My Neighbor's Flower Garden

My neighbor is a professional landscaper and gardener and maintains an awesome collection of flowering plant, shrubs and trees. He have of course a beautiful garden and I try to visit it as often as I can with my camera just so I got something exotic to brag and share. I often told him that I like hanging around his garden because I get lots of compliments from people who were passing by. The funny thing is that I have to admit to strangers that my garden is the wild and weedy one next door. I honestly thought of just saying thank you but wild and weedy sounds like a joke. It makes people laugh, so I'm keeping it.

My favorite of his flowering trees is the Magnolia Elizabeth (above). The flowers looked so luscious and smell so good, it is on my list to at least see and enjoy if not own.


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I didn't miss my photo ops with these peonies this year simply because they produced so many blooms. I had to come over to check it out. If I remember right the pink and white one is called "Bowl of Beauty").


The variegated yellow rose is called Gracie Allen and Ginji is setting pretty under the tree with the newly planted impatiens. 

Goodbye Tree

Four years ago when I first saw this old elm tree, I thought I could live with it. It was at the end of the property line and was blocking the morning sun, but my new garden still got more than six hours of sunshine and was very productive. Then one windy day the power line that was too close to the branch ignited and the down line started a fire that burn the wooden fence. Avista, the power company, trimmed and removed some of the branches, but would not cut the whole tree down.


This tree was more than 75 feet tall. Tall enough to hit our bedroom if it falls down, making it dangerous to keep. Then last year, I was wondering why my three-year-old kitchen garden can't seems to get enough water and nutrients. My veggies looked kind of anemic and were not very productive. I thought that maybe I just didn't have enough compost material. I was relying on my huge compost pit to keep my veggie garden organic. Or did I simply under estimated the tree's ability to reach and extract nutrients and water from its surrounding?

One day I decided to move a raise bed that was at least 45 feet from the tree, and could not believed how much new roots the old tree have crawling underneath. It was amazing considering that I did not till the ground when I built the raised bed. I was following the "lasagna" method and just covered the grass with card board and newspaper and add compost and top soil. But after 2 years the tree's massive root system took over. No wonder my plants were suffering from malnutrition and dehydration. The big old tree was acting like a big bully and was stealing their food and water.

So last spring we decided to get rid of the tree.



The most honest and affordable arborist in eastern Washington and northern Idaho area. No joke. One bidder thought we were disparate enough to tackle a second mortgage just to get rid of the darn tree. He probably didn't have the means but if we have the money, he'll find a way. Only Affordable Arborist told us he can't do it because he doesn't have a professional tree climber and topper, then put in an honest bid when he hired one.


The professional tree climber


And his safety gears and equipments.




Getting started. One branch at a time. This section was the most dangerous part of the whole tree. It was directly on top of the power line.

Each branch was tied before it was cut and two guys on the ground used the rope to guide the fall away from the line. It was quite a system of know how and coordination.


Well Hello Sunshine!


And off to the ground it goes. A few feet at a time.



And here comes the big one.



Goodbye Tree!