Trees, Shrubs and Conifers: I need fast growing Shade Tree advice, 1 by franknjim

franknjim wrote:
No septic tank here. I live in the city and everyone is tied in to the sewer system. My sewer line does run across the front yard about 15' over from where I ran across the latest chunk of concrete. I have to use a hatchet and a sawzall everytime I dig a hole. I recently tore out the old sidewalk because it had been lifted by the tree roots of the Maples and have one 6" root exposed now and another one I still have to excavate around so I can cut them out to put in a new pathway using large concrete stone shaped pavers and 300lbs+ stone outcropping as steps. Not doing a concrete sidewalk. Pavers will be easier to fix if the trees push them up.

I do a lot of contracting work so I run across this kind of thing often. Some people like to bury things instead of removing them. This house had a front door in the center of the house when originally built. Someone added on and moved the door to the corner of the house. I think I am now finding the pieces of the original sidewalk.

I will get some pictures of my root mess. I took out a small Maple that had a 12" diameter trunk and was about 30 or 40 foot tall in order to plant a Pink Weeping Cherry in that spot. I still have the trunk with some of the roots attached. I had to excavate 12" down all the way around the base of the tree and cut every root with a hatchet and sawzall. I used a tow rope and a van to pull the trunk over. I left the trunk about 8' tall so I would have some leverage when pulling it out. I found concrete chunks with the roots wrapped around them when taking this tree out. They will dull or break a sawzall blade real quick.

I found an older pic that shows the small tree I just removed and the big tree. You can see the steps of the sidewalk were at a nice dangerous angle from being pushed up by the big tree. The one other tree you can’t see in the pic is over 2’ in diameter about 3’ from the driveway.

BTW. In the pic are Gauge, Pitbull, 13yo. Hans, German Shepherd Dog, 5yo. Athena, English Mastiff, 9yo. Medusa, Neapolitan Mastiff puppy, 13months.