Cutting Down Two Pear Trees
Maintaining a healthy landscape sometimes means cutting down trees.
I love trees and always feel bad when trees are cut down. Trees are crucial to our environment - they provide breathable oxygen, they absorb carbon dioxide and potentially harmful gasses, and they help create an ecosystem of food for birds and other animals. However, occasionally trees need to be removed. Behind my gym building, near my Stewartia garden, is a grove of pear trees. Last week, I instructed my gardeners to take a couple down because they were dying. Fortunately, the trees can be repurposed as perches for my peafowl or recycled into wood chips.
Here are some photos - enjoy.
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- The common pear tree, Pyrus communis, is a deciduous tree that can grow up to 40-feet tall or even more. Some of the pear trees in this area are full of delicious fruits, but a couple are quite bare, not thriving, and need to come down.
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- Here are the two pear trees that I instructed the crew remove. They are located in the grove behind my gym building and across one end of my long clematis pergola. It is one of the first areas visitors see when they arrive at the farm.
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- The leaves on a healthy pear tree are oval with pointed tips and fine teeth along their edges.
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- The bark of the pear tree is grey-brown in color, but the texture changes over time. As a seedling, the bark is smooth, but as the tree matures, it develops a rougher texture. A mature pear tree will have a very scaly texture.
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- Ryan tackles the smaller of the two trees first using one of our handy STIHL GTA 26 Battery Garden Pruners. For a small tool, it is very useful for both cutting and pruning.
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- It was just enough to make a sizable cut through the base of this tree. Ryan and Brian are now able to push the tree over with ease.
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- In just a few minutes, the tree comes down. This tree is pretty short, so it was easy to determine which way it would fall, but never ever turn your back on any tree that is being cut down.
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- This battery pruner comes with a battery, charger, transport bag and oil for saw chain lubrication. This tool is easy to use and its size makes it possible to get to those hard-to-reach spots.
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- Brian moves onto the second tree and begins to carefully remove the clematis vines that are growing on it. Clematis is a genus of about 300-species within the buttercup family Ranunculaceae. The name Clematis comes from the Greek word “klematis,” meaning vine.
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- Next, Brian digs up the plants, so they could be transplanted elsewhere.
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- I have some clematis growing beneath the tall bald cypress trees just feet away from the pear grove. There was just enough room under one to add another plant.
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- Some clematis cultivars will bloom in partial shade, but to really thrive, they need at least six-hours of sun each day. The roots of clematis should also be kept shaded to keep them cool and moist. This location is perfect – and it’s just across the carriage road from my clematis pergola.
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- After planting, Brian gives the clematis a good drink. Clematis prefer moist, well-drained soil that’s neutral to slightly alkaline in pH. Once established, clematis should be watered about an inch or so weekly, and more deeply during dry spells.
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- Once the clematis is off the tree, Brian uses a STIHL chainsaw to make the first cut. Whenever using a chainsaw, always be sure it has a sharp chain, a full tank of oil and gas, and that the operator is wearing the proper safety gear. Brian is wearing apron chaps, and a hard hat with a face shield and ear protectors.
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- Brian cuts at an angle toward the bottom. The cut should always face the felling direction.
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- The second tree is also down within minutes. Common pear trees have broad crowns, straight trunks, and arching branches. Here is the tree just after it has fallen to the ground. Fortunately, it is a calm day with no winds, so the tree falls in the perfect location.
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- The second cut is made to make what is left of the stump as flush to the ground as possible. STIHL’s most well known tool is the chainsaw. All STIHL chainsaws are equipped with a chain stopping system designed to reduce the risk of injury.
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- Ryan uses a hand saw to make the area even flatter. Pearwood is dense, heavy, clean, and has an almost flesh-to-pink color.
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- Most of the time when a tree is removed, its root system remains alive. To help the tree rot more quickly, we make an “x” shaped plunge cut in the center of the leftover stump.
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- Brian cuts some of the bigger branches into smaller pieces to make everything more manageable to discard.
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- And then trees and all the cut branches are gathered and loaded onto the dump truck. The trees will be saved to use as bird perches or passed through the wood chipper at a later time.
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- The space looks different, but now there is more light and more air circulation getting to the remaining trees.
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- By the next day, the sun is out and the ground is all cleaned and raked. The area looks great. Now, onto the next project. Autumn officially begins tomorrow – what are some of your fall chores?
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