A neighbor of mine had a trumpet vine growing over her stockade fence that never flowered in all the years she had it. Last summer she said she was digging it out and getting rid of it because it never flowered. She never "got around" to it and this summer it is blooming fabulouly! Maybe it overheard us talking about it's proposed demise. LOL. :) :) :) :) She didn't do anything different to get it to bloom. Maybe it just takes years before it blooms? Maybe it is because this summer has been incredibly HOT? I tried planting trumpet vine this year and it never even grew.

My neighbor has a 12 foot high wood fence about 60 feet long. It has a well established trumpet vine that grew over the fence and into my yard to a depth of about 3 to 4 feet and down to about half way on the fence. And had been there for many years. It's full of wasps. It comes up all over my yard so I have to keep putting monsanto stuff on the ones coming up almost every day. My neighbor came to the alley one day and told me I "could trim it back a little if I want to". So well, I can't trim it because it's full of wasps. Made me feel a bit angry, her telling me what I could do on my property..though I didn't comment on it to her. I went to the ciy hall for advice. They said I could spray it and cut whatever I want to to what's on my property. So I sprayed the thing on my side with roundup and then spent $250 having it cut back to the fence so nothing in on my side ...My neighbor is furious and threatening to sue. There is nothing lost since she never speaks to me unless there's some kind of problem. I hate that trumpet vine. So does the neighbor have any legal case?

Amy, I have seen lots of bees and butterflies at basil flowers, so I guess I wouldn't be too surprised to see hummingbirds there too. As they migrate, they do desperately search out every possible nectar source they can find. It takes a lot of "good eats" to fuel their long journey south. I can always tell when the hummingbirds are migrating because all of a sudden our hummingbird feeders become insanely busy. While our resident hummingbirds tend to spend a lot of time in the garden visiting all the flowers there and often don't even visit the nectar feeders at all, the migrants tend to zoom right in on the feeders and then hang around them for hours (or even days) as they rest and fuel up for the next portion of their journey. They eat as if they are starving and cannot eat enough. Last night we had the most visitors at our front porch hummingbird feeders that I've ever seen. There were maybe 20 or 25 hummingbirds fighting over two feeders. Each feeder had a hummingbird at every feeding port, several hovering around and trying to force their way in and more zooming back and forth between the two feeders trying to force their way in. It was crazy and we watched through a window in amazement. It was near twilight and they were eating fairly greedily. I am not sure if this was a bunch of new migrating hummingbirds that had just found our house and the feeders or if they are the ones that have been around the last 3 or 4 days all trying to get their final meal of the night or what. Usually it is a busy evening if there's 3 or 4 at each feeder and last night's numbers far surpassed that. I think I have another couple of feeders in the garage that we haven't been using because our resident hummers just don't visit the feeders when I have lots of flowers in bloom. I'm going to search for those other feeders this morning and if I find them, I'll make more nectar and fill them and hang them. Because of the flash drought we have almost no flowers blooming in our pastures now, so I think it is possible these hummers have been having a bit of a hard time finding enough flowers in bloom as they journey through southern OK. Jessaka, We cut cedars whenever we have time, though only in winter since the only cedar trees left on our property are in the woods. We used to have tons of them in our pastures but worked away steadily at taking them out. We'll never get rid of the really big ones at the back of our property as they are 40-60' tall and so dense you cannot cut one because it wouldn't fall over---the surrounding trees would hold it up. Still, we're determined to keep the rest of our property from being overrun by cedars. We have vines (grapevines, Carolina snailseed, peppervine and others) climbing all over many of our hardwoods, but almost never see a vine climbing a cedar. I'm not sure why. After we cut some of the cedars in our fields, the bare soil that used to sit beneath the cedar stayed barren for a couple of years as if the soil was somehow poisoned and nothing would grow there. Eventually and very slowly the pasture grasses did creep back into the soil but it took years for it to happen. So many fields here have become wall to wall cedar trees growing so thickly together you cannot walk through the field or drive a tractor through it. It is a sad sight to see. Dawn

Random thoughts: Concrete, blah. I got some concrete 100 feet from the nearest tree that's cracked. Concrete = Cracks. Do I see settling issues where the soil under the concrete has given way and its tilting towards the tree? That is a bigger deal than them roots will ever be. Now the tree WILL someday need removed. All large trees in small spaces will. If its a Silver Maple, sooner than later. I'd just search for evidence of decline before panicking. There are some branches to the left side which appear to have fallen off. Expect some of that. If you need to do much soil work to help with drainage, that may set the tree back and hasten its decline. That little puddle by your back steps you could fill and if I'm seeing correctly on my lap top it just doesn't look like a significant portion of ground around the tree that you'd be disturbing much of the root mass. If your AC and insulation are modern the shade isn't THAT big of a deal when you're inside. For some reference I have removed two large silver maples from my property and am trying to get my neighbor to remove one with trunk rot very close to his home. BUT, I miss mine. They have small flowers but flower early enough its noticeable. I find the leaf shape and bark pleasing. Plus the fall yellow of mine were natural and consistent. BUT, their bases were rotting pretty badly presumably from years of riding mower bumps. If I had it to do over I'd of nurtured a seedling along someplace in the yard. Maybe I'll do that this year. Is there any rot or damage on that trunk or on them branches? Any branches failing to leaf out? If any of them branches fell would they contact anything more important than a fence? Once again, I'm on a laptop who knows how far away. I'd say get to know your place before making drastic decisions which are expensive and can't be undone. Get your neighbor's history of the area. Maybe collect an on sight opinion from a LICENSED arborist or two (not the unemployed/uninsured fellow with a chainsaw).