|
A Village in a Garden By Avery Harden
Working with trees We also do not force our large shade trees to adhere to property lines. It is understood that trees provide benefit to more that just the property-owner upon which the trunk of the tree resides. Limbs cascade over property-lines into the airspace of adjacent neighbors and streets — completely ignoring property-lines. The arboreally invaded neighbor and driving/walking public are quite ok with being invaded. We all see the benefit of not shearing the encroaching limbs. We rake the leaves without demanding that the owner of the dirt where the tree-trunk comes out of the ground come over and retrieve the free-spirited leaves. Like the air, no one really owns the leaves. Now, if a neighbor is waiting too long for the wind to blow the leaves off her property so she will have less raking to do, then you have an issue. Even Miss Manners would have an issue. Leaves look good on the ground for the first two weeks; don’t rush out to get them up. Once they begin to mat, then get them up. We recognize the benefits that the tree freely exudes to the entire community beyond the property where the trunk happens to pop out of the ground. The owner can not contain and monopolize that benefit just to him. The larger community receives benefit from his trees whether he likes it or not. He may technically own that tree but he does not own the benefits that tree provide to the surrounding community. From the tree’s perspective, like the perspective of the squatter cat, it applied free will to take up residence on that particular plot of dirt. The problem is, the owner of that plot of dirt has the option to cut his nose off to spite his face and disfigure or remove those trees to the detriment of us all. Trees are like our clothes — most of us look better with our clothes on. Our houses, cars, skeletal plumbing pipes, fences, trashcans and other assorted stuff look fine, but it looks better with a bit of veiling. Vegetation is the clothes our homes and outdoor stuff wear. Some of us here in the Village have some funky ideas about trees. In some parts, especially along the south side of the 1400 block of Putty Hill Avenue, it looks like the Jolly Green giant got angry and came through the neighborhood with a giant machete whacking the tops off many of our trees. I wish someone would explain to me the mindset of doing this. These whacked trees look like some weird Dali sculpture. A beautiful red maple just down the street from me was recently whacked into a weird shape and, for all practical purposes, permanently destroyed. It pains me to drive by it everyday. Please do not tell me you do not want leaves in your gutter or you are worrying about the tree toppling on your house. That is just too irrational. First, the benefit of the tree far surpasses the minor inconvenience of a few of leaves in a gutter. Second, if you are hyper-concerned about a tree toppling on your house, get a professional, a real professional— not someone that whacks trees with a clear conscience— and thin it out in a professional manner. Thinning removes the sail effect you are worrying about without disfiguring the tree and forcing it into a premature ugly decline. I understand the special case of Silver Maples. When they are misbehaving, as they are prone to do, our temptation is to take out our frustrations on them. But when you whack Red Maples, Oaks, Dogwoods, Crabapples and many other quality trees you clearly are misguided in your actions. Even the poor-bred Silver Maples deserve to be worked on by a professional. Send the non-professional tree expert to slash up a truly deserving Ailanthus tree somewhere. The Ailanthus looks none the worse for it and actually seems to enjoy the abuse. It rebounds even stronger than before. The perfect job security for the non-professional tree expert. Overhead wires are an acceptable reason for pruning a tree but not for disfiguring a tree. If a large growing tree is directly under wires, it is probably better to remove the tree than to continually be pruning it. Whatever you do, be guided by a professional tree expert and not a professional tree whacker. A reminder is needed here about the State permit required for doing anything to trees located in the public rights-of-ways. Why is it that when you ride through a neighborhood where houses cost a half-million dollars or more you never see whacked trees? What do they know that some of us in the Village do not? It is too late for many of our trees, but we have to start somewhere. Once you whack it, the tree goes into its crisis survival mode and sends out numerous new sucker limbs. The number of limbs quadruples. The leaf density increases exponentially as a result of the many new sucker limbs. The excessive number of improperly placed cuts provides many new doors for insects and disease to enter. The truncated tree will hang around in a slow decline for many years but its elegance is gone forever. The best looking homes in our community— the homes that stand out with individuality among all the other identical looking homes— are homes with nice specimen, professionally maintained trees in front. The beautiful large maple I have in my backyard is one of the reasons I bought my house. My backyard and back of my house is 10 to 15 degrees cooler in the summer due to that tree. The leaves turn a great looking burgundy color for three weeks before falling off in the fall —permitting the winter sun to stream into my windows with welcomed light and warmth. The perky burgundy leaves look good on the ground for two more weeks before I rake them up. To me, that tree adds $5,000 worth of value to my home. When the leaves are on, that handsome tree permits me to have a nice view out my back windows while helping to screen the utilitarian clutter of our backyards. When the leaves are on the trees, I forget there are a lot of people living nearby. When I look out the window, I can pretend I have a nice pleasant park in the back of my house instead of the stark utilitarian rears of 15 townhomes. The beautiful trees across the street from me on the church grounds are another reason I selected my home. I wake up each morning and the first things I see are those great big pieces of sculpture that happen to be trees. I do not tire of watching them change throughout the year. The church has many large beautiful trees on their grounds that have never been whacked; some of them are even quite close to the sanctuary. The church seems to have faith that these large unwhacked trees will not fall. If the church sees no reason to whack their trees why do some of us feel compelled to whack our trees? I leave my windows open much of the time so that I can see these handsome trees from every vantage. The house seems larger with the blinds open. Light pours in. In lieu of a mirror image of my house, big old trees adorn the scenery. The best looking house in the Village as seen from the street is the Sarkin residence at 1308 Putty Hill Road. While their house is not unique, it gains substantial distinction because of the beautiful unwhacked tree in their front yard. Our houses are uniform in design and construction and therefore, uniqueness must come from the landscape. The principal landscape element that can provide uniqueness is trees. There are many other good looking unique houses in the Village and invariably they have a good-looking tree in front. Of one thing you can be certain. Spend all the money you want painting, bricking your porch, installing fancy railings, shutters, porch furniture, nice landscaping, nice awnings — do all that; but if you have no tree or even worse a whacked tree in your front yard, you do not have a pretty and dignified house. |
