Choose wisely

Please, please, please don’t buy or plant a Bradford or Callery pear (Pyrus calleryana) – they are taking over the world. Norway maple (Acer platanoides), Paulownia (Paulownia tomentosa), and Tree of Heaven (Ailanthus altissima) are also “no-no’s”. These trees don’t know how to behave nicely and play well with Mother Nature either.

About three weeks ago, I finally persuaded my Wonderful Husband to cut down the invasive Autumn Olives screening our house from the road. I’d been waging a war against Autumn Olives for years and it was time for those bad boys to go! It took us all weekend, but we got the job done.

As expected, we could see a whole lot more road and there were large bare areas where we’d removed the Autumn Olives. Which meant that we needed to buy trees to plant in their place! See, you knew I had a plan! We both agreed that we needed an evergreen, preferably a native, but at least not invasive.

The first problem that arose was that I wanted an American arborvitae (Thuja occidentalis). However, my Wonderful Husband had fallen in love with Canadian hemlock (Tsuga Canadensis). There were also a couple of other problems. It was still pretty shady where we wanted the new trees and the soil (or what passes for soil around here) is mostly clay.

After checking the garden catalogs, Master Gardener publications, native plant lists, and researching on line, it seemed the Canadian hemlock might really be the best choice. Although not originally native in southern Indiana, it is a native of the eastern U.S. and grows in shade. I was a little worried because the Hemlock woolly adelgid (don’t ask me to pronounce that!) is killing these trees in the southern parts of the hemlock’s range. Still, this sap-sucking bug can be controlled, if needed.

Another concern was the Canadian hemlock needs well-drained soil and I’ve already told you about our “soil”. Happily, we’d been piling leaves and grass clippings in the area we planned to plant the tree and the soil was much better than I’d expected, plus the planting site is on a slight slope so I think the drainage will be fine and the tree will be happy.