A few weeks ago, a wind storm knocked a tree in our front yard down. We contacted Chris, the Landscape Guy at DOWN TO EARTH LANDSCAPING. Diane’s friend, Cindy, recommended Chris and his team because they did a wonderful job landscaping their flowerbeds. Diane usually puts down about 80 bags of mulch, but her doctor told her not to do that anymore. The crew of four showed up at 9:00 A.M. with a dump truck full of mulch. The chain saws fired up and within 15 minutes the downed tree was gone. A few hours later, our flower beds looked great, our lawn was cleared of the limbs from the wind storm, and Diane was happy she didn’t have be Queen of the Mulch this year. What do you think?
Good for Diane!
We’re getting older and I also just realised I can’t do all the work that I used to do in the garden!
Also have a “tree story” to report, though rather sad:
We found out that our best and biggest cherry tree had some infection and ma wife called a specialist who said it had to fall …
We were really sad but told him to go ahead so he arrived with a young helper and a chainsaw in the afternoon, there also were some hedges to be trimmed.
Still we have other fruit trees: sour cherries, apples, pears, apricots and peaches and of course raspberries and grapes …
Wolf, it’s always sad to lose a tree. We have a crab apple tree in our back yard that the squirrels love climbing. Diane used to plant flowers, but the deer eat everything so that isn’t feasible. We also have rabbits, woodchucks, and…skunks. The foxes have just left for their Summer Home.
So these animals come near your house?
That’s what I call living in nature.
We also have foxes, deer and wild boars near the village in Hungary (because of the many maize plantations around), but the larger animals stay away from the houses because there are many dogs roaming the gardens …
And of course we have many birds – from swallows and doves to storks – every village wants at least one stork’s nest (babies …)! 🙂
Wolf, we have plenty of birds, too: cardinals, blue jays, robins, crows, etc. Our neighbors have dogs, but the animals frolic around our house and shrubs anyway.
Looks lovely.
PS:
George, your report just made me realise that the German word Mulch is just a late 20th century loan word from English – “green” people like us also use a Mulchmäher i e a lawn mower producing small bits of grass (and leaves) which stay on the ground …
Your house is a showplace!
Last Winter I had a somewhat larger tree taken down and spent February to April cutting it up with a 16″ electric chain saw and hauling it to my wood pile in a hand cart. The results are much less aesthetically pleasing, but I’ll have firewood the rest of my life.
https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=2048255792162257&set=pcb.2048258195495350&type=3&theater
Dan, Diane keeps all sharp tools away from me. Impressive amount of wood!
Yes, I hate to use power tools without adult supervision myself.
Dan, Diane has removed that temptation by removing all power tools from our home. We only have a screwdriver and a hammer.
Nice. Looks very neat, and good that Diane doesn’t have to do all that physical labor.
Jeff, I’ve been trying to convince Diane to “farm out” the yard work for years. This Landscaping guy and his crew did a great job for a great price!
Very nice! We pay a lawn service for monthly (twice-monthly in the warmer months) grass cutting, edging, trimming, etc. I don’t have a very green thumb and don’t care much for yard work. The magnolia in our front yard just shed a ton of leaves—they’re very waxy and raking them up is like trying to rake laminated paper—but I suppose we’ll have to hit that task this week some time!
Deb, I share your distain for Yard Work. I mowed lawns as a teenager to make money. That turned me off of doing Yard Work forever.
Yes indeed! In my teens, we had to help with yard work and our yard had several pine trees. That experience soured me for life on yard work: Pine needles and pine cones are some of my least favorite yard-related things to deal with—but I don’t think I’d ever have been an avid gardener even without the enforced labor of my youth!
Deb, I share your aversion to pine trees, cones, and needles! I also have to deal with my allergies to pollen, grasses, and insects.
Yard work is healthy exercise and good for the soul.
Your picture doesn’t show the spot the tree was. Did they grind the stump? Also, you say “Diane used to plant flowers” so apparently that no longer happens. Why, then, do you call them “flower beds”?
There are some tasks we no longer do, and we have a friend, who works for a landscape company, come to help us for those things. We recently had him install a new drain line near a downspout, and replace a sprinkler head Barbara hit with the mower. But we do, and enjoy, most everything in the garden.
Rick, if you develop allergies to pollen, grasses, and insects you’ll be singing a different tune about the glories of Yard Work. Yes, the Landscaping Guy and his crew ground down the tree stump and planted grass seed. The flower beds feature daffodils, that for some unknown reason, the deer and other ravenous creatures ignore.
I just bought a self-propelled lawn mower and the lawn looks swell!
Bob, thank you for simulating the Economy! We have a self-propelled lawn mower, too. I keep suggesting we hire a lawn service instead, but Diane won’t hear of it! She likes to mow the lawn.
From the looks of it, yes that’s pretty much a dead tree and needs to be removed. Thankfully, when it got knocked down by the windstorm, no one got hurt. Front yard looks lovely now!
Everwilling, things worked out fine with the tree removal. But recent High Winds in Western NY brought down more trees in the past week.