Quote Originally Posted by Tuckervill View Post
You know what they say about the best time to plant a tree? 10 years ago.

I'd plant the trees now, before the mulberry goes. And...you have every right to trim that tree all the way back to your fence line if you like.

Is it a white mulberry? Those are rare and better than the red ones I have. If it were white I'd hate to lose it.

Karen
No, not a white mulberry. Just your run of the mill regular purple-berried one. My floors are purple spattered for 1.5 months, thanks to my pooches.

We may end up paying someone to trim it if the neighbors' landlord doesn't take care of it. Not cheap (they would have to use a crane), but I think I'd feel a lot better, which is worth a lot. There are several very large branches on the powerlines (for 5 different houses) over our yard, so if one of those branches comes down or gets to swinging too much in the next winter storm, we very well could have 5 sets of live wires in our backyard. We trimmed what we could last year but it's way too high and just too risky with all those lines. The power company won't touch it because the lines are from the pole to the houses, not between poles. No one wants to pay for it, of course. But the lines won't come down in their yard, either (though they would be without power...).

I may plant some of the larger shrubs this fall and maybe even a tree (can't plant now, too hot and humidity too low), but the whole light (and extreme sun exposure) issue may be such that I just need to wait. We're going to give it a couple of months to see what transpires with the tree. We do love the shade, but we currently can't grow anything under it because of the heat+berries+shade+extreme sun when the sun does hit+dogs. So for now it's just rocks and dirt. The dogs love it.