A few weeks ago I wrote about the dead tree on the front lawn. A short time later a City of Ottawa tree guy appeared on my doorstep and we went over what our options were. These were the trees we could choose from:
Large trees: Ginkgo, Hackberry, Red Oak
Medium trees: Red Maple, Honey Locust, Turkish Hazel
Small trees: Serviceberry, Crab Apple, Oakleaf Mountain Ash
Each of them are pretty in their own right, but we eventually picked the Ginkgo to replace our Maple. After our reno we will request a Serviceberry for the side yard. (We’re on a corner lot so we qualify for two city trees.)
The Ginkgo is an interesting tree. The leaf shape is gorgeous and it turns bright yellow in the fall. As a species the Ginkgo has been around for a long time. It’s practically a prehistoric tree, and because of that it’s evolved to become very bug/disease tolerant. It’s very long-lived too. It will outlive us by a long shot.
Anyway, the new tree isn’t going to be here in awhile. And the old one, well, it was taken down this morning. It took about 30 minutes. No one knew it was happening today, and the girls haven’t seen it yet.
I was lucky to be home when it happened. This is what it looked like from my perspective:
Piper was freaked out.
Maybe it was because of the noise, or maybe she knew someone was taking away The Place That Smells Like Pee and Carpenter Ants. Whatever the reason, she was quaking in her metaphorical boots.
I asked the City guys to leave two stumps for the girls. They were very accommodating, which I appreciate. I’m going to dry them out, pour some polyurethane over them and use them as stools.
It is sad to lose a tree. I’m not looking forward to the girls coming home from school today.