Answer our prayers, steal this tree!
April 21st, 2008, 5:01 pm · 6 Comments · posted by acrawford
Jason and I are working in the yard quite a bit right now before the summer heat sets in. We’ve decided to go with more desert-like landscaping in the front and this means one of the trees must go.
The previous owner loved shade. We have six “trees” out front of our home two ficuses (plural perhaps ficusi?), a palm, a palo verde (the state tree of Arizona!), what we think may be a flowering hibiscus (perhaps just intertwined ficus) and an oleander bush that was pruned to look like a tree. However, the palo verde is over-watered and has had exponential growth over the past three months, so much that it is over-powering the ficus and the palm tree. The poor hibiscus on the other hand, hardly gets any sun at all and has not seen the growth that the palo verde has.
Needless to say, we have way too many trees in that front yard. Too many! Six! Three of four would be a good number. Now, don’t get me wrong, we do very much enjoy the shade. But feeding six trees is quite too many. You can guess what our water bill is like. This photo only shows four of the six “trees.” But you can get a good look at the palm tree. If you want it, just give us a ring. You dig it up and can have it for free.
Heck, you can even have the eucalyptus in the backyard. Digging, courtesy of our dog Psammy, has already begun. She digs everything. Just ask Jason, whose efforts went to waste because Psammy likes her paws dirty.
I’ll try to get in a photo of that one, which isn’t quite as nice as the palm. Our palm is free, cheaper than buying a new one!
April 21st, 2008 at 8:20 pm
Yep, while we love shade much like the previous owner did - we’re not quite as big on the idea of planting trees under things like shade structures and other trees. The palm is growing directly under a large limb of the Palo Verde - so it’s chances of continued growth are fairly limited. Even if it does get enough sun - it will have to curve around that existing branch to reach much higher. And since the Palo Verde gives more shade - it’s the one we want to keep, despite the mess of needles and flowers it has been dropping for the past month or so.
The small braided tree I personally don’t hold out much hope for either. It’s only chance of survival is to grow through the 4″ opening between our carport and our front porch. Which also means that until it does so - it gets very little sun.
We already gave away one Ficus in the backyard since it was not growing very well due to being planted in the shade of a very well established ficus and another shade structure. The Eucalyptus which Amy mentioned has actually grown into a 90 degree bend in an attempt to reach some sun due it it also being planted in the shade of our large Ficus and yet another, another shade structure. (Yes, shade is quite abundant in our yard!)
As for the dog. I’ll try and assume the best and am trying to convince myself that she wasn’t digging up the rhizomes I planted to upset me. And that the surprise she left in the holes instead was not a final insult on top of digging up my hard work. Instead let’s just give her the benefit of the doubt and trust that she was legitimately hoping to fertilize them with the “gifts” she left in their place.
April 22nd, 2008 at 8:42 am
See? Here you guys are being totally friendly and generous by trying to give away your trees and there are idiotic thugs out there stealing trees from elementary schools. Hmm…
April 22nd, 2008 at 9:10 am
Moving the tree here would be too difficult. Now if you could process into something more easily transported like, um, $100 bills! Now that’s something I could put to immediate use.
April 22nd, 2008 at 11:17 am
That looks like the kind of palm that would be great in a large container for a patio. Wish I could come and dig it up!
April 22nd, 2008 at 6:48 pm
Maybe they should steal our tree instead! We’d be happy if it mysteriously disappeared. Intact.
May 1st, 2008 at 8:54 am
That looks like a Queen Palm.
That shouldn’t have that huge of a root ball if it was dug up. Is it still there? Might just consider taking a shot at that unless it is much larger than the photo implies.