management, we'd have maybe a 50-50 chance of saving the tree, but it would never be like it was. (In other news, a google image search for "topless tree" will NOT help you visualize a tree that's had its upper trunk and branches removed.)
Nothing we could plant in there is going to compete with a 75-year-old tree for size and shade and gorgeous Big Treeishness while we're still living in the house. (Let's say we're moving out to our retirement condo in 30 years - who even knows but that's not crazy.) On the other hand, if it's going to have to come out in five years anyways, I would sort of rather get a head start on regrowing something new - in *ten* years, I imagine a ten-year-old tree would be much nicer to have than a five-year-old tree. (Plus redoing all the plantings in that part of the yard, since I'm pretty sure that thing's not coming out without taking out half the yard with it.)
I feel torn and unhappy about both options. Anyone have a good insight into how to make this kind of decision?
The problem: Big 75-year-old linden tree in our backyard is not doing well.
At a minimum, the top and some high limbs are dead and need to come off (and we certainly want to do that before a winter storm sends them through somebody's window or something, we live in a suburb, this is not the place to embrace the natural tree circle of life). Tree guy today thought that with an aggressive program of pruning, fertilizing, and ongoing management, we'd have maybe a 50-50 chance of saving the tree, but it would never be like it was. (In other news, a google image search for "topless tree" will NOT help you visualize a tree that's had its upper trunk and branches removed.)
Nothing we could plant in there is going to compete with a 75-year-old tree for size and shade and gorgeous Big Treeishness while we're still living in the house. (Let's say we're moving out to our retirement condo in 30 years - who even knows but that's not crazy.) On the other hand, if it's going to have to come out in five years anyways, I would sort of rather get a head start on regrowing something new - in *ten* years, I imagine a ten-year-old tree would be much nicer to have than a five-year-old tree. (Plus redoing all the plantings in that part of the yard, since I'm pretty sure that thing's not coming out without taking out half the yard with it.)
I feel torn and unhappy about both options. Anyone have a good insight into how to make this kind of decision?
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no subject
Date: 2014-08-14 04:06 pm (UTC)Is money an issue in the choice? Would that determine your course of action?
If it were me, I'd get another opinion on saving the tree (if this is your tree guy and you trust him then don't)--if saving it is an option, I'd try and have it pruned back. Lindens can last centuries and bees love them.
no subject
Date: 2014-08-15 12:42 am (UTC)I guess, thinking about it more, that if we do sink some money into trying to save it, and then we still have to take it out, and that costs about as much as it would to have taken it out without the rescue attempt, I will feel stupid about that, but it wouldn't be like a disaster. (Possibly a long-term effect of the fire, my scale for absorb-able loss has become somewhat warped.)