Lots of gardening work to be done this year. We're putting in an inground pool (the shell is in) and we took out five trees to do it. It just about killed me to take those trees out, but 3 were Norway maples—absolutely useless for birds and animals. One was the only surviving Scotch pine. I lost two in 4 years to nematodes. My neighbor is a pine near it that is just about gone, so I'm pretty sure that would have been next.
I'm plann8ng to replace with white pines, lindens (basswood), redbuds and other shrubs. All the deciduous trees have to be protected from our huge deer population. I learned that the hard way after the bucks shredded a few of my trees to death.
I'm also planning more lawn reduction and hope to plant native flowers. I have a pretty good sized raingarden with good success—little to no deer predation.