We’re Installing Trees!
Posted on October 15, 2015 Posted by John Scalzi 25 Comments
As you may remember, a couple of weeks ago we had to take down a bunch of ash trees in the front of our property because they had been attacked by the emerald ash borer. It was sad for all of us, most especially the trees. Once they were down, however, we didn’t want to just leave the front of the property bare; trees are esthetically pleasing. So, today, we’re having new trees installed: Four maples to replace the ash trees. The maples are pretty hardy and (for the moment at least) have no predators like ash borers, and of course they’re very pretty in the fall. They seem like a good choice. We’re having the tree people install them for us right now; I can hear the beeping of heavy machinery backing up as I type this. When they’re finally installed I’ll go out and update.
‘Installing new trees’ makes it sound like they’re robotic maples or something.
Not something you want to leave until too late. Though, if I were to be upgrading my trees, I would have installed Acer Saccharum along the primary drive.
I think the term is “planting” as in planting trees. I know, picky picky picky
Sounds like you are supporting “BIG TREE” instead of you own small local tree store.
Make sure you update your drivers or those trees will BSoD on you.
I have been raking maple leaves, cursing whoever planted four of them on my property. I would have recommended a nice sculpture instead.
I ‘m sorry,Sir i am a forgotten,only small robot
Oh, maples are lovely! Are they sugar maples or silver maples? The silver maples don’t create quite as colorful a display in the fall, but the leaves mulch up better under the lawnmower than sugar maple leaves do. Letting the lawnmower do the autumn cleanup work is a whole lot easier on the back, to say nothing of being better for the lawn (puts the nutrients back into the ground instead of dumping them in a landfill somewhere), so we like trees that produce easily mulchable leaves.
Enjoy your new oxygen-producers, and thank you for rebuilding the canopy!
From the picture, it appears that they’re red maples, although the leaves could be red because of the lateness of the season. Nonetheless, they’re very nice. I like maples….I’m sure that if you had planted sugar maples, you could have added to your income by harvesting some of the sap and making your own maple syrup. But then, you’d have very little time for writing, would you?
Henceforth, chopping down a tree shall be known as UNINSTALLING.
William D. Richards: I was hoping John would go for Sequoiadendron giganteum. Of course, I don’t know if that species would be able to survive an Ohio winter.
“For the moment” being the operative phrase here. Another invader, the Asian Longhorned Beetle is just a few counties away, and they LOVE maples.
Are we getting more of these predator/pets or just more aware of them these days because of increased access to access to other local news?
When they’re finally installed I’ll go out and update.
Apparently, they’re Microsoft trees, since you have to go and install updates right after installation.
Sounds like the ash trees had some severe security issues. It *is* recommended that you always keep things updated to the latest version, but I guess they haven’t figured out a way to patch the “ash borer” exploit yet.
I’ve attended the installation of a university president. Fortunately, they didn’t stick his feet in a hole with wet cement.
Maple trees are VERY good at reproducing. You will have little maples growing everywhere until you mow them down or weed them out. They will even grow in your rain gutters.
zakur beat me to it! Keep a sharp eye out, John, if Asian longhorned beetles are just a couple of counties away. I thought I’d spotted one here (NY, a mile or two from the MA border) a few months ago, on the drive-up-teller window at the bank where I couldn’t reach it through the window or open the door to capture it. I managed to get some photos before it flew off, though, and the detail was good enough that I could see it was a whitespotted pine sawyer — great relief!
I’m waiting for emerald ash borers to show up here; they’re very close, if they haven’t already arrived. I’m sorry for your lost trees, and wish the new arrivals speedy settling-in and vigorous growth. The maples and sumacs here seem especially vivid this year, after a late start; I’m trying hard to enjoy the show and not dwell on the months of brown and white ahead.
Peter Cibulskis: Probably both. People and products just move around so much more easily these days, so all those seeds and larvae have more chances to hitchhike. I’ve found at least two dozen exotic plant species, of various invasiveness rankings, on our less than 1/3 acre, right alongside a fairly busy county road and within a few miles from several major highways. (A few of those species, I must confess, we planted ourselves before we knew how aggressive their growth could be.) The states also are developing tracking networks, and rapid-response programs for the priority species like those two beetles and plants like giant hogweed. Lots of opportunities for citizen scientists to participate!
How big are they? Curious what something like this costs.
I suggest installing McCaffee or Norton on them when they’re up and running.
Also, sheesh, just in time for snow…..
What did you name them? I have 2 peach trees in my back yard, one is named Big Peach, the other is Sick Peach. I’m thinking of writing a book on them “One Peach, Two Peach, Sick Peach, Big Peach” Catchy?
Four sugar maples would produce enough sap for one to two gallons of maple syrup a year. Not really enough to go into commercial production, but pretty good for personal use.
I’ll take the bait..
If they are installing the new trees that would suggest that they uninstalled the old trees. Wouldn’t that make this a tree update? A tree patch to fix a bug er, beetle problem?
30 years from now and you might be able to tap them.
Just a thought…did you remember to read the EULA? They always hide things in the EULA…