trees are not always good things

After and after-after shots

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This afternoon, I went back to the area in the maple grove I worked on last.  Rather than working my way farther down the rows of trees, I focused on taking down dead and dying trees, pruning away lower branches, and so on.

So here are the after pictures from before, and the after-after pictures from today. :-D (click on them for larger images)

When I took pictures last time, I had worked closer to ground level, so you can’t really see as much of what I cleared away higher up.  There’s a nice, straight spruce tree in the middle that had a lot of dead branches that I pruned away.  In this section, that tree saw the most work.

I pruned as many branches as I could reach.  One tree has a large dead and rotting branch that will have to wait until I’ve got a full size chain saw.

Aside from pruning, this area had a small, dead spruce tree taken out, too.

I did nothing with the big dead spruce tree in front (with the rock at its base), though some of the lower branches were a bit in the way.

This area is where I started to need to do a lot more picking and choosing.

The maple that’s under the power lines came down.  I left the stump tall for when I have a full size chain saw.  If I were to just leave it, it would probably start growing new branches.  Maples are resilient that way.

More small trees had to come down.  I’m trying to salvage some of those spruces, but the more I look at the one on the right of the photo – the healthiest looking one out there – the more I realize I will probably need to take it down completely.  It’s just too close to the power line.  It’s not a problem now, but it can potentially grow another 20 ft or more, and it’s already just a few feet shorter than the height of the line.

I think I will leave it for now and ask the arborists when they come out.

Lots to clean up in this area.  I got to one tree that was clearly planted deliberately; the sticks that had been put in the ground to mark and protect it when it was planted were still there.  When I got to it, however, I discovered that the only green leaves on it were from those vines!  Once I pulled those free, I could see the tree was quite dead.  In other areas, I took down a dying spruce that had been planted in the row, but growing out of its base were two self-sown maples.  I ended up taking out one of them.  We shall see how the other one survives.  In other areas, I was pruning branches from a couple of elms so close together, I couldn’t fit between the trunks, but they seem to be doing fine, so I’m not going to thin them down.  Unlike the dead spruce that was also right next to them.  The spruce was planted.  I think the elms sowed themselves.

As I was working, I noticed I was getting pretty close to the birch trees I’d noticed when I was surveying the area a while back.  I had shown the pictures I took to my mother and she was happy to see them.  She had transplanted them from saplings she dug up while visiting her grandparents’ homestead up north, years ago.

I also found some apple trees further in.  A strange place to plant them.  The one closes to the power pole gets enough light that it is now producing apples, but these ones are practically in the dark.  It will be good when I finally go through that area to thin and prune.  Hopefully, they will be able to do better, next year, because of it. :-)

Not back for a couple of hours.

My branches piles are getting huge. :-/

Next time, I will finally start working further West down the rows.

The Re-Farmer

An Afternoon’s Work

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Yesterday afternoon, I got some progress done in the maple grove.  I don’t expect to do more later today, as it’s supposed to get quite hot again.  We shall see.

At this point, I’m just slowly working my way Westward from the garden path I recently cleared out.  I had already gone through here and taken out the fallen branches that I could find.  Well.  At least the bigger ones.  I’m always finding more, hidden under the tall grass!

Here are some before and after pictures. :-)  (click on them for larger images)

This is the area directly North of the trees I’d been working on a little while ago.  Quite a bit of dead brushes that I couldn’t tell what they were.  Some seemed to have either very long thorns, or very pointy twigs!  Those pretty much pulled out of the ground, they’ve been dead for so long.

Just past the elm tree on the right of the photo was this…

20180717.cleanup.maplegrove.west.mossy.maple

I really liked it when I found it; that moss covered stump of an old maple looks to nice.

Most of what was around it was dead or dying, with little bitty new growth coming up and making it look more alive than it really was!  I did keep the two strongest ones, which you can see in the after photo above.

Lots to clean up, here!

