Goodbye Big Tree

[NOTE: I just found this post and realized I'd written it in July of 2007 without ever publishing it. So for posterity, here it is.]

I moved to the house I currently live in sometime around the 9th year of my life. Before that I'd lived in a condominium a quarter mile away and before that, a roach-motel of an apartment in Mount Vernon, NY until I was about one year old. The house itself was built during the early 1950s and the trees that are/were on the property have been there since the inception of the neighborhood.

Sadly, about 8 years ago the big Maple tree in our back yard got sick. Despite nitrogen injections and heroic efforts made by my mother and the people at the tree-rescue company, the tree died and had to be cut down so it wouldn't fall onto the house during a heavy storm. That was a sad day as not only was the tree beautiful, but it's leaves provided tons of shade for the back yard, it's roots a grave site for many of my childhood pets, and a lovely branch from which my tire swing had hung.

Then, in the last few years we started to notice that the Japanese Maple growing in the front yard wasn't as robust as it had been in the past. Fewer and fewer leaves were coming back spring after spring until finally, this spring, nothing grew back-- this tree had died, too.

Sigh. It was really unexpected, as you can imagine, when the town arborist made a visit to our front lawn to inspect our "sick" tree. No, not the dead Japanese Maple. The arborist told us that our beloved gigantic Ash had to come down-- the only remaining of the great living trees in the yard. My whole family was shocked-- this was a gorgeous, healthy looking, leaf-laden tree which appeared to be thriving where it was next to our driveway. For days my mom argued with the town about the fate of our tree, but in the end, they told her that it was afflicted by some kind of blight and that it was a public hazard.

So, on July 8th, the men from the town came and cut it down. The three of us went into the yard and tried to stop them, but the guy basically told us that if we resisted their work, he'd just call the cops. So we stepped aside and let them do their dirty work of ridding our front yard of shade and beauty. Ugh.

Since then the yard has been noticeably sunnier (and uglier). I've been looking in planters' catalogs and wildlife books trying to pick out the types of trees we should plant in the next year or so. Maples are always a good choice for this area since they're hardy and beautiful and provide a good amount of shade... but we're also considering some more ornamental types of trees. Who knows what we'll decide, but when we do, I'll post pictures of that.

UPDATE from 2011: My parents and I never did replant in the front yard, and it remains uneven and extremely sunny (uncomfortably so in the summer). I tried adding a few small flowering shrubs in the planting beds we have in the front and back yards, and it does look a little better with the delicate hot pink flowers in the spring and summer, but they don't provide any shade and nothing compares to the majestic beauty of an old growth tree. Hopefully at some point in the future the front yard will again be the home for some beautiful shade trees. Perhaps when I move back in... I guess only time will tell.