Why I Oughta...

Two weeks ago, I p osted an update on the (still small) Ginkgo tree that is growing in our backyard along the southside of the garden .  This is a tree that was 'snapped' in half, but has (seemingly) recovered.  In that post, I included a couple of photos showing the shape and growth of the tree.  With all the foliage camouflaging the tree, it was hard to see the actual size, so I ended up annotating a photo with markup .   Well...just like the Saratoga Ginkgo tree out front, this Ginkgo tree is changing color.  Into a canopy of gold foliage.  Which...now allow for the size and shape of the tree to be EASILY read by the eye.  Here, below, is that same tree, now lit up in yellow leaves: Still not a massive tree, but it continues to grow each season.  Five years in the ground .  Five more until it is meaningful, I would think.  

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...

The pairing of the (still small) Saratoga Ginkgo tree with the drift of Little Henry Sweetspire (flowering shrub) are showing off right now with bright reds on the Sweetspire and the yellow (almost chartreuse) green on the Saratoga Ginkgo tree that is tucked into that same bed.   See below for what this combo looks like right now - in early November: I posted a similar photo (from the other side) of this combo two years ago .  The Saratoga Ginkgo tree has grown up a little bit in the two years.  

There's a time in the early morning when the sun is just coming up and begins to peek over our house and starts hitting the top of the trees in our backyard.  Right now, it makes the yard almost look electric.  The Northern Red Oak tree (tree swing tree) looks like it is lighting up everything else.  And, it is red.  RED.  Orange and red.  Normally, I'd say this tree doesn't do *that much* of a "Fall Show".  Hews closer to browns and a little orange than reds.  But this year?  It looks like it is on fire.  Pretty great to see: Last year, I p osted a photo of the backyard tree canopy about two weeks later.   In early/mid November.  And this same tree swing tree is orange.  And, in that post, I made the same comment :  this tree normally doesn't do much in the Fall but turn brown and cling tightly to it's crispy leaves.   Perhaps, I need to change my view on the matter.  Two years in a row is a pattern....

We have a small caliper, immature (and short-in-height) Blackgum tree that I planted in our front yard parkway in April of 2025 .  A few weeks earlier (as I was shopping for this very tree), I wrote a "getting to know" post about the Blackgum (or Black Tupelo) tree that is native to Northern Illinois.  In that post , I included this (partial) description: "One of the most spectacular and reliable fall coloring trees, turning brilliant shades of red and orange..." Last year, the tree did, indeed, turn a lovely color for fall.  Red.  Here it was in mid-November when the leaves were still on the tree and the tree was crimson-colored .   This year, that same color has returned.  About 2 weeks earlier.   Here is the tree as it stands right now - at the end of October - below: This tree has really been VERY SLOW TO GROW.  As in...has barely put on any growth in two growing seasons.   I asked Google's Gemini why that might be?...

We've had a weird Fall.  A few days ago, I posted the 10-day forecast that showed no frost arriving in our Zone 6a/5b Growing Zone well beyond the first few days of November .  I talked about how (according to the Illinois State Climatologist), the latest first frost in Northern Illinois (on record) was November 11th .  That means that everything is still....well...hanging on in the garden.   I just looked at the weather app and I can see all the way out to November 11th - the 'record' for last first frost.  And, right now....it is showing one day between now and then with lows in the upper 30s.  And, November 11th is showing a low of 47 degrees.  eeek.   That means that things aren't going to go dormant due to the cold.  Does that mean that I have to keep watering things?  Probably. But, it also means that some of the things in the garden.  Like with our Korean and Japanese Maples.   They have, historically, bee...