I would have loved to keep the two maples in front (you can see their remains in the after photo), but they were right under the power lines.  Maples can get so huge, there was just no way it was worth leaving them.  Better to take them down when they’re small then when they’re big.

I had gone in with the weed trimmer, first, just enough to clear away the grass so I could see any hidden branches.  Even though I’d cleared a lot out already, there was quite a lot left to take out, even before I could start cutting and pruning.

The spruce tree with the rock at the base is dead, and is the one we will be getting the arborists to take down when they clear the power lines.  It isn’t at the line, but is tall enough that if it falls, it could land right on it.

You can’t see it in the after pictures, but I was able to clear a smaller dead spruce behind the big one.

I didn’t think to take a before picture that included the power pole.  I hadn’t expected to clear anything that far.

The maple tree in the foreground is going to have to come down.  I hate to do it, as it’s a nice, healthy tree, but it’s also right under the power lines.

I also cleared some small elm and maple from by the power pole for the same reason.  I cut away the bottom branches of the spruce near the pole, but am considering if it’s worth the risk of keeping.  It’s not directly under the power lines, but when it reaches its full height, it would be a falling risk.  I think I’ll wait until we are ready to get the arborist in and ask them.

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Some of the dead spruces could just be torn out of the ground, like this one!

I cut back the lower dead branches on a couple of little spruces, but some of them have only a few living branches barely above my head.  As I work my way down, I’m going to have to pick and choose which to keep and which to take down.  Once there’s more space between them, while also clearing away more from the trees near them, I’m hoping the survivors will have enough sun and space to fill out and grow stronger.

Oh, and those vines!!  They are everywhere!

Unfortunately, I may have done something to my new little chain saw!  After a while, it start to “scream” and get easily jammed.  I took it into the sun room (where I keep the packaging, and the tools that came with it), opened up the side and started cleaning out the blade oil soaked sawdust that was jammed around the blade.

Then the blade and chain fell off.  I was hoping to avoid that.

No worries.  I’ll just pop it back on, right?

Suddenly, I couldn’t remember if the blade had landed upside down, or right side up!  I took out the instruction booklet and read it over.  According to the diagram, the logo should be facing me as I put it on; except the logo is already warn off.  The print on the other side is still very visible, but that isn’t anywhere on the diagram.

If I look at the image elsewhere, however, the logo is on the other side of the chainsaw.

Now, I know I put it on facing the right way.  My head knows that.  But I can’t help but keep double checking.  Finally, I was done, brought it back to where I was working, tried to cut my first branch and…

It’s still screaming, and jams easily.

So I just stopped it and set it aside.  Then went back to using a hand saw.

Not going to take any chances!

Some of what is in here is going to have to wait for a full size chain saw, anyhow.

It’s going to look so good in here when I’m done!

The Re-Farmer

Not the kind of windfall I was wanting…

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We’ve been getting storm warnings for the day, but in our area that has translated to high winds, some rain, and hot, humid air!

I have made it a practice to walk around the yard after we’ve had high winds to check out what damage there might be.  Most of the time, I find some downed branches that I can just pick up and take to one of the wood piles we’ve got around.  Sometimes, I’ll have to make a couple of trips.

Not today.

This time, I grabbed a wheelbarrow.

My younger daughter and I headed out to town and were gone for perhaps 2 hours.  When we left, there were maybe a few small branches on the ground.

This is what I picked up after we got back.

20180711.windfall

Most of this is willow from only two trees.  Willows are pretty indestructible, but notorious for dropping smaller branches in a stiff breeze.  There are more than small branches!  Plus, most of this is from the willow that’s overhanging the power lines.

As I continued around the yard, I found these.

Charred bits of wood, near the area I’d found the burned branch a while ago. Yes, it’s directly under the main power lines, though went I looked up, all I could see was some lower maple branches, and could not tell where these burned bits had fallen from.

Yikes.

