Like the thing about the trees is that I started fixing the yard up when I moved in 6 years ago and it was a multiply-overgrown wreck, and then 2 years ago specifically building the wood into Blueberry Hill was my wrecked-nerve PT/thing-to-do while my mind pulled back together, so I’m this week due to complete a project that represents both my full coming into adulthood and recovery from COVID

kontextmaschine:

Okay, in the post-dark cool I pulled down the rest of the dead branches in range, and cut down that big lower branch, and processed the plant gore on everything on the ground, remaining are two polesaw branches, 3 branch stumps (1 polesaw, 2 hand), possibly a ladder to pull down some higher dead branches and sawing up the ones I have and that is it for trees. Then just 2 stands of bamboo to clean up (1 eradicate, 1 cut back and trench the rhizomes in) and that’s it for plant life.

The big stump sawed and a bunch of higher stuff yanked, just 4 polesaw cuts left

Okay, in the post-dark cool I pulled down the rest of the dead branches in range, and cut down that big lower branch, and processed the plant gore on everything on the ground, remaining are two polesaw branches, 3 branch stumps (1 polesaw, 2 hand), possibly a ladder to pull down some higher dead branches and sawing up the ones I have and that is it for trees. Then just 2 stands of bamboo to clean up (1 eradicate, 1 cut back and trench the rhizomes in) and that’s it for plant life.

unsubconscious:

A tree line in the Slovenian countryside by Sarah Espeute  

Oh huh the side trees really look better with all the dead branches removed, it really clears it up, lets light into the core to bring out the color.

With the dead wood down it’s becoming clear that a really thick lower branch is only supporting a fringe of leaves on the one tree I don’t have a good window view of and that’ll just take a handsaw and a stepladder. So all in all I’d say two more full days of work like these last two and the trees are done.

Alright, switched to the lopper and that’s all done now save a few out front I need to wait for a car to move out from under. Also trimmed the felled ones and put the petty branches in a new pile I’m gonna blow leaves into to flatten out the side yard. Found 3 more in the side to polesaw, too.

Also got in some more sledgehammering, like I did yesterday. Wild that when I started in spring one creatine-enabled session that hard would knock me out for weeks and now one twice as hard, with an otherwise full day, only means I can only go this hard the next. Plus an otherwise full day.

Gonna wave off tomorrow and go get a new iPhone at the Apple Store downtown, though.

Okay, sawdust still stinging my eyes but all the polesaw work is done except for the stump of that big branch and two branches that are fairly thin but right at the edge of my reach so they’re tedious. Then take the saw blade off and another session as lopper, then cut all the wood up (after figuring how to get some of it off the roof) and the trees are 100% done

Well, when it came down it swung and clobbered me shirtless into a rose bush, but the polesaw proved up to its biggest challenge, a whole main branch of the mimosa that wandered into other trees’ light and sun-starved them with its thick canopy on a carpet of noodle branches down to the ground I’d have to cut each year

Polesaw works well; maybe 2 more sessions of cutting and 1 of trimming and I’m totally 100% done with all the trees

kontextmaschine:

Cut one of the 2 remaining backyard trunks to go because the pine branch above it had grown so far it was rubbing on shoots and I don’t want canopy shyness to keep it from fully filling in.

Cut the second one cause I realized even if it was producing a bit of screen the trees in the neighbor’s yard would fill in once the presence of those branches stopped inhibiting them. The felling portion of backyard care is now 100% done, just in time for my pole saw to arrive to finish off the side yard.

Cut one of the 2 remaining backyard trunks to go because the pine branch above it had grown so far it was rubbing on shoots and I don’t want canopy shyness to keep it from fully filling in.

kontextmaschine:

So every tree on my property is now fully trimmed.

There are still some ones in the right-of-way I might need a crew to take down branches over my roof, but on the property itself, every problem branch had been removed. The only ones within 15’ of the ground I even don’t fully endorse are shoots I’m gonna let gather energy this year and then suck it down in fall to thicken the downstream branches before trimming.

Like, I’m really proud of myself, when I first moved in 6 years ago I didn’t even know you had to trim back to forks rather than cutting to length like hair, now strangers stop me on the street to compliment my trees.

I’ll still be doing maintenance, one I’ll finally totally chop the last 2 trunks of as an encroaching pine closes in, and I have plans to plant 4 more, but “get the trees into shape” has been on my quest list so long it’s weird to think it’s complete

So every tree on my property is now fully trimmed.

There are still some ones in the right-of-way I might need a crew to take down branches over my roof, but on the property itself, every problem branch had been removed. The only ones within 15’ of the ground I even don’t fully endorse are shoots I’m gonna let gather energy this year and then suck it down in fall to thicken the downstream branches before trimming.

Like, I’m really proud of myself, when I first moved in 6 years ago I didn’t even know you had to trim back to forks rather than cutting to length like hair, now strangers stop me on the street to compliment my trees.

Here

Someone asked me for tree-trimming tips and I might have actually answered before but let’s do it again.

1. Always cut back to a side branch, which will then become the main branch. You can’t arbitrarily cut a branch to length like hair, if you try that it won’t grow back from there instead a bunch of “waterspout” shoots near the end will head straight up next year and get real long and spindly
2. Wood is “built” using photosynthesis-powered carbon capture at the leaves and water and resources pumped up from the roots. This means a given “patch” of sunlight can grow about the same amount of wood whether it’s split among one branch (and its sub-branches) or many
3. Branches grow (differentialy) towards light but will avoid contact with each others’ leaves. This means if you have too many branches “competing” for the same arc of canopy and sunlight they can get long and skinny and all trying to shade each other out
4. The natural inclination of a branch is to further branch, chemicals generated at the very apical tips of branches and flowing mostly downhill from there suppresses it (this is why horizontal branches branch more than vertical trunks where it’s all very downhill)
5. On the other hand the resources generated in leaves and roots is also hydraulically spread and so the material to make new wood is preferentially found at the lowest point, once growth is sloped down sufficiently it will rapidly grow down to the earth (or at least shade)
6. As a tree grows, shorter, lower branches will get canopied in, and will tend to eventually sunlight-starve, rot, and get detached but manually trimming it can save the “maintenance cost” (and whatever shade it was casting lower down) of the wood in the interim
7. Know the energy cycle of your tree. Leaves generate energy, basically, to be used locally or further downhill. Depending on the tree in a season it will either flower first on last year’s growth and then grow new wood or grow new wood and then flower on it. By the end of fall, energy is sucked down into the roots for storage, this is a good time to trim branches cause you won’t waste any. At the start of the season it’s hydraulically pumped back up to the branches for growth. This is key for lower branches that are sorta shaded in – easy to pump to but don’t generate as much locally off leaves. Also when the canopy is cut back to less than the root system’s support capacity it really encourages upward growth as plenty of energy is pumped high.