Tuesday, May 08, 2007

Mulching the menace

What is 25' long, 8' wide and just about 4' high?

If you said Hatchet's Pile of Mulched Trees, you'd be right!

Except that they aren't even done yet!

They came back late yesterday (surprise! "We'll be there at 10:30 am" turned out to mean "We'll be there at 1:50 pm"!) and continued their massacre of the trees. (Actually, it was a paid hit, not a massacre.) This time no limbs were dropped on the deck. Hurrah! They did remember to bring back my pile of mulch and deposited it in the street (Whew!). Once they were gone, I took a picture of Caitlin next to it for scale. Eek! You know it won't be me moving it, either! Poor Eric!

I'd like to think of it as "free" mulch, except it isn't. Instead, it is probably the most expensive mulch I'll ever buy, but it's also the sunification of my backyard. Also:
  1. The not having to clear out my gutters every month-ification
  2. The won't have to pick up fallen branches after every weather event-ification
  3. The Kate won't have to carry an Epi-pen due to the hornet-ification
  4. The Ick! What just dripped on my head? from the aphid-ification
  5. The threat to my house-ification from random large limb dropping action during a weather event (Doesn't have to be a blizzard, either!)

They also trimmed the dead wood out of the aspen tree and let me tell you, it's now the saddest looking remainder of an aspen tree you'll probably ever see! I'll mollycoddle it this year and see if it somehow snaps back. If not, I'll have it removed next year (maybe I'll have scads of cash then?!) and replace it with something pretty. It won't cost as much as the Aus trees, either.

My next tree issue will be to feed and water the heck out of the remaining ash trees, to encourage them to take advantage of all of the room and sunlight they now have. They're not insignificant trees, but when constantly compared to your weedy 60' neighbors, most anyone is going to look a little scrawny.

End of day 2 of Menace to Mulch. Tree #1.
Trees #2 and #3.
This is my tiny crab apple that Eric and Caitlin bought me for Mother's Day a couple of years ago. It was miserable in the shade under tree #1, so last fall I had Eric dig a giant hole, dig this tree up and relocate it down here, to the sunnier south side of the yard. Turns out that there was actually very little to the root structure left and we probably moved it just in time! The little tree is so much happier in this corner (I threw a lot of compost into the hole), in the sun, that it bloomed its little tree heart out this spring! They are a light pink and lightly scented.

The mass of weeds behind it are sneering at me to pull them. Since it's been raining on and off, the ground is nice and soft, making ripping them out very easy. It's taken me a lot more time to do any gardening while pregnant this time. Whew!

Well, the tree dudes are coming back tomorrow to finish up. They say they'll be here at 8am. We'll see!

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