Why I Oughta...

I've written pretty extensively on my love of columnar trees here on the blog.  We have this stand of eight Frans Fontaine European Hornbeams (that you see some of above) and have this Weeping White Spruce that I picked up this season in our yard.  And I've posted multiple times about the columnar street trees of Tokyo over the years.  My love of columnar, narrow trees is something I've think I've well established here.  But, that doesn't mean that I  know everything about them! Recently, I read a note from Amy in from Pretty Purple about her take on narrow trees and thought it was worth sharing here.   Those of you who read the blog might remember Pretty Purple Door from my post earlier this year talking about tulip bulb colors and how she outlined some of the ways to make colors work together (add yellow!). In her post about narrow trees, she talks about how/why these trees work in suburban yards (space, duh!).  She includes some varieties that are

After close to a year of thinking and planning for the installation of a row of Frans Fontaine European Columnar Hornbeam trees along our north property line, we had eight of them installed in late May of 2018.    Now, seventeen months later, I wanted to document in the garden diary where the trees are in their growth and maturation. A little bit more than a year ago, I posted some similar photos to document their growth.  Go check them out here .  They were vibrant and green.  But, very tapered and the gaps between the trees were large at between two and three feet in spacing. I posted again as they were entering dormancy in November and began to turn yellow last Fall .   The trees and limbs were mostly the same, tapered, tight selves.  Then again a few weeks later in late November when one of the trees dropped all of its leaves.  These photos give you a sense for the gaps in between these young trees last Fall. By April of this year, the buds that had been set the previ

About a week ago, I posted a photo showing the new little collection of Hicks Upright Yews that I picked up at Home Depot for a song with the intention of planting a hedge in the back.  Welp...I started that project this week. If you've been following along, I'm using this Bunny Williams sweeping yew hedge as inspiration and after I get these established, I'm going to try to prune them into curving, swooping shapes. I started to place them out and realized that the spacing wasn't going to work.  What you see here above and below is 3' (36") spacing between the centers of the pots.  Looks too far apart to me. So, off I went to pick up 3 more shrubs and shrunk the gap down to 30".   And after I dug the holes ( remembering Ralph Snodsmith's advice about digging the holes !!!), I stuck them in the ground and threw some mulch that I had on hand on top of them.  Here's the immediate aftermath of planting them.  I have to clean u

That's a wheelbarrow full of 12 2# Upright Hicks Yews that are destined for our backyard.  #5 on my 2019 Garden To-Do List was to get some Yews into our yard with a hedge and now that I've waited for these to go on sale, I'm this much closer to getting this item crossed off my list.  What's the inspiration for these?  This curvy, swooping hedge from Bunny Williams' Instagram .    I bought Yews that were originally marked for $34.99 that Home Depot discounted all the way down to $9. I bought Upright Hicks Yews - which Monrovia describes thusly : An excellent evergreen shrub for tall hedges and privacy screens. The long, upright-growing branches with dense, glossy, dark green foliage naturally form a narrow, columnar habit that works well as a foundation plant, or placed in pairs at entries or doorways.  I've talked about my love of all things columnar - and that love extends to shrubs. The spacing on the back of the card claims 8' to 12', bu