Why I Oughta...

The last time that I checked in on the row of Frans Fontaine European (Columnar) Hornbeam trees that serve as a screen in our sideyard was just back in August .  Before that, I pruned them a little bit this Summer, to make a little room to navigate the boardwalk .   The full archive of posts on my Frans Fontaine European Hornbeam trees can be found here .   This year, I added another one, but in a different spot:  back by the firepit .   For background, you can check out this post from 2023 , when I documented the progress over the years.   More recently, I've posted about how these trees turn into dormancy and demonstrate marcescence - or holding onto their leaves late into the Winter.  Here is a post from November 2024 when the leaves were turning yellow .   We're now in early November (2026) and what to they look like?  Green leaves.  And, mostly full.   Here, below, are a couple of photos showing th...

Imagine my surprise when I came across an upright tree amongst a bunch of other shade trees in the parking lot nursery recently that was leaf'ing out ahead of the others.  And, it was leaf'ing out with thin, vertical-heading branches all the way down to the ground.  See below for a photo showing the tree(s) in question mixed in amongst other taller, traditional shade tree trunks: What is that?   I walked closer and noticed the foliage.   Wait a second....I know those leaves.   That's a Hornbeam.  A columnar hornbeam.   There's no tag, but I know what I'm looking at and it is an upright, narrow, columnar Hornbeam.   I have those.  And I love them .  Off I went to grab a cart to load one of these trees on-to.  It is sitting in a 15-gallon pot and appears to be pot-grown because the roots are peeking out of the bottom holes.  Not ball-and-burlap stuck in a pot.  It rang up at a price that is too-good-...

Part of my DIY Spring clean-up is doing some small, controlled burns in place with the left-behind leaf litter in the beds.  I rake up some small piles that have defined edges (so the burn can't run everywhere) and use my little weed-burning torch to set the piles on fire.  They burn up the leaves, leave behind some ash and eventually exhaust themselves when they run out of material.   Here's one of the small piles I am burning under the Hornbeam trees in back: