Fall

October is nearing its close, and my front yard trees still have all their leaves. They are only now beginning to turn. Across the street, Contas have a bare ash. The Bakers' honey locusts next door are dropping their autumn offerings in my back yard. All over town trees are glorious in their Fall colors and are well into laying down their red and orange and yellow leaves. But not my front yard trees.

Every year my trees are slow giving up their green. Is it something about my yard? Is it me? Oh well, one of these mornings, but it may be into November, I'll get up to find they have finally let go and remembered to do their Fall thing. Then my lawn will be covered in yellow.

All of this is not a complaint.

But it reminds me that a few years ago Senske killed three lovely Rose Hill Ash and three aspen trees, that’s six trees, in my front yard. The dormant oil machine malfunctioned—that’s what they told me, anyway, but not until I called them—and covered the trees, lawn, sidewalk, and driveway with a lot of thick, heavy oil. Soon after, the trees died.

This is a complaint.

We planted those trees when we built the house. I drew a pattern for them, and that’s where we put them. They were my front yard pride.

I did get the Senske people to come and clean up my sidewalk and driveway, after I convinced them I had not sprayed oil on my own property in an effort to make it look horrible.

Why wouldn't the technician have left me a note or something? Seems only right. But he didn't.

It took a tiny bit more convincing, but, eventually, Tom, of Senske, agreed the company should replace my trees, too. The Senske guys came and replaced three of the trees, the ash, although Tom never could find Rose Hill Ash—that’s what he told me, anyway—so I have some other kind of ash tree out there.

They didn’t put new aspen trees in. Tom thought it not a good idea to have aspens here because “this is the wrong altitude for them.” Never mind that the trees had done very well for twelve years or that the aspen near the front porch was huge and flourishing. All of which translates to: I lost six trees but recovered only three.

And I let them off the hook about it. Why is that? Hmmm. Maybe I’ll have to write another post to address that subject.

Still, every year I receive several invitations from Senske to let them care for my lawn and trees. I don’t let them.