Why I Oughta...

The last time that I checked in on the pair of Sugar Tyme crabapple trees - that are planted on the southside of our house - was in mid-March when they started to leaf-out on the tips of the branches .   I planted the pair of these trees in September of 2021 , so this was the third FULL growing season. They seemed to do fine in 2022 and 2023. They bloomed each Spring and had fruit in their first Fall , too. I last pruned these in February of this year - February 2024.  When they were dormant .  At that time, the tree on the right was showing some 'upwards' growth and was a bit more 'ahead' of the tree on the left.  But, I pruned them back to be horizontal cordons - four layers with a 'flat' top layer. This growing season, the trees kept-on-going.  But, the tree on the right shot WAY ahead of the one on the left.  Have a look at the trees - as they currently look - at the end of September - in the photo below: The tree on the right has A TON of top growth.  An

Just about a month ago (mid-February), I gave the pair of SugarTyme Crabapple trees a dormant pruning to remove some waterspouts, shorten the length of some branching and clean the two trees up .  They're being trained in espalier into (what I hope to become) a Palmette Verrier.  In looking around the yard, it appears that these two trees are the furthest ahead and have leaves opening up from the buds all along the branching.  See below for the current state of the tiny, green foliage: This *should* be the growing season when I can begin to 'turn up' the tips of a couple of these layers to begin to form the Palmette Verrier espalier shape.  If you go to this post (and scroll down), you can see what I'm thinking for shape .  Of note....these two Sugar Tyme crabapple trees are south-facing and are COMPLETELY protected from any northern cold fronts.  They're right up against the house - a white house - that reflects the sun's heat.  I suspect that the placement and

The pair of SugarTyme Crabapple trees that are planted on the southside of our house - up against the house via esapalier - are now entering their fourth growing season.  Planted in Fall 2021 , they've now been through three Winters and are beginning to be in a position to LOOK more like a tree being espalier'ed.   They flowered in their first Spring (May 2022 ) and I have SLOWLY pruned them into what I *HOPE* will be their final form:  Palmette Verrier Espalier.  That is a form that has horizontal branching that turns UP at the tips with the lowest branching being the longest.  The last time that I worked these trees was May of 2023 when I pruned/wired up the branches .     I've begun to adopt a pattern of dormant pruning on my espaliers including the Greenspire Lindens and these crabapples.   Here, below, is what they look like coming out of Winter.  These were untouched since last May: Below is a closer look at the tree on the left - closer to the back gate: And here, be

Planted in the early Fall of 2021 , this pair of Sugar Tyme Crabapple trees are starting to show a bit of espalier training form with four levels on very young trees.  One year ago ( post here ), all four layers weren't really quite established.  Today?  All of them are *started*, with the inside, bottom layer the smallest.   See below for a photo showing these flowering crabapple trees in mid-May 2023. My plan is to turn the tips up by pruning them off and driving new growth.  The 2nd-for-lowest limbs are probably the closest to being ready for that hard prune.  I recently pruned off the apical meristem in an attempt to drive new, thicker growth down the tree.  I've also left on a trunk-thickener branch at the bottom that I don't intend to train, but am using to thicken-up the trunk. 

A couple of days ago, I posted a photo of the Magnolia tree fuzzy flower bud that I spotted on the tree this Winter and talked about how observing tree buds has really shifted my mental gardening model from a Spring start and Winter finish --> Early Winter start and Fall Dormancy finish.  That means, after the trees shed the leaves, they start to set next-year's buds.  And, *that's* when the season starts (for me, now).  On the same day that I took the photo of the Saucer Magnolia tree, I wandered by the pair of early-espalier Sugar Tyme Crabapple trees that are planted on the south wall of our house.   I planted the pair of these trees in September of 2021 , so this was the first FULL growing season.  They bloomed white flowers this Spring - for their first set of flowers .  And set their first fruit (for us) this Fall .   I've begun to train and prune these trees this season into an (eventual) Palmette Verrier espalier shape  with three or four tiers.  As part of that

A year and a month ago, I planted a pair of Crabapple trees along the side of our house on the southside.  After some hemming-and-hawing about what kind of trees I should plant in this spot (knowing I wanted to espalier them), I decided to plant Sugar Tyme Crabapple trees .  Why?  Because they're on the list of species that are both suitable for our Zone AND have 'excellent' disease resistance.  In the 13 months since planting, I've shown these trees in various posts - both about the trees as well as posts showing off the Disneyland Roses.  The most recent post was just last month when I was showing off the late-season blooms on the floribunda roses .    My plan for these is to create a Palmette Verrier shape , which calls for the bottom branches to be the longest, followed up each level with a shorter horizontal branch terminating in a vertical segment.  So far, I've trained out four levels on one of the trees and three levels on the second tree.  The wall these

