Relative Something

Did some yard work yesterday. I went out planning to mow grass, but it was too wet.

A few months ago, our tree service newsletter warned that our mature trees were under such stress from repeated dry seasons that they would need extra attention and watering or they might not survive. This summer has been anything but dry. It makes my grass grow much too fast for my liking. With my little reel mower, I get better results if the grass doesn’t get too long between mowings. I need the blades of grass to stand up so the reel will be able to clip them as it passes over them. The long blades just lay down and my mower does nothing to pick them up for the scissor action of the mower.

Most people who know me are aware that over the years I’ve lived in my current house, I have mown less of the yard each summer and allow more of my little suburban lot transform to a natural wooded landscape. I figured it would reduce my need to do yard work. What I discovered is that my hours mowing have been replaced with hours doing the work of a lumberjack.

When I first hatched the idea of allowing my yard to go natural, it just looked like I was neglecting to care for it. That is not an impression that I want to give my neighbors. I was very anxious for things other than weeds to begin growing in the areas I stopped mowing. I was happy to find a great number of volunteer trees begin to appear when allowed. It was a shocking number, actually.

Not long after my property was becoming filled with finger-size to wrist-size trees, I learned about a pesky invasive tree, Common Buckthorn. It makes a great hedge, but left to its own, it crowds out everything around. I had Buckthorn growing everywhere. It became a major project to eradicate. My lumberjacking days had begun.

Over the years I have witnessed the onslaught of two other species that grow like weeds: Boxelder and Chokecherry. This is what I found in a query for information on the two trees:

Boxelder grows commonly along the banks of streams and rivers, and may occur as a weedy species in urban areas where its seeds are able to germinate. Boxelder has a soft wood that has no commercial value, but is important for wildlife and the stabilization of stream banks where it grows. Boxelder is not recommended for horticultural plantings.

Chokecherry
Urban/Recreational
Very limited use due to its suckering habit. Useful in screen or mass plantings

We have these two tree species sprouting everywhere. Seems to me, we need to manage these with the same focus that the invasive Buckthorn has attracted.

Yesterday, when I realized that the area where I was planning to remove trees would become a little too barren for my tastes, I devised a plan. Initially, I was considering just leaving stalks of the trunk, on which birds or squirrels could perch. It morphed to become a sculpture in homage to my fascination with rock balancing.

It was a far reach from the work I had planned to do when I walked out into the yard at the start of the day.