More on the yard

The remaining wilderness around the yard is almost tamed. 

In this aerial view showing the yard and property, the red dots represent spruce trees.  The main shade tree out back is honey locust.



Photo below shows the enchanting mid-day sunlight on the honey locust and Norway spruces.  Honey locust is the large tree in foreground. Pine trees behind it are spruce. See how the spruces are broom-shaped at the bottom? The broom shapes are actually thickets of dead branches still on the trees.

In the previous blog post, a pole-mounted chain saw was used. In this post, a small regular chain saw was used, to get at the lower branches.  A lot easier when you carry these tools around for hours. In this post you will mostly see the result of cutting back the spruce thickets.

The bright dots on the tree trunks, are where the dead branches were cut off.

In photo below, you can now see all the tree bottoms. There is much wood to pick up, and a new opportunity to make a shaded garden around the trees. 

Can you see how much work there is to do, separating and cleaning up the branches?  The yellow dash line shows the border, which I will probably keep.

Processing of the branches involves separating twigs from the thicker branches. I grind twigs with the mower, while larger branches go to the wood pile.  In photo below, I spread white powdered lime (magnesium carbonate) over the branches in hopes the decay doesn't burn the grass with acidic residue as the shredded twigs biodegrade.



Here are two Norway spruces behind the garden shed.  The plan for the front yard, is to plant one or two spruces, or possibly pitch pine, in the front yard.




Here is a pitch pine (photo from internet), of which the branches are more sparse than spruces. Such trees would give a more open feel.

The front yard and plantings will be work for the coming months!