That looks like a big project! Will you have to remove shade-loving plants and replace with sun-loving ones?

My only projects are sowing (Winter sowing and under grow lights). We still have far too much snow.

Can't wait to get out in the garden! :)

maz - I don't think I’ll need to move any shade plants… There will still be shade but more light and air too too. There are quite a few things that will be happier with more light. I will wait and see how everything does this year before making any significant plant moves. I’d actually prefer to remove a few more skinny branches up in the oak tree but DH called it ’butchery’ and was very stressed about what I did have removed so I stopped… :-)

When we started the garden here 22 years ago, I, too, grew a lot of things from seed under grow lights. I’m lazy now and we don’t grow much from seed now except a few veggies in pots.

Our snow has just been melting off in the past week. I am SO tired of winter this year! We’re supposed to get flurries tonight…Enough already!

Will you need to move toward sun-lovers now that you had the tree removed?

It's amazing how much removing a tree or limbing up can change things -- usually for the better IME. I just had some tree work done last week down by the road, both limbing and removal of two scrub trees that were basicall just trunks with a few leaves at the top. That will let a lot more sunlight in for the understory shrubs I planted for privacy and it doesn't look as much as an overgrown mess.

I'm getting close to wrapping up an interior project that's taken my attention away from other things, so I'm looking foward to getting back outside and maybe actually enjoying my garden this year. I was working from home the last two summers and it sucked the joy out of it for me. I'm (voluntarily) back to the office now and couldn't be happier about that, I'm hoping I'll get my gardening mojo back now.

I've got to start some seeds soon and pot up some roots I overwintered, stuff like that. If the weather holds, I've got some leftover clean-up from last fall to get done, too, before planting time rolls around in May. I don't have any projects planned for this year....YET. LOL! Although I planted fruit trees last year so will be busy learning the best way to care for them organically. I was so blue and unmotivated last season that I barely made a dent in the book I bought on that (board rec). Very unlike me...

mxk3 - I don’t think I’ll need to move towards sun-lovers after the ash tree comes down I think the (smallish) lawn in the backyard will be what benefits most from the removal of the ash tree. The limbed-up red oak, white pines on the west side of the yard, and numerous ornamental understory trees (e.g. white redbuds, dogwoods, serviceberries, a chokecherry, a fringetree) will be sufficient to keep woodland shade as the dominant planting theme. To a large extent I need wait and see how everything performs this summer…

I hope you get your gardening mojo back (and stay safe and healthy at your office.) :-)

There are large quantities of oak leaves that need clearing from paths and beds due to the leaves that fell during the limbing-up. Hopefully it will be warm and dry enough in a couple of weeks to do that….

Hey 'woody', it always gets me excited when a tree (or significant branches) are removed as in most cases for us we benefit with more sun in our location.

Your first post looks like lots of work for the company. I bet it wasn't cheap.$$$.

Over the past three days, the ash tree has been cut down and the stump ground out. What a mess...! We will now need to re-level and re-seed or re-sod the back lawn. This has turned into a bigger project than I expected... They had to remove the south gate door to get equipment through (the stump grinder almost didn't make it through this morning and it was touch-and-go to get the bucket extension thing through on Wednesday!) They will come back on Monday to put the gate door back on and pick up the bucket-extension thing that is now sitting on the driveway. Some pictures...:

The start of work Wednesday morning:

Near the end yesterday:

Removing pieces... (This is what messed up a good part of the lawn - those chunks are HEAVY and hard to move!)

The stump grinder at work this morning

The grinder produced a huge amount of mulch - we had him fill the hole with some of it and DH has moved some of it to mulch the path along the north and west sides of the garden.

DH raking where the tree was - it's going to take a bit of getting used to to look out and not see that tree! Getting a lawn re-established will be an important next step.

Woody yes it is one thing to imagine the Ash gone but quite another when the deed is done. You will be doing a double take for a long time. I imagine Cole will be bewildered. It has been so imprinted in our minds through pics over the years. EAB is such a scourge. Your backyard is now beautiful in a new and different way.

wow, what a difference! -and what a job it's left you even with someone else doing all the cutting and heavy lifting.

Hopefully the mower is tuned up and ready to go, once that grass starts sprouting all the light will have it growing, and you mowing, more than you have in years! I think you'll like the change even if you would have much preferred to still have a healthy ash tree there.

