creekweb: Where do I begin? A little background. Power came to our county in the late 40's and early 50's of this past century. In order to get the power to the most people the fastest and cheapest, the lines were run by the most direct route possible. In many cases this meant cross-lots through farm fields and forests and up and over hills, as well as along county rights of way. Back in those days, linemen were 'real men', hauling their supplies and strapping on their climbing spurs without benefit of bucket trucks. Things have changed, and that earlier decision by the electric company has come back to bite them. They are in the long term process of moving lines to where they should have been in the first place at great expense in both money and trees. I bought my place 27 years ago, and at that time there was no house on the property. The power lines enter at right angles to the north boundary and exit at a 45% angle at the south boundary. They are roughly 50-75' inside my line from the county r.o.w. The Middle Tennessee Electric Membership Corporation claims a 40' r.o.w. granted them by state law-even back then deep pockets bought legislators. This r.o.w. takes almost an acre out of use. Of course I knew about the r.o.w. when I bought, I just didn't know greedy MTEMC was. When I applied for electric service I had to sign an easement giving them the right to keep their equipment on my property and access 24/7. Just for laughs I asked them what if I refused the easement. They said they would move their lines off the property and refuse to sell me electricity. Fast forward 4 years ago. MTEMC begins an aggressive 4 year tree 'pruning' cycle. An advance man is sent to mark trees, green for 'prune', red for remove. He advises property owners what is to be done. I look at my trees and see many marked 'green' that are well beyond the 20' center of the r.o.w. None are marked 'red'. I send MTEMC a firm but courteous email denying them access to my property until I meet personally with their tree man on my property. A meeting is arranged. I meet the tree man at the r.o.w. and the first words out of his mouth as he looks around are, "you probably know more about trees than I do". He then states his position, the law etc. I state mine, law or no, 40 feet is ENTIRELY too much. He restates. I counter with the fact that most trees are taller than the width of the r.o.w., and if they were to fall it wouldn't matter unless they cleared a swath 150' wide. He persists. I state that what they are doing is pure butchery. The workers know how to operate a bucket and chain saw and nothing else. They make improper cuts that threaten the future of the tree, not to mention stimulate growth that will need to be pruned all the sooner. HE CONCEDES. We discuss storms, prevailing winds etc. In the end, he agrees to 10' from center of r.o.w. and I GET TO DIRECT THE TRIMMERS. When the tree crew arrives all goes well. It's been 4 years and the trimmers are back. Nothing has been marked yet on my place. Trees previously pruned (at my direction) have grown some, but nothing drastic. I believe the same guy is still the tree man. I fully expect a repeat of 4 years ago. Now if you are still reading lol. I completely understand the need to keep the juice flowing. We all depend on it. I just cannot agree with the way they go about tree pruning. Whether or not you are able to get your trees trimmed to your and the electric companies satisfaction is anyone's guess. In Nashville, when Nashville Electric is trimming, there is usually stories on the local news about outraged citizens decrying the butchering of their trees. One area, a place of old trees, old houses (mansions) and old money yells the loudest. It does them no good, the trees are pruned to NES's specs. And NES does not cut a 40' r.o.w., to me they prune very conservatively. The good thing is by and large NES follows proper pruning practices, unlike MTEMC. Toronado 3800: I certainly agree the power needs to be kept on. The power companies seem to have a handle on the tree issue. Now they need to address: blizzards ice storms tornadoes hurricanes straight line winds haboobs earthquakes volcanoes floods landslides tsunamis CME's errant vehicles equipment failure human error excessive heat excessive cold hunters errant wildlife vandals terrorists deteriorating infrastructure I'm being sarcastic, but only slightly so lol. Around here, more power outages are caused by things other than trees. ilovemytrees: I love my trees too, and everybody elses lol. Ken

