invasive species

 

The sun set on my Norway maple. It's considered a junk tree, but it stood there for probably a hundred years, and its roots went deep. I loved it. It gave me shade on the deck. The hummingbirds made nests there. But it was invading my roof, and dying. One side was gone, and my friend Carly, who stays here at the Goose sometimes,  kept being afraid it would fall over. 

 

I spent one last day on my shady porch with my tree before Cat came over. He was nicknamed Cat because that's what it said on his Caterpillar hat when he was a teen. He liked it better than Gayle, anyway. We had originally planned  to trim the tree so it wouldn't fall on the Goose, but he said it was dying and if we didn't take it down this year, it would have to go next year. So.

 

Let me just add, though my sister, The President of the Garden Club, strenuously disagrees, as do my "friends" in the Facebook Plant Identification and Discussion Group, that without invasive species in some of my places I would not have foliage at all. That goes for privet, which hides me from my neighbors in the Ozarks and this beautiful tree without which I feel denuded, but also in Block Island. There privet (again) and Russian Olive and Rose of Sharon conceal me. While poison ivy is not considered invasive!

  Those of you who do not like process shots or watching people work may want to skip the next post!