TreeTuesday: Goodbye old Oak :-(

See the man up in the tree? I'm sad to be the bearer of sad news to #treetuesday, but well, here is a live action video of the removal of the very old stately Oak seen from my backyard.

It's not the best resolution, but on close inspection you can see a Norway maple in front of the oak (darker bark). Apparently the oak was diseased (with what? I'll have to find out) and according to neighborhood gossip, costing the owners $5000 to take it down. yikes.

It's always sad to see a large tree being taken down, but certainly best if the disease is contagious. Or if it's some kind of insect infestation. If it's insects of some sort, I hope they are taking precaution so that the little buggers don't just move on over to the next tree. Also, the tree clippings should NOT go into the town compost or town mulch...that would surely spread it. One reason I won't use public compost or mulch is because, well, you never know what pathogens or invasives you'd be introducing.

The other thing I'm sad about is that I won't have the towering Oak to give me a wee bit more afternoon shade to my yard. I do have a big Green Ash tree for afternoon shade, but the tree that will benefit most from the Oak removal is the aforementioned "crappy Norway maple". Norway maples are not only invasive, they create a deep shade that prevents under growth, not to mention, their root system just hog all the moisture and they make a dense tangled web making it impossible to dig. Too bad it wasn't the maple that had to be taken down.

On another note, in the video you can see the neighbor's jungle gym tent climb-y thingie. I'm very much looking forward to my arborvitaes growing like mad, now with more sunlight, so as to block the possibility of being the target of neighbor kids' spying habits ;-)

Happy Gardening Everyone!

@gardenlady