Tree started growing in my yard out of nowhere

[mefordis]

.... Should I keep it and let it grow or cut it down? My dh thinks we should cut it, and likens it to a weed. However, I love trees (grew up in country) and on the suburban street I live on I am upset over all of the trees being cut down by neighbors. I used to be surrounded by trees but the neighbors have chopped a lot of them down so I found myself spending big money to plant our own, and they are not cheap!

I see this as a free tree! And it's growing fast.

wwyd?

 

[mjkacmom]

We get a lot of weed trees here, oak and maple, usually cut them down. Although we do have some we've kept. They're not very attractive.

 

[Hikergirl]

If its in a spot where you like then go ahead an keep it. One person's weed, is another person's beautiful flower

 

[lynxstch]

To me it would depend on what kind of a tree it is. We have black walnut trees, and they come up like crazy, and I pull them out, if it were a maple tree, I might keep it depending on where it let itself come up, lol

 

[Minnesota!]

It would depend on where, in my yard, it was. We have SO many trees in our yard...it's ridiculous. I hate having that many, and some are in the most obnoxious spots. My next house will have 1 - 2 trees.

 

[mom2rtk]

We live in an older neighborhood with lots of mature oaks, maples, redbuds, etc. We pull volunteer trees by the dozen every summer. We have one fully grown redbud in the back yard that came up in a spot we liked, and left it there.

If it's a type of tree you like, and you like where it's at, then in the words of Elsa........ let it grow!

 

[Magpie]

Find out what kind of tree it is. Decide if you want it. Establish whether its location is a good one for that kind of tree, or if you'll need to move it. For example, if it's close to your home's foundation, that could be bad when it gets bigger. Or if it's in a location where it's likely to get accidentally mown over, you might want to move it as well.

If you do have to move it, and if it's small enough, you can pop it into a pot for a couple years (depending on how fast it grows). The nice thing about a potted tree, is that it's easy to move into shelter in inclement weather.

Feed it. Protect it. Nurture it. Enjoy!

I have a tiny wild cherry tree that I'm growing right now.

 

[mefordis]

I like the location but I'm not sure my neighbor does. I was talking with her when it was shorter and she called it a weed and told me to get rid of it now or else it will cost big money when it gets big. I was thinking, "I like it. I don't want to get rid of it." It is in between our houses, but on my property. I had Arbor Vitaes there but during the hurricane three of them came down and now I have this nice tall tree that popped up to take their place, free of charge! Otherwise I was going to plant pines there, but they wouldn't grow nearly as fast as this one is growing.

I like all trees. I don't think I have ever seen an ugly one, imo. But I'm a nature lover.

 

[Wishing on a star]

Yes, what kind of tree!
You say it is growing FAST, so that might indicate that it is a weed/tree that you might not want there in the future?
Let us know what type of tree it is, and where it is at!!!

Will it affect power lines?
Will it shed pods/ nuts/ etc that you might end up finding to be a nuisance?
Does the tree have a common disease or blight that is likely to affect it?

My mom had a non-indigenous weeping cherry come up in her back yard.
Not the little ornamental kind. It can get really big like a weeping willow.
A volunteer came up, and we put it in our yard... My husband did not even do a good job digging a big hole and re-planting. You should see it now!!!
Only problem is, cherry trees are susceptible to a fungal disease. This tree did well for years, but now it gets spots and the leaves turn yellow and shed my mid-July. We have to spend quite a bit of money and time spraying it every Spring. This allows the tree to do better until about September. It is always the first tree to be bare in the Fall.

 

[soccerdad72]

Make sure it isn't poison oak.

 

[lsyorke]

Fast growing trees...never a good thing. I just paid over $3000 to have 2 of those fast growing trees cut down that I originally thought"wow, a free tree"...they were a hot mess and huge in a few years.

 

[Domo]

That's tree-mendous news

 

[Magpie]

I like the location but I'm not sure my neighbor does. I was talking with her when it was shorter and she called it a weed and told me to get rid of it now or else it will cost big money when it gets big. I was thinking, "I like it. I don't want to get rid of it." It is in between our houses, but on my property. I had Arbor Vitaes there but during the hurricane three of them came down and now I have this nice tall tree that popped up to take their place, free of charge! Otherwise I was going to plant pines there, but they wouldn't grow nearly as fast as this one is growing.

I like all trees. I don't think I have ever seen an ugly one, imo. But I'm a nature lover.

We had an ugly tree. It was a larch (aka tamarack), and looked like the one in the foreground of this picture:

I know it looks kind of majestic in its natural habitat. In an urban front yard, though, it just looked aggressively large and menacing (it was over 50 feet tall, when we finally paid to have it chopped down - about twice the height of our two-story home). It was a conifer with a spiky, peeling trunk, sickly yellowish-green needles and, as a bonus, it would drop those needles every fall, making it even uglier. It was a deciduous conifer!

Plus, unlike the tree in the photo, our tree would push out branches all the way down the length of its trunk to the ground, meaning we had to keep chopping them off in order to have any accessible front yard at all (they would even grow across the walk leading to our front door). It also made the soil so acidic nothing would grow underneath it, not even weeds, which meant our front yard would turn into a mud pit every time it rained.

Definitely an ugly tree!

 

[Poohlove]

I ordered some kind of "tree" from a catalog, you know the ones that grow 6' in a season, to plant between my house and my neighbors house. We had a 6' fence between our yards but they had a deck off of the back of their house so between that and their kitchen window that overlooked our back yard we had no privacy. It wouldn't have been too bad if her husband who was a falling down drunk would ever let us enjoy our yard in peace. The houses were probably only about 12' apart so privacy was difficult enough to begin with. After a couple of years these little "trees" started popping up all over the place. Some I transplanted and they did very well but the remainder if they were in the path of the lawnmower got mowed down. They started out so little and flexible the mower could handle them.

If you like it I would leave it, trees are expensive especially if they are taller.

 

[cabanafrau]

Fast growing trees...never a good thing. I just paid over $3000 to have 2 of those fast growing trees cut down that I originally thought"wow, a free tree"...they were a hot mess and huge in a few years.

Right between houses in a suburban setting? Glad I'm not the neighbor.

 

[dclpluto]

Years from now you will be spending a lot of money to get the trees cut down. I first moved into my house it was new and use to be a corn field. So I got a lot of little trees. One came down on my fence. Got a couple more that needs to come down. Expensive lesson learn. First you pay for the trees than you pay to cut them down.

 

[bcla]

Where is it growing? Anything near a fence, pavement, or building can be an issue over time. When I moved in to my current place, i couldn't get insurance until root damage on my driveway was fixed. We have live oak sprouting all over, and I pull it up if I see it.

Some cities/counties have "heritage tree" ordinances. Around here it's typically for native oak species with a minimum 4 inch trunk. Special permits are needed to remove them.

 

[Micca]

@mefordis Maybe Johnny Appleseed passed through!

 

[Cannot_Wait_4Disney]

All of our trees are grafted. So any voluntary trees that come from their seeds aren't going to be the grafted variety. So we cut em.

But I'd say if you like the tree and like the location and it's not in an unsuitable location (such as a maple growing right next to the house) then go for it.

 

[Deb & Bill]

Our neighbors have a huge magnolia tree. A few years after we moved here, one of the seeds from the tree landed in our flower bed with our azaleas. It grew there for quite a while until it was about two-three feet high. We dug it up and planted it in our yard. It's now about twelve - fifteen feet tall and getting full. We get flowers on it in the spring. So it was a successful replant.