This Crazy-Ass Winter

Man, it's been weird this year.  Consistently so, but still weird.  Every three days we've been going from freezing/below-freezing temperatures, along with ice and sleet and even some snow, to balmy, breezy, early-early-Spring days.  It's getting a bit annoying.

That said, last weekend was made up of those balmy early-early-Spring days, and I took full advantage of it.  I cleaned up the front and back yard for the first time this year, edging and mowing both yards.  I cut down dead branches and foliage on all of my bushes and two of my trees, to ready them for new Spring growth that will come [hopefully] in the next month.

The oak in the front got a special pruning job.  I absolutely adore the way many mature Live Oaks in Austin are limbed-up to create statuesque trees with soaring foliage high above; and in the last few years since I've come to accept my poor little Charlie Brown oak tree, I've decided that it will become one of those.

                                                          before                                                         after                                                      2013

Here's a photo of the tree last Spring, when I started shaping it and cleaning it up.  I got rid of all the small branches that hung down, leveled off the bottom and opened up some space at the bottom.  Earlier this Winter, I began opening up the inside of the tree as well, removing a few small branches, and all of the tiny sprouts that were making this tree look like...well, like a wad of tree on a stick.


Last weekend I did some more shaping, getting rid of most of the small, horizontal branches near the bottom of the canopy, and opening up the inside of the tree all the way up, to make the canopy less dense, and allow for more light to pass through it:

Feb 2014

It's a good start!  I love how TALL this tree looks now, with it's canopy up top instead of bundled up around the trunk like cotton candy on a cone.  I was careful not to disturb the mockingbird nest in the very top, too, in case they decide to come back this year.

This is just one example of where I'm going with this tree.  These are Live Oaks in a south Austin neighborhood in which I used to live.  Some of them are a bit TOO open for me - but I love the tall, forest-y feel of them, the openness, and the dappled shade they cast when opened up like this.  The ones dotting the landscape around my office building have been done the same way, and I just love it.

Special thanks go out to my friend Antares, who lent me her long-handled tree pruner for this job.  That thing is awesome!





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