Lilacs & Cottonwood

Spring is here. And even on the high plains of Colorado, the weather has warmed enough to get all kinds of juices flowing in trunks and stems and leaves. We've got 11 year-old landscaping in the back yard and I must say, the lilacs (Chinese and Korean dwarf) have filled out and grown so large that with the unusual moisture we've had this spring, the blossoms are lingering and wafting a most heavenly scent across the back yard. I am finding excuses to sit out there to complete tasks -- any kind possible. I know it will end soon, and I'll be missing them again till next year.

On the other hand, we've got the most MONSTROUS cottonwood tree just to the north, at the neighbors. Rumor has it that the developers 30+ years ago were instructed/required to plant only the "cotton-less" variety -- but what did they care? Who would know? A year or two later, they'd be long gone and the rest of us would have to deal with it... Every year it produces an amazing profusion of lofty white fluffiness that sticks to everything -- it walks in with you on the bottom of your flip flops and balls up on the carpets. It plants itself next to the broccoli in the garden and puts down roots right along with the tomatoes and nasturtiums, it floats into the cars and blows into your nostrils whether you kept your windows closed overnight or not... Last year this same neighbor had piles of it a foot deep on her deck. I'm guessing some of our mulched corners easily matched that, plus a yard speckled with chicken-like "feathers" sticking into the dew. Walk out if you dare!

Based on other tree work we've had done over the years, the size of this engorged behemoth alone (estimated height 100 feet with multiple trunks at least 2 feet in diameter) would run close to $4,000 to have it removed. In the meantime, guess what my husband has just discovered? Cottonwood lofties are highly flammable. At first he used the word "explosive", but I think that was just his testosterone talking. At first he simply made use of the propane lighter but now, I see he must have run to the hardware store, he's cruising the lawn with something called a Bernz-O-matic power cell . I've never seen such a thing. (Please, hide it from the children!)

I don't want this season to end. But I cannot wait for all the cotton fluff to ball up, get soaked down, become one with the lawn and preferably get mowed down to size if each little seed ball has plans for grandeur and long-term growth. We'll be weeding or torching the rest.