We’ve lived here long enough to have mature trees (39 years) and they can get overgrown. Our pretty redbud tree behind the storage shed is getting stomped on by the big sweet gum tree behind it.
We thought removing one big branch (the one growing laterally in the photo above) from the sweet gum tree would give the redbud some room to grow, so we called “our” tree company. They know us so well, the head cutter usually spends some time reminiscing with us about other work they’ve done in our yard. For $35, the tree company will run our brush pile through their big mulcher, so we made sure to trim all of our trees and bushes before they came. This saved Ted a lot of time putting all the brush through his not-for-commercial-use chipper.
Here’s half the brush pile on its way to the mulching machine.
The first step is to put ropes in place in the tree so the team can control the fall of the branch.
Here’s Sean stringing his ropes.
After Sean makes his cut, the two guys holding the ropes bring the branch down slowly . . .
. . . and it lands exactly where they want it to land.
We thought one branch would do it, but when that one was removed, the one above it looked like it needed to go as well. In the end, the team took out four good-sized branches and five smaller ones. The sweet gum tree looked less overgrown and better-shaped when they finished.
I think I heard the redbud tree take a deep breath now that it has room to grow.