This homeowner decided to go for the bargain package and did all the trees around their home.
This person is trying to sell their home. I thought that they did this to "neaten up" the place, but then I remembered being horrified when I saw it last year. Charming. What perplexes me is "why?" The tree wasn't blocking any view lines from the neighbors or from the home itself, there were not power lines overhead, and shade in the heat of summer is a good thing. Look closely and you can see the irregularity of the pruning, and that they left a bunch of water sprouts sticking out of the mangled remains.
This is the same home, different tree, same effect. I couldn't help but think that if I bought a home where this was done to the trees, how much it would cost to remove and replace the trees. Is there a real-estate term for "value subtracted?" Perhaps it is "WTF."
This shows the effect a few years later. Simply lovely. I just want to spray paint it in an assortment of pastel colors.
A tree never outgrows a topping. Once topped, a tree has to be removed, or you have to accept a hideously tortured tree forever, such as this tree which was topped four or five years ago. A year or so ago, someone wrote to our neighborhood newsletter requesting that everyone top their trees in order to "preserve the views." Well, these show what views you get, and I would argue that the best way to preserve the view is by NOT topping the trees.
Is there any way to save these trees? Perhaps. By coppicing (which is my nice way of saying "cut it to the ground") and thinning the resulting regrowth (if any). If the tree does not tolerate it, then it is already removed for replacement.
This is my Number One Cringe-Worthy Pet Peeve.
ReplyDeleteI think people are "scheduled" (programmed) to think that they have to do something, anything, when "spring pruning time" arrives.
It has to be a 'keep up with the Joneses' thing.
Somebody needs to go take all the trees and shrubs out of the Joneses yard so they can stop being a bad example!
With such inappropriate plantings in the desert of Abq (with SW architecture, too!), my biggest complaint is that they did not keep going and remove the rest of their landscapes...riparian lollipop trees with drinking problems would provide even less benefit if the irrigation life-support was decreased - compared to the multitudes of native tree species that the growers SHOULD be growing.
ReplyDeletePerhaps a 1950's-style drought will finally recur and scare such folks out of here permanently.
I saw a lot of this when I was living in Los Angeles. There it generally occurs in the fall. When I asked one homeowner why they were topping their one and only tree she replied that she didn't like to rake leaves.
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