I made the mistake of putting a compost pile under an elm in the back yard, and noticed over the last few years that it was shading more and more of my garden.
Duh! I moved the compost pile, and will sacrifice the tree. It shall be ash and wood chips when I'm done, and make restitution to the garden in it's new form. ;)
I found some olive trees that are supposed to grow well in this zone, so I'll put some of those in, along with some fruit trees.
/johnny
Reminds me of Hubby’s little problem. Twenty five years ago when he picked out his garden site, there was a tiny tree on the south west side.
That tree is now a very tall butternut tree. Between the shade and toxisity from the tree, the plant choices are severely limited. The main thing he wanted to grow was tomatoes and peppers. They won’t grow at all, so he had to put in other garden spots.
No way do we sacrifice the butternut. Every 2-3 years we get a huge crop of nuts. He hulls, cracks, and picks out the meats, and we vacuum freeze them. Our most successful crop - native plant!!!