Market Bag

In my city it is forbidden to cut tress without planting another one instead, wgy can`t the tree be included in the fence ??? mirjam

Mirjam, When we moved here 5 years ago, there was a large dying tree that we thought was on the property line between my house(2-story single family, second floor is actually considered finished attic) and the one next door(3-story, two-family house). The tree had grown so tall over the years that it had damaged the slate roof next door, and I was afraid that one of the limbs would come off in a wind storm, and pierce the roof of my bedroom, so we had the tree cut down, after speaking with the previous owners of the next-door house, who said they couldn't afford to split the cost, but didn't have any objections if we took the tree down. After a recent propery survey, it turns out it wasn't on my property at all, so it should not have been my expense, but that's all said and done. My property is so small(less that .10 of an acre) that there isn't enough room for a tree that size. It did keep the house much cooler, but the safety factor made the decision.

Since the tree is gone and only the huge stump remains, and it is a chain-link fence that is being moved back to the property line, we need to be able to dig a big enough hole to pour in the cement that will hold the post. As far as I know, we don't have any restriction on cutting trees on our property, but our city does have a lovely public park and golf course, and I am sure no-one besides city officials are allowed to cut or tamper with those wooded areas.

-- Carey

Mirjam, I've never seen a pattern of that description, but it sounds like it would be interesting.

-- Carey

The name of the submarine shop I was referring to was "The Yellow Submarine," apparently a take-off on the Beatles song. They had a diving motif at the time, but about 10 years ago(perhaps more) they were down-sized, and the name was put back up as "Ricotti's" even though most the long-term workers remember it as Yellow Sub. I think they may actually have another store somewhere else, but I don't know where. Yes, those sandwiches are wonderful, whether called 'submarine sandwiches,' 'grinders,' or 'hoagies.' (They do have some interesting names, don't they?)

-- Carey

I'm pretty sure around here you can remove a tree from your own property without having to replace it (I like the idea of replacing nature though, like Mirjam said... and if we ever cut down the three maple trees in our back yard (not really big enough for THREE trees, thank you), that look like they have something wrong with them anyway, we would at least plant one tree (maybe a flowering one?) to replace them. However, I think if we wanted to remove the tree that is planted on the boulevard in front of our house (I can't think of what type it is, but it isn't my favorite type of tree and never has been) we would likely need permission to have it removed, and probably replace it with a different tree.

Carey, I don't know if you were online before I left for a couple of years, but we had a run-in with the humongous Manitoba Maple in our back yard of my parent's house that we used to live in. One night when we were in the middle of an ice storm I got up to use the washroom at the back of the house. As I was heading out of the room and back to bed I heard this very loud cracking sound behind me, followed by a loud thud. The tree had split and half had come down across our back yard taking out the chain link fence on the opposite side of the yard. A few minutes later another cracking and thud followed. This time the other half of the tree had come down between our house and the neighbor's house with some of the branches leaning on our roof. It caused all kinds of problems... so in light of the fact that you knew the tree was dying, it was likely lucky for you that you got it out of there when you did. It's unfortunate that it wasn't actually your responsibility, but you ended up paying for it anyway... but better that then to have damage done to your house and property.

Gem

I agree.

A year or so ago, one stem of a divided oak tree in the dirt and gravel alley (which belongs to the county) fell down, entirely without warning, during a heavy rain. It glanced off our house, "only" damaging a corner of the roof and breaking some windows, tearing down the telephone line, and smashing the chain link fence flat. About a week later, the other half came down, just missing our neighbor's house, tearing down his telephone line and electricity line. Neither of us could have had the tree removed in advance (despite the obvious lean of the trunks) because it was on county property. After that I had several unbalanced and elderly trees removed from our property that could have taken out the fence, several cars, any cars going down the street at the time, and a house across the street, and one could have taken out our house as well. I have planted enough trees (in other places) to qualify as replacement for these. One of them turned out to have been developing a hollow center.

I love big beautiful trees when they are in an appropriate location, but not when I can predict the danger when they fall.

