We had sugar maples in our back yard up north. The "mama maple" was over 250 years old, the rest were here "children" (literally - this mini-grove shares its ancestry).
We didn't tap the trees but they provided amazing shade for the yard. Plus it was SO much fun raking. It's something I actually miss, about all the work that goes into home ownership up north. Raking the leaves in the fall is one of my favorite fall things to do. Hubby used a leaf-blower, I used a normal long-handled rake. We'd bring the leaves to the end of our property at the road, pile them up high, and then I'd climb into the middle of the pile and fall backward and just lay there awhile, gazing up at the sky, breathing in the fresh crisp smell of leaves and autumn. It's my favorite time of year. Or was. A "favorite season" no longer exists for me down here.
A plus side for me though, is that for the first time ever I can grow a rosemary bush without doing anything to care for it, and it just grows by itself.
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