Red Bud Woes

On Tuesday the forecast called for scattered showers, so I wasn't surprised when it started sprinkling as I was driving home from the dentist. I pulled into the garage just as the sprinkles turned into a steady rain. By the time I got inside and took my shoes off the steady rain turned into a hard rain. Five minutes after that it was a deluge. When I looked out into the back yard there was a deep puddle next to the compost bin and a large stream of water running across the grass to the sewer.

The storm lasted about ten minutes. Halfway through the inundation I was in the kitchen when I heard a loud 'crack' and felt something hit the house. After the rain slowed down I went outside and found out that one of the trunks of the large red bud tree next to the deck had fallen over.

Oh no!

Fortunately, the only damage it did was crack a plastic vent cover, which can be easily replaced. However, when I took a close look at the trunk I realized that one of the other major pieces was loose in the ground.

This doesn't look good

That night I called a tree service we'd used before and left a message. The office returned my call yesterday morning while I was pulling into the parking lot of my first errand for the day. The office manager told me they'd just had a cancellation. Could the crew stop by in an hour of so?

I completed my first errand and returned home. The hour was actually closer to two, and I had places to be, but when the crew arrived they quickly removed both the broken trunk and the loose one. They also took care of a branch in the tree crown that was rubbing against the deck.

Trunk and a stump

The arborist told me red buds only live 20-25 years, so if I want something to continue shading my deck in the future I might want to think about planting a replacement tree now so it would be a good size before the rest of the red bud succumbed to old age.

Lots of room for the remaining branches to grow now!

Five years ago today: Overheard After Dinner Tonight...