Thank you for all the advice. Looking at this tree, compared to the Catalpa next to it, really paints it in a sorry light. The Catalpa has a nice amount of small, medium, and large branches. This Mulberry has a lot of large and then small branches, all the medium ones seem to have disappeared. Is that the result of bad pruning over the years?
I've had two local arborists come out over the last few years. Both have advocated for leaving it, saying it has another 10-15 years left. I was pretty surprised by that, as I thought both would recommend removal. The first arborist removed all the bark from the wounded side of the trunk to help dry the area out and avoid additional rot.
I have started cutting the dead branches out of the canopy in a general effort to clean the tree up. There was a squirrel that really went at chewing the bark off the live branches last spring, I think that may have accelerated some of the limb loss, as they liked to chew the bark off in rings around the branches.
ATH, those fabric pots have pepper plants in them. I usually try and overwinter them, but the Texas winter's are always a gamble as to whether it will be mild enough. These all got hit with a surprise frost a few weeks ago, so that's the end of the road for them.
Here are two photos from the other side of the tree. One is from the middle of a hot Texas summer, the other is from early December.
