Let There Be Light!

The Emerald Ash Borer has been identified in our county, so over the next decade we may lose thousands of trees to this damaging beetle. Rather than waiting for the destruction, our city is removing many ash trees as a preventative measure.

Our neighbors had an ash tree that shaded most of our backyard from early morning through early afternoon. They chose to have it removed last month along with a crab apple tree that had seen better days. It’s hard to take decent photos of trees this time of year when they have few or no leaves, but here are the before and after shots of the east side of our yard:

There’s a lot more sky now. What doesn’t show in the photos is that we and our neighbors also had the tree company remove several large oak branches that were hovering over the roofs of our houses. When spring comes and the leaves open up, there’s going to be a lot more light hitting our yard and house.

The flowerbed on that side of the yard had gotten so shady in the last several years that I replaced most of the sun-loving plants with shade-loving astilbes and hostas. Boy will they ever be in for a rude awakening next spring. Our neighbors are going to plant a replacement tree in that same area, but it will be years before it’s big enough to shade that flowerbed again. Fortunately astilbes and hostas can handle sun, you just have to be diligent about keeping them well-watered.

The good news is that my annual beds should get a lot more sun. Many annuals can tolerate partial-shade, but they don’t bloom quite as heavily and often need staking. Over the last few years the shade has been creeping further and further into the yard. I was worried that I would be growing all hostas in a decade or so.

It looks like I’ve been given a reprieve.