Chanticleer Pear Screened Porch Sideyard Tree - October 2020 Check-In

Back at the end of April, we planted a tree on Earth Day outside of our screened porch.  It is a Chanticleer Pear - which, I know....I know...isn't the best tree to be planting in our landscape, but we were facing a set of circumstances that warranted this approach.  Our neighbors to the north were building their house all this calendar year and while we had planted our row of eight Frans Fontaine European Columnar Hornbeams to provide screening from our back patio and screened porch, we planted them without knowing where the house was going to be built.  

By Earth Day, the new house next door had the framing done and - much to our surprise - we had *most* of their windows screened with trees.  But, there was ONE new window - closer to the front of the house that was basically unblocked by the Frans Fontaine Hornbeams.

Have a look at this post from back in April - where you can see the window I'm talking about.

And now, have a look at the same view as it looks now - in late October: 

The Hornbeam - on the left of that photo above - filled in quite nicely this year, but check out the Chanticleer Pear.  

Here's the side-by-side:

On the right is Spring - when I planted the tree.  You can see that the top of the tree is BARELY peeking above the fenceline.  

And on the left - the flowering pear tree is almost two feet above the fence. 

Look at the window.  In the pre-photo on the right, while the window is just framed there, you can see that the trees didn't block a bit of the new window.  But, now?  Part of the window is obscured with maybe another year of growth we'll see that new tree provide screening for us (and them!) when we're in the screened porch.  

Now, back to the Chanticleer Pear tree.  Yes...I know.  I said it before, but I'll restate here:  I know I shouldn't be planting these trees.  They don't live long.  And there are A LOT of better choices.  But, these trees grow fast.  And, just like the Columnar Hornbeams, they exhibit marcescence - or retention of their leaves clear into Winter.  With the installation of the Eze-Breeze windows, we've been using our screened porch up until now.  And, with the fireplace heating the room, I'm thinking we'll be in there on nice days during the Winter.  We'll see if that provides us with some privacy.