Today we had the pleasure of watching a team of experts from Nicholas Tree Removal Service remove seven date palm trees, thirty oleander bushes, a diseased prickly pear cactus, and extract the remnants of ten Italian cypress stumps which had simply been mounded over at some point.
In short, the 1970’s landscaping vibe, or what was left of it, just had to go, and we wasted precious little time after securing HOA board approval to get the crew from Nicholas scheduled.
Picture this: twenty of the oleander bushes lined the perimeter of the back yard, each resembling an eleven-foot tall leafy sentinel, interrupting what we knew would be beautiful east, west and most importantly, north-facing views. The date palm trunks were unremarkable, rising some 30 to 40 feet to unkempt crowns, and the bases of the co-joined pairs, – I know, it’s a pretty nasty visual – well, those trunks were simply grotesque!
Work began promptly at 9:00 AM – we figured our neighbors would not appreciate the cacophony of a Bobcat, multiple chain saws and one beast of a stump cutter going full-tilt before then! Within two hours, all seven palm trees had been reduced to stumps standing a few feet tall, two-thirds of the oleander bushes were gone, and about half of the Italian cypress stumps were out of the ground, (the rest would have to be removed with the stump cutter due to their proximity to the house, or to avoid potential damage to buried pipe, wire, etc.). Needless to say, we were impressed with how quickly the work had progressed to this point…
After a pause to haul material to Tank’s Green Stuff, (a combination landfill and landscape waste recycling facility), the crew returned, and removal efforts resumed in earnest. The palm tree stumps were cut to within six inches of grade, the remaining oleander bushes were dealt with, and palm tree stump cutting began. A second – and third – load of material was loaded into the trucks, and both of those made their way to Tank’s as well, along with the disease-ridden prickly pear cactus previously lurking at the southeastern corner of the garage.
…speaking of stump cutting, I was absolutely mesmerized while watching the Vermeer SC362 stump cutting machine chew through a 24-inch diameter palm tree trunk in a matter of minutes – what an incredible piece of highly-specialized machinery! I learned from a member of the crew the reversible carbide cutting teeth will typically last for 2-3 jobs of a similar size to ours, (several dozen stumps in total), and are easily replaced in the field, should the need arise.
The crew kept at it all afternoon, taking well-deserved hydration breaks every now and again, and by 4:00 PM, the only visible signs to the casual passer-by were the odd pile of oleander branches, the not-so small piles of sawdust where the palm trees used to stand, and the tracks left by the heavy equipment used by the crew to complete this most important first step in the re-imagining of the landscaping at casa de la hermosa…
Tomorrow, we’ll wrap up this two-part blog post, with more photographs!