The Re-Farmer

Clean Up: Maple Grove, evening progress

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I wrote up my last post while taking a hydration break from working in the maple grove.  By the time I was done, I found myself nodding off at the keyboard.  I figured lying down wouldn’t be a bad idea.

Three hours later… :-o

But, I’ve got it done as much as I can for now.

Here are the before and after pictures of the two North rows.

I cleared out two of the tree spruces in the foreground of the second picture.  The two I took out had a few green sprigs here and there, but were otherwise dead.  I also cut off the dead branches from the one in the middle.  I am hoping that, now that it’s open and clear, it will survive.

The remaining spruces in that northernmost row are doing pretty good.  I trimmed the lowest branches, as well as the dead ones that I could reach with a hand saw.  The dead ones were mostly on the south side of the trees, where they had no light.  The other living spruce trees, I only took off what was in my way as I moved around.  I will finish cutting away the dead branches when my birthday gift comes in. :-)

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This is the remains of a row of raspberry bushes.  I can see some dead canes from years past, but no fresh canes in this area.

To the right, you can also see a gooseberry bush I found.  I had cleared out a broadleaf tree that was between two spruces, and discovered the gooseberry under it!

20180702.cleanup.maplegrove.eastside.big.gooseberry

Then there’s this gooseberry bush, in dire need of having the deadwood cut away.  It’s growing next to a chokecherry tree, which was also overgrown and in need of pruning at its base.

20180702.cleanup.maplegrove.eastside.gooseberry.chokecherry.cleared

It was amazing how cutting just one sucker at the bottom of the chokecherry tree cleared almost everything up!  A few downward hanging branches to clear away, and various saplings, burdock and stinging nettle to clear away at the base, and what a difference!  I even found some raspberry bushes with baby berries on them.

The gooseberry, on the other hand, has almost no sign of berries on it at all, and what little it does have are not looking good.

20180702.cleanup.maplegrove.eastside.appletree.before

This is the very end of the “raspberry” row, with an apple tree near the compost pile.  There’s even a lonely little asparagus fern growing in here!

20180702.cleanup.maplegrove.eastside.appletree.after

I found more salvageable raspberry canes.  After cutting away some lower branches and saplings at the base of the apple tree (including maple and elm saplings), it was basically just weeding and removing old raspberry canes.  There are some plants in there I recognize as flowers my mother planted, so I tried to avoid taking those out.  Lots of creeping charlie and burdock in here.

At this point, I called it a night.  Which worked out perfectly, because that’s when I got a call from the second tree care company about coming over.  It was another father and sons team. :-)

When they got here, I showed them the areas I wanted work done on, plus the trees to come down.  He asked questions about how far back I wanted to cut things (basically, enough to not have to do this again for 5 years).  He wanted to know about the overhanging branches, which would normally be left if they are not touching the lines.  One of them is a very healthy maple tree, and cutting it back would mean removing pretty much half the tree.  When I pointed out it was from those overhanging branches that we got the burned branch from, and that it had happened before, causing a power outage, he understood why I didn’t want ANY overhanging branches at all.  They even measured the trunks of the trees that will be taken down, including the dead spruce.  They had to take into account being able to get their equipment in, too, and I told them about the three different gates that were available.  We also talked about cleanup.  He charges extra if they bring in a chipper, but I did say I wanted to keep the chips for mulch, and to keep the bigger wood, too.  He mentioned they don’t usually chip dead branches, because it dulls the cutting edges, but the stuff they’ll be cutting back will mostly be life branches.

He took a whole bunch of notes, and I will get the estimate emailed to me.

I told him about how we don’t own the land, and that I am getting estimates to talk to my mother and brother about before a decision is made, and that I’m hoping to get it done in the fall.  Or spring, if the cost is higher (which I suspect it will be, with these guys, but we shall see).  He was good with fall, mentioning after August is when they’d be available to do the work, so that works out.

