Front yard reclamation project

So begins the battle to get back my lawn in the front yard. The combination of way too many maples, the north side of property, and two bigs dogs has made this a muddy mess that can't even be considered a lawn.

The plan is to remove 3 maples and 1 cherry blossom entirely, leaving just the two big maples with the beds. Electric dog fence will be relocated to contain dogs to backyard. Planning on chipping, excavating stumps then core aeration, loam as needed and seed/ top dress/ fertilize and water.

Here we go. Cherry closest to house, maple closest to house, maple in side yard covered in black fungus(?) And then the big sugar maple(?) are the 4 to go. The last one I will have an arborist do as it's leaning over bushes, well, and wood stacks.

 

Cherry gone

 

Aaaarghhhhh photos are too big

 

Maple #1 gone


And a little bit of firewood but not much, the fresh cuts in front

 

Yes! Other side benefits are should help with sun exposure on roof to avoid moss growth AND less gutter cleaning

 

On the north side of the house ?

LOL, I've been planting more trees so the lawn dies out.

 

I can loan you two dogs, they'll wipe it out in no time.

 

Do they eat deer poop ?

 

And roll around in it too!!

 

The two maples with the beds around them look far enough from the house. Building beds around established trees is one of the worst things you can do to them - I know it’s to keep the roots and grass cutting to a minimum but mulch will pile up over years and they will rot from the base.

Be prepared for a big mess when you start digging those stumps

 

Truth and Hilarious!

 

So there was a huge bed there, took 3 yards of mulch. I cut the existing into two smaller guys with the rock border so not new. I'm ok with a mess, definitely need to start somewhere.

 

Chipped for a good hour today. This thing clogged a bunch with the cherry blossom and not once with the much larger pile of maple. Not sure why.

Arborist comes tomorrow to help with the last two.

Sorry for the goofy order. Beer and hockey came last.

 

Everything is down now, what a mess. Got most of the maple closest to the house ready for chipper, burn pile, and wood stacks.

Arborist is so reasonable and he makes it look easy. No action pics, I was trying to stay busy.

 

Stumps good bye

 

Saw work is complete. A couple hours of chipping and then a day or two of burning will be the remnants of the tree work. Hopefully get that done this weekend.

Then take off the chipper, put on the box blade and do so grading and cleanup work.

Site doesn't let me post pics bigger than 8MB which most are so I can't put up the fun stuff. Too lazy to resize them all myself.