Why I Oughta...

Coming up on two years ago (April 2022), I planted six Green Giant Thujas in two spots .  Three evergreen trees in a row on the southside of the backyard and three on the northside.    Here's a post showing the three on the north side that included transplanting some Lilac shrubs along the fenceline.   By December 2022 - 7ish months later - two of them were in trouble.  Here's a look at how one of them had 'browned out' during the Winter dormancy period .  By the following Spring (May 2023), another one was gone.  Two down, one remaining on the north side .   The three on the southside have survived just fine.  Here's a look at those three last September - 17 months after being planted - and they looked good .  Right now, in Winter they look *different* than they do during their growing season: darker, less shine and a little unhappy.  But, I'm pretty sure those three are going to be fine come Spring. The remaining one on the north side, however, is....well, I&

 What's better than two Baby Blue Spruce trees?  If you answered "Three Baby Blue Spruce Trees", you'd be correct.  This time, I've added the small (container-grown) dwarf conifer to the bed near the kitchen window in back.  You can see it in the photo below.  This goes towards my #1 item on my 2023 list - evergreens. But, it also checks some of the box on #18 - dealing with the 'kitchen window curved bed' as this is planted in front of the Weeping White Spruce and to the west of the Espalier'd Greenspire Lindens. As for keeping score on a few fronts, let's first start with the Fall Planting Tally.

A week back, I shared photos and details of the first of three Baby Blue Spruce trees that have gone in our yard as part of my Fall Planting Sprint.  They were all 7# container-grown trees and are small to start - somewhere shy of 24" tall from tip to rootflare.  I planted the first one in my new Conifer Garden - IB2DWs extended.  And, I matched it with the second one on the other end of that spread.  See below for a look at #2 Baby Blue.  This is planted closer to the Bald Cypress.  And...it is planted 'high' on purpose.   As for keeping score on a few fronts, let's first start with the Fall Planting Tally.

All the same facts, details and situation from yesterday's post showing how I planted a Weeping Norway Spruce IB2DWs persist and stay the same for this - a second Weeping Norway Spruce - that I planted in the new conifer garden closer to the sidewalk - IB2DWs - extended.  See the photo at the top showing the location of this weeping, dwarf conifer and the Baby Blue Spruce tree that I previously planted here. As for keeping score on a few fronts, let's first start with the Fall Planting Tally.

Conifers Should Come First.  Or, if not first, one should attempt to make up for lost time when you can.  This is the second dwarf conifer tree and third dwarf conifer overall that I've planted in the past week.  All of which are IB2DWs.   Like the Baby Blue Spruce trees that I bought at 50% off, I bought a pair of Weeping Norway Spruce trees.  This post is about the one that is going in our established IB2DWs bed. Below are a few photos showing the pre-planting details: This came as a ball-and-burlap tree from the orange big box store.  I've had these before, but I've always removed as much of the burlap as possible.  This time, I'm going the opposite way.  All I did was cut and remove the twine, but left the burlap in place.  I'm *pretty sure* that these might be air layered trees as whenever I remove the burlap form them, the root system is pretty sparse.   I stuck this tree right in front of the All Gold grasses about half-way back in the bed.  I'm planning

Conifers Should Come First .  That's a gardening truth.  And, as I admitted last week...a mistake that I've made in our garden .  But, it also points to an opportunity.  Specifically in the IB2DWs extended bed.  I talked about focusing on adding some dwarf conifers in service of my #2 item - adding clustered evergreens - IB2DWs extended .     As part of my #Fall Planting for 2023, I kind of went ham on dwarf conifers to make up for my past mistakes.  I've sworn off the trees at Home Depot, but when I was confronted with this sign (below), I decided to nose around.   I found that pallet of blue spruce trees (at the top of this post) that had these tags:  Baby Blue Spruce #7 Container Grown.  See below for the tag showing the $45 price: Half-off means for $22.50, I get a dwarf, blue conifer.  And, it is container-grown, so I'm pretty sure that means it isn't one of their air-layered conifers that come in burlap bags.  I needed this tree.  In fact...I decided that I ne

The biggest, most-interesting, focal-point conifer in our backyard is a small Weeping Nootka Cypress tree that I planted in late May of 2021 in one of the big, swooping curves along the north side of the beds about 2/3rds of the way back.   It has now been 28 months (May 2021 --> September 2023) since this was planted and although I was quite concerned about this thing surviving, I can report that the tree has not only survived, but has been putting on a small amount of growth.  Below is a photo showing the current shape and size of this focal-point evergreen tree: It isn't super easy to tell, but when I compare the photos over the years, I can see that it has put on height from the leader (apical meristem) and all of the limbs have extended with new, pendulous growth.  The 'skirt' from the lowest limbs has grown, too.  But, I haven't touched this with a pruner since it went in and I think that's the right move.  My plan is to keep watering this in until the fir

