Seasonal storms wreck havoc on our specimen trees
While the calendar has resolved the threat of another fierce snowstorm causing damage to the trees we love at our house in the woods, we were very concerned about what would happen to the large flowering plum in our front yard. That tree had every single limb cracked or broken open from the weight of the February snow.
When we arrived, the tree damage made the house look so sad. What amazed me though was that even the broken limbs, hanging on the ground, were blossoming. The phrase “strong as a tree” is cliché and yet so true.
The repairs we needed called for an expert arborist, which we are fortunate to have in Felix Modugno.
He trimmed the plum tree so skillfully I know it will grow back beautifully and I plan to enjoy watching that take place over the next few years.
In addition, Felix trimmed off the broken branches from our flowering cherry in back. That’s an important tree since it is the main view from the kitchen window.
A week later, the cherry had adapted and was blooming as usual — it would be hard to tell it had been damaged at all.
Once the snow melted we discovered that a very large ash in back had come down – and if you cannot hear a tree falling if you’re not there you certainly can see what happened as a result: the ash hit one of the huge old pine trees nearby and cracked off numerous branches including a heavy one that landed on our shed.
Felix ran all of those pieces through his chipper and produced a great mound of mulch. At the risk of sounding silly, I must confess to a very satisfying feeling that we are producing our own high-quality mulch – enough to cover one very rocky area on the side of the driveway.
Next week I’ll be making some changes in the front flower beds. I tried growing roses as an experiment there and I should have some new photos to show about the changes we’ll be making there.
