Damn, the big lemon-scented gum had to come down

Planted it 22 years ago. In a street with SFA by way of big trees; it was a desert, my suburb.

But to keep good relations with my neighbours it's no longer.

Like a good gum it dropped crap for 3 months of the year esp when the drought ended: flowers and the sh*t from parrots and flying-foxes; bark & gum-nuts.

We could forgive it this but we live in a community.

My neighbour paid for it, and wanted it sectioned to 20cm for his wood fire. Nothing there for me to salvage for turning and I'm not sure I'd want any reminder anyway.

Now to look at some more 'friendly' plantings.

Beautiful trees, feel for you:C. But isn't lemon scented the same as spotted gum or else closely related? All those tool handles!

Maculata v. citriadora IIRC. Close in appearance in the flesh. V. diff. woods. Otherwise the loppings would all be in my back yard!

Yeah, it hurts whatever the case.

Hey ho. New plantings offer new poss'ies, and will come with an endless supply of the neighbour's home-grown arrack, which is smooth but treacherous and too much for me these days. A beer, a yarn, some swapping of home-grown vegies: they will be the continuing outcomes.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by rsser

New plantings offer new poss'ies, and will come with an endless supply of the neighbour's home-grown arrack, which is smooth but treacherous and too much for me these days. A beer, a yarn, some swapping of home-grown vegies: they will be the continuing outcomes.

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Couldn't wish for more.


Peter.

We have been here for 32 years and over that time have planted all kinds and numbers of trees and shrubs. The "soil" is granite sand with the clay layer a long way down. I often referred to it as Bonzai soil because so much of what we planted hardly did anything much. If the dryness and lack of nutrients available to the plants slowed down their growth, the frosts finished of. We did have success with a couple of Snow Gums. One would be 20mts high and about 500mm at the butt. His trick is to shed bark and leaves. I carted away a layer 500mm deep to "lessen the fuel" as we are told to do. His other party trick is to jetesen branches when its dry (like about now). He is within striking distance to the house. My wife thinks he should....you know the rest. But I like him!!!! So I just keep an eye on him and hope he throws his branches away from the house. His mate 25mts away is only a small tree. But they were planted at about the same time.
My brother-in-law described the shack when we first moved here as..."The little house on the prairie". It is now a "Leafy haven"