The Neighbor’s Pine Tree
Trees

The Neighbor’s Pine Tree

cathytea

Our next door neighbors have a Mexican pine that spreads half its boughs across our shared fence and over our yard. We love it. It carpets the east half of our garden in pine needles, which make a think mulch for the citrus trees and a useful addition to the compost. Our desert soil tends to be alkaline, so the acidity of the pine needles is welcome.

We get afternoon shade, too, in my favorite sitting area.

And I love the pine cones that fill out garden. Sometimes, I draw them, losing my attention for hours in the curving, overlapping shapes and shadows.

One year, a screech owl had a nest in the pine, and each morning, her two young fledglings stood on their branch, looking down at us with wide and wondering eyes.

 

12 thoughts on “The Neighbor’s Pine Tree”

  2. When my children were little, we used to collect pine cones and then we would spread peanut butter all over them and roll them in birdseed. After tying string to them, we’d hang them in the trees for the birds. 🙂 We had so many yellow finches that they would sit in the branches to take turns eating. haha

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  3. I HATE the pine needles! Every year I take about 8 of the large garbage cans on wheels full of those needles to the dump from my neighbours tree. They kill the plants and stick in our feet when we walk barefoot across the grass. I love the pretty tree, just not those darn needles.

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      1. I do leave them in the back of the yard, but the weeds still grow up through them and it makes that much harder to pull them. Those needles poke through even the thickest of gloves. GRRRRRR

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  4. This is beautiful. I was brought here because I was drawn in by the image of pinecones on your CT Anthology blog. I wanted to see what it was about, and I’m glad I ventured over. I love pinecones. They always remind me of my happy memories in the Santa Cruz Mountains or when I take some time to venture up the mountains here in the Rockies. 🙂 So peaceful. My grandfather has a huge pinecone collection from all over the world.

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      1. Cool. I don’t have a garden yet. We moved in so late in the season and I only placed pumpkins on the porch. We have very little backyard and restrictions on what we can grow and how we can grow it in the yard anyhow. It has to do with groundwater and soil contamination, I think. I plan to buy porch plants though. No restrictions there.

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