For years I've received a notice with my electric bill--if you want free shade trees, contact such-and-such organization and they'll send a "community forester" out to your house to help determine the best type and placement of tree for your property. The front of my house faces northwest, the direction of the afternoon and setting sun in the summer. I should probably get a shade tree out there.
I have a fruitless mulberry in my backyard. It's an awesome shade tree, but it has some serious drawbacks. Its roots are all over my backyard, and my neighbors complain that it shades all their plants in their backyard and the plants don't grow well. Anyone who knows anything about fruitless mulberries knows they're just glorified weeds. I'm considering having the entire tree removed this fall--we'll see what the community forester says about that.
I like the idea of a crepe myrtle in both my front and back yards. Nice canopy, nice shade, nice appearance, not too big.
So I finally made the call today to schedule an appointment, which will be next week. I put the appointment on my calendar, and they'll send me an email message to remind me. They also want to snail mail me a reminder!
I told them to save a tree, don't mail me a reminder :-)
4 comments:
Darren, Seriously consider a native tree - I don't have any recommendations since I'm on the east coast and know nothing about CA trees, but I do know that natives are more likely to be tolerant of your weather/soil conditions and will have a positive impact on your local wildlife. Sorry, I'm a wildlife biologist - I can't help myself. I know this has nothing to do with trees (well maybe it does since Duncan doesn't think kids should ever see them), but I thought you would enjoy The Daily Caller's report where Duncan outs himself as an extreme socialist. Here's the title: Education secretary calls for 12-hour school days, longer school year. Actually, he says up to 14 hours. A must read.
Of course your suggestion makes sense.
We replaced the city provided tree. A sickly (now 35 yrs old) magnolia with indestructible leaves in favor of a Calif Oak.
We also re-landscaped our front yard with Calif native plants. Minimal water usage and no more lawn to mow.
We now have lots of bees, butterflys, hummingbirds, and lizards to watch and enjoy.
...Mark
Fruitless Mulberries have been the bane of my existence at both the houses in which I have owned since I have lived in Sacramento. In both cases, I inherited them.
There is one in my backyard that I would love to remove, but at this point, I am only going to halve in size and turn what I cut into firewood.
Let me know how the free trees turn out; I may want to look into it as well if it pans out.
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