Confessions of a so-called sustainable gardener (please honey, can we lose one more tree?)

Here is the front view of my house as of this morning: my cute little blue bungalow (I want to change the yellow trim…) nestled in the spruce trees… the giant, water-hogging, nothing-will-grow-under-them spruce trees!  In case you can’t tell, there are 5 (count ‘em, 5!) in the front yard.  I also still have 5 in the backyard after taking out 4 others in the past few years.  Some previous owner went crazy planting spruce trees at least 20 years ago.

There is one tree, the one to the left of the front door (as you look at the house), that I want to get rid of.  Just out of curiosity, I requested an estimate to have it professionally removed.  It would cost $1067.85!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!  $585 to take the tree down, $234 to take away the wood, and $198 to take out the stump (plus tax).  Um, not exactly in my gardening budget.

So live with it, my tree-hugger husband says.  He wouldn’t even want to take one down if we could get it done for free!

So I’m trying to convince him to let me and my Dad do it (we have taken down others in the past – well, my Dad did and I held the rope).  I know, it would be an insane amount of work to take it down and get rid of all that wood ourselves.   But here are the reasons why it is important to me to get rid of this tree:

1.  I can live with spruce trees.  I even know what will grow under/around them.  But with 5 large trees so close together, pretty much the whole front yard is sucked dry by their root systems.  Some plants are surviving but nothing is really thriving.  If I could just get rid of one tree’s worth of roots, I’m certain the garden would grow a whole lot better.

2.  Come on!  We would still have 10 large spruce trees in our yard!  That is more spruce than anyone could want in one city lot!  Think of the variety of different plants that would take one tree’s place.  Think of the biodiversity and the birds, bugs, bees that would be attracted by the flowering & fruiting plants I would put in its place and how much healthier the soil would be!

3.  You might say, just don’t bother trying to garden around so many spruce trees.  Just put down some nice mulch and be done with it.  I might agree if this particular tree were not smack-dab in front of a beautiful, big bay window in the front room of our house.  You can’t see it in the picture, can you?  That’s because of the *&%^$ tree!!  More importantly, the inside view from this beautiful window is ruined by the tree.  Think how much nicer it would be to look out onto a shady woodland garden, perhaps with relaxing little sitting area. With the other trees and shrubs, there will still be lots of privacy from the street.

Please honey?  Please please please?

Comments

[The Ms. S.]

We took one down that was right in front of the livingroom window at our last house. It made an amazing difference to the light in the house, as we also realized we had a lovely view. I planted woodland plants and some small shrubs there and it blended beautifully with the other giant spruce in the front yard. Also, because our house was a bungalow, I think it put the landscaping in a better scale with the house.

I think you would both love the results if you did it.

Good luck!!

(you will have to post pics if you go ahead!)

[Sophie Gabias-Moffat]

How many dollars???? It is pretty expensive: we were looking into taking our spruce down too, as it is right beside my vegetable garden and blocks afternoon light... and lets face it: it has seen better days. The spruce dates from when the house was built, in 1959. It is an old man and he should retire. My neighbor would love it too. We already have 2 old Elm trees, two lilac trees, one old apple tree out of a fairy tale and a half-dead birch tree begging us for help. I am scared that if we do it ourselves, my husband will fall off the ladder or something like that... But I want it gone. Maybe we should throw a "Cut-The-Spruce-Party" and have our friends help us... Janice, you are invited!

[Paula H]

We had to take down our beautiful weeping birch last year (giant limbs kept falling off!), it cost $500.I opted to save a couple hundred dollars by not grinding out the stump-I incorporated it into my new garden. Plus I had the arborist cut the trunk into big sections for outdoor seats! By the way, did you know that your kids get spruce(or is it a pine?) trees in grade one for arbor day? I don't know why the city can't find a better tree to give out. The instructions are for a tree that gets 20m tall and 4m wide! Try explaining to your darling why you don't want their tree as part of the garden. (ours is currently near the giant spruce out back-sigh.)

[Facaderens]

Beautiful house with a plenty of huge and green tree. Thank you for sharing.

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i would love to see how you ''sustain'' a garden in a winter time, that would be amazing, anyway, i love your front door!