.
There’s a crabapple tree in our stone garden bed.
.
.
We didn’t plant it, but it sprouted and grew well…. so we let it be.
.
.
Ten years later it perfumes our yard with blossoms in the spring and provides shade for the flowers and respite for the birds.
.
.
Until this week when it literally split in half.
.
.
The lower section on the left broke away from the trunk and got tangled up in the other big section resulting in a mess.
.
.
Knowing it was going to break off and wreck havoc in the first storm, we decided to cut off the broken parts.
😰
.
.
Which were absolutely loaded with fruit.
.
.
I hated to do it, but there really was no choice.
And as with most projects around Casa River as soon as we started…. things went wrong.
.
.
After a few initial swipes with the chain saw?
The chain fell off. And when we tried to fix it?
.
.
It started to rain which drove us into the shed.
Grrr.
.
.
Half an hour later we were back at it.
.
.
With me sighing as each branch fell.
I hate cutting mature trees.
.
.
But kudos to my husband for not destroying my blooming sedum.
.
.
Only one blossom lost.
.
.
The garden bed looks like hell because my knee hurt too much to tend it this year and we’ve had a horrible drought all summer.
.
.
My knee isn’t the only thing crunching around here.
Everything is brown.
😩
.
Our Cherry Tree did the same thing, and twice we have had it pruned and reshaped.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Crabapples are small, but their combined weight is impressive. Hauling them to the woods was a job in and of itself.
🥴
LikeLiked by 1 person
I”m glad you could save part of the tree. They are beautiful in the spring.
LikeLiked by 1 person
I’m hoping the existing half will fill in the empty half over time…
LikeLiked by 1 person
Yes. It’s sad when a mature tree breaks. I had that myself with a tree in a nature reserve I walked through. I think you read that post when I blogged about it. Goodness knows how old that tree was in the nature reserve.
LikeLiked by 1 person
That one shot where it looks like you set out a funerary bouquet for the tree prior to cutting it back!
LikeLike
Poor tree. The remaining half looks so forlorn.
LikeLiked by 1 person
It really does.
And now the birds are confused…
😟
LikeLiked by 1 person
I had a flowering crab apple tree in my back yard that was really overgrown and getting too large for the area. I contemplated getting rid of it altogether .. cutting it to the ground and starting over.
I decided to just give it a drastic trim and see what happened.
Cut back to around six feet tall, which removed almost all the foliage, it just chuckled and grew right back out. Bloomed perfectly the next year and is now a nice asset to the plant community again.
LikeLiked by 1 person
They’re usually very resilient.
My fingers are crossed.
LikeLike
That poor tree. When I was young, my parents’ tree split during a storm and my dad jerry-rigged it back together with something that looked like tar and ropes. We didn’t have high hopes, but it grew like crazy after than incident. I hope the crabapple bounces back with enthusiasm.
LikeLiked by 1 person
It started as a seed and grew like wildfire, so there’s hope.
LikeLiked by 1 person
I admire your nails. You have the best job in the house-watcher of the cutter. Enjoy! Those stones are crazy in line, just like ours. The husbands have so much in common!
LikeLiked by 1 person
That garden bed was a two week project. So. Much. Work! But when I tend it properly and plant appropriately, it’s very pretty.
LikeLiked by 1 person
I can tell lots of effort went into it. I can walk around our backyard but still cannot bend or weed. Can’t do 90 degrees bend, but each day gets better.
LikeLiked by 1 person
You’ll get there.
And then you’ll have to weed, so take it slow.
😉
LikeLiked by 1 person
Of course the chainsaw chain fell off right before it started raining—that’s classic backyard project timing! 😂 Sorry to hear about your knee and the drought struggle, but saving half the tree is definitely a win! 🌧️💪🏼
LikeLiked by 1 person
I’m just glad we got to it before there was more damage.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Absolutely! Catching it when you did saved you a much bigger headache down the line. Silver linings! Hope the rest of your week goes much smoother and injury-free! ✨
LikeLiked by 1 person
We gotta send you some rain. It is amazing how green everything is here this late in the year. I don’t know if it was last year, the year before, or the year before that…but it seemed like you guys got tons of rain that summer and we went 45 days without a drop. Every storm – the few we had – either went above or below us. It was like Stephen King’s Under The Dome. Glad you got to salvage the crabapple tree to some extent.
LikeLiked by 1 person
That’s what happened to us this summer. We could sit on the porch and watch the storms head to the neighboring towns.
🥴
LikeLiked by 1 person
Drought is the worse. We have periodic droughts out here and plants just die – however, your garden does not look like hell! Hope you get that knee taken care of soon!
LikeLiked by 1 person
Yes. I have a surgery date for the end of October,
Finally.
LikeLike
Love that you kept the tree despite its losses! It’s beautiful
LikeLiked by 2 people
Crabapples are tough. I’m hoping it will bounce back next year.
😊
LikeLike
🤞
LikeLiked by 1 person
So sorry! But as JM noted, wonderful that you managed to keep the tree. Hope it recovers.
LikeLiked by 1 person
The fact that you care is more than enough. Next year, once your knee is fine, you can take over 🙂 And really sad for the tree. I know how it feels because we dealt with the same when “our” neem tree split. The highest branch fell off, killing a lot of nests and eggs. Our resident owl lost his hole, and the beehive lost its rain cover. The hornbills and green pigeons stopped coming close enough to spot. 😦 Sigh!
LikeLiked by 1 person
That’s so sad. Poor little owl…
But you have hornbills!
❤️
LikeLiked by 1 person
Our beloved peach tree broke nearly in half earlier this year. Sniff.
We’ve had a weird year precipitation-wise: one month will be super wet, the next super dry, then wet, then dry…but it looks like September might break that trend, as it’s shaping up to be the second wet month in a row. Fingers crossed you get some rain soon!
LikeLiked by 1 person
My area is in severe drought right now. We’ve had passing little showers, but it’s just drizzle.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Ughhhh….yes, that would be so painful to cut down. Hopefully, over time it will shape back up and continue to be a source of fragrance, fruit and shade.
Do any of your critters enjoy the crabapples?
LikeLiked by 1 person
They’re very bitter so most everyone avoids them. Though if it’s a really rough winter the deer will dig in the snow to find them.
LikeLiked by 1 person