This Summer, I planted a small, 7-gallon upright Orange Dream Japanese Maple in the backyard .  About half-way back from the front border, along the southside of the yard.  Just past the Oakleaf Hydrangeas.  Or, at least that's what I *think* this tree is in terms of variety.  I've learned over the years that if you are buying Japanese Maples at the orange Big Box parking lot nursery, you have to take their labels with a healthy skepticism.   They label things that are clearly laceleaf as Bloodgoods.  And, they label fan-leaf as Red Dragons.   This one has red stems and fern-shaped fan leaves.  So, it (initally) checks out as Orange Dream.  I didn't see the Spring leaf-out, but we're about to enter the "Fall Show" season.   What does the tree look like right now?  Upright, full and green.   Here, below, is a photo showing the Japanese Maple as it stands in late October after the first few months in the groun...

A few years back, after researching Japanese Maples , I ended up buying my first Emperor 1 Japanese Maple.  Emperor 1 is similar to Bloodgood Japanese Maple in looks (dark leaf), but it seems it might be a bit more cold tolerant, so it works well in our Zone 6a/5b border garden. I bought the Emperor 1 and planted it back by the firepit .  That was 2021.  2024 was one of those 17-year cicada years here in the suburbs of Chicago.  That means that we were SWARMED by them.  I did the best I could to try to protect some things with tulle, but they're aggressive and ended up killing off that Emperor 1 .  It was pretty good sized at the time.  Before it was lost, I came across a second one.  Smaller.  From a Big Box nursery.  In May of 2023, I planted it in the front edge of the [kitchen curved] bed in our backyard .  It was a bit taller than knee-high, but not quite up to my waist. By August that first year (August 2023), the tree had put...

Five years ago this month, I planted a very small caliper (with a trunk 'injury') Ginkgo tree in our backyard along the southside about half-way back.  The tree went in the ground in October 2021 .  The trunk was basically cracked wide-open ( look at the photos in this post ), but I wrapped it up, supported it with a bamboo pole and hoped for the best.   In the five years since (growing seasons: 2022, 2023, 2024, 2025 and now 2026), the tree has survived.  And, put on some growth.  When it went in the ground, it was about waist-high.  Here, below, is what it looks like in the garden today: That's a little hard to read in terms of where the tree starts/stops.  So, here, below, is an annotated version showing the tip of the tree: I took out the tape measure and the apical meristem (leader) now reaches 96".  So, this is an eight-foot-tall Ginkgo tree.  And, the trunk has thickened-up and is no longer pencil-thin.  I've NOT pruned this ...

In the Summer of 2020, I bought and planted a small Harry Lauder Walkingstick tree .  A contorted tree that was inspired by our visit to Disneyland Paris and their Phantom Manor ride that has an outdoor queue with contorted , weeping and other very interesting trees/horticulture.  When we bought it, it was small.    And, it has stayed *mostly* small.  Hasn't changed VERY MUCH .  But, the bed the tree is planted in certainly *has changed* very much.   This tree is planted in the back, sort-of tucked in behind some things.  This is the sixth growing season and the tree is still somewhere between waist-and-chest high.  Like every tree that I've planted since the first few seasons, I haven't touched this tree.  No pruning.  No cleaning up.  Just an annual deep-root feeding from the professionals.   Here, below, is what it looks like in mid-Summer:  It really shines during the Winter when you can see the skeleton...

Back in July, I posted a photo or two about how I had to prune back some of the lower limbs on some of our Frans Fontaine European (Columnar) Hornebeam trees to make traversing the sideyard boardwalk a little bit easier.  They were encroaching on the pathway.   That is part of the collection of posts about these trees that you can find here:  [ Frans Fontaine European Hornbeam Trees ].   2026 marks their eight season in the garden and you can go all the way back to when I was first researching the trees and when eight 2" caliper Frans Fontaine European Hornbeam trees were planted in May 2018.  They were planted 6-feet trunk-to-trunk .   Over the years, I've documented their growth, leaf-fall, bud setting and opening in Spring. Here's what they look like right now - after eight seasons: They're big, and leafy.  But, they're starting to show some holes.   I haven't pruned these at all.  But, the neighbor to the north has pr...