And that’s it for the next while.  Tomorrow will be a trip to the city for my daughter, which should give my body time to rest.  Feeling pretty stiff and sore right now! :-D

The Re-Farmer

Clean Up: maple grove progress

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Today, I am continuing working on the East end of the maple grove, and have just stopped for a hydration break before finishing for the day.

I am thinking it would be a good idea to rent a wood chipper in the fall.  There is just SO much wood being cleaned and cleared away.

So this is what the area looked like on Saturday, after I cleared out the old garden path.

20180630.cleanup.maplegrove.near.gardenpath.lookingeast

Apparently, the only photos I have taken from the other end don’t show the whole area.  Ah, well.

An interesting thing about my taking all these before and after pictures, as that I have a time record, too.  I don’t typically pay attention to what time I start or finish, but my phone’s camera is set to use the date and time in the file names.  This means I can say with confidence that I worked about 1 1/2 hours, starting just before noon, in this area.

This is what I did in that 1 1/2 hours. :-)

I started by clearing away by the water tap.  For that one, I just had to take some video.

So… that post isn’t doing anything useful anymore. :-(

I cleared out a couple of dead spruces beside the tap, one of which was rotten enough that I just broke the trunk at ground level and pulled it out.  There were some elms growing out of an old trunk that was pretty big when someone finally cut it down.  That’s the one that has me wondering if the roots have caused any problems with the underground water pipe.

There was another dead spruce nearby that I took down.

20180702.cleanup.maplegrove.eastend.downed.spruce

I even got it to fall right on my pile! :-D

As I moved on and went to pull some stuff out of the grass by another dead tree, I stepped on something that sank under my foot.

Do you see it?

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Neither could I.  Even after using the weed trimmer here, I see nothing.

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It was some fence wire that was rolled up, but ended up flattened at some point. From the looks of the rusty old soup can I also found under it, it’s been here for quite a long time!

I moved the two tillers closer to the shed so I could clear where they were sitting.  That included moving two garbage cans (one of which was partially sheltering a tiller) and piece of aluminum that looks like it is part of ducting for a large building that used to shelter a push mower.  My brother took the mower to see if he could fix it.

When I went to take out some other fence wire in the area I found…

20180702.cleanup.maplegrove.eastend.tree.wire

… a chokecherry tree and some vines growing through it.

Some of this is going to wait until my telescoping pole chainsaw arrives – I got a shipping notification in my email this morning. :-)  I also won’t be going back through this area with the weed trimmer until after I’ve cleaned it out more and cut trunks down to ground level.  I was finding too many rocks, branches, brick and pieces of wire.  I got the cheapest weed trimmer I could find, so I don’t want to wreck it!

At the Easternmost end of this area is a couple of dead spruces.  One of them had thick vines growing out the bottom of it that I had cut, but left hanging.

Today, I pulled them out.

The vines may have started at the base of one tree, but part way up, it spread to the other dead spruce tree (and is likely what killed both of them).

20180702.cleanup.maplegrove.eastend.triffid.vines

Looks like some kind of triffid!!  Some of it broke off and is still in the tree, but this is most of it.

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These are the two dead spruce threes it was attached to.  Funny.  They look MUCH emptier, now that the triffid vine is out.

Oh, my SIL told me about an app called Plant Snap that I downloaded and tested out.  These vines are Virginia Creeper.  It is related to grapes, but their berries are poisonous to humans (birds can eat them), and the sap can be an irritant.  Because they spread through rhizomes so aggressively, it looks like the only way to permanently get rid of them is with some Roundup.  Which I plan to use elsewhere, at some point, so that works out.  I’m told that spruces are impervious to Roundup, but clearly not to these vines!

This is what the area looks like now.

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Later today, I plan to work on that north row.  After that, this section will be pretty much done, other than what is waiting for a chain saw.

20180702.cleanup.maplegrove.eastend.afternoon.treepile

Here is the pile of what 1 1/2 hours of cleaning and clearing trees looks like, including the vines.

Yeah.  Wood chipper.

