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Galega x hartlandii 'Lady Wilson'  On Monday, our garden was included in the HPSO Study Weekend. This is a four-day event that includes speakers, plant/art sales and garden tours. The event rotates every two years between the cities of Portland, Seattle, Victoria B.C. and Vancouver B.C.  It will be 2033 before Portland hosts again. I toured the Portland gardens on Friday and Saturday and will share some photos in my next post. The weather was perfect on those days. Not so much on Monday, the day for the Vancouver, Washington gardens tour, and by late afternoon, the temperature had reached 94. However, it wasn't too bad in the first part of the day, and that's when we received the most visitors. We didn't have an exact count, but making an estimate based on our guestbook, I would say around 200 people. It was a hectic but fun day! We had a lot of visitors from Seattle and areas north of us as attendees were making their way home. Every time we open our garden, there ...

Goodbye to the Eucalyptus


 
Another wind storm, another case of the leaning tower of eucalyptus. In the past, I have been staking it after leaning it back up but it has become so big that I think the situation was hopeless. And the new fence is in the path of destruction. In hindsight, I did not place this tree carefully. It is planted in the shallow bed of the terrace and a large tree doesn't look good smacked right in the middle of the fence-line anyway.

Still, removing it (and any tree for that matter) is painful. It is such a beautiful tree. Amazingly fast-growing, this was planted from a quart-sized pot only 4 years ago.
 
Look at how beautiful the wood is - sigh
 

 
Looking out the bedroom window from above shows the new view. If you look closely, you can see the stub of the bottom trunk which is still standing. It certainly opened up the view.



I now know of a much better spot for a eucalyptus along the side of the driveway although it will involve moving a hemlock. I will mull this over during the winter months. After all, they grow so fast...


Text and photos by Phillip Oliver, Dirt Therapy

Comments

  1. The removal does open up your view from inside, Phillip. I know it's hard to take down an otherwise healthy tree but Eucalyptus do need to be very carefully sited for the sake of safety. They're notorious for coming down in bad storms here in California, which was a factor in the decision to remove a very large specimen we inherited with our current garden (in addition to the complaints of a neighbor who claimed it interfered with her view, which is an issue governed by a local community ordinance here).

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  2. If you leave the stump don't be surprised if your Euc pops tight back up again in spring.

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  3. It is always sad to have to remove a tree. The more open view is nice. You have a lot of color in the garden right now.

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  4. Yes what ks said, they quickly re-spout from the stump--whether you want them to or not!

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