Trees

The reason I fell in love with this house was not because of the house, but the yard.  My trees are like family members to me.  We had been saying we needed to get our trees trimmed for the last three years, since we had not done so since we moved into this house.  But deep down, the thought of my beautiful, tall family members getting touched in any way sort of turned my stomach.  But I finally had to give in.  We finally got our trees trimmed almost a month ago.  I was totally dreading it.  But Bob's Tree Service was ultra professional, and Bob Jr. taught me more about trees in the short 10 minutes he was here to get the crew going than I have learned my whole life.  We had explained that we didn't want branches cut off unless they absolutely had to be.  We have 16 post oaks, one cedar-elm and the Chinese Pistachio we planted when Gabriel was baptized.  It took a five-man crew 6 hours to finish, and the trees looked so healthy and beautiful when they left that I was actually glad we had it done.  Especially now that I know we don't have to do it again (or can afford it again) for another 10 years.

Here are some of the things we found out during this ordeal:

-Post oak groves are very special, because the only way they will grow is with a big water source underground.  You cannot go to a nursery and and buy an already-growing post oak.  It has to grow from an acorn, supplied by its water source.

-Many of our tress are over 100 years old.  This is a picture of the biggest, oldest tree in our yard.

-Never plant something around a tree that is going to circle its trunk, like ivy (or in our case, Asian jasmine).  It will eventually kill it, because it stops the sap from moving up and down the tree.  I have been wanting to pull up the Asian jasmine for other reasons besides this one, but now I need to be on a mission.  I have a strong desire to find the people who decided that planting Asian Jasmine and monkey grass was a good idea and make them tear it up, roots and all, until it is GONE.

-One of our trees (the lone cedar elm, pictured above) had mistletoe growing in big clumps way high up.  Even though people make a big deal about mistletoe being poisonous, it's more like poison ivy in that it causes a reaction in some people, and others it doesn't.  Even though they cleared it all out, my dad has informed me that its really hard to get rid of and will probably come back.  As you can see, this poor guy has the tree form of scoliosis.  But they trimmed a bunch from it's left side so that the stress wouldn't be so bad from now on.

-And finally, about our newest addition.  We picked out a good Chinese Pistachio.  We planted it in February, 2007.  It has gone from being just a little taller than me (probably 6 feet) to about 18 feet tall.  It has the place of honor in the center of the yard, and has become the tree we decorate the most for holidays.  It makes a perfect little brother to its taller siblings.

I couldn't imagine living somewhere that had nothing but non-fruit bearing pear trees and crepe myrtles.  There is nothing than makes me happier than lying in the grass and looking up at these giants, and all the life they hold.  The broken sunlight coming through the leaves, a breeze blowing the leaves hear and there.  Any season their beauty never ceases to amaze me.