Tree Out

So we cut down a very big Deodar Cedar in our back yard a week ago. It was a tough call on my part and I still feel a bit mixed about the whole thing. On one hand, I've been working hard to put a vegetable garden in (read why here). And one of the things that vegetables really need is sunshine. Well the cedar really wasn't helping in that department. It also wasn't contributing to privacy due to its placement in the middle of the yard with a high canopy. Nor was it really doing a lot in the defining space category, although it was pulling its weight in "contributing to the overhead plane". It was also ugly, by my standards, having been mutilated by overzealous pruning multiple times. It should've had a central leader and it had about 20 of them along with lots of long stumps and it really shouldn't have been limbed up that much (they don't put out any new growth once they've been limbed up like that). But taking it out didn't seem like a very environmentally friendly thing to do, and let's face it, removing a 30 foot tree isn't cheap. But I think the hardest thing of all was just ending 30 some years of growth. It takes a while to make a tree that big and despite the ugly butchering job it had a certain majesty. But its gone and I have loads of sunshine for my seedlings now and the back bedrooms now get oddly hot in the late afternoon (oops, didn't think about that).