The people I bought my house from did that. There’s a beautiful blue spruce right at the front corner of the house. I know it’ll get way too big to be there but damn, I love that tree. It’s the best part of the whole place.
When I was a kid we had several lovely trees in our yard including a marvelously large tulip poplar, a multi-trunked birch, a couple of japanese maples and two tall apple trees. My grandmother used to make the best fried apple pies for us. There was another tree of unknown variety that had the perfect bend amongst the branches to make a cozy seat and read books. There was also a convenient handhold to climb up into the tree in the shape of a sturdy metal rake head that someone had left hanging there too long and the wood had grown around it. After I went away to college my mother decided the apple trees were too big and too close to the house as well as too messy with all the rotting fruit on the ground so she had them cut down. I didn’t know about it until I came home on vacation. It was quite distressing to say the least. Storms took the top out of the tulip poplar and ice broke the maples. Worried about tree branches falling on the house or cars, my mother took out the rest of them. It was really sad, felt like a part of my childhood was just erased.
I visited a friend in Georgia, another Doper. His church had just recently finished a new building. The land it was on had been part of a pecan orchard. A member of the congregation used wood from some of the trees to fashion their Communion rail at the front of the church sanctuary. Really lovely, smooth dark wood.
Maple is great for smoking. To use for woodworking it will take a long time to dry. I’d suggest squaring off some pieces with a chainsaw, leaving them outdoors, covered, for a couple of years, then bring them indoors to finish drying. If you’re just making decorative pieces that don’t have to hold their shape perfectly over time then do the work while the wood is still green. It will be much easier.
Sorry, Chefguy, that sucks. As a certifiable treehugger, I can feel your pain. Maples are gorgeous in the fall, but they have the worst possible root systems for street plantings. They grow fast, too, so at 20 years old I’m guessing it was a good-sized tree.
:eek: Holy Moses! How old is it? Do the American Chestnut Foundation or the US Arboretum know about this? That’s a big deal!
From Wikipedia:
My dad used to talk about the forest being full of chestnut trees when he was little (we live in the Appalachians), then they all just… died.
My mother took me to Portland several times to visit my grandmother when I was a child. The part of Multnomah Street where she lived was lined with huge old trees, and I have memories of playing in their shade. After we moved here, I took a drive past her old house; but of course the trees, like my grandmother and parents, are all gone.
I would assume they do, we got 2 from the gentleman that was working with some university trying to save the genus in the US - I can’t imagine that the guy would give out trees and not make a note of where they went. Hm, I think it would have been about 1970 or 71. Unfortunately one of the pair got nailed by a drunk driver and it got the trunk split in a nonreparable way so it died. <the gent in question was a friend of my fathers, not sure how they met though my Dad for decades was heavily involved with Boy Scouts - to the tune of being a camp inspector and on the Genesee Council, had been a scout since he was a kid. I think it is plausable that is somehow the link between them.>
If I knew how to do it, I would offer dopers cuttings. If someone is near Rochester NY and knows how and when to best do it, I can definitely try to arrange a meetup at Mom’s house to spread the wealth. Spring? [I know nothing about plants, I have a black thumb, nay, a veritable black hand. I once managed to kill an air fern :smack:]
Three years ago we were kayaking and saw a magnificent Oak tree. On the ground we found the largest acorns I had ever seen. I put a few in my boat and took them home with me. The acorns went into the freezer for a year, then I took them out and tried to germinate them. A few rotted, but two germinated.
I planted one in a pot, then just as it started looking good, a chipmunk dug it out of its pot and consumed it. I planted the second in a more secure manner. It is now about a foot tall and has dropped its leaves.
My plan is to transplant to a bigger pot in the spring, then in a few more years plant it in our yard, well away from the house. In fifty years or so it should look good. If I live to be 110, I’ll update this thread with a picture.
I have a huge maple tree in the exact location as the OP (what we call the “tree lawn”). The tree’s been there forever, and there are no problems with the roots. I’m thinking that it was planted deeper, or possibly a variety whose roots don’t go up to the surface.
However I’m having problems with another maple that the next door neighbors planted about 5 years ago, about 2 feet from the property line, and it’s already pushing up my driveway. Another neighbor planted a tree about 18" from his own house. I’m waiting to see the inevitable.
Why don’t people think before doing stupid things?
Our neighborhood lost two maples this year. They had been planted in raised planters about 10 or 12 feet square thirty or so years ago and were horribly root-bound. They would leaf out beautifully every spring, but the leaves would shrivel, turn brown, and fall off well before the end of summer. Very sad, but understandable. It took the tree company a full week to remove both of them.
These guys were very efficient. In one day they not only took out the huge maple, but another tree behind the house that was just as big, and ground down both stumps.
It took the tree company a full week to remove both of them.