My front yard is dominated by this massive aspen tree. I've hated it since the day we first came to look at the house almost 5 years ago.
And tonight, a tree company is coming to chop the damned thing down!!!!! They won't be grinding the stump, too expensive and I don't want them to destroy my entire yard with their machinery (2 men w/chainsaws is one thing, a giant stump grinder is another thing). Luckily aspens have a shallow root system, so DH & I should be able to cut out the stump ourselves (bought a sawsall for this occasion). Then I'll replace it with a tree that I do like.. probably a Golden Rain or a Crabapple of some kind. Has to be smaller (15-20 ft) and I want it to be some kind of ornamental.
Pic of tree. Yes, this is an aspen. It's a "European Columnar Aspen". It's at least 17 years old. Please excuse the disaster the front yard is.. I putz around constantly & use kitty litter buckets for EVERYTHING!! This was taken at about 8:20 in the morning and you can see how the entire yard is shaded still. In the afternoon, it shades the red house beautifully, but not mine. It has a single truck that splits at the ground-level, that's why it looks like there's actually 2 trees but it's 1 stump. The front section I've damaged extensively by wacking away at roots I've found throughout the entire yard (almost anywhere I wanted to dig a hole to put in a rose had a 6" root running through it). That, plus it suckers HORRIBLY. I have baby aspens growing EVERYWHERE that I have to rip out, to no avail. You have to pour RoundUp on the root itself.. putting some on the leaves of the sucker doesn't prevent a sucker from sprouting 10" away.
I'm so excited that this will be GONE!!!!!!!!!!! YAY!!!!!!!!!!!!
