What's in your yard?

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Danno77

Minister of Fire
Hearth Supporter
Oct 27, 2008
5,008
Hamilton, IL
So, we always talk about trees we are cutting down and burning, but what's in your yard that you AREN'T planning on burning anytime soon?

Mine are all leafed and ready for the sun, I was gonna ID them all for you, but 50 points to the first person who can get them all. there are some easy ones there, but I think there are a couple we aren't used to because they aren't your general firewood.

I intentionally left the pic large because that set of leaves on the bottom left are hard to see....
 

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ok I'll bite looks like you got norway maple, silver maple,red oak,quaking aspen,box elder, and the last one dunno,maybe walnut?
 
wood dope said:
ok I'll bite looks like you got norway maple, silver maple,red oak,quaking aspen,box elder, and the last one dunno,maybe walnut?
That first one is debatable, my wife and I have had discussions about it. leaf shape makes me say one thing, fall colors make me say another thing. maybe it's a hybrid?

Yes to the silver maple, yes to the red oak

No to the quaking aspen
No to the Boxelder

Yes to the walnut

for those two that you didn't get think more ornamental....
 
one of those is redbud and the next is dogwood.. the walnut is supposed to be walnut, but ya know I grabbed all of those from the yard (its freaking windy today) and looking at that walnut makes me think I'm a dumb-a and grabbed something else.
 
I think it is Norway Maple, Silver Maple, Redbud, then the bottom row has one I can't see well in the picture but you say is dogwood, and a branch of honeysuckle, probably Lonicera mackii - Amur Honeysuckle. That last one appears to be a branch with many leaves, not a compound leaf like you have on walnut.
 
yeah, we've got them all named, now. as far as that first one goes. The leaf doesn't quite look like a norway. The leaf, to me, looks like a classic sugar maple. BUT, not in the Fall. it doesn't get quite as vibrant as the other sugar maples. Maybe tomorrow i'll get a picture of the bark.
 
Danno77 said:
So, we always talk about trees we are cutting down and burning, but what's in your yard that you AREN'T planning on burning anytime soon?
Some really majestic Oaks- White, Red, and one other kind, maybe Black Oak? A number of them 100ft or taller. About 8 of the White Oak. They're beautiful trees. Maples, some soft kind (Norway?). Dogwood and Blue Beech ('Musclewood'). Many Tulip (Yellow) Poplar, some over 100ft. Gum trees and a few Cherry. Some White Pine, 20-30ft. Sassafrass. A few assorted other types.

There was a time when I would not have considered cutting anything. I'm starting to think about maybe taking down one or two of the Maples. Not so much for the firewood I'll get, more just to thin it a little. One of those Maples drops a lot of sticky sap on the windshields of the cars in the driveway every spring. I think I could safely handle those. A little low climbing involved, to 15-20ft, to cut branches.

The cooling power of this big, leafy canopy 100+ ft up is awesome. I drive home from town in the summer and it feels 10-15 degrees cooler under those trees. We don't need anywhere near as much A/C as the nearby houses baking all day in full sun. I like living in woods. I'd not cut many of these.
 
Danno, break a leaf off the maple, break the stem, and squeeze a little of the sap out of the stem (or it might ooze out where the leaf stem was broken off the branch). White sap means Norway Maple, clear sap means Sugar Maple.

In my yard I have Black, Red, and White Oak, including some pretty nice large trees. I have numerous Red Maples, and I recently cut a largish one for firewood. I have many large Black Cherry, a couple of which compete with a tall Black Oak for tallest tree in the yard at about 90 feet I think. I have a couple medium-sized Black Locust, a planted White Birch, and a half-toppled Weeping Willow which I think about cutting down almost every day, but haven't yet. I have a couple of Pignut hickory and one Sugar maple. i also have a ton of other, smaller trees.
 
What's that marijuana leaf doing there Danno . . . what exactly are you cutting down and burning there in Illinois? ;) :)
 
Danno77 said:
So, we always talk about trees we are cutting down and burning, but what's in your yard that you AREN'T planning on burning anytime soon?

Mine are all leafed and ready for the sun, I was gonna ID them all for you, but 50 points to the first person who can get them all. there are some easy ones there, but I think there are a couple we aren't used to because they aren't your general firewood.

I intentionally left the pic large because that set of leaves on the bottom left are hard to see....


The only thing in our yard that we don't plan on burning is a couple red oaks, a pin oak, soft maple, blue spruce and crab apple. Everything else is open to cutting.
 
