The American Elm in our backyard has done us a lot of shade service, and we’ve pretty much neglected it. Not so in 2013! An arborist came out today to give us an assessment of the tree’s needs.
As you can see, the tree is really 3 trees, with the largest trunk on the north side of the fence (but still on our property, the fence sorta swerves to the south to go on our side of the tree) and two smaller trunks on our side of the fence. He recommends we cut off the two trunks on our side of the fence, and nurture the one main part of the tree. This will still provide plenty of shade, yet will allow more sunlight to get to the vegetable garden.
American Elms have been hit hard by Dutch Elm Disease (international scandal) so this tree could get the disease at some point. But we are going to get it pruned per the suggestions and take it from there. See the tree on the left in the picture above? It’s a Siberian Elm that grew all by itself in the alley. We’re waiting on the estimate to see how much it would cost to trim it too. It also gives us some good shade (pro) but takes some sun from my vegetables (con). Siberian Elms are even bigger than American Elms and it could grow so tall it completely covers our whole tree. These trees are really way too big as varieties to be in places like our back yard and alley… Should the Dutch win, we would plant a more appropriately sized tree as a replacement.
My vegetable plot resting for the winter. Since putting the hay down, there’s a cat that likes to curl up on it to sleep.
Snow thyme.
View from the back door, nice and warm inside!
Yes your tree definitely needs attention-shouldnt be too expensive
as the limbs are not too heavy at this stage. Its difficult to get the balance
right between proper pruning of the tree and the retention of some shade for summer.
Is your thyme still green and usable? Looks like it.