I Saved a Tree in Downtown Silver Spring today!

I have been dreading this day for years.  The (once) beautiful colorado blue spruce by my front door had to come down.  When I first bought the house this tree looked like the perfect Christmas tree, like the one you would see on a Christmas scene or a pretty card.  The shape and bluish color of the tree looked beautiful right by the front door. Not to mention it smelled wonderful!

Over the past 20 years, the tree has grown taller than the house, developed a double top (not the best for Christmas tree shape) and a wild overgrown look.  I have had many tree people try to trim it back into that gorgeous shape - but the last few years, nobody could really do much with it.  Everyone was recommending it come down.  

It was overwhelming the house.  You couldn't see the front door from the street or see out into the street from the front porch.  It was blocking the sunlight from the front porch and part of the walkway.  In the winter it blocked the sun so much that the front porch always iced up and took such a long time to melt.  In the summer and spring wet seasons I'd have moldy areas on the porch and walkway because the sun couldn't get to it.

They came today to take it down, with a heavy heart I watched as they started to cut the bottom limbs off.  I hate it when any tree has to come down.  When they got about 6 feet up on the bottom branches, I said stop!

Hey - It didn't look so bad with just the bottom cut up about 6 feet.  We walked around and took a look at it from the front and sides.  They all thought it looked nice just like this.  It solved the sunlight problem. I could see the street from my front porch again. I could see the front door and the window it was blocking from the street again. The walkway was clear now too. They cleaned it up, planted some hostas underneath and added some mulch.


                             It looks sooo much better and I feel like I saved the life of a tree today!