Since we’ve owned this house and garden, we’ve debated the fate of a tall and broad Monterrey Pine tree in the yard that was casting a shadow over a large swath of my sacred gardening space. We were told that a previous owner of the house had planted one of those “live Christmas trees” that you can buy at the grocery store in December…wait, that’s old school isn’t it. These days you can buy your Christmas supplies around October 31st because retailers don’t make money promoting Thanksgiving, but I digress.
The point is that this tree was planted around 25 years ago and had gotten damned big for my tiny little yard. We deliberated over the fate of the tree for about 4 years. As the thing grew larger and started to put 2 raised beds in perpetual shade, I decided it had to go. I had mixed emotions about cutting down something that large, but I’m committed to growing food and we’ve put sufficient permanent plants in this yard to make up for the carbon sink of that large and out of place tree. RIP Monterrey Pine, you will be remembered but not missed. Here are some photos of the tree and of the Professional Tree Care Company workers taking it out.
My wife told a co-worker & talented cartoonist Joel Hodge about the tree removal and he quickly summed up the situation by condensing our behaviors and personalities into this sharp and witty cartoon titled “The New Backyard.”
NOTE — this cartoon is copyrighted. If you want to reach the cartoonist, I will put you in touch with him.
In case you are wondering, to the horror of my neighbors, I do garden in my bathrobe (they are lucky I don’t garden in my birthday suit, after all this is Berkeley!), too much sun does give my wife headaches, and she is always saying I need to keep the garden clean and orderly. She can’t help it, it’s an Austrian thing…vee must haalf ordah in ze gaaten schatzi! I have a feeling I’m going to pay for that smart ass comment, but I can’t help myself sometimes.
Sharkey
August 29, 2011 at 8:55 am
Hey, cool!
I’ve been busy adding trees to my yard this summer because the previous owners removed a few too many. We’re thinking about joining the backyard chicken movement, but haven’t gotten started yet. Any thoughts on putting a coop where your giant pine tree once was?
-Sharkey
West Bezerkeley
August 29, 2011 at 11:03 am
We briefly considered chickens and decided against it. I don’t have a drip irrigation system installed, so getting friends/neighbors to water and feed the cats is a big hurdle when we are out of town. Adding chickens to the mix would make things more complex.
Also, my father-in-law continues to have chickens in his retirement & I’ve seen the level of work he puts into their diet. The eggs from his hens are considered by many his his village to be among the best. Knowing a little bit of what it takes to not only get eggs, but get eggs that blow away what I can get from Riverdog Farm (http://riverdogfarm.blogspot.com/) at the Berkeley Farmers Market on Saturdays, I’m willing to pay the expensive $8 a dozen price because I know I couldn’t produce that quality at home at that price point.
We’ve entertained the idea of bees, but since we have a lot of European honeybees and native bees in our garden, we probably won’t end up doing that either.
rails warner (@vivalos)
August 20, 2011 at 12:33 pm
cool my dad just took out a 100 ft cedar I’ve been calling him the clearcutter of Glendora. Maybe you should plant a fruit tree or 2?
West Bezerkeley
August 24, 2011 at 11:15 am
It’s funny you should mention fruit trees because that is exactly what we’ve been discussing. We are going to test the soil to make sure there isn’t a lead problem (in the East Bay there are many areas with lead contamination, which is why I have raised beds — I didn’t want to test the entire yard). We’d like to get a Gravenstein Apple tree & a Santa Rosa Plum tree, 2 favorites in my household, and put them in that location. They won’t grow as tall as the Monterrey Pine, but they will produce fruit and provide something of a privacy barrier between our back yard and a lot that is zoned for commercial purposes, but has been disused for over a decade.