Doug is a pumpkin ash tree growing in my back yard. He started life as a teeny seedling in Michelle's grade 4 class. Her teacher, Doug Gorell, who sadly died waiting for a kidney transplant, started the seedlings in his science class. Michelle brought hers home.
We grew Doug in the back kitchen for a year and then transplanted him to the back of the front garden where he would be protected, watered and nurtured. He grew there for years until he got taller than the porch railings.
Bob, (next door, not husband,) kindly dug him up, gathering a huge root ball, and took him to the back yard. Doug is now taller than the garage. (The pic is not of our Doug, but one of his relatives off Google!)
Essex county is infested with the Emerald Ash Borer, killing trees, causing mass cuttings and clearings of ash trees.
Doug had one small dead branch. Bob, (husband, not next door,) cut the branch off tonight. I broke it open in several places. Close to the trunk, it was fine, white and moist. Closer to the tip... brown, dead, full of larvae. :( I burned that branch and now just hope for the best.
Doug the tree who's been with us for over 11 years is under attack. Stupid Ash Borer! (I do not mean to minimize the catastrophic impact of the Ash Borer, I do realize that Ash trees everywhere are in peril, but I don't know those ones!)
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