The Re-Farmer

 

 

 

Clean Up: Maple Grove, garden path

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We had some much more pleasant temperatures today, so I headed out to do some work in the maple grove this evening.

After the tree care guy came to give us an estimate, I decided to focus first on clearing the old garden path.  Whether we hire these guys, or the company coming to give a quote on Monday, they will need to bring equipment in to access the trees they will be cutting clear from the power lines.  Good enough reason to start at the old garden path.

This is what it looked like before.

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The deadwood on the ground here is partially cut, and it made up of several trees.  Elm and maple, from the looks of it.

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This photo was taken back in May, and you can see where the path is supposed to be in the background.

I also worked my way along the north row of trees, bordering the garden, and heading towards the garden shed.  I started off by using the weed trimmer to take town the tall grass and weeds, so that I could at lease see the branches and trunks.

Then I started dragging stuff out.  This photo is of JUST the deadwood I pulled out of the grass.

20180630.cleanup.maplegrove.gardenpath.deadwoodpile

Almost all of this is just from that blocked garden path!  Even after this, I kept finding more, as I walked back and forth and I would step on something.  I’d then go to pick up what I expected to be a small branch, often finding myself pulling out something 6-7 feet long, and completely buried in grass and leaves!

After I cleaned out the stuff already on the ground, I started taking out the dead spruces on either side of the path, and cut back the other trees that I had pulled the deadwood out of.  They were mostly dead, already.  I also took out another small dead spruce tree that was near the big dead one that will be coming down when we get the lines cleared.  I almost left a young elm to grow, until I clued in to how close it was to the big dead spruce.  I looked up and, sure enough, the elm was directly below the power lines.

So that had to go.

Along with the dead stuff, I also cleaned up some suckers at the bases of other trees, or growing out of stumps.  Some of those suckers had been growing long enough to almost be trees all on their own.  For the trees I took down, I left fairly tall stumps to make it easier to see them until I can cut them at ground level.  A fair bit is being left until my birthday present arrives. :-D

I finished off with the weed trimmer again.

Here are the after pictures.

20180630.cleanup.maplegrove.gardenpath.after

A couple of the stumps near the centre of the picture were already there, hidden by the suckers growing out of them.  The old garden path is now open!

The big dead spruce tree that will come down is the one with the big rock next to it.  There is also a young maple kind of by itself there right now, and I will be cutting that down when my birthday present gets here.  It’s directly under the power lines, too, and already grown tall enough to almost touch them!

20180630.cleanup.maplegrove.near.gardenpath.after

This photo was taken from near the big dead spruce tree.  The main garden area is completely overgrown, but it was so roughly plowed, mowing is not an option.  It’s not a priority right now.

There are three spruces next to each other, just right of centre in the photo.  I am hoping the one in the middle can be salvaged.  The other two are too far gone.

On the garden side, starting from about where those spruces are (I think they are Colorado blues), is the old row a raspberries.  It’s completely choked out with crab grass and weeds, and overshadowed by mostly dead trees, with a very few canes trying to grow.  Another area that is not a priority right now.  When the time comes, we plan to have a raspberry patch with three different varieties, including one with gold coloured berries, that mature at different times.  That way, we will be harvesting berries from July through September. :-)

All in good time.

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I plan to work my way down these two rows of trees, next.  Where the big rock is, is the garden tap.  It’s got a couple of dead trees by it, as well as a live one.  They will all come down to clear the tap, and the buried pipe that leads to the house.  I’m hoping the roots haven’t caused any problems.  I have yet to hook it up at the house end to test it out, since it’s barely accessible right now.

There are two old tillers that have been sitting there for years, one covered with a piece of tin, the other with an old rug.  They should still be salvageable, so I am hoping to be able to move them into a shed or maybe the barn, to get them out of the weather.

Once this area is done, I will turn my attention to the West side of the maple grove.  Lots of deadfall in there, too.

The really big job is going to be dealing with the trees to the North of the grove, that has been so densely planted with trees.

