Report From An Opinionated Gardener – November 20
The birch tree between the house and the lake was curved when we moved to Poison Ivy Acres four years ago. “Kind of funky…” we said, and left it alone. Since I went to high school in the 1960’s, Robert Frost’s Birches came immediately to mind, although this tree wasn’t at all poetic.
“It balances the weird cherry that’s to its right,” we said, and planted an equally odd weeping larch to keep them both company. Every time it snowed, or was very windy, we expected the birch to come down. The side shoots continued to grow, however, so we knew that even when the main trunk fell we’d have a clump of birch in that place.
“What would you think about taking that curved trunk down?” my husband asked last August. “OK,” I replied without hesitation, “but we should do it when the plant is dormant. Wait until November.” And so he did.
Today I got home from the radio station and the funky birch was bending no more. Even with the felled trunk and brush lying on the ground, the view looked so much better.
All this is just to say that sometimes we get used to something that is a bit off, and we make excuses or work around it. But then when it’s gone we wonder why on earth we put up with the situation for as long as we did.
The view of the lake, bending birch and all, in September.
And this afternoon - with the trunk still on the ground.
