The Ash Tree

 

   One of the things I like best about the house we live in is that it's shaded by several large trees. This means our house tends to stay cooler in the summer. I also like having trees in the yard. I grew up in a yard with many large trees so it feels more like home.

   Over the summer one of the trees started looking sick. It lost the leaves on top and slowly started losing leaves until only a tuft was left. I had hoped that this was just something having to do with the drought we have been suffering in Minnesota. It turns out that the tree has a disease. It will have to be cut down.

  I understand this. Nothing lasts forever, even trees. We can't leave it standing because if it does fall down it will hit our house, the nearby power line or both. It also looks really bad to have a big, dead tree in the front yard.

   The thing we now need to decide is what we are going to do. We will need to put a tree in to replace it. It's the south side of the house and there needs to be some shade in that spot.

   I had originally thought we could get an evergreen of some type. I'm not so sure know. All the other trees are deciduous. A lone evergreen might look strange with the other trees. There is also the issue of needles. I had heard that the needles can cause the soil to become acidic which will kill the grass underneath the tree. Many of the evergreens in the neighborhood are planted on small mounds covered with wood chips.

   One of the things I have been interested in for a few years is edible landscaping. Edible landscaping is the use of food producing plants in landscaping of yards. These plants can be used for decoration or for actual consumption within the household. (This is not the same as gardening meant to produce food items for sale.) It occurred to me that maybe we could plant a couple of fruit trees in that space. It would need to be two trees as most fruit trees that can be grown in our zone are not self pollinating. I'm especially interested in apple trees. I know they can be grown here as there is a small orchard a mile or so away from the house.

   This seems to be the perfect solution. If we get dwarf trees, they will probably not grow large enough to interfere with the power lines. They will bloom in the spring and look pretty. Then we can enjoy some fruit from them in the fall (or summer if we choose to plant cherries). They would also provide a little shade.

   C is not sure if this will work or if we will be able to handle the care that fruit trees will require. We will have to do more research. I'm hoping it will work out. One thing I have never done is picked an apple off a tree. It will be sort of cool to pick an apple from my own tree.