Recently I had to cut down a tree. It was a nice tree. I was sorry to cut it down. But it was in the wrong place.

Right Tree, Wrong Place

Why was this tree in the wrong place?  It was damaging the roof of our home.  Every year I would trim it back and cut off offending branches and every year it grew more.  It was simply too close too the house.  Mind you – I did not plant it there.  That tree had been there on the property for at least 30 years.

It was hard to make the decision.  I have to remind myself that not every tree is sacred.  But just because it had stood in that spot for decades does not make it good tree in and of itself.  It was in the wrong place, and I had to make the tough decision to cut it down.

I am not going to replant a tree in that site. It’s the wrong place for a tree.  A nice low bed of perennials with a boulder for an accent will go there.  But if I were going to plant a tree, I would be sure to remember mature size and not let it rub on my roof and damage my home.

How to Pick the Perfect Tree

I like trees.  But I want you to have the right one for your space.  I do have a series of articles about trees scattered across this site. Here are some.

How to Select the Perfect Tree I

How to Select the Perfect Tree II

Fast Growing Trees

Oak Trees – yes in the Southwest – there are many native species

Almond Trees

Lemon Trees

Citrus Care 

Five reasons to NOT plant a fruit tree.

Living Holiday Trees

Five Reasons to Remove a Tree

Back in one of my Landscaping classes we learned that there are indeed legitimate reasons to remove trees.

Disease
Trunk Damage
Storm Damage to Canopy
Hazardous Proximity
Senescence (old age)

I would add a sixth reason to this.  Aesthetics.  If a tree is standing in the way of a beautiful view, it is also okay to remove it. It is your land and you pay taxes every year so that the county will let you keep your home.  The home you bought and paid for.

I will do future in depth article on each of these tree removal reasons, but I did want to get this article out there for my readers.  Especially the one that asked me the question via my free Substack newsletter. Here’s the short answer: Yes.

It’s Okay to Cut Down a Tree

Here is your “permission slip” to cut down the right tree in the wrong place.

My Promise: 100 Percent Organic Content

You will NEVER get AI generated anything from me. Not even story ideas. All ideas and all words are from my own brain and my own fingers. I DO fact check. In fact, I now fact check at least three times – because “truth is the intersection of three lies.” I have found profound inaccuracies in AI.  Worse.  AI is an idiot.  Recently AI thought that Herman Melville’s classic book Moby Dick (written in 1851) was 74 percent human and 26 percent AI.

I block AI from reading my pages. Why? Because the more they read human generated content, the more they learn to create something similar.  (At least I hope the code that blocks them is still working.)  I don’t want AI learning from my writing. Let people get fed up with AI inaccuracies and start going back to human content.

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