I Came, I Sawed, I Conquered...

...



This weekend saw a frenzy of gardening, and the largest part of that frenzy was the sawing down of our pathetic backyard brugmansia.  This poor thing has been struggling ever since we bought this house, back in 2009.




Originally, I had planned to cut back all the dead wood, with the hopes of rejuvenating the few bits that were still alive.  Once I got all the dead branches taken out, there was almost nothing left.  Robb talked me into taking the tree out altogether.

I know he was right, and that this poor thing wasn't going to recover, but that didn't stop me from feeling like a killer.  I patted the tree, and apologized to it, the whole time I was sawing.  When you look up the phrase "tree hugger," the picture you'll see is mine.

The big challenge was removing the branches without dropping them on the beehive.  I was cutting the wood with a bow-saw (bottom right corner of the above photo) and needed Robb's help supporting the branches until I had cut all the way through them.  It was hot, dirty, dusty work.




Two things have changed with the removal of the tree.  The Backyard Squirrel Highway has been re-configured. Do you see the slightly confused squirrel behind the post in the photo?  Do you see our scraggly lilac bushes?  Don't worry, I'm not about to remove them.

The other change is the "improved" view of the house on the other side of our fence.  This place is a wreck, and a total mystery.  Someone bought it about a year ago, and it has been vacant all that time.  On July 4th, workers smashed out all the windows, ripped out most of the interior walls and moulding, and threw everything out the second story windows.  Since that time, they've been back once, to do some minor cleaning.  The house has been open to the elements since July. Sure, there's been a drought going on, but there's still been enough rain to damage a house.  We're baffled by this.  Who can afford to buy a house, start "renovations" and then let it all fall apart?




Our plan is to drill the stump and try to get it to decompose.  We'll probably plant beans or sunflowers in the open spot this season, and then next year, we'll move one of our baby pomegranate trees into this spot.  Pomegranates are beautiful trees, and I'm hoping ours will thrive where the brugmansia did not.

Comments

ArtGekko said…
Pomegranate?! I fell in love with that fruit this past winter. So jealous! I hope it works for you. :)
Anonymous said…
Ego sum, ego vici, et conciderunt

From Google translate for

" I came, I trimmed, I conquered"

Dbare

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