I don't mean to belittle the seriousness of William Butler Yeats' line from his poem
Easter 1916, but the violence with which Hurricane Irene's big winds tore our huge mulberry tree from the ground last night, and the thoughts I have looking at its image (sent by a kind tenant), do recall something of the tumultuous event that poem refers to.
We're in New England just starting vacation and now will turn back to deal with this surprise. Just a reminder, this is, of the fragility of the skein of imagination, in this case, insubstantial thoughts about a new city garden for our house in Brooklyn. My post of only three days ago was about the certainty of a new shade garden there.
Now it appears we will have quite a sunny garden, certainly much more sunlight than I ever anticipated. But I get ahead of myself. I won't know until I observe the sunlight for several days, after all the cleanup.
The garden fates take a hand! Nothing is permanent in the garden.
ReplyDeleteCRIPES..perhaps you doomed the tree by blogging about it! Sad to see an oldie go but I have often thought that to have youthful tree's in a garden (particularly a small garden) is way better than all the dominating effects of large and old...roots...shade..damage to infrastructure..damage to neighborly relationships etc etc !
ReplyDeleteRight, Susan. I'm already looking forward to the change, and the garden doesn't even exist yet.
ReplyDeleteBilly, damage to neighborly relationships--right! Can you imagine the whole block without telephone service, cable, and internet? And it will probably take the utility companies a month, or longer, to get in new poles, wire them, etc. (This is NYC, where nothing is easy.) The neighbors may be out for our skins. Other that that, I'm happy to have the big tree gone. It's time had come, and nature took care of that.
ReplyDeleteYikes..you need to do some neighbourly fence-building in more ways than one! It never ceases to amaze me that doppy garden makers put the most outrageous choices of tree's for small gardens...this tree may well have been a white mulberry?
ReplyDeleteYes. It is a cycle of growth, decline and rebirth. But still it's sad to see one like that go.
ReplyDeleteThe size of the tree makes it look like it's seen some good years. Sorry to see it end this way. At least it looks like the storm felled the tree in the direction least likely to cause a pile of damage. I hope you do your garden planning in pencil.
ReplyDeleteJames, those neighbours are sure to appreciate that an unusally large hurricane just tore up the eastern seaboard!
ReplyDeleteQuote 'force majeure' as that's what it was. Does it affect your insurance?
Anyway, you're freed up to do whatever in the garden.
James,
ReplyDeleteYou were fortunate this happened before you put on the addition and installed your garden. Maybe you will try that magnolia after all. Good luck with the clean up!
Goodness that is a huge tree. It looks like its going to be a huge job but I like your positive attitude to the possibilities that lie beyond
ReplyDeleteBilly, don't know if it's white mulberry. It never bore fruit of any kind. I imagine when it was planted the back yards were used for refuse dumps and out houses. There was no indoor plumbing at that time, at least not in these houses. So a bird probably planted it.
ReplyDeleteField of Gold, yes, it's just the cycle of life, but simpler when it happens out in the woods rather than a dense inner city. James, I guess it's fortunate it fell away from us, but the neighbors across the way don't think that at all! I will take you advice and plan in pencil. Rob, the insurance company isn't answering the phone. Hope this doesn't keep up. Michael, that's another positive way to look at this. I'm free to do what I want re: the new garden. Patientgardener, we have to keep a positive additude and look to the future. And it oculd have been much worse. No one was physically harmed.
ReplyDeleteAh, yes, nature can be extremely violent, especially wind. There are similar situations all around my neighborhood here in NC, but no trees are down in my garden. These city trees, especially curbside ones, often have relatively shallow roots.
ReplyDeleteGinny, what I've noticed in the photos is that the tree withstood the wind; it didn't break. It pulled out of the ground, which is amazing considering the size of the roots. But they do appear to be shallow roots. Our news reports seem to indicate that flooding will be a major problem.
ReplyDeleteYikes! Like you said, a good reminder of the fragility of our constructed world. I find it amazing that the tree pulled out by the roots. There is a gigantic mulberry tree in my parents' garden as well (which has also never fruited). It would be a disaster if the same thing happened as it overhangs the neighbor's house by a fair bit. Good luck with the clean-up. Guess a list of sun loving plants is up next?
ReplyDeleteNo people harmed. No buildings damaged? What lies hidden under the felled tree? Your neighbour's garden?
ReplyDeleteI was shocked, just having read your blog and wished the tree wasn't there: and it seemed so fixed and permanent..
ReplyDeleteAnd now - 'a terrible beauty is born' ? - you have given yourself an incredibly demanding title. Go on - live up to it! Beauty!
