That Tree

I called the tree lady a few weeks ago because we needed to have our dying birch tree removed from the front yard before it fell on a car--or one of the kids. And, while we were at it, we asked her to take out several overgrown yew bushes, and trim the dead branches out of our mammoth blue spruce.  At the last minute, Bill decided to ask if she could give us some advice about the huge old hackberry tree in the backyard, right next to the garage.  He had noticed a small split in the trunk a few months ago, and wondered if she thought it would help relieve some stress on the tree if we removed a major branch or two.

Bill did not realize just how long and wide that crack had extended since he last took a good look at it.  The tree lady recommended removing the whole tree as soon as possible, before the next heavy, wet snow or 60 mile-an-hour gust of wind dropped a large section of the tree onto our house.  And, what's more, she declined to take down the tree herself because, as she said, she valued our family and our house too much!  So, Bill called the tree service she recommended and, after Bill removed three sections of fence, and after the kids and I cleared away dozens of rocks from the rock garden beneath the tree, it was removed this week. The tree lady came yesterday to remove the stump, so all that is left is a stark, empty space next to the house, and a huge pile of sawdust.

I won't miss picking up countless twigs that fell from the tree every time the wind blew, and I certainly won't miss raking the mountains of leaves that the hackberry dumped all over the yard every October.  But the back yard seems so bare!  I will miss the shade, and the simple, commanding presence of that old tree.  I wonder if the squirrels who lived in the top branches will build a new nest close by?

We will put the fence back up on Saturday, and move the rocks back to the rock garden.  We can put in some new, sun-loving plants when spring finally arrives again, but we won't plant another large tree so close to the house.  Perhaps we can plant a small, ornamental tree of some kind, but it just won't be the same.  It will take us a long time to get used to our new, unexpected landscape.

The tree lady came back today to finish the original job we had planned for her to do.  So, the old birch tree is gone, too, and there are four little stumps near the driveway where we thought we had three overgrown yew bushes.  She did a marvelous job of trimming the blue spruce.  She will be back in a couple of days to remove the rest of the stumps and that telltale pile of sawdust in the backyard, and then our tree work will be about finished.

I won't miss the dying birch or the encroaching yews.  I'm looking forward to planting a couple of fruit trees in the front yard to take their place.  But that hackberry, even with its bad habit of dropping copious amounts of twigs and leaves all over the yard, that magnificent old tree is irreplaceable.  Sometimes, we don't realize what a treasure we have until it is gone.