Why I Oughta...

Last week, I posted some photos of the (dang!) rabbit damage on our Oakleaf Hydrangeas that occured over the past few months .  I attempted to protect some things in the garden from the rabbits using Chicken Wire cages, but I must not have done enough this year.  The hydrangeas only bloom on 'old wood', so that means that 2024 will be the year of fewer Oakleaf Hydrangea blooms.   But, the rabbits also went ham on other things in the garden.  And in particular...devoured the Gold Cone Junipers.   Some of the earliest shrubs that I installed, the three Gold Cone Junipers have seen highs and lows since 2019 .    They've experienced some stress (at times), but also put on a spectacular show come Spring .   By the Fall of 2021, the bottoms of these upright shrubs had emptied out.  Between rabbit pressure and natural decline, the bottom third was (mostly) bare .  But, they were still distinctly 'multi-stemmed' at the time....

The trio of Gold Cone Junipers (that...frankly weren't the right shrubs at the right time in the right place), have been there, filling up space in the beds for four-going-on-five growing seasons .  They get a Spring flush that earns their name - with gold needles .  But, when I was out wandering around the beds, I noticed that these were putting on a different, pre-flush show:  grey-ish tips.  See below for a photo of the top of the evergreen shrub: Nice little moment - and look for these that I haven't documented in the garden diary before, but now I'll look for it come early Spring in upcoming seasons.  

We have a trio of Gold Cone Junipers that I planted a few seasons ago in our backyard bed.  I put them in the ground in Spring 2019 and three growing seasons later, they're turning into something very different that I was thinking:  they're turning into a lollipop-like conifer.  These Gold Cone Junipers are notorious for splaying when snow piles on them, so that first season, I wired them up to help prevent that winter damage .  By that first Fall, they were showing some signs of stress .  Then, after their first Winter, they browned out ...but came back in Summer. These also are more sun-loving than most things in our yard, so having them planted in the shade of a Walnut tree isn't ideal.  Not to mention....I planted these without consulting the plan, so they're sort-of orphaned here.  I don't necessarily WANT them here - nor does the plan call for them - but why rip them out now when I don't have anything else to plant there.  So, over the past...

The last time I posted about a trio of Gold Cone Junipers in our yard was earlier this year when I wasn't sure if these things were totally dying or if they were just simply struggling to recover .  I was being proactive last year and wired them up to protect from snow damage and I believe now that I caused the damage myself with the bottom 1/2 or so browning out pretty hard . I was out in the backyard this week and it turns out that these Junipers are showing some signs of growth with their yellow (or...um....GOLD) tips growing out.  Last Summer, these things were beautifully bright, so I'm hopeful that they'll come back in some way and overcome the brown dead parts.    Right now, the signs are pointing up for new growth, but I'm not sure if I should be thinning out the dead stuff by hand to try to stimulate some new growth on the dead sections?

With the whole 'social distancing' policy being enforced in our household, I had some time to putter around the yard this weekend.  One of the things that drew my attention was the sad state of these Gold Cone Junipers.  You can see one of them in the photo at the top of this post.  I bought three of these from Menards on April 6, 2019.  I have the receipt in my little file that shows the purchase date AND the 1 Year guarantee tag on them that you can see in the two photos below.  One note that might be useful for you:  Everytime I buy a tree or a shrub that has a 1 year guarantee, I do 2 things:  I staple one of the plant tags to the receipt and file it away in an envelope.  I also then add it to my Google calendar - one week short of a year.  That means...I bought this on April 6, 2019, I put an entry for these Gold Cone Junipers on March 30th, 2020. According to the garden diary, I had them on hand by April 22nd and ended up ...

At the beginning of the season this year, I planted three small Gold Cone Juniper shrubs .  And they took off with the wet Spring and put on a great show .  After reading all about these particular juniper shrubs, I decided to 'wire them up' to ensure that they don't suffer from splaying based on snow fall in the Winter.  By June, I had wired them up and they looked great .  Then, we hit the hot part of Summer with July and August.  And the shrubs are showing signs of stress.  I'm posting this photo in the [ garden diary ] here on the blog to show the emerging brown spots on some of the shrub.  It is on the 'backside' mostly, so I'm wondering if it is both water/drought-related, but perhaps also sun-related?  The backside gets less sun than the front.  I also wonder if the 'wiring up' caused some of the stress?    I've done this dance before in the Fall - are the trees/shrubs that are showing signs of stress going to make it ...

One of the items on  my 2019 gardening to-do list (addendum)  was to make sure I got around to wiring up the new Gold Cone Junipers that I planted this Spring.   When  I picked them up , I was drawn to the promise of their bright needles and how they filled a big part of my desire to add conifers to our landscape.  In  that original post , I referenced how a pro-gardener recommended that these particular junipers get wired up to avoid any sort of Winter/snow damage.  That's what this post is for:  documenting that I actually wired them.  The top photo shows one of the Gold Cone Junipers all wired up with a green coated metal garden wire.  Compare that photo above with the photo of the same shrub  in this photo .  I tucked in all the leggy new growth and bound it to the core of the plant.  Here's a closer look at the wire:  The shrub in the foreground is wired up.  The one in the background is not...