2023 appears to be an 'on year' in terms of evergreen growth on our small Weeping White Spruce in the backyard.  The photo below shows the flush of greenish-blue needles that have grown out this Spring on and are covering the tree.  It also shows the slightest bit of apical meristem growth (hooray!), potentially signal'ing that we can get this tree back on the right path vertically-speaking.   I planted this small tree all the way back in 2019 - which means this is the fourth growing season - and the tree has NOT GROWN in height at all.  I'd say that this tree is just about the exact same size (height-wise) that it was when I planted it.  The tip of the tree is below the top of the lower fence (and it was when I planted it).   I've documented this tree over the years and we had a pretty significant setback in 2021 - when the drought got to it an I saw quite a bit of needle drop a dead limbs .  The tree had shrunk about half-in-size after losing needles.  But, by Fa

There comes a time in the Spring when the allure of the big box nursery becomes too strong.  Normally...I can rely on my 'plan' and walk away without buying things that don't have a home.  But, when I came face-to-face with this pallet of (what I'll call) unique evergreen trees (or...at the *very least*...these are unique for big box stores), I was smitten.  There were like five different conifers - each with some unique characteristic.  Upright, golden, columnar, weeping.  Just...*chef's kiss*. They were all priced the same, but the one that I was most drawn-to was this one below: A closer look at the tag reveals what it is (photo below):  Pinus sylvestris - Scotch Pine Columnar. "Columnar".  You have my attention. A little look around the Web reveals the true name for this tree:  Pinus sylvestris 'Fastigiata'.  Utah State has one in their arboretum .  They describe it like this:  "This Scotch Pine is a tall and narrow pine. Like other Scotc

On a recent afternoon, I went to have a look at some of the garden to see how it was navigating this first part of Winter.  We've had plenty of hard frosts, cold nights and even a little snow.  Most everything has gone dormant, so I was mostly (on this trip) focused on having a look at the evergreens.  I went to the back of the garden to see how the three Green Giant Thujas that I planted this Spring were doing and noticed that one of them is doing...not so well.  See below for the photo of this tree (or shrub??) turning light brown:  This one is the middle of the tree in the back - on the northside.  It was planted in late April.   I'm not calling this thing dead (just yet), but it appears that will be the case come Spring.  

Back in 2019, I planted six tiny Candian Hemlock trees in a couple of spots of our yard.  When I say 'tiny', I mean 'tiny'.  These were less than a foot tall at the time.  Here's the first three - that went into the far back corner of our yard.  And here's the second three that went into the north side border - in the shade.  That (the shade part) is the point of these.  They are evergreens that *work* in shade.   Over time, we lost half of these.  The (dang) rabbits destroyed them during the winter .  I didn't notice until the following Spring, so after that, I've decided to protect them with chicken wire .   We have three remaining.  Two along the north border.  One in the far back.   It has been a while since I clock'd these into the garden diary/tree diary, so I thought I'd document their current state.  Are they big?  No.  But, the two on the north side are doing well.  These are the two that didn't get gnawed at by rabbits.   Here, be

Every year, we go on a little vacation to Wisconsin or somewhere else where we find ourselves away from our house for a number of weeks in a row.  Each year, I try to set up an irrigation system that provides enough water to allow for the plants, shrubs and trees - as well as the grass - to simply survive.  In most years, we usually get a LITTLE lucky and get a rain event once or twice while we're gone and most everything survives.   Last year, we went on vacation in the middle of the Summer and weren't lucky enough to have that rain event.  Couple that with a REALLY dry Spring (Drought) and my sprinkler setup not covering EVERYTHING and we have things die out.   One of the specimens who suffered last year was the Weeping White Spruce columnar tree that is planted on the southside of our beds, near the Lindens that are espalier'd.  By mid-July last year, it was showing a bunch of needle drop - when we came back from vacation .  And by September, it had gotten worse.  Dead b

The season has begun.  With planting.  And, we're off to a strong start with six new trees going in:  Green Giant Thujas - Thuja standishii plicata.  Are these really trees?  According to the tag, they're categorized as trees, not shrubs (see the bottom photo for the tag), so I'm counting these as trees.  I put in three on the northside, three on the southside - all in the back. Here are the three on the southside: And, here (below) are the three on the northside.  I also transplanted the four lilacs over here, so you can see those in the photo below.  More on that in a separate post. Thuja standishii plicata - Arborvitae Green Giant. These are the first trees of the season with the last ones planted last Fall being the three London Planetrees that I intend to try to pleach . I haven't done a full accounting of what survived/didn't survive just yet, so I'm counting these as the: 69th, 70th, 71st, 72nd, 73rd and 74th trees that we've planted across six growin