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Thought I had posted but can't see it...
ReplyDeleteTo say just how shocking this is - especially so close on your pondering a shade garden. And to add, re your title, - you are now committed to a 'terrible beauty'. Go James!
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Garden Wanderer, upon our return home to deal with the damage, I'm seeing I'll have quite a sunny garden. The mess is indescribable, but this too shall pass.
ReplyDeleteDiana, no one harmed. Buildings damaged? Can't tell yet. We can't see the roofs of neighbors that may be affected. But we'll know in a day or too. I feel like doing a blog post on the insurance industry and the complexity of their coverage, but I guess that's off topic on a gardening blog.
ReplyDeleteAnne, I had great ambivalence about using that title and omitted the final line for a reason. (I have this urge to use poetic pharases I'm fond of, even at such risk.) I didn't really inntend to claim my future city garden would be a "terrible beauty." Now you've caught me. Lower your expectations! The quality of the garden has already been diminished by the high cost of tree removal!
ReplyDeleteJames, I'm sorry I haven't had time to comment before. What a shock! But what an opportunity! Here's the link to the Wikipedia entry on my Montezuma pine
ReplyDeletehttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pinus_montezumae.
I love the idea of a Magnolia grandiflora as well - my neighbour has one and it makes a fabulous contrast with my bamboo. Both of them drop, however - the Montezuma drops needles all year round, and the magnolia drops leaves. It also drops seed pods, which are quite intriguing and look like primitive sculptures. Small price to pay, though, for two wonderful trees...
I see your problem, but the shade removal has helped you really towards a great garden - so you've lost and gained...
ReplyDeleteNah - no excuses now: beauty it is!
(And I love the way these resonant phrases pop up - good to use them! Enjoyed it.)
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This looks like a new planting opportunity to me, though I am sorry your vacation plans changed.
ReplyDeleteVictoria, thanks for identifying the pine.. It appears it's not hardy in this zone. I'll have to look some more. I remember seeing pinus patula in Argentina, another beautiful drooping pine, but also not hardy this far north. I do love magnolia grandiflora, having grown up with them as a rather common tree in the US south. A magnolia seiboldii has also been suggested. Fortunately, I have plenty of time to think about choices.
ReplyDeleteAnne, I also considered Paradise Lost and the fortunate fall, but even I groaned! Yeats is more my style.
ReplyDeleteLes, I agree Virginia did seem to disappear somewhere between North Carolina and New Jersey (as you said on your blog post about Irene). In six months I'll probably be glad this happened.
ReplyDeleteOh my goodness! what a shocking picture to receive. I admire your willingness to go with the flow and see the silver lining. Good luck! I'll be watching to see what you do next.
ReplyDeleteI was hoping everything would be alright, listening to reports of the hurricane. James, news of the loss of your tree is both awful and wonderful, a confluence of feelings I'm sure you've had. To have lasted so long in such an unlikely place is testament to the strength of the tree, but now, I guess, you can do whatever you like. If nothing else, you're not going to be bored.
ReplyDeleteSarah Elisabeth, now that we're on the third day of tree cutting, it's getting difficult to continue to go with the flow. This has disrupted the lives of several neighbors in a major way, as well as our lives, but I know this will be over--eventually--and things will get better.
ReplyDeleteFaisal,
ReplyDeleteSo you give me the opportunity to refer to Milton's use of the concept of the fortunate fall (felix culpa) in Paradise Lost:
O goodness infinite, goodness immense!
That all this good of evil shall produce,
And evil turn to good; more wonderful
Than that which by creation first brought forth
Light out of darkness! full of doubt I stand,
Whether I should repent me now of sin
By me done and occasion'd, or rejoice
Much more, that much more good therof shall spring,
To God more glory, more good will to Men
From God, and over wrath grace shall abound.
Book XII:
Lines 469-478
I don't agree with all the theology, but the general drift? Yes!
Oh wow...that's crazy! To think I was just thinking of some helpful comments to your previous post about having so much shade with that tree...and you mentioned how big a pain it would be to have to remove it all through the house...yikes! I guess it just goes to show that mother nature is indifferent to even the best laid plans! I hope it's a quick clean-up and the result will be a hospitable for you and your future plans...my how quickly things change :-)
ReplyDeleteScott,
ReplyDeleteIt appears that the garden space gets over five hours of direct sun a day at this time in early September. Not a shade garden by any means, but once I plant some small trees and put up a fence, there should be some relatively shady areas. The options are so great it may take a while to start making decisions. I only wish the tree could have been removed in a more orderly and less destructive fashion.