Why I Oughta...

I was out in the yard recently wiring up that one errant trunk on the Saucer Magnolia and snapped a couple of photos of our front yard boxwoods.  You can see them above and you'll note that a few of them are showing quite a bit of brown/orange color on them.  Wondering if this is normal Winter behavior or something else.  I also note that they're all experiencing different amounts of this orange/rust coloring.  The first boxwood on the left is the most orange - and you can see a photo of this one below: The ones further North - which start to get out of the top photo are the most green.  The end one (on the North) has a 'hole' in it that was from some damage the previous few Winters.  See that one below that shows an orange section that has a large gaping 'hole' behind it.  The first time that I posted a photo of these boxwoods was in May of 2018 in this post about mulch .  You can tell that these have grown in size in the (almost) two years sinc

Two days ago, I posted the first findings of using the caliper measurement tool on our young trees with this post showing the caliper measurements of our Frans Fontaine European Hornbeam trees in the backyard.  Today, I'm documenting in the [garden diary] the rest of our young backyard trees which all came from nursery stock.  I did the same thing on these that I did on the Hornbeams:  measured six inches from the ground and marked each of the trunks. First up is the pair of Greenspire Lindens that we've put up as an esaplier .  First is the one on the right (facing them).  Then the one on the left (facing them).  This one is slightly larger. Then the Weeping White Spruce that I planted mid-Summer 2019 and is dealing with it's first Winter below: One of the backyard Chanticleer Flowering Pear trees - this one along the south fence line below.  This tree was planted on Earth Day 2018 and was a really tiny tree (and was cheap, too!) to start. The sm

Since the new year, I've posted about a couple of spots that I'm thinking about for trees in 2020.  That started with the five trees that I want to plant in the front yard ( including five new trees ) and a small section between the espalier Linden trees and a Cleveland Pear along the southern fence line.  In both of those pieces, I talked quite a bit about columnar trees.  At this point, you're probably like:  we get it, Jake.  You like columnar form. Yes indeed.  But, because this is *my* blog, you're going to have to bear with me.  Over the course of the next few days and weeks, I'm going to use this space as a reference guide for some columnar trees that I've come across that are work referencing back as I add more inventory. This post is about a pair of what I'm calling 'white trees'.  Birch and Aspen. First up is this Dakota Pinnacle Birch Tree . The folks at  Fast Growing Trees are currently selling a 5-6' version for $99 right no

A couple of days ago, I shared a photo of the new caliper measurement tool that Nat picked up for me on Amazon so I can get some better measurement of our young trees in the yard.  I have been tracking the heights of my newly added trees to the yard for the past couple of years (here's this Summer's measurements and here's last Summer measurements ), but some of the trees are getting more than ten feet tall and using a conventional tape measure to accurate reflect their growth is difficult.  Between not being able to reach (and be at eye level) with the very top of the tree and the reality to some of the tree's 'growth' isn't always in height, but in branching out and what-have-you. Like I've done with the heights (which...for many of the trees, I'll still do during the late Summer), I'm going to document caliper measurements on a regular basis.  I'm thinking that I'll do a semi-annual measurement this year (now + Summer) to see if th

As part of my [ garden diary ], I've been working to keep annual logs of growth on some of the trees and shrubs including my tree height inventory.  Here is the link to the 2019 tree height inventory post .   And here's the one for 2018 .  The reason I bring this up is that earlier this month, as part of doing a mid-Winter yard inventory, I posted about some Winter damage on our Flowering Cherry Tree in the backyard .  In that post , I lamented that my measurement(s) for some of the trees is becoming inaccurate because of their heights getting too tall to get a tape measure on properly.   Welp...thanks to the miracles of e-commerce shopping, I'm now the proud owner of this Digital Caliper Measurement Tool that you can see below.  This one is just $8.99 , so it isn't the most expensive or sophisticated caliper tool, but I'm thinking it will get the job done. It is pretty easy to use and came with a couple of backup batteries. As I mentioned in my '

I was out puttering around the yard on a mild Winter day recently doing a little bit of bud inspection to see what trees had put off when I found this break in this Japanese Kwanzan Flowering Cherry Tree in the backyard.  I bought this tree in May of 2017 when it was a small (maybe .75" caliper) tree from Menards after I had just come back from my first trip to Tokyo where I saw *their* Cherry Blossom trees.  The tree (in the garden center at Menards) caught my eye because it was flowering these beautiful, puffy, almost-peony-like pink flowers . At the end of June/early July of 2017, right when we were moving into our house in Downers Grove, I got around to planting the tree in the yard .  About half-way back in the yard, on the southside of the property.  Not sure, exactly why it ended up there.  Just *felt* right at the time.  Looking at the tree now, I think it is in a good spot and the placement ended up being appropriate. The first season it was in the ground - Spring

Earlier this year, I bought a couple of small (less than $10) junipers at the Home Depot and began to prune them a little bit to make them into a shape that would be more bonsai-like.  This year, I just started my bonsai-journey with a small Cypress - and overpruned it.  It ended up dying.  I think it was a combination of OVER-pruning and putting it into a bonsai pot prematurely so it dried out.  I decided to learn my lesson with these two other junipers:  A Youngstown Juniper .  And a Chinese Juniper .  With both of those, I cleaned up some of the limbs and established a clear leader.  I didn't do any wiring or cleaning up of the roots.  But, instead left them in their nursery containers.  We live in Zone 5B - in Northern Illinois - so we have a couple of choices with Winter coming: 1. Overwinter bonsai in climate controlled environment. Ideally in a place that keeps the temperature right at 34 degrees. Greenhouse or quonset hut that is heated and vented to keep the

