Chris was coming at 11:00 to give me a quote on a few more trees.
The doorbell rang at about ten. I wasn’t expecting him at that hour…
It was the city utility workers, here to clear limbs away from the power lines, and when the guy said that I had to laugh and ask, What trees?
They walked around the yard and went Oh. Oh wow.
But there was one limb from the camphor that had grown back up close enough to give them something to do; it didn’t take long.
And then the one who was clearly in charge casually mentioned that he does tree cutting privately on his own time, too, and he’d be glad to give me a quote on that other stuff over there. Sure. So, the yucca (it wasn’t a yucca), trim the olive, take out that and that, he gave me a verbal quote.
Nothing was written down, details could be forgotten and misunderstandings could happen. He came back later with a business card but that was as far as it went.
Just minutes after they left the first time the doorbell rang again, and there was Chris.
We talked trees a little while. He took detailed notes of what was to be done and gave me a written estimate. When I asked about the Fuji apple, he confirmed what I was pretty sure of: my gardening guy had pruned nearly all the fruiting tips off. He was trying to keep the tree down to a good size for us but he’d been a little too enthusiastic. Chris talked about one year wood for the plum but two year for apples (and I know it’s three to ten for pears). Now, this, he said, pointing out the much smaller Yellow Transparent next to it, you’ve still got a lot of fruiting wood on this one.
But I like Fuji apples a lot better. So now I know, at least, and next year will be different.
On the other side of the house, I am a bit reluctant to see those other trees go, but they are shading the solar panels by morning and the neighbor’s garden by afternoon and we need something shorter and my apologies (again) to the birds. But at least we’ll get them out before nesting season and will replace them immediately.
Chris’s crew is booked solid for several weeks out so we have time to decide what will go in instead. I’m thinking ultradwarf sour cherries and summer-producing dwarf mandarins. Maybe.