Why I Oughta...

This is the first year that I'm growing dahlias that are taller than say...30".  That means that they all need to be staked or supported in some way.  I *thought* I had done a pretty good job of staking everything and supporting the various stems and stalks with padded garden wire, but...for the Mystery Fox dahlia in our backyard...I was...well...wrong.   On a recent morning, I came out back to discover that the dahlia had split open and part of it was laying on the ground.  Eeek!  I picked it up, realized it wasn't going to be 're-connected' and cut it off cleanly.   I brought it in, shortened the stem and stuck it in a jar of water.  The head is filled with five-or-six un-opened blooms and one good-sized one.   Lesson learned.  And, not a total plant-killer.  At least we get to enjoy this branch/stem/stalk with blooms inside for a little while.  

Earlier this Summer, we had a storm that dropped a couple of good-sized limbs from a few of our trees.  A big one from one of our Oaks.  And a few medium-sized limbs from one of the Black Walnut trees.   On that Black Walnut limb were ten-to-twelve green-covered walnuts that weighed the limb down - and likely caused it to snap due to the weight.  With a semi-wooded lot with some mature trees, that happens from time-to-time.   Normally...the limbs drop the ground harmlessly. But not this time.   This time, it came down DIRECTLY on top of our small Waterfall Japanese Maple tree *right* at one of the tree's joints.  That limb SNAPPED off one of the major limbs on the Japanese Maple.  See below for a few photos showing the damage on the Waterfall Japanese Maple tree : And, here, below, is the limb in question.  I fished it out of the bed and threw it on the lawn.   This was back in June.  Fast-forward three months to...