AWOL

I haven't posted to this blog for over a week, and the explanation is the wonderful weather we've been enjoying in Ontario.  I have been prowling around the yard picking up the branches and twigs that the large trees like to toss down during wind storms.  We have a very tall maple and birch tree in our front yard, a red maple and black walnut in our back yard, several yews and a partial cedar hedge that is probably at least 20 feet tall.  I am not good at height measurements but I suspect most of the trees in our yard are closer to 30 or 40 feet than they are to 10 feet tall.

I grew up in Saskatchewan in a city that had to plant every tree deliberately.  Most specimens were between 10 - 20 feet tall, basically saplings with attitude.  I could wrap both hands around the trunk of every tree I saw.  Because of the difficult climate most of the deciduous trees that I recall were poplars, aspens, and willows.  When we moved to Manitoba we immediately noticed how many large trees there were, and that there were more species of trees as well.

When we moved to Ontario, I was blown away by the variety and size of trees that surrounded me.  I could not believe how many different kinds of trees there were in public parks, or in private gardens that I saw while travelling around Toronto by bus.  

The people who owned our house before us had lived here for over 20 years and planted several varieties of trees, which have become overgrown with age.  The black walnut in particular has been a pain.  It is a beautiful tall tree, but it is incredibly dirty in every season of the year.  All winter it drops branches as soon as the wind becomes stronger than a breeze.  In the spring it has whatever passes for flowers, which drop.  Then the walnuts form in clumps and they fall or are dropped by squirrels on a daily basis as soon as they reach the size of green olives.  Once the walnuts are mature the squirrels go crazy chewing the entire bunch off and dropping them in the yard.  If we try to sit under the tree to enjoy its shade the squirrels will actually aim the nuts at our heads until we retreat to safety.  The black walnut is also the first tree to lose its leaves in the fall.  First the small leaves fall and when they've been raked up and put to compost then the twigs that hold the leaves fall and clog the eaves troughs.  And this still isn't the most annoying feature of the black walnut.  The tree produces a fine mist of sap to be sure that no other plants grow under its branches.  This sap turns dark brown and glazes any lawn furniture that is under the drip zone.  In addition it's been very difficult to grow flowers or shrubs in gardens around the walnut because it's so large and so toxic to plants around it.


We've lived with these limitations for nine years and I've had enough.  If the tree was situated further from the house so that it didn't impact how we enjoy our patio and deck, I would have lived and let live.  Today I'm getting 3 estimates from tree removal companies and by this time next week there will be no black walnut.  This is heresy for a girl from Saskatchewan, and not a decision that I've made without a great deal of thought.  We will still have an enormous red maple in the back which will shade our kitchen and dining room.  Once we've had a chance to analyze the impact of removing the walnut on the entire yard, we may decide to plant a different type of shade tree.