Why I Oughta...

As I've posted about numerous times over the years, we have a couple of mature Oak trees in our backyard that we've worked at keeping alive - and happy - through treatments and fertilizer.  This is the third season that we've had a Two-Lined Chestnut application applied to them in the Fall as a preventive measure against a (potentially) invasive border . Here, below, is the Davey truck when it arrived to treat our Oaks: Here, below, is the paperwork from Davey: Here's a post from the City of Lake Forest up on the North Shore that talks about why they recommend treatment .  Knowing that one of our oaks has been troubled, it was recommended that we treat it to inoculate the tree against an infestation.   I have NO idea if this stuff works, but I think I'll keep applying it in the coming years. 

I have had various volunteer trees take off in different parts of our garden over the years.  The American Elm pops up EVERYWHERE .  The Chicago Blues Black Locust does, too .  I've talked about how I have Catalpa seedlings (or what I think are Catalpa seedlings) in different spots of the front and backyard.  For the most part, I rub or rip out the little seedlings before they can become anything of signficance.   However, there have been a couple of tiny seedlings in the southside backyard bed that I've been watching for the past few months, wondering what they'd become and if they were worth nurturing.  Before we went into Fall, I wanted to document here in the [tree diary] both of these trees as they are currently standing. First up is a Maple tree.  This Maple (unknown cultivar) is growing up right behind the Fanal Astilbes on the southside.  It is about 24" tall, has a strong central leader and is throwing off a LOT of healthy, green fo...

Last Fall and this past Winter, I made my first batch of Black Walnut stain using found walnuts in my backyard .  I made a slurry and let it stand for a few months, then bottled it up with a 1:1 ratio of filtered slurry : rubbing alcohol .  I gave away a couple of pints of the stuff to family and one of my brother-in-laws gave me some feedback:  See below. Note to future Jake:  Collect and use more walnuts and reduce the rubbing alcohol by 50%.  Use 2:1 walnut slurry:rubbing alcohol this time. Something else to add to my 2022 to-do-list .

The kids have been playing/practicing Fall soccer at the 'main park' here in Downers Grove called McCollum Park .  The athletic facilities are just fine - soccer fields, ball diamonds, basketball courts, etc.  But, if you take a walk around the exterior path at McCollum, you can't help but be struck by the size and diversity of the mature trees that have grown there including a bunch of different large Oak trees.  The have some VERY mature trees, some medium-aged ones and some young ones that appear to be planted via the Downers Grove Park Districts Memorial tree program .   During one of the soccer practices, I noticed an oak tree that had a nice shape and narrower - yet coarse-toothed leaves scattered around the park.  I'm familiar with the common Red and White Oaks, but when I looked at the leaves of this particular tree (see below for photos), I wasn't sure what it was.   Here, below, shows the tree with a nice shape: And, here, below, is a cl...

I had a credit with an online nursery that was burning a hole in my pocket.  It came from a tree that I bought last year that died within the first few months of being planted here in Downers Grove.  When I saw an email that trumpeted a sale ALONG with Free Shipping, I decided to act.  I bought a four foot tall Ginkgo biloba tree.  I've been thinking about adding a Ginkgo to our yard for a long time, so when I looked at the total in my shopping cart was less than a few bucks for this tiny Ginkgo, I clicked the 'buy button'.   This isn't the first Ginkgo tree that we've had - we had a larger one that I planted in our old house that was given to me as a Kellogg graduation present from Nat's parents.  That one was at least 1.5" caliper.  This one?  About the caliper of my pinky finger.  This is the latest - and tenth tree that I planted this year, but it also is one of the smallest.  The most recent trees I planted were the Sugar Tyme...

Back in May, I bought and planted eight small Apple trees - three Golden Delicious and five Honeycrisp - along the fenceline in an attempt to make another espalier .  Later, in June and July, I applied the espalier wire in the pattern of a Belgian Fence and started to wire some of them up .  This is a six week update from the last time we touched base.  And, unfortunately, it seems that we've lost three of the eight trees.  The one on the far left (#8)- which I didn't prune.  And two more (#3 and #4).  That's one Golden Delicious (#8) and two Honeycrisp (#3, #4).  Here, below is a close-up of the two in the middle that seemeed to have died.  They both were hard pruned and showed some new foliage, but they then exhausted themselves and seemingly perished.  I'm *not* calling these LOST yet, but I'm thinking that before Fall comes, I will add them to that LOST column for trees.  If the big box stores carry fruit trees this month...

We have two large Oak trees in our backyard.  One has a tree swing on it.  The other is located a little further back in the yard and is along the south property line.  That second one is the tree that I documented last Fall/Winter when it lost a good-sized limb in an ice storm .  I've just been referring to the trees as "Oak Trees", but since our visit to Waterfall Glen where we came across an Oak Tree identification sign , I wanted to see if I could get clarity on the actual varieties. First up is the south-side tree.  That photo at the top is a close-up of one of the leaves.  Note it has pointed lobes at the tips and the recesses that appear between each lobe aren't SUPER deep - like on the Hill's Oak.  And, looking at the sign, I think we can rule out the Shingle Oak for sure.  This *could* be a Black Oak, but I'm leaning toward calling it:  Northern Red Oak.   Next up - is the larger Oak with our tree swing.  T...

Yesterday, I showed off some new growth on our Yews in the rear yard and today, I'm happy to show one of our tiny Canadian Hemlocks showing some new light-green growth.  This is back in the 'rabbit damage' area that I posted about in March of this year .  You can see one of the Ostrich Ferns on the right side of this photo and - in terms of documenting this location - this is the furthest right (north) of the three that I initially planted. This one was the least damaged by rabbits, but I now need to get round to protecting it with some chickenwire/poultry wire to keep the critters from munching on it. The other ones have a little bit of growth, but not like this one.  I'll post some photos of the other set later this Summer.