Earlier this week, I showed off a couple of photos that featured the pair of Sugar Tyme Crabapple trees that were in (what I then called) a pre-espalier form .  These were planted last Fall along the southside of our house, in front of our gate.   Since they had already bloomed, I thought it was time to take out the pruners and remove all the non-necessary limbs to allow the trees to focus growth on the limbs that I cared most about.  I started with a top haircut - pruning off the apical meristem or leader on both.  That usually has a strong impact on the tree where it signals a bunch of NEW growth.  I used the siding boards to get them the same height.  From there, I went two siding boards down and removed all the little, starting limbs in between those two segments.  Then, again two boards down.  And so forth.   I still am not sure what form these will take, but - for now - I'm training them horizontally.  See below for what are (now) four-level horizontal cordon espaliered craba

Last Summer, we planted a pair of Sugar Tyme Crabapple trees on the side of our house - the south side that gets a lot of sun - right up against the foundation.   I watered them in a bit, but we were (mostly) past the heavy heat of the Summer (mid-September is when they went in), so I kind of let the trees just figure things out on their own.  I didn't train these very hard last Fall because of that.  I left them as is and didn't prune anything off of them.  I did, however, put a couple of limbs out horizontally with some light bamboo poles, but otherwise didn't touch them. Earlier this Spring, there was a peek at one of them (naked) in this Disneyland Rose protection post from mid-March .   What happened this Spring?   They woke up.  And put on a really nice show.  Pink buds opened up to white flowers with pink centers clustered all over both trees.  See below for a pair of pre-espalier crabapple (Sugar Tyme - Malus 'Sutyzam') trees . This post is going up on May

This past weekend, our next door neighbors had a party on their back patio.  It was a really nice time (aside from a sting...) with a lot of great people.  At the party, I found myself sitting in one of their Adirondack chairs and facing my own house.  And I couldn't help but be struck by this big, blank wall staring back at me: This is part of the south side of our house that has a little sideyard that we've (mostly) neglected.  I have three Disneyland Roses over there - you can see two of them in the photo above.  But, there's just a linear, foundation-hugging border and some ratty turf.  Based on how the Village of Downers Grove mandates the grading, there's also a little ditch 1   but other than that, nothing much to see here.   I've long thought about converting all of this side yard into a bed; it gets a lot of sun, the grass doesn't do much for me and it would be a little bonus garden.  The downside is that nobody really sees it - including us.  But, th

Back in the dark, stay-at-home days of early COVID, I bought a series of eight tiny, various apple trees and proceeded to plant them 24" apart and lop them off at 18" tall .  Hoping that I'd - one day - have a diamond-pattern Belgian Fence espalier along the northern side of our property (facing south on the fence, though).  By August of that same year (2020), three of the trees had been lost .  And there was VERY little sense of the diamond pattern showing up just yet.   This Spring, I came across two suitable crabapple trees (I needed three!) and planted them.  Suitable in this case means:  on the Honeycrisp pollinator list, cost less than $10 a piece and disease resistant or recommended.  They went into the #1 slot on the left.  And the #6 slot from the left .  Leaving slot #5 open.   I have spent a little time out there pruning up the trees and wiring up the new growth this Summer.  The last time I posted a photo of this set of trees was mid-July when they were *START

Back at the beginning of Summer (or end of Spring), I planted two replacement trees in our Apple tree Belgian Fence to bring the total up to seven - of the needed eight trees.  I used a couple of crabapple trees that are known pollinators for the existing Honeycrisp apple trees.  A couple of weeks ago, I pulled out my pruners   secateurs and some padded wire and cleaned these trees up and wired the limbs in place.  You can see the trees below.   A few notes:   I'm still missing tree #5 (from the left).   I'll likely try to plant something this Fall.   Tree #6 (from the left) is not pruned down far enough.  I was concerned that all the growth was above my cut line, so I decided to leave some on a little higher.  And scored some buds below/near the (ideal) cut line to try to push some new growth.  The other five trees are in growing season #2. I'm now realizing that 18" is too close together.  It will work, but the diamonds won't be as dramatic and I think they wou

Back during quarantine (Spring/Summer of 2020), I bought eight very inexpensive apple trees and planted them about two feet apart along our fence .  Then, I proceeded to lop them them off at about 24" from the ground and hoped for the best.  They all seemed to throw off some new buds and I thought that maybe they'd all do fine.  I wired them up by mid-Summer and saw some new growth.    But, by August, I had three trees that had died .   #1, #5, #6 (from the left) were all lost - that was two Golden Delicious and a Honeycrisp trees. When I was planning this Belgian Fence espalier, I did a little bit of research into pollinators and what combination(s) were needed to bear fruit.  I'm KNOW that Honeycrisp trees pollinate Golden/Yellow Delicious Trees.  And...I'm pretty sure that Golden/Yellow Delicious trees pollinate Honeycrisp apple trees.   So, when I was going to find replacements, I knew that what I had remaining were four Honeycrisp trees and one Golden Delicious t