For the last ten or 15 years we’ve had a silver maple tree growing next to our driveway. My daughter calls it our weed tree; we didn’t plant it. From past experience we know that the surface roots of silver maples eventually take over your entire yard. They can also destroy your walkways, sidewalks, and driveway. I spent most of a summer about 25 years ago removing the surface roots of a much larger silver maple in our backyard. My kids were giving out online name for our AOL mail and dubbed me Rootchopper.
Last year I hired a lawn service and after a year the lawn looks terrific, except for the maple roots. Before any more damage happens, we hired our tree guy to take the weed tree down. Using a chain saw attached to a long pole, he had the tree down to a stump in less than 20 minutes. His crew cut up most of the stump before using a stump grinder to take care of the rest. This left a big pile of maple bark mulch where the tree once stood.
Over the last three days I’ve been digging out the mulch and pitching it in the gardens around the perimeter of our back yard. This took about five hours. The weather cooperated, sort of. Temperatures were about 20 degrees F higher than normal.
The next step is to fill the gash in the lawn with topsoil, and plant grass. I hate taking trees down. To make amends to the tree gods, we are going to plant a pin oak tree that will, someday in the 2030s, provide shade to the south facing side of the front of our home. We have a volunteer pin oak in the perimeter garden that just might fill the bill. It’s about three years old which means in a year or two it will be 10 or 15 feet tall.
As much of a hassle as this project has been, the warm weather means I will be done with most of the early summer yard work before the start of summer.
A Few Spokes Shy of a Wheel 