On Tuesday, when I shared about knocking down our back yard brick fireplace and planters (which you can read about here), someone pointed out the failing health of the tree that is just beyond the patio in our back yard. It’s a very tall live oak (I think) and it has been a problem for the last several years. This thing drops limbs pretty regularly, and especially when we get heavy rain or winds. It’s definitely a concern, and it’s clearly not in good health. Last year, we had a woodpecker that spent a great deal of time each day pecking away at this tree, so that was another indication to me that this tree might need to go sooner than later.
But that is far from the only “problem tree” we have in our back yard, and one reason I’ve put off doing anything in our back yard for so long is because of the sheer amount of money it will take to get all of the problem trees, overgrown shrubs, and vines cleared away. I’m sure I could cut down a lot of it myself, but I’d still have to have someone bring a woodchipper to clear it all away.
Just beyond that dying oak is a dying pecan tree. At least, I think it’s a pecan tree. (Keep in mind that I know absolutely nothing about plants and trees, so I have to rely on what others tells me.) This thing has been in bad shape since we’ve been here, but it’s gotten progressively worse over the years.
Here’s a look at that sad-looking tree from the other side.
But the real problem is this row of trees and vines and other mystery plants that divides our back yard into two sections.
When guests to our home look out of our back windows and doors, they always think that row of trees is the back of our property line. But as you can see, there’s a whole lot of property beyond that row of trees that remains hidden, and to date, completely unused.
If I stand right beside that row of trees, here’s the part of our back yard that lies beyond that row of trees that divides our back yard in half.
Our whole property is one acre, which is almost unheard of for properties inside the city limits. Generally, to have an acre or more, you have to be outside the city. But there are about five or six homes in a row on our street that have one-acre lots.
I seriously doubt that I’ll get to any of this during my outdoor projects detour that I’m on right now. For now, I want to concentrate on simpler, smaller, fun projects. But this is definitely on my radar. Heck, it’s been on my radar since we bought the house. So far, we’ve only cut down trees that have needed to go for safety reasons or for projects that were about to start.
We used to have a huge oak tree in this area between the carport and the patio…
I was sad to see it go, but I finally had enough of that tree when it dropped a huge limb and punctured a good-sized hole in the roof of the carport. That’s why the shingles on the carport roof don’t look like a consistent color. When I had that hole repaired, they used the same color shingles as before, but they didn’t completely match.
And then, of course, we had to have a whole lot of trees cleared when we finally had our driveway poured. That side of our house, to the back side of my workshop, used to be an overgrown mess of trees (probably junk trees) and vines and other mystery plants to the point that the neighbor’s fence on that side of our yard was pretty much hidden from view.
And while we only took the trees down that were necessary for the driveway, you can see most of those are gone now.
I’d love to go ahead and get all of this done, but there’s that one minor issue — money. 😀 When you have sooooo many projects that you want to do, and you don’t have an unlimited budget, so many things get pushed to the back burner. And this is one of the things that I’ve wanted to do for many years now, but it’s never felt like a priority.
Now that I’m starting to focus on the outside of our house, and especially now that I’ve already started tearing down the fireplace and envisioning what that might look like and what the view from the back patio will look like, I might at least go ahead and have my tree guy give me a price for removing all of this. At least if I have a price in mind, we can start planning for it.
I do feel a bit guilty because so far, all we’ve done is cut down trees. I haven’t made any attempt so far to replace any of them, but that’s in the plans as well. I was looking at the landscape plan to see what the landscape designer suggested for the area between the carport and the back patio, which is the purple tree at the bottom of this section below, and he suggested an eastern “forest pansy” redbud.
I had to look that up to see what it looks like, and it’s very pretty. According to Fast Growing Trees, it has deep purple leaves all year long. And a 5-6 foot tree is around $165.
So we have big plans, and I’m definitely aware of the dead and dying trees and the junk trees that need to be removed. If only I had a money tree then all of our roadblocks to getting these things done would be removed! 😀
On another note, I’ll finally have the final post about the studio bathroom for you tomorrow. I’m so sorry about the delay! I’ve got some non-house-related things going on “behind the scenes” that have caused some delays. Speaking of, there’s a very good chance that I’ll be out of pocket for a lot of next week, so if I don’t post on Monday through Thursday of next week, just know that everything is fine. Matt is doing well. I’ve just got a pressing personal situation going on that will be taking up most my time and attention next week, and I doubt that I’ll be able to spend much, if any, time on house-related projects during the week. But I will definitely be showing you the finished bathroom tomorrow!
Addicted 2 Decorating is where I share my DIY and decorating journey as I remodel and decorate the 1948 fixer upper that my husband, Matt, and I bought in 2013. Matt has M.S. and is unable to do physical work, so I do the majority of the work on the house by myself. You can learn more about me here.
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