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Sometime within the past 10 years I must have lost my mind. Several times. I'm looking out the glass doors and into my back yard - the glass doors are about 12' wide - and sometime along the way I planted without thinking a tiny mimosa seedling, a magnolia seedling, a stick that was half dead but grew to be a smoke tree and in addition to that the birds planted a holly tree and something planted a crape myrtle seed. So within a 12' view I have these trees in a sort of half circle. As I sit here and look out, I realize I'm in the middle. Ten years of growth makes for a lot of width and height. Something's gotta go or I will soon be living in a jungle that will be difficult to enter or exit.
We had a huge old ash growing there in the back yard, but as old trees go, it began to show signs of age and became a bit of a hazard during some of our strong winds. It began to lose limbs that bounced off the roof and since it was on an incline if it ever started leaning it would lean right over into the middle of the house. So it had to go. When it was gone I remember frantically trying to plant things that would recover the shade we'd lost, since that side of the house gets the hot afternoon and evening sun. The cottonwood helped but it's directly west, so it doesn't do its thing until late in the evening. So I planted in a frenzy, thinking that not everything I planted would grow. Now keep in mind, I had gardens of perennials in my backyard.
But everything did grow and now I find myself cocooned within the space of my deck. On the far edges of this half circle there is the tallest wisteria on one end and the redbud and a huge Japanese maple on the other. And further out between the smoke tree and the magnolia, there is a young golden raintree and further still, there is a 35 year old golden maple.
When we moved here in '73, it was a new neighborhood and my house was only 2 years old. It had two tiny maples, one on each side of the driveway in front, and the old ash in back. Three trees. My children planted the backyard maple with a teaspoon one day. They were maybe 2 and 4; they are in their late 30s now. Then I got the bald cypress to plant in the slightly seeping area of the underground spring on the east end of the house. Then on that same end a male persimmon popped up and I left it to grow. Then I added a cedar seedling up on the hill. Then a small witch hazel when the ornamental crabapple died. Not sure where the crabapple came from. And another cedar seedling was added to the front. One could say I have a thing about trees and that's true. A quirk I brought with me from the mountains, I think.
So I'm sitting here thinking that something needs to go but I've waited too long and except for the mimosa everything is taller than my house. It all feels good on hot summer afternoons, the breeze flows through and the leaves rustle and the birds - cardinals and blue birds and mocking birds, robins and finches as well as the occasional dove or two - love my back yard. But my perennials are now shaded and sometimes in the early morning, it all closes in on me and thoughts of chain saws creep into my mind.
And so it was this morning as I took Sunshine out for her morning romp in the back yard - she wound herself around the magnolia first, then the maple then the witch hazel and of course she's just now learning how to back up and turn around and unwind herself. She has a wide expanse of lawn to run in, but she chooses to first go check out the trees.
Truth is, I think she's just going to have to learn to unwind herself and I'll just have to trim the lower branches and we both need to be content with the way things are. I never was very good with a chain saw anyway, but I believe with some lower branches gone, the perennials might be a little happier. Maybe the birds won't mind and I will be happier too. I don't believe Sunshine cares one way or the other.
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