Tree Huggers Beware. Timber!

The Hemlock trees, Tsuga caroliniana in the Appalachians and Tsuga canadensis in all of the eastern US and Canada are being attacked and killed by the Woolly Adelgid. I attacked and killed a bunch of small ones today too.

A thicket of small Hemlocks was/is growing on the western side of my future house underneath the more mature deciduous trees where my sunset view was supposed to be. Alas, there will be no "View" for me, except maybe in the winter time and by then the sun may set behind the nearest hill across the highway and not on the horizon. I am too close to the property line and not high enough above my neighbor's forest below. These are tall trees here folks.















Off to the north, the right hand side of the picture above, a mature grove of very piqued looking Hemlocks block what may be a small view in that direction. They are on my property. Some of these trees are already dead. Some more of them may have to die. I need a little slice of the sky.















I removed these small Hemlocks for many reasons, the potential partial winter view beneath the tall deciduous trees, the fire hazard of conifers so close to the house and most important of all, cleared ground to plant other things in.
















No much of anything grows near or beneath Hemlocks. I want to chose other small trees, shrubs and perennials to fill this space beneath my western forest.
















And you see the perk test guy came today. He looked at the pits on the side of this ridge line and exclaimed, "Saprolite, Rejected"! There will be no drain fields allowed on this slope. That means no trench digging with big machines. This space is now free to be.

Now I was not horrified by this and sent spinning in despair because he had already approved my pits on the other side of the sunny utility valley for both my drain field and my repair area. I will be permitted to poo. Now I wait for him to fill out the paper work. He might have that ready next Monday.

So I garden.















I left four of the small hemlocks on the southern road side portion of this slope. If they survive the Woolly Adelgid, they should provide some winter screening from the highway. If they don't, then I will get to chose some other conifers to handle the job.
















A huge drift of the Gooseneck Loosestrife, Lysimachia clethroides lives nearby. It has gotten a low invasive rating from the resident gardeners, happy, but not a thug. I am going to be dealing in very large spaces. Happy is good.
















After our daily afternoon mauka shower, blue skies appeared above the towering, yet thinning Hemlocks. Blue skies with racing clouds shine above a ridge of saprolite filled with potatoes. The rain water percolates perfectly nearby, a point 5, not too fast and not to slow, with biological soil activities to cleanse septic separated poo. Ya Hoo!















And the "View"? It is everywhere. My little piece of it too.