=Tamar

Now the only problem tree is one that is next to the back corner of my lot. It is a tall old pine tree, that has already been struck by lightning at least twice in the last 5 years, and you can see a split running down its trunk, as well as the top cracked off in one of those hits. It's not mine, but it's been a concern for longer than I've been here. If it goes, hopefully it will fall into it's owners yard, because there is enough space for it to not damage much of anything. However, if it goes the other way, it's going to end up leaning onto someone else's house, if not worse. The house that owns it has just changed hands, and I am seriously thinking of pointing it out to the new owners if I see them out in the back yard at work, while I'm digging fence holes, since the trunk-length crack isn't visible from their windows. While tall, stately old trees can be lovely and shady, damaged and dying are just a problem waiting to happen. I'm glad no one has been injured in the tree falls that have been discussed and hope no one is in future.

-- Carey

Since it can't be seen from their windows, it wouldn't hurt to point it out to them for safety sake. I'm sure they wouldn't want their insurance to have to cover any damage done to their own or someone else's property if it does split and fall on something.... or worse, on someone.

Gem

Actually, just mentioned this to the other half, and he says he's told them that the tree needs to come down, and that they'll need a company with a crane to do it. Hopefully, a word to the wise will be sufficient, as the saying goes, but I probably will still show them the crack if I happen to see them.

At the house we rented before we moved here, there was a pretty dead tree next to the garage, on the property line, with a chain link fence grown into the middle of it. One afternoon my other half and a friend were in the garage fixing a motorcycle, when the friend rushed into the house and exclaimed "Did you hear that crash?! A big branch just came down off the tree and fell right in front of the garage. Uh, you might want to come out here." Luckily, they had just both walked into the garage, and no one was struck, but the branch actually managed to knock my motorcycle off it's kickstand, so I can imagine what it would have done to either one of the guys. We talked to the people that owned the house next door, who wouldn't pay half the cost to have the tree taken down, because nothing looked like there was anything wrong with their side. After double-checking with an attorney, the portions hanging on our side of the fence were removed along with a couple of tall, thin trees further back in the yard. (Personally, I would have taken both sides at the top of the fence, but that was my other half and the landlord's call.) Sometimes it's mind-boggling the things some people think aren't important, or that they won't take a couple of minutes to look something over with an eye towards preventing a future problem.

Yikes!

Yes it is mind boggling for sure. :o/

The three maple trees in our back yard that I mentioned in a previous post are actually pretty sturdy... but they have big black splotches on their leaves once they actually come out in full bloom (do leaves bloom?... well you know what I mean, when they get to full size). The black splotches kind of look like tar, but they aren't of course. My nephew has them on his maple tree too.... can't figure out what it is. I think this year I'll take a couple of leaves off the tree and bring them to a tree specialist in the city to ask what the splotches are.

One of my main reasons for eventually wanting one of the trees gone is that it stands very close to the swimming pool. While a bit of shade is nice, it isn't quite so nice when the leaves begin to fall into the pool before we're ready to put the cover on. A few leaves I don't mind, but last year we had very strong winds and I swear almost every leaf from that tree and the others went straight into the pool and sunk before we could get to them. It's almost impossible to get them all out, so the water turned a lovely shade of black over the winter, and now the pool has to be drained and refilled before the really hot weather gets here.

Speaking of really hot weather is wishful thinking... considering that I only got to actually use the pool about 7 times all of last summer... when it wasn't raining it was really cold. Poor Matthew only made it in the pool about 5 times... he said "You have no idea.... you're NOT a guy! I'm NOT getting in there!" ROTFL So, yes, we are hoping for some really hot weather this year so we can actually enjoy having a pool.

Gem

I would never put a pine tree near a house, because they have shallow root systems and are much more prone to fall over than other trees. Plus those shallow roots push up sidewalks and driveways. And their branches are brittle and often break off in ice storms.

The pine trees (there are actually several, but only the end one is really damaged) seem to have been planted as a privacy fence type of thing, probably many years ago. I guess no one really thought about cutting the tops annually so they didn't get to be 30 or more feet tall.(I really can't estimate the height: how tall is a standard 3-story house?) If I showed you a picture right out my back second-floor window, you would probably wonder how it is still standing, particularly since we do get some awfully stiff winds on occasion here.

-- Carey

We have a pine tree outside our bedroom window that has to be twice as tall as our house and it's a 1 1/2 story house, and sits on higher ground from where the tree is planted.

ANY tree should be planted Not LESS that 6 [ six] Meters away from a house . mirjam

Oh, it's so nice when good memories pop up from the past, isn't it? Glad I was able to contribute to them. I will guess that you are no longer in the Massachusetts area (I'm sure it has been mentioned along the way where you reside, however, some days I just can't dig certain bits of informatoin out of my brain....)

-- Carey