Yeah, it’s certainly a big change! Doing something to get a new lawn back in place is going to be a big challenge. Yesterday DH was moving some of the stump grindings onto paths as mulch, with lots more to go (the grindings where the tree was is more of a mound than it looks in the picture and we’re not sure how much it will settle with time so aren’t sure how much to remove….) Cole seems a bit confused by the absence of the tree he was used to pee against :-) He’s trying out a few new spots…! The neighbours on either side of us both have lost ash trees in recent years - and their back lawns both improved a lot! Hopefully that will be the case here - once we decide how to replace the lawn!

DH got one of the Eco self-propelled lawn mowers a couple of years ago. They need less effort to push. The lawn was only about 16’x 30’ or so and there isn’t much grass left in the front yard either so the mowing shouldn’t be much extra work. Between the limbing-up of the oak and the removal of the ash, there will be a lot less leaves to deal with in the Fall and the ash tree seedling weed problem should be gone. Ultimately I think all the change will be positive - but there is a lot of work needing doing in the next month or two :-)

Takes time to get used to a change, but I think I the end this will end up being a positive, more light and openness back there with that big tree out.

A neighbor took down a large honey locust and ground the stump. As the lower stump, roots and chips decayed a low spot formed and has to keep being topped off to level the spot, even ten years later.

The mushrooms were also fun, and for a few years you could see where the roots were by tracing the outline of sunken areas. Like anything in the garden it takes time.

It will be really interesting to see how things respond to the light. I bet in a year or two your dogwood show will be even more amazing as they get more sun and rain!

Yeah, we’ve thought of the sinking re the gradual decaying at the grinding site. We will leave that area gently mounded to allow for future sinking and also to continue to direct rainfall away from the house. The yard slopes gently from N to S and also E to W , so the tree site at the NE corner of the lawn was at the high point from a drainage perspective so we will try to keep the mound shaped to direct water away from the house as in the past.

Many (? most?) of the things planted in the backyard are things that reference sites list as full sun to partial shade. We knew almost from the begining of gardening here that the ash tree would likely go at some point, so tried to plant with its eventual loss in mind. It’s going to be interesting to see how things like Persicaria polymorpha do now. Ditto re the dogwood trees - we have one native type and three C. kousa ones. The serviceberry and Saskatoonberry should do better too. Many of the other plantings should do well or better with more sun - although I wonder if I will need to water more! There is/was a young Aronia melanocarpa near the shed that looked dead last year. I left it to see if it suckers from the roots - if it still shows no signs of life this spring, I’ve been wondering if a heptacodium tree mght get enough sun there to bring monarch butterflies into the backyard! The Fall flowers would be nice to have too.

Lots of things to think about and things to look forward to too….

I'm sure it feels good to get this work finished..I hope you get the sun you're wanting..we have a wooded lot and in the 17 years here have had trees removed..for us there was little difference in light..I was always surprised that it seemed the same!!!..

I took a screenshot of the "lift"..

we have a large ash with 2 cavities at the base..cavities were here when we moved in..it's been treated for EAB 5 times..still leafs out..not dead..many tree guys (some arborists some not) have seen it..just a few days ago I noticed a small spot where the light now goes all the way through!..

I think we'll need a "lift" to take it down..do the legs fold up?..was it on a trailer to get it into your backyard?..it will be a nightmare to get equipment into our backyard..we don't have wide open spaces..we just started discussing who and when to call arborists..

I love this tree..this makes me sad..I've always felt that our tree damage was caused by humans during the construction of homes 45 years ago..

I'm also concerned about the price..a neighbor had an estimate for a large tree removal last summer..theirs requires a crane..$6,000..their tree is still standing!..they didn't hire anyone..our tree is smaller than theirs..I'm hoping (no stump grinding) for no more than $2500..opinions anyone?..

the big one (center of pic)..leans a little to the left..

the big cavity..the retaining wall belongs to the neighbors..the previous owners built it..it's over the line on our side a little..

smaller cavities..I didn't try it but a stick would go from side to side..

AARGH! nicholsworth I just did a long reply - and the ipad lost it all! I’ll try again later

woodyoak..the same thing happened to me 2 days ago!..when that happens it's hard to get in the mood to rewrite a comment right then..and what if it didn't post the second time?..no hurry..

I’ll try to break this up into smaller pieces - I think it was the pictures I was adding re the ’lift’ that caused the problem maybe…

I hope we get the expected extra light now that the tree is gone. I think we will but time will tell…. One of my biggest worries is what will happen when the 90+ year old neighbour on the south side dies and the property likely gets sold to settle the estate! I’m expecting a two-story house and a 6’ wooden fence…. I tried to take that into account when planning this work.