In the Spring of 2023, I ripped out a pair of Rhododendron from either side of our back stoop and replaced them with a pair of Spring Grove (dwarf) Ginkgo trees .  They were in larger nursery containers at the time I bought them, but they were small.  Short.  Well...dwarf.  Which usually means they're very slow-growing.  I wrote this 'getting to know' post about Spring Grove Ginkgo and talked about how they were discovered as a Witch's Broom in Ohio.   That first Summer, they were stressed.  This is a sunny location and the hot afternoon sun beat them up.  So, I put up some shade cloth to try to get them through August.  That worked and by September, they were leafy and (mostly) green .  Ever since, they haven't looked back.  And are growing faster than I thought they would.   Here they are in October 2024 .   Over the years, I've posted Wintertime photos showing their 'frames'.   Today, despi...

Back around the border of the fire pit is a Redbud Tree.  I originally planted a weeping Lavender Twist Redbud tree in 2020, but it came cracked-in-half .  It came back alive, but I'm not sure if the tree was grafted or not, which means that the trunk was some other kind of tree.  I also sort-of lost track of where this tree was planted, because back in 2020, I planted it along the fence .    But...today....as I mentioned in the first sentence, we have a Redbud tree around the firepit.   I also have a memory of this tree getting stomped by some tree guys. However, it has persisted.  And, grown.   And, it *is* weeping.   But, now it is a multi-trunk tree. However, it is arching up and out (over the lawn and the firepit) and has taken on a nice shape.   I haven't documented this tree in the [tree diary], so I thought it was about time.    

I planted a very small, native Pagoda Dogwood tree in our backyard in the Summer of 2021.  Five years ago .  It was from a municipal native tree sale and was just a foot tall. Over the five years, it has grown up and out.  But, where it is planted is a little bit out-of-the-way.  Well...it is out-of-the-way now because the Weeping Redbud (Lavender Twist) bounced back after what I thought was it dying out.  That weeping Redbud has come back as a multi-trunk tree and has put on a bunch of size.  That means that this Pagoda Dogwood tree is now tucked in *behind* the redbud's foliage.  That doesn't diminish the Pagoda Dogwood, though.  Just makes it a little bit harder to see. I most recently covered this tree this past Winter when I posted a photo of the structure .  Each of the last three growing seasons, I've pruned this tree after it was done flowering.  2023 pruning , 2024 pruning and last year, 2025 pruning .   In each case...

A reader posted a comment on my pos t from May about the troubles the Arctic Jade Korean Maple was having and how it wasn't leaf'ing out .  They asked, not about the Arctic Jade, but about my first Korean Maple:  The Northern Glow.   My journey with Korean Maples started back in Summer 2024 when I first posted  this "Getting to Know" post about the tree after seeing it at The Growing Place in Naperville.  I planted it in July 2024 in the Island Bed in the middle of the Summer.   That is tough on any plant, but I think harder on ornamental maples that naturally want to be in part sun/dappled shade/full shade.  I ended up erecting a shade-cloth structure to help get the tree through July and August without getting scorched that first Summer.  Here, below, is a photo from August 2024 showing the size of the tree and the shade cloth that I had set up: Here is a post from late August that shows the state of the Island Bed .  (It was t...

#21 on my 2026 to-do list was to 'add another ornamental maple' to the garden.  So far, this season, I've planted a pair of them:  a North Wind Korean Maple (to replace the Arctic Jade) and an Alpenglow Korean Maple under the large tree swing.  Both from Iseli Nursery. Over the years, I've moved towards those Korean Maples. Acer pseudosieboldaianum. They have performed well (aside from the Arctic Jade).  They're more cold-hardy than Acer palmatums or Acer shirasawanum or Acer japonicum. But, the pull of the traditional Japanese Maples is still strong.  When I came across an Orange Dream Japanese Maple that was priced...ummm....right, I brought it home.   Also note... I still think about the full-moon maples like this one , too.  Below are a few photos showing the foliage, the tree form and where I planted it (in the back edge of the "Kitchen Curved" bed). The leaves in Summer are green with red(ish) stems: The tree has a low-graft and is about ...