While doing this outside, I also will be working on packing up the old kitchen, so we can get that cleaned out and looking good again.  I want to get that done within the next week.  I’d like to be able to open the door and not worry about the cats getting int. :-)

Lots to do!  :-)

The Re-Farmer

Trees: first quote

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2018-06-30.goldfinch

Goldfinch on our platform feeder.

I called two companies to get quotes about clearing our power lines, and removing the two trees that are a risk of falling on our roof.  One called this morning and will be coming out on Monday.  The other came today, so I have one quote now.

There are a LOT of trees that will need to be cut back.  There are the first group of trees in the south yard, the ones in the maple grove to the north of the house, the ones by the second power pole in the main garden, and finally the ones at the fence line as the lines exit the property.  One of the dead spruce trees will be taken down completely, as it is a risk for falling onto the lines, plus the two maples at leaning over the roof will be taken down completely.  They will be bringing a chipper for clean up, and after talking to him about that, I’ve said that we will keep the chippings.  He said the size of the chips are appropriate for composting, so that’s perfect for what I’ve got in mind for various areas.

Altogether, the quote is $1500 (plus, I assume, taxes, to about $1700 total).  For the number of trees they’ll be working on, I find this very reasonable, and we would be able to come up with the funds to get it done in the fall, rather than have to wait until spring.  Though when he saw the maple with the rot in it, he was visibly surprised that tree is still up, and was saying it might be better to not wait until fall!  I told him it’s been like that for years, and yeah, I’m in agreement with him on that.  But we will do it when we have the money.

So that’s one down!

2018-06-30.nuthatch

Nuthatch on platform feeder.

After we get another quote on Monday, we will make a decision on which company to use and start setting aside funds.

I will be much relieved when this is finally done!

The Re-Farmer

Down it goes

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When things started to cool down, I did a check around the yard to see how things were.

No surprise at all to find that, having taken down a dead tree trunk recently, the still living but broken branch is was supporting has come down.

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Unfortunately, it hasn’t broken completely.

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The break is way too high for any attempt to cut it with the extended pruning saw.  I tried to pull and twist it, but it’s still hanging on.  All I managed to do was break of some smaller branches.

I’m just going to have to leave it for now.  As it dries up, it should eventually become brittle enough to pull down.

Meanwhile, it is basically blocking the path around to the back of the storage house that I was able to go through with the riding mower.  Which means that, when I do get the chance to mow, I’m going to have to find some way to either get it down, or somehow prop it to one side until I’m done mowing.

Oh, my!  As I wrote this post, some very dark clouds moved in from the West.  We’ve got storm warnings for that side of the province, though not as far us.  Hopefully, we’ll at least get some rain. According to my weather app, we should have heavy rain and a thunderstorm in 21 minutes.  Whether that actually hits us, we shall see!  The last few predictions of rain and storm missed us entirely.

The Re-Farmer

 

 

Oh, Dear

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As we dealt with the cows this morning, I phoned up the renter to let him know about his broken electric gate.  Later in the morning, before heading to town to meet my brother and his wife for lunch, I took a quick walk around.  Fresh tire tracks in the tall grass showed me that the renter had already come and gone, checking both of his electric gates in the process of fixing the one, and got the cows back on their side of the fence.  We never even saw him!

One thing I saw while checking the electric gate by the barn was barbed wire sticking up out of the tall grass that wasn’t visible before.  Turns out, there’s an old barbed wire gate that was hidden in the grass.  The cows’ hooves must have got caught and pulled some of the wire up.  Yikes!  I’m going to have to put a priority on cleaning that out, even though it’s outside of where we are focusing on this year, just so no one gets hurt.  The posts in the gate are rotten to the point of broken, so it’s completely unusable.

When we got back from town, my daughters and I moved the power pole completely into the yard, along the back of the garage, so that it’s out of the way.  With the cows gone, we left the vehicle and people gates open again, but at least now we know what sort of work they need to have done.  The reason the people gate no longer latches is because the fence post on one side is now leaning away from the gate.  We’ll have to decide if it’s even worth straightening, at this point.

