Wednesday, October 14, 2009

Mid-week Rambling

I'm so behind in blogging. I'm still doing the single mom thing, Dan doesn't come home until tomorrow night late. I'm kinda caught up on laundry, maybe just one regular load and one utility load to do and the hampers will be empty. I can't get too excited about that though, Dan'll be bringing home a suitcase full of more laundry.

The local power company has been doing work in our town to improve the reliability of the power supply. That means they are ripping down the trees within twenty feet of the lines.

Here's our backyard before:



Here's our backyard after:



Entrance to the neighborhood before:



After:


Depressing, isn't it?

We're getting $100 per tree they took out. They call them vouchers, but really we have to pay for any new trees out-of-pocket and they will pay us back up to the limit with proof we've installed trees from the approved list. Nobody bothered to mention to us the value of ten full-grown trees is about $10,000 and $1000 in vouchers won't even come close to providing shade and a privacy barrier like we had before. Furthermore, the price of the tree does not include installation. I went to one nursery to check out what they had in stock and their labor charges. I calculated each tree installed will be about 175% of the original price.

I've envisioned filling that space with a row of pink crape myrtles. They grow pretty fast and are so pretty in the summer. Two problems: the smallest size starts at $150 ($262 installed) and I'd need/want seven for a total of about $1840 which is way over our allowance, and they are out of pink ones and I don't like the white or purple crape myrtles.

I started considering other options, different varieties of trees and large shrubs. I started poking around on the 'Net and one click lead to another and I found a coupon offered by the state of Maryland for $25 if you plant a tree on their list. Many of trees on the state's list match the trees on the power company's approved list.

There is a nursery, one with a more expensive reputation, that takes the state coupons. I poke around on their site. Well, they have plenty of the pink crape myrtles in stock, which start at $130, are on sale and can be installed for about 128% of the original price. It looks like I can go back to my original plan, or at least start planning based on my original idea.

Maybe I should look into fruit trees while I'm at it....



5 comments:

just me said...

It is depressing. Wouldn't it be ironic if our town still had the same power outage problems even after taking down all those trees?

Although I must admit some of them were getting pretty overgrown, I think it was a bit of overkill (pardon the pun).

Good luck with your replacement plan.

Mom said...

Your neighborhood looks naked with all those big trees gone. My youngest granddaughter said it looked the the street had been pants.

Ed & Jeanne said...

Wow...that's really depressing. I'd be quite angry about it, personally. Should I send the gnomes over to deal with them?

Unknown said...

Ugh, that is so depressing.
I would feel very exposed.
Bravo on finding the Maryland website for native plantings!

Hit 40 said...

Do you have to have proof of installation? I would charge the full amount on the receipt get back my money...

then go find a killer sale and dig the holes myself. I have found that the smaller the tree the faster it grows. The larger trees are shocked from losing their roots. The small trees are ready to bust!! True story...

we bought big trees. Neighbor bought baby trees. Baby trees grew faster and taller and ....

did not blow over in a storm like mine did!!!! For trees..

smaller is better.

and.. I am depressed for you too!! JUST TOTAL BS!! The power company striped away way too many trees.