Love Hate Relationship With A Tree

I'm a car guy (obviously) but I'm also lazy and have too much crap in my garage and rarely wash my cars because I live in the desert. 

I've also got a gigantic Ponderosa Pine hovering over my driveway. 

This winter, we had so much snow that one of the larger limbs towards the bottom of the tree broke, and needed removed. While he was up there, the arborist trimmed up the lower portion of the canopy of dead wood. 

Now I've got all these little cuts on the limbs over my driveway, making it rain constant sap. 

I've gotta park my vehicles either off my driveway, in the garage, or on the street. 

In theory, the Arborist could come back and trim the tree up further, removing all the cut pruned limbs he previously touched, but the tree would look pretty strange at that point.

Help me not murder this tree! 

I'd take it down, Flagstaff won't miss one pine tree :)

I'm no Arborist but I count 14 tree trunks in a space that should only have maybe 2 or 3 trees. Eventually, all of the under branches are going to die and you are going to wind up with a bunch of palm tree shaped Pines. You might want to try thinning some of them out. Edit: Except for the one we are discussing. You pretty much have to keep that one, it is your corner centerpiece tree. 

Even though I haven't done any recent trimming, our pines (also in Flagstaff although PHeller already knew that) really start dropping sap when it gets hot in the summer; I have tried watering them a bit during the hot weeks and I'm not convinced it really helps that much.  We have 1 tree that the woodpeckers are HAMMERING with lines/holes that I've been tempted to cut down because it can't be good for it and it probably has pests that's attracting them, but then I figure the woodpeckers will just move on to another tree and start over :P

I've cut down ~7 on our property but I think we still have 30 ish left, and i'm on under 1/3 of an acre.  I tend to agree with Volvo that thinning out should help but if you've trimmed stuff and they're dropping sap, I don't think pruning more will help - it's a defense mechanism right? 

Steve_Jones said:

I'd take it down, Flagstaff won't miss one pine tree :)

Agreed. If it was me, I think I'd take it out. The house would be opened up nicely too. 

One of those portable canopies would be less expensive than paying for additional trimming.

I wish my drive was shaded by a tree so one vote for leaving it. The above canopy suggestion would work. Another option is a cheap car cover.

What about the clean out the garage option?  Trees are cool.  

I'd take it down.  Less mess in your driveway, less bird poop and sap on your cars.  You could then landscape with some small shrubs if you want to add some curb appeal. 

Pine tree over the driveway is always going to be a problem.  You could pay to have it dropped and sawzall it into bits.  BTDT

That tree appears to be way overgrown for the size of its trunk.  It hasn't been well pruned or taken care of over the years, and it is simply overgrown right now.  It probably can't be pruned back at this point to grow in a healthy manner.

Be brave. Take it down. Plant something lovely that brings you joy.

A friend recently took down an enormous magnolia tree.  It sat in her front yard on a very visible corner.

But it was too big, had grown into the power lines (which means they pruned it weird), and crowded the house.

The  corner looked completely naked when she took it down.  The whole neighborhood was pissed at her.
 

But once everyone got used to it, the truth is it opened up the view much better, and gave a better picture of the house. Now she is planting something which is a better fit for the spot, and it looks terrific. FAAR better than the big magnolia.

Sometimes things just get grown out of proportion and need to start over. 

So you don't feel bad about taking it down, maybe see if anyone would like it in their yard and would be willing to pay the costs of transplanting it? Post it as a free tree on Craigslist?

I like trees. I also miss Flagstaff. Is there an appropriate pruning sealer that you can use to paint over the cuts and stop the sap from leaking?

I have a giant sycamore that is over my driveway, on the southwest corner of my property.  Talk about love / hate relationships:

• It's pretty
• It shades the driveway and house nicely in summer
• It drops junk on my cars year round: seeds, sap, branches, giant leaves, bark
• Any time it is not doing that, it's full of birds that crap all over my cars
• Sometimes both at the same time

matthewmcl said:

I like trees. I also miss Flagstaff. Is there an appropriate pruning sealer that you can use to paint over the cuts and stop the sap from leaking?

Arizona is home to the world's largest Ponderosa Pine Forest, this one tree will not change that. I'd take a few of them out and open up the yard

In reply to Steve_Jones :

The Mogollon Rim is wonderful to visit for that very reason, though you can't see that forest from a house in Flagstaff. Agree to disagree on philosophies of pulling healthy trees out of our own front yards. My favorite Flagstaff house location I ever looked at had enough ponderosas that you couldn't see your neighbors on either side or across the street. I will take treed in over open every time.

In reply to matthewmcl :

NAU grad, been to Mogollon many times, but many years ago....

I loved the fantastic 70' healthy oak in my front yard.  It gave shade, and wonderful character to my home.  It also did $60,000 worth of damage to my house in January, totaled 2 cars and destroyed 3 sheds.

Overgrown trees in close proximity to a house are not always a good thing.  

My $0.02. 

I have a cabin with dozens of 40' pine trees surrounding it, mostly Blue Spruce in near proximity and the needles are everywhere, rain gutters and downspouts always plugged, needles on the walkways and inside the cabin. Every spring, it takes me days to leaf blow the needles away. Even though I always tell people to, "Never plant evergreens near your house." I would still never consider cutting any of them down because it is now way to late to fix the canopy. 

Hey everyone, great diversity of feedback. 

I've already got another tree on the property that definitely needs to come down, but this one is nice, relativley healthy, and provides shade, so it's a lot more debateable. 

My neighbor has a huge cedar just inside her side of the property line.  It's a pretty tree, but I hate it. It constantly drops boughs all over the yard, the only good part it is on the opposite side of the property from the driveway.

The thing I really hate, she is in her mid-80s and slowly losing her mind. I spent all afternoon yesterday pulling creeper vines from under her hedge row. It was the only way to keep them out of my yard was to eradicate them from her's.  Last year I had to do the same with the rental property behind me, the owner does not give a rats ass how the back part looks.

A quick bit of Google-fu shows tree sealer to be readily available and cheap.  Depending on how comfortable you are on a ladder, it might be worth a shot as a way to mitigate the sap droppings. 

I know what you mean about not wanting to cut down a tree.  I have a few in my back yard with numbered days. One in particular has sentimental value as it was a Christmas tree my mother got when she first bought this house 30 years ago, replanted in early 1993.  Unfortunately, it lost a number of limbs on one side and now it leans a bit more than I'd like for it's ~40' height (was less than 4' tall when it was replanted).