Juniper Bonsai On My Mind - February 2021

I started working my very first bonsai experience back a couple of years ago with a nursery-stock cypress tree that I ended up killing.  I pruned it far too hard and pushed it the first year and it dried out and died.  That same Summer (2019), I bought a few other nursery stock junipers and decided to give them a very light pruning and left them alone.  I dug a couple of them IN the ground, in their pots and put another one in a large container on the patio.  I brought that large container into the screened porch this fall and removed much of the wire that had been on this tree (because it was growing AROUND the wire).  But, the time in from the weather was short lived.  It turned out to be infested with fungus gnats (or something similar) and after figuring things out, I pushed it back outside hoping that a hard frost would kill off the gnats.  Today, that pot is totally covered in snow.  Here's how it looks after being piled on for the past month or so.

That's more than a foot of snow, which I am thinking is acting as insulation from the terrible cold.  I suppose, we'll find out in the Spring how this Juniper handled the Winter, but I'm hoping it comes through.  It had a sort of wind-swept look to it before it went to bed for the season and I was hoping to tend to it this Spring.  

The reason I'm posting about this now - in the deep part of the Winter when I can't even SEE any part of the yard or garden - is because I've gone deep into the online world of bonsai.  I'm talking YouTube videos, articles about benches, shopping for small specimens online.  The whole bit.  

I'm (now) thinking that 2021 is going to be the year of bonsai for me.  

I've seen some world-class bonsai when I was in Ginza and around Tokyo.  And, I started a 'collected bonsai' journey two years ago with this American Elm tree in our yard.  This year, I am looking forward to doing even more.  

My plan for 2021:

1.  Attempt to remove the American Elm - or at the very least, severe another root or two in an attempt to dig it out.

2.  IF (and right now, based on the photo above...that's a B-I-G "if"), the potted juniper survives, get it transplanted into a proper training pot and give it a good prune and wiring.

3.  Dig out the pair of planted junipers and put in proper training pots.

4.  Consider the creation of a bench in the backyard to get the bonsai up to close to eye level.

5.  Take on/buy at least one deciduous tree and get it potted up - like a Redwood or Maple.

6.  Buy two nursery stock plants for FUTURE use - and plant them in their containers in the ground.

7.  Figure out overwintering - in the screened porch and/or garage.

8.  Try a tropical bonsai - a ficus or working the umbrella plant a little more.

I suppose these things need to be added to my 2021 garden and yard to-do list.  But, as just one or two items?  Or, the full eight?  My draft list had 21 items on it already, so if I go full list here, I get up to 23 items to take on with just a little bit of time to go before I should publish and finish my list.  In 2020, I published on February 22nd.  In 2019, I published my list on February 23rd.  And in late April 2019, I published an Addendum to my list.  I'm thinking that means I should get my list up on the blog early next week and start to hold myself to some goals.