If Atlanta is the City of Trees, then Cobb County is too by extension. Matter of fact, Cobb has an extension agent in the area of home horticulture and I consulted him recently about a dying tree I have.
The extension agent’s voice on the phone reminded me of someone. When he said that Walter Reeves used to work with him, the WSB-AM (radio) personality and master gardener, that’s when it hit me. He had that same soothing voice and the perfect knowledge of all things growing in your yard.
Every spring, my side yard would be enhanced by the blossoms of an ornamental cherry tree. This year, the tree bloomed and then fizzled inexplicably.
It might be fully explainable to my neighbors with a green thumb, which I don’t have. Whatever the opposite of a green thumb is — I have it.
For instance, my new azaleas died a few years ago, my flowers in the front didn’t take, and my fescue seed in the back either got too much watering or not enough. In any event, the backyard is as bald as the top of my head.
The fact that I can’t grow anything isn’t the only problem. Every time I buy a yard implement, it breaks.
My new weed eater quit working almost before I got it out of the box. My pruning shears collapsed and the powerful cutting action you expect from a pruning shear has been neutered.
My lawn mower broke its baffle just after I bought it, so that hurricane tape now covers the hole where grass and sticks are expelled in forceful disarray.
I’m surprised the neighbors haven’t drawn up covenants prohibiting me from yard work.
But the cherry tree was planted by the builder and, come to find out through the extension office, mine isn’t the only one having problems this year.
The agent has fielded dozens of calls from all over the county on the ornamental cherry “stress” issue.
What seems to have happened is a fungus got to these trees in the spring. The extension office recommends, for those trees that are still hanging on, to first sanitize the ground around the tree. Then, test the soil for pH. And, finally, use a fungicide next spring.
The tree isn’t likely to survive because it has no leaves and some of the branches are brittle, but I don’t want to cut it down just yet in case the springtime brings out some blossoms.
If the tree is a goner, I know I’m not capable of bringing it down myself. The chain saw I would buy would have to be indestructible.
So, when I do decide to do this, I’ll hire a tree service and watch the take down from a distance, so as not to jinx the job, or tempt the covenant writers to ban me from standing on anything but the concrete around my house.
Craig Allen of Marietta has lived in Cobb County for eight years.
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