After moving the power pole to its new location, I was glad that I had managed to do all the weed trimming last night, in preparation for mowing, including where we just left the pole.  I even cleared around most of the apple trees.  With 200 ft of cord, I was able to just reach the second furthest tree, but only trim on one side of it. :-D  An extra 10 ft of cord would have allowed me to finish the row, but I was just too tired to get one at that point.  It took me about 3 – 3 1/2 hours to trim around the entire yard, including going into some areas that I’ve newly cleared.

It was while trimming in front of the garden shed that I noticed something I hadn’t before.

Of the two trees leaning towards the house that have to come down, one is over the roof and its branches sometimes hit when it bounces in high winds.

The other reaches far enough that we can see it from inside the living room, but isn’t actually touching the roof.

Which is good.  Because I discovered this last night.

20180623.ant.damage.maple

A terrible picture, I know, but it was starting to get dark.

Somehow, in all the times I’ve been around this tree, I had never paused to look into this bole.  While weed trimming, however, it was right in my face and I couldn’t miss it.

That’s rotten wood and the remains of a carpenter ant nest.

Which means this tree is more unstable than I originally thought.  More unstable than the one I was more concerned about.

*sigh*

When I call to get quotes to have trees cleared from the power lines, I’m going to have to include these two trees as well.

If we can get this done before winter, I will be feeling much better!

Meanwhile, temperatures were cool enough today that I was finally able to mow the areas outside the yard (dodging fresh cow pies in the process! *L*).  It should have been done days ago, but was just too hot.

It’s looking so much better now! :-)

The Re-Farmer

Clean up: old lilacs

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I posted about an area I’ve been working on for some time that I feel is now pretty much done.  Today, I was able to go back and take some photos.  It will still need some raking and a pass with the weed trimmer, and the odd pruning of little things that got missed, but the big work is done.  You can read more about the progress here, here, here, here, and here.

Yeah, I’ve been working on this section for a while!

Here are some before and after pictures.

20180616.cleanup.bushes.east.lilacs.before

What used to be rows of lush lilac bushes have been reduced to mostly dead branches and stems, and many long, tall stems with nothing but a few green leaves at the top, trying to get some sunlight.

20180623.cleanup.bushes.more.lilac

I was being pretty ruthless in what I cut; the back of the row had a lot of undergrowth of false spirea at one end, caragana at the other, and lilac suckers all over.  Much of it could be pulled right out of the ground without using pruning shears or saw.

Here is the next section’s before picture.

20180614.cleanup.bushes.after2

In this picture, I had already done some cleaning in the front rows of trees and bushes.  Here it is, after clearing the back row.

20180623.cleanup.bushes.dead.tree.plums

I used a bow saw to cut part of the dead tree down as well.  Some of the tiny little trees still in between are plum trees, so I wanted to keep them.  Otherwise, I took out all the undergrowth and cleaned out the remaining lilacs in the back.

In the next section, I worked my way up to an old caragana, which is as far as I’d cleaned up from the other end of the row of trees and bushes.  This next picture is from before I started on the front area with the plums.

20180613.cleanup.plum

I had cleaned up the front around the plums and linden tree, and from one side, cleared out some old lilacs and the caragana.  This is what it looks like now that the back is cleared up.

20180623.cleanup.bushes.plums.caragana

I’ve decided to keep this caragana, though it still needed to have some old trunks removed.  Like a lot of the other dead wood I removed, I was pulling some of it right out of the ground, with no need for cutting, it was dead for so long.

There are quite a few dead bits of trunk sticking up in several places that I have left for now.  I am not able to cut them flush to the ground at the moment, so I’d rather they were taller – and more visible – then cutting them only part way down.

It’ll be good to get in with the weed trimmer and a rake, but it’ll wait for cooler temperatures!

The Re-Farmer