Home Guru:Tree Lover Tells When and if to Plant (and Gripes a Little)
By Bill Primavera – This article might well be titled “The Joys and Agonies of Being a Tree Lover.”
The subject of planting trees comes to me each year as we approach autumn because it’s the perfect time to plant deciduous and evergreen trees as they enter into dormancy. And, Lord knows, I have done my share of planting trees through the years, even though I bought a property that was more than half wooded.
The idea of planting small, manageable green things and watching them develop over time into sculptures of beauty reaching to the skies in graceful forms and providing shade, has always appealed to me.
When I saw an ad for what turned out to be my dream house in the country, I called the owner and asked if it had privacy, noting that I preferred not seeing any neighbors. He answered, “No matter which window I look out of, all I see is trees.”
How wonderful, I thought, considering that when I looked out of my window in the city, all I saw was one scrawny Gingko that had been hit repeatedly by cars vying for the parking space in front of it. The last time I visited the old neighborhood, it had finally lost the battle to the cars and hadn’t been replaced.
But my 1.5-acre property in upper Westchester was laden with generous thickets of sugar maples, honey locusts, ash, black walnuts, cherries and many other species I never bothered to look up. Former owners had planted some old dogwood, ornamental flowering trees and a long row of hemlock.
Having grown up in an urban setting with no trees, I just enjoyed looking at them, often reminding myself of Joyce Kilmer’s poetic turn, “I think that I shall never see a poem lovely as a tree,” and becoming somewhat of an expert in shade gardening.
It wasn’t long, however, before reality set in. I learned that trees, especially the big ones, can fall. Or they get sick and have to be removed.
As recently as last weekend when I was returning from vacation, I couldn’t turn on to my street because a large maple on the edge of my corner property, which had looked in perfect health, fell across the road, taking with it the telephone, electric and cable wires. Thankfully the utilities companies, then my wonderful local highway department, took care of the damage, otherwise it would have been costly.
I can’t even calculate the amount of money I’ve spent through the years to have fallen or diseased trees removed. Early in the 1970s, during a very wet season, my dogwoods were all wiped out by a fungus infection. In the ‘80s, my hemlocks fell to woolly adelgid. Then, a number of my largest maples got “thrip” and slowly withered. One evening we heard a thunderous noise as a half dead pine fell just inches from our house. Each calamity involved the very expensive proposition of dealing with tree removal. I started to feel cursed.
Having become good friends with my tree service provider, I asked him why it seemed that I had such bad luck with trees. He answered simply, “It’s just because you have so many of them.”
If there’s any moral to this story, I guess it would be to consider the responsibilities that go with a wooded property. If a property is lacking trees and you want some shade, consider their variety, manageability and distance from the house.
There are certain trees that have been very popular either for their beauty or fast-growing habits that, from experience, I would not recommend. Chief among them are the weeping willow, the Bartlett pear and the white pine.
Most people know that the weeping willow’s roots are ready to suck all water out of the soil and don’t like anything else planted near them. Unless you have a wetland area on your property and lots of space, avoid it.
Many homeowners and professional gardeners regard the Bradford pear as desirable for its pyramidal shape and lovely white flowers in spring, but that characteristic shape also makes it very fragile. Its branches tend to break during storms or strong winds.
The same goes for the Eastern white pine. While they grow fast, they shouldn’t be planted close to the road because they suffer from salt burn and sustain damage in winter when their branches become laden with snow.
My favorite tree plantings have been the flowering ornamentals – particularly my crabapples and weeping cherries – that are contained in size and offer the joy of flowers in the spring, greenery until late fall and not much cleanup to worry about.
Bill Primavera is a Realtor® associated with William Raveis Real Estate and Founder of Primavera Public Relations, Inc. (www.PrimaveraPR.com). His real estate site is www.PrimaveraRealEstate.com, and his blog is www.TheHomeGuru.com. To engage the services of The Home Guru to market your home for sale, call 914-522-2076.
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