The Pawlonia/princess tree in our back yard has died and we have been concerned about it taking out the fence if/when it falls over.

We also have a tree-of-heaven infestation.

I saw Knotty by Nature posting, first, on Reddit and, then, on BlueSky and we dicided that someone who is selling native plants sounded like the kind of care about the landscape that we wanted to help us out.

We had a dead maple removed from the front corner of the yard several years ago and it was not a happy experience. The crew hacked it down and hauled it off. But, they, also, dropped it on a Japanese maple that was nearby, breaking it off into a stump. The owner had a crew of 4 or 5 guys and it was not an inexpensive endeavor. So, we were nervous about the Pawlonia.

But, when I went to pick up a pawpaw on Saturday, I made an appointment for an estimate yesterday. (I still haven’t planted the pawpaw.) And I am we are delighted.

First, he spotted 2 woodpecker holes up in the trunk. He said it’s breeding season and they may well already have nests up there. He is a fan of habitat trees and asked how much we really want removed. (Also, he commented on the trees-of-heaven.) We talked about what to expect from the Pawlonia as it decays on its own and all agreed that he will come back in September to take off the side branches and the top above the nesting holes, leaving the larger trunk and some perching stumps.

We aked about tree-of-heaven mitigation and he talked about what we can do to address them. He recommended Triclopyr because it is specific to woody plants and any accidental spills won’t take out a lot of other stuff we don’t want to kill and it breaks down in the soil pretty quickly.

He said to wait until July to cut them and treat them. The little ones get cut off and daubed with the poison. The bigger ones get girded and poisoned. And the really big ones get cut into the bark and poison sprayed into the cut. He said not to cut it completely because that will cause it to regenerate new growth. We have to sneak up on on it, making it think it has died on its own.

As he was leaving, he asked about the mushroom that’s been growing in the silver bark maple by the driveway for a few years. We knew it was there. But, hadn’t really paid much attention to it as it grew and faded. We figured it was a sign of a dying tree. But, it gives good shade and it’s not dead yet. So. we haven’t messed with it except to pick up fallen branches.

It seems that tree has 2 places that are growing lion’s mane mushrooms. We’ll know for sure in a couple of weeks.

OH! AND! Chuck asked him about where to cut back the gingko the deer had abused. He said it might not be dead yet. It may just be mad about not getting enough water during the little drought we had recently after the deer had rubbed the bark off so badly. The remaining bark might not have been sufficient to keep the leaves fed. If we’ll keep it watered, it may come back and be healthy again. Our bluebirds would like that.

We got a lot of good information from this man. I’m really grateful for his time and availability.