This picture was taken a few years ago. It is the crab apple tree in our front yard. Over the last few years we have not gotten very many blooms. The branches grew out of control, rubbing against each other, rubbing against our roof and the side of the house. Many were sagging dangerously low. We also had some type of yew bushes growing around the house that we had become tired of mostly because they were unruly and caught many leaves in the fall. We decided to yank them out and replace them with a few well behaved burning bushes. We are getting old, and digging them out was not even in the equation. We did try and hook them up to the riding mower and simply pull them out. No go, the bushes were going to simply pull the mower into the earth rather than give up their space.
This winter we met some guys who were starting up a business. In the winter they clear snow and in the summer they deal with trees and bushes. During the really bad ice and snow we did have them clear out our driveway. They did a great job. As spring rolled around we asked them about removing the yew and triming the crab apple tree. They agreed the Crab apple needed a desperate trimming. We were in for a huge suprise when we got home. After the shock I talked to the tree guy. He told me that he was just going to trim the tree, but in his trimming he couldn’t find decent healthy wood. In order to try and save the tree he took some drastic measures and kept going till he found healthy wood. He is pretty sure that next year we should see some improvement. Amazingly this spring we are getting some blumes:
Crab Apple Tooth Pick
PanningForGold 