I Killed a Tree Today (for Elizabeth)

Ever since we saw that yellow magnolia last year, Rich has been obsessed. Unlike our neighbors across the street with a big, gorgeous, flowering tree, we had a honey locust in front of the house (until today). It was a spindly, sad little tree. Some of the branches were broken, giving it a funny odd shape and it didn't provide much shade to the street. I suppose some accident or disease had killed off the earlier tree that would have been an equal companion to the other big trees that give our block its special old-time small-town quality.

So you-know-who couldn't resist picking up a yellow magnolia at Manza Family Farm in Middletown, New York, a few miles from the sprawling malls and fast food joints along Route 17. They've got everything you need, all the basics and then some. The place is huge and the selection is irresistible. We just had to have that yellow magnolia for the front yard.

Our spindly little honey locust turned out not to be so small once we started digging. It had a dense, tough root system, part of what makes it a good street tree, I suppose. We dug and we clipped the roots and we dug some more. The damn thing wouldn't budge. Rich had the bright idea of using the car to push the tree over. He had some crazy Rube Goldberg contraption of old logs and bits of styrofoam that he insisted would not harm the front fender of our hybrid SUV as we would give the tree that final push needed to break the roots. I was able to drag him from the car just in time to prevent this potentially expensive bit of fender bending. So we used the logs to create a giant lever to pop the tree roots free. That didn't work and my seesaw, not the tree, popped from the ground and I went flying. Two bruised wrists and a scraped butt later and the ugly little tree was still standing. We found a bigger log lever and pushed and grunted some more. Our neighbor was on her porch cheering us on. Others walking down the street to work gave us dirty looks when mudballs and branches went flying. A perfectly good tree was breathing its last; they didn't get it. Finally I got the idea of twisting the tree and breaking the roots that way. We started pulling and turning and, yes, our maneuver was finally working. The tree was tipping over and breaking loose. But that, of course, happened just as a police car drove by. The tree crashed to the ground just inches from the passing patrol car. It swerved and continued on down the street, in search of crimes more serious than arborcide.

We dragged the root ball up the driveway and trimmed and collected the branches. Where once was a homely little tree just coming into spring bud was now a six-foot-wide hole and a huge mound of dirt. What were we thinking??? What's the expression, you can't make an omelette without breaking an egg? So we had to kill a tree to make a home for our new yellow magnolia. I have to say that the newcomer is sweet. Rich tells me it's a Magnolia Elizabeth, named for Elizabeth Scholz, the former director of the Brooklyn Botanic Garden where it was developed in the late '70s. The yellow buds are just breaking into bloom and it makes you smile just to look at our new tree. The hole has been filled in and Rich will plant around it so our little corner of Jersey City will get a bit more special. Thanks for the tree, Elizabeth. And don't forget this weekend is Sakura Matsuri, the cherry blossom festival at the Garden, where over 220 cherry trees will be in bloom. The sight of the massed pink cherry blossoms is unforgettable. I'd kill to be there but can't make it this year.