Gardenkeeping

Yesterday I said goodbye to my Honey Locust tree.

I was working nearby in my neighborhood and was preparing myself for the gut-wrenching sound of the chainsaw to distract me from my work. This was actually the first time I’ve ever had anyone else cut on my property . We had hired Tippy-Top Tree Service and by 11:00am it was fairly quiet and I began to wonder if it had been cancelled for the day. That was when my ears finally picked up the sound of a soft buzzing.  That had to be my honey.

On my way home, I rounded the corner of my block and caught a glance of… my Holly tree… with no Locust in front of it. I couldn’t believe it was already done.

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Honey stands alone.

Hello holly.

Rotting cuts made in the stump of the locust.

The story of a tree is a long one and this one (of course) started before I came on the scene.

When we first moved into this house, almost 21 years ago now, there was a stump in the front corner. I later learned from my neighbor that that had been a Locust tree the previous owners had cut down. These are huge and beautiful trees, but were they nervous about its closeness to the house? I really don’t know. That was when I started to identify little locust trees that had come up from the roots of the original. Some were next to the house, they had to go, but one was growing in a clump of trees in my backyard and I let that one stay.

Originally it was smaller than the holly but, these trees are fast growers and it overtook the holly within ten years. I loved it even though it was a constant chore to keep its rhizomes from popping up throughout the yard. It had a beautifully distinct branching habit and in the spring it would be covered with fragrant flowers. I loved the double trunk that inspired me to draw and paint. I thought it was a tree for lovers!

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You can imagine my surprise when a few years ago when David started talking about the locust needing to go. I thought he must be joking! Well, he wasn’t. The tree was getting too big and heading straight for the house. I thought we could  just cut the one side that  was closest to the house and leave one trunk? For posterity?  We basically fought about this every few months and  I was starting to avoid the topic. How could he not love “our” tree.  Yep, we were mad about the locust.

Fast forward to this spring. David heads into the vegetable garden to till under the cover crop.

“Hey, Bridget, what’s this coming up in the garden?”

My heart stopped. It was the locust and I didn’t want to tell him, but I did. That was when we  started discussing for real having it taken out.

We would have to hire someone because it was too big for us to handle.

We decided to wait for the fall.

So I had one last summer with the Honey Locust. It was nice.

I was going to title this blog, “Space Invaders: When trees go bad!” but once it was down it just seemed mean. So, bye-bye, Honey, it was nice knowing you.

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