Greetings friends!

We now find ourselves entering the month of June. Thankfully we are receiving some much-needed rainfall today, although, however much this eventually amounts to will be far short of what is actually needed. I guess it’s another case of, ‘take what you can get, and be grateful’.

There was quite a ‘buzz’ around here in the final week of May – the ‘buzz’ of chainsaws filled a Friday afternoon as tree cutters set about dismantling two enormous trees on the property. I’d spent enough time carefully looking over all our trees over the last few years to know well enough there were several trees which gave *me* cause for concern, and which would benefit from at least a second opinion. Enter tree arborist Martin Larsson, of Länsi-Uudenmaan PuuApu Oy who after viewing all on our lot offered suggestions and recommendations.

The two trees we decided to tackle first were of the greatest concern because each of them were within proximity to either the house or shed building directly, should either of them decide to collapse. Both trees that were felled had been with this old homestead for quite a few decades, so their absence would be noticed by us immediately. A large pine tree was perfectly healthy but had an occluded trunk which had been left to grow years ago, long before our time here. Had it been cut out while the tree was young, that large pine tree would still be standing today. Here’s a photo to show the two trunks of the tree before the felling.

Notice how both sections of the trunk are nearly the same height. (BTW: this was a really tall tree) That second trunk veering to the right is the portion that could have sheered off and fallen on the house….if it had ever decided to do that. The evidence of the possibility of this ever happening was revealed once the tree was fully down, and we were able to see how much length of the two competing trunks had grown into each other. I guess what precipitates a section to sheer off is from all the accumulated bark that is growing on the inside of the two trunks, effectively weakening that entire section where they are joined. I hope my explanation is clear enough to understand. 🙂 Needless to say, we didn’t much care for the idea of a large tree collapsing on the house. One of the guys in the crew is close to six feet tall, and you can do the math to see this was in fact a pretty tall tree.

I really don’t like having to cut down trees. It makes me feel really horrible, actually. But something strange happened once Martins’ crew had taken all the limbs and top portion off, leaving only the main trunk about 4 meters tall. Martin proceeded to cut the final 4 meters and as that old tree came crashing down on the roadside, the immediate loud THUD of it hitting the earth caused both Pekka and myself a big smile and giddiness. How at that moment I could show such an emotion still somewhat baffles me. I went over to the stump, counted the rings and told the stump I was sorry. Call me a sap. Anyone who knows me well will tell you I’m a tree-hugger. Yep. That’s me.

The other tree that came down that day had all the makings of a great tree. Unfortunately, this Linden tree had some improper tree pruning during its lifespan, and one of the places a limb had been cut away never healed properly, and it began to rot at the wound site. Martin explained that much of what he has to take down on his jobs are from improperly managed trees with situations which require attention but are left for too long and thus have all sorts of problems due to things such as negligent pruning, or in the case of our pine tree, no pruning when it was needed. The word of advice from the arborist is to properly maintain the trees on your property so you, and possibly the next owners, will be able to enjoy them too for a very long time. Also, every tree comes down eventually, one way or another…

The Linden was large, just like the pine but had several trunks and limbs going every which way. With the inner portion of the trunk compromised by rot, the chance of this tree coming down in one piece, or several pieces during a storm for instance, was of much concern for us. Especially since the large juniper on one side of the Linden had already been halved in size by a very windy storm which blew through here about five years ago, taking much of the juniper into the roadway. So down the Linden went.

That whole business was nearly two weeks ago, and there are still large piles of debris stacked along the farmers’ roadside needing to be cut into manageable pieces. Pekka has been handling all that, with a gracious assist from the farmer, Joel. Pekka and I spent the first week just clearing the road which was heavily buried in two large piles of limbs and branches, trunks and all manner of wreckage as both trees had been growing along the roadside. This past Saturday, we loaded the trailer 4x with loads to Rosk’n Roll for disposal. There isn’t a charge for dropping off most things there btw, so that’s a really great feature of a well run municipal refuse and recycling center. Wish every community had one as well-equipped.

There are all manner of plants smashed under the weight of all those large trunks and tree limbs, which will hopefully be maneuvered off and away before the damage is permanent. For now, the mission has been to clear the roadway debris and restore the full use of our neighbor Henriks’ property which came in handy for a resting place for so many piles of branches and sections of old trees.

Unfortunately, due to the need for extra hands, I forewent my planned excursion to attend the Espoo Kevät Markkinat and stayed to help Pekka. Who knows what sort of trouble I could have gotten into there had I gone! So many plants, such little time!!! One place we did manage to visit was Matildan Taimitapahtuma. The kind gardening lady, Leena who I follow on YouTube (https://www.youtube.com/@leenanpuolivillipuutarha585) was going to be selling shade-loving perennials at this event and I really had my eye on a few items. She had already warned that last time she sold out quickly, so to arrive promptly. We did, and she was kind enough to have a couple items set aside for me! Oh, how wonderful!!!

So I added some lovely Hellebores, Primula, and Sanguinaria Canadensis ‘Multi-Plex’ to a little spot in our shady border. Yippee!! BTW, Leena has a beautiful garden and her YT channel is filled with over 130 videos showcasing her interesting and varied garden schemes and plants. Do give her channel a view, you will love it!

Finally, I snapped this photo the other day and was so happy to see a few lingering Magnolia blooms on the Leonard Messel. Tucked into one was this curious white spider! What a surprise! 😉

That’s all for now. Happy spring to you, it’s well underway here in our neck of the woods…or what is left of them!

Until next time ❤