My Infested Pine Trees.

I've noticed on my Feedjit

that many people get to my blog by searching

for pine disease.

You may consider this post

a PSA for pine disease.

I have recently lost several of my pine trees

and I'm upset at this turn of events.

First it was the small ones next to the fence

between F-t-F and me

and I naturally assumed he'd been poisoning my pines.

Not so.

Then it was the 20-year old established pines

that started croaking.

Here's the first pine which passed away.

After I blogged about that pine,

my friend, Marilyn, of FoodiesUntie blogdom,

offered this answer to my question

about my pines:

Mar's Response.

They start to look like this.

The needles turn brown and die.

And this happens in a matter of days.

Since it seems to be spreading

and I have a line of pine trees along my bulkhead

which serves as a privacy screen,

I called professionals -

Advanced Tree Service here in KDH.

An arborist came out

and scratched around the base of the pine

and found white sprinklings, like saw dust.

(Duh.)

Indication of the infestation.

This is due to a pine borer, he told me.

Well, truthfully, I don't know if it would be

called an infestation.

Maybe it was only one borer.

One infester.

Doesn't it take more than one infester

to make an infestation? Whatever it was, it infested enough to kill my damn pines. I guess infestation encompasses any encroachment on the pine.

Is a pine borer a nematode, Mar?

I'm too tired to Google it.

The arborist

noticed sap running out of the trunk of another tree and sap shouldn't run out. Sign of damage.

The borers had tried to get in but didn't.

Unfortunately,

this tree had to go.

Check out midway up the tree.

I want a pair of gaffs so I can climb trees too.

Branch by branch,

limb by limb,

this pine was dismanteled,

and every twig and needle

was removed from the premises.

This was hard for me to watch.

Very sad.

This tree was on the south side of the house

and I have a deck going around the west and south sides.

I remember years ago ...

Youngest Hawthorne might have been 5 ...

I walked out the door on that side and saw

him and his friend, Caroline

(Not a girlfriend! She's a friend and she's a girl.),

sitting on branches midway up that tree,

and they were above the deck.

I remember that like yesterday. And he'll be 19 this week.

I must tell you,

these guys were great.

I have all sorts of plantings

directly underneath that pine

and nothing was disturbed.

Finally, it's down to the stump.

The stump was cut off at ground level.

Some kind of chemical was put all over the stump. The chemical was covered with a plastic Food Lion bag and covered with dirt. Thanks, JR.

And the boys (Not my boys. The Advanced Tree Care men.) happily picked tomatoes from my garden. I gave them Food Lion bags to pick a quantity of 'maters .. For added pleasure and absolute treat, please check out my blog post about Mama Hawthorne's Sycamore Tree.