When the Bushes Get Out of Control

Johnny-on-the-Spot … by John Foster …

My wife and I have lived in our current home since 1994.

When we purchased the property, most of the backyard wasn’t even in.

As a matter of fact it was nothing but weeds and thistles.

We even had a killdeer nest on the ground in the area of where our deck and swimming pool now reside.

In those days we had but 2 trees on the far northside of the property.

Now we have about 20 that provide glorious shade in the hot summer months but they also produce a prodigious amount of leaves.

That’s fine with me because I like to rake ’em, shred ’em and compost ’em.

However, as the bigger trees grew, their shade increased and that’s what lead me to dispatch a Washington Hawthorn tree recently.

When this tree came in a package from the Arbor Day Foundation years ago, it was just a two-foot seedling.

I planted it in one of our “butterfly gardens” and it thrived.

Washington Hawthorn trees do best in full sunlight which it got plenty of until my other faster-growing trees got going.

Washington Hawthorns start the spring with reddish-purple leaves which turn dark green with white flowers.

The leaves turn orange, scarlet or purple and the berries, loved by birds and smaller mammals, turn bright red in the late fall.

Honey bees like the nectar of the blooms, too.

However, these trees have thorns.

Lots of thorns.

That makes the tree a haven for birds since they can nest in them and critters can’t navigate them due to those thorns.

I’ve seen some thorns up to 3 inches in length.

Years ago I topped this hawthorn tree hoping to make it a little bushier but that, combined with decreasing sunlight from our other shade trees turned this Washington Hawthorn into a “thorny” hazard.

It grew 25 feet tall and “gangly” “and if you got close to a low-hanging branch, one of those thorns would give you a pointed “Hello!”

It was the one part of our lawn that you couldn’t traverse bare-footed or an old thorn would surely find your tootsies.

So, I made the decision to cut it down.

I was probably motivated by my effort earlier this year when I attacked two boxwoods that had grown into an 8X8X6 foot beast at the end of our driveway.

It was actually our neighbor’s evergreen but I had asked if she was “emotionally-attached” to it.

When she said, “No!”, I went to work and actually increased the size of our driveway and visibility significantly.

They’re now just two little stumps of branch nubs that may or may not come back.

If they do, I’ll be able to trim and manage the new growth.

But I have no such plans for the hawthorn.

I handled the project with my battery-powered reciprocating saw with a pruning blade and 5 trips to the local recycling center with the thorny brush.

Years ago, we tackled a sizeable pine tree with one of those “Gator” saws.

I don’t need no stinkin’ chain saw!

(Although I do have one but it needs to be plugged in via extension cords.)

Even with gloves and long sleeves, I felt like a pin cushion after the weekend project.

We have a saying in the Foster house that’s it’s not a true project until the work gets a little “DNA” in it or on it.

Thanks to the thorns, a fair amount of O-negative blood was dripped or smeared on sleeves and gloves of my work clothes.

So now, the northernmost butterfly garden has a bigger area for our perennials to thrive and bloom.

Recently, we had mourning doves “build” an eye-level nest in a backyard bush.

“Build” is hardly something that comes to mind when you look at the loose collection of twigs and grass that represented the nest.

But, it proved functional as Mom and Dad Dove cared for two eggs that hatched into young-uns.

The “nest” is now empty but I think I might put an empty Robin’s nest in that bush that I found when bringing down the Hawthorn Tree.

The Doves might want to use for the next brood.