It was very windy last week, so windy that a whole tree fell down.
The wind broke it right off, exposing the fact that there was really nothing holding it together at all.
On the way down, the palo verde severed a saguaro.
Saguaros have personalities (yes, I am anthropomorphizing, but I am not alone
This one had babies at her very tip,
which means she was 75-100 years old, at least. I shot this earlier this year to celebrate the newbie on the left side.
Mother Nature is ruthless. She doesn't care what her destruction looks like once the damage is done. One of the tree's branches tore off this chunk of saguaro skin.
Otherwise, it was a clean break,
Now there is an empty space where there was once a tree, a tree that lost a whole part of itself in the Spring
and, apparently, never recovered.
The landscapers came and toted it all away, covering the stump with the pebbles that serve as ground cover out here, removing all traces of what was and is now no more.
I bought a velvet mesquite from a local conservation group. I don't have one, and the space is big enough to accommodate it. The roots will always be far enough away from the house, it is a fast grower (akin to being too old to buy green bananas, I can't take a chance on a late bloomer), and it is a low water usage, xeric appropriate species.
It's just not my funky palo verde and the cactus she sheltered who are suffering.
The storm ripped hearts open in more ways than one.
*****
(That's the end of the post. For the gardeners who might be interested, the white innards felt like memory foam with a pleasant, almost wet texture. The green inner leaves were almost mushy. The ribs were pliant. The water storage system is really something to admire. I spent some time thanking her for the lesson.)
Oh no. I loved that combo too.
ReplyDeleteAnd 2 barrel cacti on your side of the lot died, too. The view from your driveway is altered forever.....sigh.
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Crap
ReplyDeleteYou will like the new tree, too..... I promise!
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When plants are so precious, as they are there, it is sad to lose them.
ReplyDeleteThis year there were no birds' nests in the palo verde (did they sense it was dying?) and I'm counting that as a win.
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I had never seen the innards of a cactus before -- that was pretty interesting. ALthough that is not to say I kdon't sympathize with the loss.
ReplyDeleteIt was a science lesson in my own front yard - amazing and intimate and educational. It helped a lot with losing the rest of it. I wanted to keep the top part and watch it dessicate, but the landscapers chopped it up and put it in the truck before I could stop them.
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