We live in town, so I've been trying to plant some stuff that will provide some coverage for our yard. I had 4 willow trees on the west side that are gradually coming down as they die and rot out. I have a line of balsam trees bordering the west right now. The south side of the yard is being planted with apple and plum trees. I also have some lillac and mountain ash in one spot on the south side. To the north, we currently have 4 large spruce trees that block our view of the lot next to us (which we also own). I began to plant maples, ash, and birch in the open lot. As soon as they start to take off, I'll take down the spruce trees. I also have a couple soft maples scattered about and a really nice oak in the back yard. I don't cut anything off my own lots (obviously being in town) but I figured it would be nice to have some hardwood planted around here because I like the way they look.
 
Top:
maple (maybe norway, kinda small, but might be early), a maple that does not grow here(not with that big a leaf), red oak, aspen
Bottom :
don't know, maybe russian olive on the right ?


I think I found some dead ash, I'm waiting for the leaves on one that is still alive.
I think I have a weeping birch - it was growing up through a pine and now that the pine is cut down and gone I'm noticing it is the weirdest looking birch tree I've ever seen here. It wasn't planted.
There's also some planted nut trees /bushes that have never had nuts or even flowers.
aspen tries to grow in my garden - darned roots !
 
here's another leaf from the tree in question as well as a picture of the bark. the trunk is about 10" in diameter.
 

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Cluttermagnet said:
Danno77 said:
So, we always talk about trees we are cutting down and burning, but what's in your yard that you AREN'T planning on burning anytime soon?
Some really majestic Oaks- White, Red, and one other kind, maybe Black Oak? A number of them 100ft or taller. About 8 of the White Oak. They're beautiful trees. Maples, some soft kind (Norway?). Dogwood and Blue Beech ('Musclewood'). Many Tulip (Yellow) Poplar, some over 100ft. Gum trees and a few Cherry. Some White Pine, 20-30ft. Sassafrass. A few assorted other types....
you must have a bigger yard than I do, lol. sounds like a nice assortment. At some point in history there were quite a few trees in my yard, that's just not the case anymore. I should dig up some before and after pictures (1920s vs now)
 
1. Sugar Maple
2. Silver Maple
3. Red oak
4. Redbud
5. Hackberry
6. Walnut

Oops we already know the correct answers...
 
Danno77 said:
Cluttermagnet said:
Danno77 said:
So, we always talk about trees we are cutting down and burning, but what's in your yard that you AREN'T planning on burning anytime soon?
Some really majestic Oaks- White, Red, and one other kind, maybe Black Oak? A number of them 100ft or taller. About 8 of the White Oak. They're beautiful trees. Maples, some soft kind (Norway?). Dogwood and Blue Beech ('Musclewood'). Many Tulip (Yellow) Poplar, some over 100ft. Gum trees and a few Cherry. Some White Pine, 20-30ft. Sassafrass. A few assorted other types....
you must have a bigger yard than I do, lol. sounds like a nice assortment. At some point in history there were quite a few trees in my yard, that's just not the case anymore. I should dig up some before and after pictures (1920s vs now)
It's a little under an acre. Judging from the age of the trees here, looks like this land was farmed in the 1800's- or at least cleared. Eventually it was allowed to go back to woods. When they built my neighborhood, they left a lot of trees standing- many in back yards and even a few big ones in front yards. Most of the lots here are that way. A great improvement IMO over the usual practice of clear cutting and regrading using heavy construction equipment.

The huge Red Oak on our property line, which bordered a 50-100 acre dairy farm, had steel fence and barbed wire deeply embedded. That fence was probably nailed on the tree in the 1930's. It died around 2004-05. I counted around 80 to 90 rings. That farm got subdivided into ~2 acre lots about 20 years ago. I personally saw the size of some of the Oaks and Yellow Poplar in 1960 when the house was built on this lot. Some were already 1 to 1.5ft diameter back then. So I'm guessing 80 to 90+ year reforestation led to the bigger trees we have now. A lot of nice trees. The White Oaks are particularly magnificent. I don't think I'd ever cut them. They provide great respite from the summer heat.
 
Danno77 said:
here's another leaf from the tree in question as well as a picture of the bark. the trunk is about 10" in diameter.

That is Sugar Maple.
 
Wood Duck said:
Danno77 said:
here's another leaf from the tree in question as well as a picture of the bark. the trunk is about 10" in diameter.

That is Sugar Maple.
why the heck is it so dull in the fall? I'm with you on the ID, is that common for some to be bland like that?
 
My yard and woods behind are dominated by large Red Oaks. I had 5 huge trees cut down 4 years ago and my place is still on the shady side. The rest of the yard is made up of Black Birch, Shagbark hickory, sugar maple and one of my favorite native shrubs - witch hazel. The older Black Birches seem to be getting on the other side of healthy. Others making an appearance are Sassafras, Elm, White Oak.
 
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