Unhappy Truths Continued

More woe to my already woeful story of the unhappy discovery of Mavis the Maple's true identity as a sweet gum tree. Tonight I set myself to the task of discovering more about sweet gums, to enlighten myself and my readers who have "watched" Mavis grow up on my blog this past year. The news is not good, my friends, but here you have it from a website forum where people are posting their comments and asking for help regarding their sweet gum trees. I found this to be extremely enlightening, if not downright funny at times, but also sad if I do choose to keep Mavis planted in our yard. These are all quotes from the forum on website http://www.thriftyfun.com/tf86353601.tip.html :

"People, these trees are troublesome and dangerous, I had to rebuild the garage years ago because one approx. 30 inches in diameter fell across it, limbs, leaves, balls, are constantly falling. From what I have seen and heard these trees are very weak, lots of times breaking off 20 and 30 feet up with just a little wind. Anyhow, just want to rant a little because I so disliked those trees."

"For all you that don't like sweet gum trees, get some goats, mine have cleaned up every tree they could munch on and none come back because the goats eat as soon as anything on them sprouts. No problem here!"

"HELP!I had two VERY large sweetgums cut down in my backyard and now I have hundreds if not literally THOUSANDS of small sweetgum trees popping up EVERYWHERE around my house. I just run them over with the lawnmower and sure enough in 1 week they are everywhere again... What can I do/spray to get rid of all of these trees and keep what grass I do have? Please help!"

"My 9 year experience with a twenty year old sweet gum tree is: 1) the spikey balls are good for nothing, except building muscles raking the never ending supply, 2) it will raise the floor of your garage an 1 1/2" in the course of a couple of months and evidently crack it, 3) the branches, at any age, will easily snap in a wind storm - and aim for your roof, 4) the wood burns well, but only after it dries for three years, AND, 5) unless you dig all the roots out once you've fallen the tree and dug out the stump, you will continue to have sweet gum starts all over your world FOR YEARS. Good luck!"

"Reading through all these postings, I didn't see anyone mention the feature of this tree that I enjoy the most - crush some leaves in your hand and they produce a smell like turpentine. I don't like gathering up the thousands of "spiny balls" either, but I do enjoy the shade provided by the one tree we have in our front yard. Hey - I haven't gotten the flu in several years! maybe inhaling the "fumes" from the crushed leaves has something to do with it? Caution: some folks (such as my wife) may experience negative effects from this practice, but I really enjoy it!"

"Dear sweet gum club,I too have many sweet gum trees. Has anyone seen the wireball contraption that rolls on the ground picking up the balls as it is pushed?"

"The first year we lived in this house with the gumball trees our bull terrior got two infections in between her toes from those spikey little devils. Be careful with your pets."

"I would love to know how to effectively even rake up these gumballs. My hubby tried to "vacuum" them with a leaf blower. Not good! We could spend weeks raking and not make a dent!"

"Does ANYONE have a solution to our population explosion of gumballs?
Shockingly, not only do these huge, towering trees spit spiked balls all over our lot, but this spring, OVERNIGHT, it dumped some sort of leafy-type pods --- thousands, millions of them --- covering the patio and surrounding area. WORSE, these pods almost immediately ROT and STINK, almost like manure! As if that weren't enough, they then shed pollen, which creates an even further mess! What could people be thinking of when they plant these things? We live in Atlanta, so everything that thrives elsewhere thrives even more here!"

"I have come up with one use for the "porcupine balls" as i call them. i put them in the bottom of my potted plants (annuals) instead of rocks, for drainage. at the end of the season, i just dump the whole thing in the compost pile & dont have to dig out the rocks! i have also heard of making table top Christmas trees out of them, but havent tried it myself."