Kwanzan Cherry - short lived and frequently afflicted by a number of pests and diseases (aphids, bacterial canker, black knot, borers, crown gall, leaf spot, powdery mildew, twig cankers, viruses). This is one of the few trees that I've seen that frequently caries a warning about potential pest and disease issues by most nurseries trying to sell it. Kwanzans are just plain finicky, IMO. _____________________________________________________ Dogwood - if there aren't a lot of these around where you live, give it a try. From a Cornell publication: "To avoid or lower the risk of dealing with (dogwood anthracnose), consider using resistant (cultivars). The white flowering Kousa Dogwoods, Cornus kousa have shown good resistance and require less input to maintain a healthy tree. A number of crosses between C. kousa and C. florida have been made in attempts to produce the flowering characteristics of the Flowering Dogwood with the resistance of the Kousa Dogwood. These cultivars are available on the market and are known as the 'Stellar' Hybrid series, 'Aurora', 'Celestial', 'Constellation', Ruth Ellen', 'Stardust', and 'Stellar Pink'. A resistant Flowering Dogwood cultivar named 'Appalachian Spring' has also been developed from a living tree in an otherwise devastated Maryland forest and (is fairly widely) available." 'Appalachian Spring' has received a LOT of good press recently and is in high demand. _____________________________________________________ Crabapple - I'd definitely considering using a few of these. Be sure to find one that is resistant to the four major crabapple disease. Here's a list of some cultivars (and species) that are pretty disease resistant. The ones with *** are also frequently ranked very high for aesthetics. I have not narrowed down the list for size or appropriateness for our area, but this list should give you a good start. 'Adirondack' 'Bob White' 'Camzam' (Camelot) 'Centennial' 'Christmas Holly' 'Donald Wyman' *** baccata 'Jackii' *** 'Ludwick' 'Mary Potter' *** 'Molten Lava' *** 'Ormiston Roy' 'Prairifire' *** 'Professor Sprenger' sargentii *** 'Sentinel' *** 'Silver Moon' 'Sinai Fire' 'Strawberry Parfait' *** 'Sugar Tyme' 'Tina' 'White Cascade' *** If you have junipers (especially Eastern Red-cedars) near the planting location, you may want to be sure to choose a variety with EXCELLENT cedar apple rust resistance. Here is a link that might be useful: Cornell Article on Dogwood Anthracnose

The trick is anything fast growing will likely hit the power lines pretty soon, and will likely have weak wood. Sounds like you want a tree that tolerates aggressive pruning (so you can hack it up to keep it away from the power lines) and is disease resistant. If you plant something that suckers, then when you cut down one that interferes with the power lines it will throw up new trucks. What about Paw Paw? Disease resistant and suckers. Sassafras albidum? Also suckers and has interesting leaves. Black Gum is supposed to have extra strong wood and be resistant to fallen branches. Look at the trees already there. What seems to be doing well, and looks good to you? Help us narrow down your choices. What is your soil like? Sandy, clay, swampy, salty, acidic? Is wind a problem? Deer? What diseases are a problem around there? What do you want out of these trees? Edible fruit, wildlife interest, winter interest? This post was edited by edlincoln on Fri, Dec 12, 14 at 17:48

@lkloes, you mean in the birdbath? I thought I might give that a little time; the lemon ball in the middle and ice plant on the side are going to spread out a bit, so I wanted to give them some room to grow. But I'm open to suggestions! I posted this list of what's in the birdbath on a previous thread: At the bottom (say, 5 o'clock position) is my original hens and chicks, after I split out 12 chicks :-O I don't know what kind it is, but I love the color :-) Counter clockwise at the 3 position is a Royal Ruby hens and chicks. At the 12 position is Dragon's Blood sedum. At the 11 position is Cobweb Buttons hens and chicks. At the 7 and 10 position is some kind of shorter sedum that I've had for a few years, but didn't really fit in anywhere so I dug it up and placed it here. I did some research and I THINK it's "reflexed stonecrop" (sedum rupestre L). I'm not sure how it will work out, but I'm hoping it will trail down a little. At the 9 position is an ice plant. And in the middle is Lemon Ball stonecrop; great right now for the color, but I suspect that I'll have to split it up a few times a year to keep it from taking over :-/ Also at the 7 position, between the hen and ice plant and sorta tucked in with the lemon ball, I placed a small bird figurine: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0175A59RQ/