Should I have Cedar Trees removed?

[cheermomof4girls]

Well, he said after we buy, we are more than welcome to cut them down if we wanted to. That is the builder talking, though. I only read in my HOA that for things to be planted, they preferred to keep with the "hill country" look.

[hhazdan]

I live in an apt. complex, and have a beautiful cedar tree outside my kitchen window that provides shade in the summer and is beautiful to look at. It harms no one, and I'm in an end unit. One day I look out, and they're getting ready to cut the tree down for no apparent reason except that a branch was hanging a little low over the sidewalk. Fortunately, I put up such a fuss over a person complaining about a branch hanging a little low when they go for a walk that he left the rest of the tree alone. He then asked me why I like trees. Are you kidding me? Without trees expensive houses look like they are built in a desert , and nothing is appealing about the neighborhood. A lot of people have allergies at a certain time of the year, but they deal with them, and the season will change. The worst part of all this is the man thought it was a pine tree!

[Rottnboys]

Originally Posted by cheermomof4girls

Well, he said after we buy, we are more than welcome to cut them down if we wanted to. That is the builder talking, though. I only read in my HOA that for things to be planted, they preferred to keep with the "hill country" look.

Your builder is held to a set of city ordinances for trees - if you are inside the city limits (I'm not familiar with your subdivision). You can see these tree ordinances here:
Planning & Development Services Department

In our travels to/from West Texas, we are seeing large land owners doing mass removal of Cedar trees on their acreage.....

Whether you remove yours on your residential lot once you close, is surely a personal choice - we have a couple on our property and they are MESSY trees for sure....but so are our Ash and Oak trees One tree or the other is always 'dropping' something

[Rottnboys]

Maybe cheermom will come back and update us on her tree decision - since this thread was over 2 years old.......sorry guys......that's what I get for jumping in and not paying attention to the 'date'

[cheermomof4girls]

We told the builder if he wanted us to sign off on the paperwork for the house, one of the things he had to do was remove the tree. He did. We still have not planted anything because we are still trying to figure out what we are going to do with the backyard. We do benefit from some shade from our neighbor's oak tree, though.

[CH1960]

Originally Posted by cheermomof4girls

We told the builder if he wanted us to sign off on the paperwork for the house, one of the things he had to do was remove the tree. He did. We still have not planted anything because we are still trying to figure out what we are going to do with the backyard. We do benefit from some shade from our neighbor's oak tree, though.

I did the same thing and didn't realize the dates...oops. But I am glad you responded with an update. I could, recommend a tree that is recommended by the AgriLifeExtension (by the way they have a great website with all sorts of recommended plantings for our area). I have found the Monterey Oak tree to be an exception to most oaks. It is semi-Evergreen (hardly looses any leaves), resistant to Oak Wilt and the best thing of all it's - a fast grower. In 6 years, mine is up to the second story roof height. The leaves are larger than the regular oaks and turn a salmon/blush color on the ends. I like that they are more oval and upright - and don't get too wide like some Live Oaks do. When I first moved in; I only had 3 Charlie Brown trees - One live Oak another - two Cedar Elm. They are now gorgeous and shade my South and Western part of the house. It's a good idea that you plant as you go - we always new we wanted a pool eventually put in - so I didn't plant anything in the center of the back yard.