We treated our ash for EAB a couple of times, but there was still noticeable deterioration. We were worried about branches falling on the roof. We decided to take it down now rather than wait until we were even older :-)

The ‘lift’ folds up to a narrow thing that ( just barely) fit through the gate. They removed the ’bucket’ part - and out gate door - to get it in the yard. It just barely fit under the gate arbour. It moves on ’caterpillar’ treads contrilled by a hand-held remote thing. It is still parked on our driveway until they pick it up tororrow, so I got DH to take some puctures for you.

The cost was not cheap but the business is capital-intensive with all the equipment and I’m sure finding qualified staff is not easy or cheap. Insurance costs are probably very high too. We haven’t got the invoice yet but the estimate for doing the three trees was $5,000Cdn. We have used the same company before to remove dead or dying trees that didn’t need the ’lift’ thing and they were $2,000 or less to do.

I’ll put the pictures in a separate post….

Pictures of the ’lift’ for nicholsworth:

It’s very narrow with the legs folded up.

You can see the treads it moves on… That bucket’ thing was removed to go through the gate.

The door was taken off the gate to move the ’lift’ through it.

Nicholsworth - I just looked at your tree pictures… Some of those cavities look like root branches growing out of the ground rather than rotting wood…?

thank you woodyoak 🙂..the pics are great..I'm doing screenshots and sending them to my husband to keep on his phone..they'll be helpful when we talk to arborists..

companies with equipment do charge more and that only makes sense..we prefer using better companies with equipment too..I was expecting a hefty bill for your work..thanks for sharing..your estimate doesn't shock me..I bet our work could be $3000 or more..🙁

EAB started north of us..we were able to treat before signs of trouble..IF a professional says we can wait awhile my husband wants to delay removal..he hates losing the tree more than I do..

I hope your backyard has more sunshine!!..I've accepted the fact that I have shade 😂..but I still truly love living here..

I understand your concern about new neighbors..after 15 years we got some new neighbors that are a nightmare..I had to make my mind up not to let them ruin my joy and ignore them..that is much easier said than done..

enjoy putting your garden back together..looking forward to the pics of your new garden..🌿

woodyoak..you're right..those are roots..but there's open space next to them (my red dots)..the spaces are deep..you can't see it well in the pics but a squirrel/cat/small dog could actually crawl into the biggest "hole" at the base (the pic without dots)..the tree is so tall that it worries me that someday not enough trunk will be holding up that tree..an arborist told me he's removed lots of trees here and he thinks contractors were hitting them with excavators and over time cavities developed..many contractors are careless..happens in all kinds of work..they make me angry..Lol

I'm always working to remain calm 😂..

nicholsworth - from the sounds of it, I’d think those ’cavities’/elevated roots might make the tree more prone to uprooting in a strong wind….? You have lots of trees though by the looks of the first picture so that might help reduce the force of wind pushing on any one tree. Maybe a ’tree guy’ like ken might have a more eductated opinion :-)

woodyoak..it's beautiful here and I'm outside 🙂..here you go..much better pics..this one tells the whole story..

see the light?..yikes!..

the big cavity..

one of the small cavities..

my earlier pics weren't close enough..

It still looks to me it could just be elevated roots, making the tree more prone to falling over I think - it doesn't really matter in a practical sense what the cause is if the end result is a fallen tree :-)

BTW - DH said when he was talking to one of the tree guys, the tree guy said that 'lift' thing cost them $150,000! Given their other equipment (e.g. stump grinder heavy-duty chipper and dump truck, a heavy truck with a bucket extension thing, pick-up trucks, smaller misc. equipment like heavy handcarts, saws of various sizes and types, etc.) I'd guess that there must be at least half a million $ invested in the basic equipment. That needs a lot of trees pruned and/or removed at a fairly high cost to pay their basic bills! LOL- can you tell that I used to be an economist and accountant...?!

woodyoak..the roots could be elevated..I have no knowledge about elevated roots..the property slopes and it makes sense to me the tree could be growing "high"..

it alarmed me to see a tunnel in my tree!..

I do see the accountant in you! Lol..I've heard the men in my family have the same type of conversation..and it's true..

better to pay an expert (with equipment) more $$$ than use a lesser qualified person (without equipment) that could hurt (maybe kill) someone or damage a house..

thanks for your thoughts..I dread dealing with this..makes me sad..