I have 4 fully mature hickory trees in my backyard, one of which overhangs the deck on the back of our house, while another overhangs my driveway. I’m a bit of a tree-hugger, but dang, these are a poor choice for a suburban backyard, From the incredible volume of springtime debris, to the gigantic car-denting, sounds-like-a-rifle-shot-when-it-hits-your-deck nuts, I’m tempted to get out the chainsaw.
Well, not really, I couldn’t bring myself to cut down 4 perfectly healthy trees, and they do shade the south side of my house nicely. But still, they are a pain in the butt. A nut almost beaned my black lab the other day, it landed right next to her while she was…uh…making a deposit, Scared the everloving crap out of her, so to speak.
I feel your pain. We don’t have hickory trees but we do have silver maples. Piles of those helicopter seed thingies and small twigs every time the wind blows.
I’m pretty sure these trees are why our neighbors installed rain gutters with covers. The guy was on his roof a couple weeks ago sweeping off the seeds.
A long time ago I worked at a hospital research center where I had to walk to deliver study materials to another center a few blocks away several times a day. I had to walk a gauntlet of horse chestnut trees lining the sidewalks the whole way just as the buckeyes were dropping. Those things are like little assault weapons raining down from the sky.
I’d trade you my sycamore for your hickory OR for the pecan tree. At least what those drop is useful (and tasty), and the fallen limbs/twigs/etc can be used for smoking.
We have two big oaks in the front yard. Every few years our driveway has thousands of little ball bearings. Okay, really they are acorns, but same effect.
I have a fused apple/pear tree in my front yard. When we bought the place I was so excited, thinking I was going to have apples and pears. What I have is a hell of a lot of pink flowers to rake up in the spring and crab apple bombs during the summer. The car is safe because we have a garage and the tree doesn’t overhang the driveway. But, at least once a week I get bonked on the head while walking to check my mail.
That fucker is coming down as soon as we have the spare money. When it’s gone, I think I’ll plant something safe - like tomatoes.
Oh you mean these little beauties? We have one those too. Come to think of it, we have a lot of nuisance trees. Three hickory trees, one sweet gum, two pin oaks We also have cedar and two maples, but they are relatively nuisance-free.
Still, glad to have them all, lot’s of shade, and they are beautiful. Doesn’t mean I don’t grumble about them at a times.
I’ve got a bradford pear in the front yard. It’s a very pretty tree when it’s in bloom, but dear God is it messy! After those pretty flowers bloom, they all drop onto the front yard in a thick carpet that has to be raked up if you don’t want it to smother your lawn. And it drops branches every time the wind blows even gently. The wife loves it (because she doesn’t have to clean up after it), but I fantisize about finding some sort of tree disease that only kills bradford pears
I still have dents on my pickup truck from the hickory trees at my old house. They were nice trees, you just had to remember not to park under them (and of course one overhung the part of the driveway closest to my house.)
Those are called ice storms. Bradfords are the worst - they’re fragile in the winter, they’re absolute torture on people with allergies, and they’re a pretty invasive species.
