City of Trees Gives my 60 Year Old Fruitless Mulberry a Makeover!

Novermber 15, 2023 It was definitely a red letter day to have all the suckers and overgrowth cut back on this tree. I knew from it's younger days that it was always maintained and shaped to allow branches to grow upward and spread - not butchered with branches cut back to nubs as is the fate of many fruitless mulberry trees. When the tree grew to full size I've had arborists work on it periodically but this time I let things go way too long- to the extent that it was looking like a bush from almost every angle with the canopy spread out and drooping as low as 6 and 7 feet off of the ground due to the weight of the overgrowth. I had visions of it blowing over if we had the right storm conditions with a deluge of rain and saturated ground. It was time to call Rodney at City of Trees! The last time they were here was to trim the Tupelo tree that shades the Happy Asses Hitching Rail. Needless to say they got well acquainted with the donkeys that time since the donks were an interested audience watching the entire procedure from their corral. This string of video clips from my iPhone is the result of paring down 60 minutes of video I shot during the entire job (about 6 hours) to show the before look and progression of systematic cutting to lighten the load on the trees branches and to remove the sucker growth, some of which had grown as big and heavy as young saplings. Brandon worked from up in the lift, Edward donned his tree climbing harness and thinned from up in the tree, and Jaleel assisted both of them on the ground: moving branches and debris, pulling down limbs that were stuck, ferrying tools, etc. The word "headache" was yelled loudly and often to warn of limbs being cut and soon to fall. In watching what I knew was very hard work to do, it was entertaining to see the mixture of skill and competence combined with the good natured comradry between Brandon, Edward, and Jaleel to get the job done. During their lunch break they visited with the donkeys and then contined working on the tree on the side in the donkeys pasture area. Brandon continued cut the larger, tangled bramble growth from the lift and Edward used the long pole trimmer to saw and lop of branches that were hanging over the road. After completing the work to even up the canopy all around, the tree is looking wonderful and majestic again! All of the branches were hauled to a pile in the donkey's pasture, tools and equipment were loaded into the truck, then the lift was hitched and pulled out to the driveway- ready to go. After that they raked /blew the leaves into the donkey's pasture and neatened up the area on the lawn around the tree. Finally for the closing video shots they positioned themselves in front of all the branches that are pasture- to remain there until next week when they will return with the chipper shredder to finish the job. I opened the gate and the donks excitedly crowded in - since they saw their City of Trees friends standing in front of a big feast - because they LOVE, love, love mulberry branches and leaves!!! I get some nice shots of the guys with Posh (white), Bozo (spotted), and Annie (grey/white face). The rest of the herd, including Rose, had their minds on eating more than visiting! I added some addition closing shots the following day because there was such gorgeous sky and beautiful lighting; it was a great time to shoot the newly trimmed tree in all it's morning glory. Huge and majestic -and looking like a tree again!