Cindy,

I spent three days last week cutting down a beech tree that was damaging a
friend's house. (He has severe arthritis, and couldn't do it himself.)

Due to its being against his house, I had to begin at the top and work down,
using a limb saw to cut higher than I could clime. Lowest bid he had from a
tree service was well over $ 1,000. I'm not going to do the carpentry
repairs, which also probably will run close to a thousand. Ten years ago
that tree could have been cut down easily.

Trees with decks built around them are pretty, but expensive to maintain,
and expensive to remove if they die.

I'm an incurable tree hugger, but cannot imagine ANY scenario in which a
tree should be allowed to grow too close to a house, like that. Shade trees
don't have to be so close they put tons of wood (limbs) directly over a
rooftop.

Twenty years ago, we planted some "cute" little pines in our back yard at a
distance that seemed well away from the
house (about 30')and a considerable distance apart -- about 15'. Now they
are over six feet in circumference and about seventy feet tall, and they are
crowding one another -- so guess where the ones nearest the house find
plenty of sunshine to put their largest limbs out farthest. And, while
you're guessing that, guess which way the ones
nearest the house are LEANING? Yep, same direction as their biggest,
heaviest limbs are.

If the "baby" you are talking about is a loquat, loquats spread out and do
not put out large limbs like some trees do.
The ad I sent copy of last week states they grow to about 15'. There is
one in the backyard of a friend of mine in
Lafayette (not Barry, whom I've mentioned several times, but a retired head
of the Communications Dept. at USL. His is at least 25' tall and thirty
feet wide. But it's in a good place, at the very BACK of his back yard.

No matter what kind of tree the "baby" is, if it were near my house, I would
not let it remain.

Near fences and in vicinity of sewer lines are additional places where trees
can cause lots of problems and lots of
expense.

Trees need to be planned as to placement, growth characteristics, root
characteristics (nothing will stop up a sewer
faster than a weeping willow), wind characteristics (almost all storm-grade
winds in our area are from northwest to
southeast, so I am not too eager to have any kind of tree that grows large
and heavy on that side of the house.

Did you know some apple trees never get large, while others can spread out
seventy feet or more?

These are just well-intended thoughts on the subject. Not trying to say how
anybody else should plan his/her trees.


g



"Cindy" wrote in message
...
cat daddy wrote:
That's a great story, and I completely understand your Dad. When the
flies come, I eye the chainsaw with bad thoughts........... It also
shades the front garden from the west, and I did accommodate it when
I roofed the deck and framed around its branches. But that just means
rotten fruit on the clear Lexan panels and the squirrels don't put a
dent in its production. Love/hate you say? Yeah, I got it...

Hmmm....I'm thinking about uprooting that baby that's coming up next to
the house. I don't even know where it came from, but there's one coming
up about two feet from the house in the back yard. Is that too close for
this size of tree? It's not in front of a window or anything, just back
toward the corner in an empty spot.

Cindy