I whipped mine off purely to reduce windrock (the original cause of it's demise along with an enthusiastic mastiff)...and the peach didn't appear to suffer in any way. But then again, it was a peach...which get a pretty fierce annual pruning anyway. eta - keeping the trunk absolutely fixed in position while the (massive)wound calloused over was of prime importance but would have no bearing in the maple strategy...but true enough, I believed the top reduction orthodoxy for many years. May I ask, is this peculiar to trees...because fruit bushes and roses and, of course, herbaceous plants are still routinely chopped, pruned and generally faffed around with on an almost yearly basis...or is this a regimen appropriate for all woody plants.

While this is just a guess I assume the tree was planted/grew for several years then someone decided to build a planter around it. My guess is that in doing so that it is now planted too deep causing it not to get enough water. My son had some work done at his house and in doing so a lot of dirt was moved around and one very very old oak tree had foot or so of dirt put around it to level the ground out. The next year it looked similar to yours and this year it is completely dead. What was once a beautiful 100+ year old tree is nothing but firewood. You could try removing the blocks and take the dirt down to ground level but it might be too late. Again, this is only my guess. I'm sure someone else will chime in also.

Thank you all for taking time to reply. We've thought this over and come to the conclusion we'll never be happy with the marble. I suspect very few designers would select this peppered slab for a high profile location. I've never heard anyone compliment the black spots in marble - they're neither cremo nor delicato. We're exploring not very attractive solutions, including buying another slab for what is a long and very thin space. Using one slab, we won't be able to book match but that's unimportant to us as the soft, creamy look we want won't really feature the book matching. I'll try to post additional photos of the marble we're removing We should have gone to see the slabs in person and not relied on someone to select for us. We should have been involved in the fabrication process. Lessons being learned the hard way, but given the state of the world we're very fortunate to be able to worry about marble countertops. We'll update this as we work the issue. Thank you again.

I like the curtains, they have nice texture and look to be in good condition. If it were me I would plan to keep them and see how they look after you’ve finished painting. Worst case you could always change your mind later on before you rehang them. Good luck!