Trees

Have any of you ever consulted an arborist?

A couple of days ago, Daniel and I had an appointment with an arborist to assess the many trees on our property.

Neither one of us has ever owned trees before or had to take care of them. Since first looking at the place, we’ve noticed that some of the trees look like they desperately need help. We have some covered in vines. Some have ants and tiny holes all over them. Some are covered with lichen. And some look like they belong in a Tim Burton film. Having little to no tree experience, and suddenly having many, many trees to look after, we weren't sure on a course of action. Do some need to be removed completely? Just trimmed? Rehabilitated? And if so, how?

So, we asked an arborist to come out and diagnose our tree situation.

We have 7 Dogwoods. 2 are diseased and need to be removed immediately if not sooner to ensure the disease doesn’t spread to any other trees.



Our Red Bud tree in the front yard looks tortured and is in pretty sorry shape. We’re going to put that one down as well.



Apparently the pine trees with the vines clinging to them are fine. The vines are not strangling, choking or harming the trees, they’re just ugly. So that’s good news.

One of our 80 year old Sugar Maples is covered with ants. But that’s not the problem. The problem is the tiny holes all over the trunk caused by borers. Borers are serious. They kill trees. Our arborist recommends spraying the trunk with some kind of chemical which is harmful to the borers but safe for the tree. And even then, the tree may not make it. Dreadful. It would be a crying shame to have to take this tree down.



We have another old Sugar Maple, ant and borer free, very healthy, but it’s being crowded out by an Ash. Our arborist put it to us plain and simple. An 80 year old Sugar Maple is a highly desirable tree to have. An Ash tree…eh…not so much. So to ensure the continuing vibrant health of the highly desirable Sugar Maple, he suggested we remove the Ash. Poor Ash.



Our Holly tree just needs some deadwood removed, as does the pine at the end of our driveway.



And that’s about as far as we got. We peered down towards the creek, but then turned around and walked back to the house. I couldn't take anymore diagnoses.