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&

In the Spring of 2022 (17 months ago), I undertook what I called (at that time) the Lilac Replacement Project where I dug up and transplanted a number of Lilacs.  And replaced them with some upright evergreens.  Those upright evergreens were three Green Giant Thujas that I bought at the orange big box store .  I planted three in this spot and three on the other side.  Two of those died, leaving me with four of the six originally planted remaining.   When I look back at the photos of those Green Giant Thujas right after they were planted (April 2022) , it appears that the top-tip (apical meristem) of them is right around the top of the fence.   Today - they're at least a foot over the top of the fence height.  See below for the current view - with the Green Giant Thujas in the back against the fence.   That's (obviously) not the only thing happening in this photo, so I'll document some of the other changes in this post - for the garden diary. The Thujas have survived here,

Like they do at the Hollywood Awards shows, I should (if I had more time) make a montage video marking the "In Memoriam" of everything that we've planted and died.  I suppose this post - showing four trees that didn't make it through Winter this year - will have to do (for now). First tree lost:  our first Japanese Maple: Tamukeyama .  Too bad.  I'll try to replace this with another Japanese Maple.  The next two trees (if we're calling them that...) are a two of the three Green Giant Thujas planted back by the Lilacs.  One of them remains, but two of them went orange. I yanked one of them out and put it back by the compost pile.  I'll do the same with the others this weekend when I find the time. The last one, that I don't have a photo of (because...I'm pretty sure the dang rabbits gnaw'd it all the way down to the ground) is the Shagbark Hickory.   It, too, is struck out below.  With this update, I am changing some of the stats.  2023 marks my

Last Spring, I dug out two pairs of Lilac flowering shrubs and moved them from a shady, understory spot along the south fence (under a Walnut tree, too) to the north side fenceline - in a a more open, and sunny location.   The two 'common' Lilac shrubs have responded and are flush with green leaves and new growth at the tips.  These were planted as small, 2 gallon shrubs in 2018 .  And they struggled.  Too much shade.  Too much Walnut (probably).   That's why I moved them out.  I planted them along with some Thujas.  Those...didn't work.  More on losing two of those soon .  But, the Lilacs?  The common ones, at least.  They're seemingly thriving.   They are thickening up and growing.  See below for first a photo of the pair of them and then the new growth on the tips. Would love to see these get over the top of the fence height this growing season.

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.  

Late last season, I planted six small upright Hicks Yews in a little row about half-way back in the southside bed of the backyard .  My thought was that I was going to to try to bring a little bit of repetition to the landscape by trying to mirror or repeat the Hicks Yew hedge that I've been growing along the back of our property.   They all seemed to have done just fine this season, but earlier this Spring, I undertook a shrub project that involved relocating the four Lilacs from this area and replacing them with three Green Giant Thujas.  If you look at this post showing the planting of the Thujas , you can see the six small Hicks Yews.  In that post, I talked about how I needed to relocate some of these Yews and with the temperatures dropping, I was finally able to get around to starting that relocation.  Below, you can see one of the Green Giant Thujas and a hole in the mulch directly in front of it where I dug the Yew out of as it was a pretty tight fit. I decided to keep it

Earlier this month, as part of a series of garden bed 'slices', I did some shrub exploration posts including the 'Lilac Replacement' section and the ' Northside Mixed Bed ' that kind of worked together.  They both required some upright evergreens, but the Lilacs needed to be transplanted from one section to the other.  Earlier this week, I got started by planting the upright evergreens - three Green Giant Thujas - in each section.  From there, I dug up and transplanted the four Lilac shrubs (2 Nocture, 2 Common) in the Northside bed. Before I did the planting, I removed some of the lower, but still large limbs on the Hackberry tree to make sure these were getting the most sun they could get in this spot.  Below is a look at the couple of cuts I made with my extension saw: Here's what the newly planted area looks like with three evergreens, four flowering shrubs, an existing scrub shrub and a small London Planetree (below): And, here's an annotated versi

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

Yesterday, I showed the location of three upright evergreens - Green Giant Thujas - that work in part shade for our backyard.   Those were in what I'm calling the " Lilac Replacement " slice of the south bed.  Today, I'm showing the *approximate* placement of the three other that I bought:  these go on the northside mixed bed behind the London Plane tree .  There currently is a scrub shrub that I've left (for now), but requires pruning to get these two close to their spots.  Below is where I'm (currently) thinking of putting these down.  Now...tree roots may have me moving them a bit, but this is MOSTLY their locations: They'll be 'fronted' by four lilacs that I'll transplant here - in purple.  The Nocture on the left (they're shorter) and the common on the right (they get taller).  As I mentioned yesterday, it seems that planting THESE three is the first in a series of dominos that can fall:  clean up tree above/scrub shrub --> plant th

Welp, I did it:  I pulled the trigger and bought some Green Giant Arborvitae - Thuja standishii x plicata and brought them home.  I mentioned these a few times in the past month or so - including how I found these at one of the local Big Box nurseries near me - and how there were a few sizes (large and smaller).   In my summary list, I ended up thinking that I need nine upright evergreens - a combination of Thujas and Yews - with the first three of those nine going into the "Lilac Replacement" project .   I wanted to buy six right away - before they sell out - so I opted for the smaller (less expensive ones).  But, they're NOT *that* small -about four feet tall.  I put the nursery containers out in that " Lilac replacement " area and you can see them in the photo below: That's the approximate space that I'm intending to plant them.  First thing, though....dig up and transplant the four lilacs that are in that spot along the fence.   Also, a few of the H

Starting with this post from early March and carried through as #1 on my 2022 priority list was the discussion of shrubs and how I needed to focus on adding them to add depth, structure and the notion of layering to our garden.  Then last week, over the course of a few 'shrub exploration' posts, I tried to organize my thinking via some specific garden bed sections - including the lilac area , a north-side mixed shrub section by the trampoline , the fire pit area and the spot that *could* be the home of a fire pit-area path extension . Across all of those garden bed 'slices', I was able to create a shrub list that included nine upright evergreens in three different colonies of three each.  Three in the north-side mixed area that would front the transplanted lilas, three in the (current) lilac area that would serve as back layer to a trio of Tardiva Hydrangeas and finally three that would either back three Little Lime Hydrangeas (or perhaps three + 1 to frame the event

Earlier this month, I posted a couple of things that I'd like to reference here.  First...was the post talking about 2022 Garden Trends and how - like high fashion - the trends we see in the garden center or local nursery emerge years prior at places like the Chelsea Flower Show .  In that recap post about trends, one of the design direction that was a big takeaway from Chelsea this year was the idea of 'organic ovals'.  It is one of the big, macro trends mentioned in this piece cover last year's Chelsea show .   The other thread I'm pulling at is the idea of a ' Getting to Know ' plant series that is part of my ongoing self-education.  I started by talking about Eucomis (Pineapple Lillies) and how I ordered a handful of bulbs to try in containers this Summer.   Part of these "Getting to Know X" posts is about getting myself a little more familiar with unique plants and cultivars.  Things that not everyone has in their garden or yard.   When you c