Remember the post from back in November when I showed off one of my neighbor's poor Ash trees that had been ravaged by the Emerald Ash Borer?   When I posted the photos (with patterns caused by the larvae), I mentioned that since we burn so much wood (and I buy it all!), it might be interesting to see if I could score any of it for free. From that post : Maybe I should go talk to the builders and see if we can harvest some of it for firewood? I have to think that the larvae are long gone, right? We're only moving it 100 feet (so no cross-border movement!) and I would be seasoning it for the better part of a year before we got to burning it next year. Maybe it is something we could burn in out outdoor fireplace exclusively? All wishful/hopeful thinking of course. Welp, wishing and hoping turned into some reality recently.  I happened to be home on the day that the tree company was on site cleaning up the dead trees and managed to talk the crew into dropping some of th

'Tis the season for fireplace burning in our house - and likely in yours.  That means that you'll have to deal with the ash that gets left behind after the wood burns.  We burn hardwoods exclusively (so far this year, we've burned Cherry and Birch) and that means we end up with hardwood ash.  Turns out, it has value in the garden as a soil conditioner and fertilizer.    According to the Oregon State University (Notice...I did include *the* for those other OSU lunatics) Extension office , hardwood ash can aid in making the soil an environment that supports plant and tree growth.  From the OSU Extension article : Because wood ash is derived from plant material, it contains most of the 13 essential nutrients the soil supplies for plant growth, according to Dan Sullivan, OSU Extension soil scientist.  "When wood burns, nitrogen and sulfur are lost as gas," Sullivan said, "but calcium, potassium, magnesium and other trace elements remain. The carbonates a

Last week, I shared a couple of photos of our stand of Frans Fontaine Fastigiate Hornbeams and talked about how they were retaining their leaves to provide some Winter screening.  They're not the only trees in the yard that has foliar marcescence occurring.  Above you see one of our three Chanticleer Flowering Pear trees that has almost all of its leaves still on the branches.  This tree grew a ton this year - based on the tree inventory post  - but I'm not sure if this foliar retention took place last year, but I do remember that one of our old flowering pear trees in Elmhurst held on to most of the leaves through Winter because I wrapped lights around it and had to contend with the leaves obscuring the lights shining through.  I planted this tree early in our time here in Downers Grove, but, unfortunately, I don't have a post showing it going in the ground.  It has grown quite a bit and I placed it strategically based on a neighbor a few doors down having a light on

This photo is about a week old, but shows you (basically) the current state of our three-bin compost setup that I made in the easement behind our lot.  Using some fence panels and long stakes, I made three 36" by 36" square 'bins' that I've been using this Summer and now Fall. Here's the original post showing the three-bin composter being setup in May of this year . Also, one note (for the garden diary ):  I've also filled the Compost Tumbler again this fall with a combination of greens and browns. The three bins all have distinct purposes and you can see that kind of taking shape here. Bin one (on the left): making a layered batch. Nitrogen. Then Carbon. Then Nitrogen. Then Carbon. Layers. Earlier this year, I added a bunch of grass and most of our weeds to provide some nitrogen.  I just added a layer of browns to this bin to get that layering going. But, before I add more, I need to add some 'greens'. With Winter here, that me

This year, all eight of our Frans Fontaine European Columnar Hornbeams are exhibiting  marcescence :  the retention of dead plant organs that normally are shed.  And that's by design.  Or at least...that's part of the reason why I was drawn to these particular columnar trees.  They'll provide some additional Winter screening by keeping most of their leaves on the limbs.  These look quite a bit different than a year ago - and you can see 12 months ago here - as one of them (the fourth from the left) dropped its leaves and these have widened out a bit.    The photo above is from a different angle, but this photo below shows that same angle from a year ago.  All of them appear to be thicker and a bit taller, too. But if you also look closely at the photos above, you might notice that there is quite a bit of brown leaves at the bases of the trees.  That's something I'm trying new this year:  using leaf mulch.  I used my mower to pick up some of the leaves aroun

I've posted a few times about v arious garden gnome dreams that I've been having this year, but I also have an existing cast iron gnome that has taken up home in our backyard in Downers Grove.  This photo was taken a few weeks back in early November.  Getting around to posting him with the Thanksgiving slowdown. It seems that the last time this particular garden gnome made an appearance on the blog was back in 2014 when I used him as a comparison of a pumpkin that I grew that season.   I'm not totally certain when we bought him, but I'm pretty sure that he is from Target and that Nat (and/or the kids) bought it for me for Father's Day one year? In the five years since he last appeared, you can see that his paint has worn a bit, his pants have gone from a dark green to an almost grey.  His boots from a nice green to a faded, light green with some rust parts spotting through.  His hat - which was once red - is now just a light grey. He's also added a b

A couple of weeks back (the day before Halloween), we had a snowstorm that came on while many of our trees had almost ALL of their leaves on the branches and limbs.  The photo at the top shows some of the trees and how there are still TONS of leaves on them.  It also shows a big limb that came off of one of the big/mighty Oak trees that we have in our yard.   Those two things go hand-in-hand.  The heavy, wet snow on trees that were still carrying all of their leaves caused a bunch of tree damage in our neighborhood.  I worked hard to clear as many of the low trees as possible of the snow (using my blower), but this is the damage that we incurred.  Some of our neighbors lost similar branches and I saw one tree crack right in half up the block.   That limb might not look like much, but after the snow melted I started to cut the thing back up so I could get it out of the yard.  It was all alive and therefore HEAVY.  Full of life (and water).  Too bad, right?   I cut a cro