Why I Oughta...

A few weeks back (this post is going live on July 1st, but these photos are from mid/late June), a stretch of our backyard was covered in white flowers.  On the lawn.  On top of shrubs.  On our little, hidden picnic table.  A carpet of white flower heads.  It looks like this: That means it is Northern Catalpa season.  We have two mature Catalpa trees - native trees.  (We have a small one growing near our patio, but it is still a twig.). They both bloomed this year in a prolific manner.  In mid-to-late June these trees put on a show.  The flowers stay on the trees for a while, then fall.  The week the trees were in bloom, we experienced a couple of days of heavy rain.  I'm thinking that caused the blooms to fall-off faster than normal. I posted about these flowers in a similar way in June of 2023 .  In that post, I also included a shot of the tree.  Here's the current state of this large Catalpa tree in our yard: In looking...

The multi-trunk Saucer Magnolia tree is getting ready to put on its annual Spring flower show.  And, after the harsh (at times) Winter, we're seeing a great sign:  pink flower buds have emerged from their fuzzy shells and are putting on size ahead of their full bloom. Below is a photo of one of the pink flower buds on the Saucer Magnolia tree tips.   This is three-and-a-half weeks later than the same pink buds emerged in 2024 - just over a year ago .   That was earlier than normal.  And this year - mid-April - is more in line with historical timing for this flowering tree.   2025 - Flower buds emerged in mid-April.   2024 - Flowers emerged in mid-March.  Peaked first week of April. 2023 - Mid-April peak-Magnolia bloom 2022 - Late-April 2022: Peak-Magnolia at end of month 2021 - Mid-April 2021 : In bloom by mid-month (April). 2020 - Early April 2020 : Blooms began the first week of April. 2019 - The tree did NOT bloom at all. 2...

In late Spring/early Summer 2023, I planted a small (1.5 gallon) Emperor 1 Japanese Maple - Acer palmatum in what I call the 'kitchen curved bed' .  Right behind/amongst some Fanal Astilbes.  By last Fall, it was showing a little bit of new growth and put on new foliage .  A good sign.  This Spring, it was one of a few trees that I wrapped in tulle - to protect from cicadas.  Doing that, wasn't great for the tree and damaged some of the tips of the tree along the way.  No big deal because the trade-off of a few broken small branches vs. the tree getting killed by the cicadas seemed worth taking. This was also a spot where I did a 'garden edit'.  Moving a border of Ajuga Chocolate Chip in and widening out the front of the bed this Spring.   I removed the netting more than a month ago and today, the tree is rebounding a little bit.  Below is a look at the current state of our second Emperor 1 Japanese Maple: Looking forward to this one fil...

Back in May of 2019, I planted a number of very small, one-gallon Canadian Hemlock trees .  A few of them were destroyed by rabbits.  And a few died from drought.  But, two of them have managed to make it to today.  In terms of growing seasons, that: 2019, 2020, 2021, 2022, 2023 and now...in the middle of their sixth growing season:  2024.   After the rabbits ate these things up, I began to protect them with chicken wire.  The past few seasons, I've just left the chicken wire rings in place.  And the trees have just kept-on-growing.   I heard from someone on the blog about the hemlocks and they wondered how they were doing.   Here's a couple of photos that show them - although...they're *hard to see*.   The first photo shows both of the trees - one on the left and the other on the right - split by that narrow tree trunk in the middle.  The second photo shows a close-up of the chicken wire ring. I'd say that ...

The small, volunteer Northern Catalpa tree that is growing up on one corner of our patio had a three-leader situation going on in June.  Catalpas are whirl'd - which means they show growth out of three points, so having three leaders isn't surprising.  About three weeks ago, I made the decision to cut-off two of them and then forgot about it.  It didn't take long, but the small tree reacted VERY STRONGLY to the leader situation being sorted and has shot up about a foot in the past two weeks.  Here, below, is a look at the tree as it sits currently: I'll note that the peak is right above the tips of the Karl Foerster Feather Reed Grasses.  Looking back at September 2023 - late last Summer - this same tree was coming in a foot-or-so below the grass tips and I measured it at 41" tall. What is it now - after this growth spurt?  65" tall to the top of the foliage.  24" growth since September of 2023 - and most of it (I think) in the past couple of weeks.

How do our Frans Fontaine European Hornbeam Trees look this season?  Like this photo below- showing the green foliage covering the upright, columnar habit of these trees planted along the northside of our property as a screen between our house and our neighbor's property.  You can see part of the gable of our neighbor's house at the top of the photo below: One of the most comment questions that I get on the blog is from someone making a comment asking about these trees.  Things like:  How do they look now?  Any update?  How far are they spaced?  Someone (locally...who grew up in Naperville, but current lives in Barrington and is planning on putting up some Frans Fontaine Hornbeams in their yard) just posted a comment on this post - asking how they're doing .   Last Summer I posted a detailed history of the trees - showing their growth and how they closed in the last remaining gaps between the trees.  I have not pruned these at all - ot...

Earlier this Summer, I bought a small, grafted Emperor 1 Japanese Maple from the orange big box store (for $35) and planted it in the border of the kitchen curved bed in our backyard.  I had a previous Emperor 1 and figured that the price was right on this one, so I added it.  That lead to a (pardon the pun) Waterfall of Japanese Maples being planted this season.  The most recent was the high-grafted Inaba Shadire; the sixth JM of the season .   The small Emperor 1 appears to be doing just fine in the spot where it gets a mix of shade and some early-day sun.  It is out of the sun during the heat of the afternoon, but gets a little bit of early and late morning sun.   Here, below is what it looks like currently - it has a split set of leaders that I'm leaving as they are (for now): The reason for this post is not to document the current form (as...it is *mostly* the exact same shape/form/height) that it was when I put it in), but rather tho share ...

Just a few days ago, I posted some photos showing a large amount (at least...it FEELS like a large amount) of Northern Red Oak acorns that are coming down in late July/early August this season.   In that post, I mentioned that it was time to document in the [garden diary] an inventory of what the canopy of the tree-swing tree (Northern Red Oak) looks like in early August. This tree was (I think) troubled and as a result, we started it on a course of treatment.  That included the application of a three-year growth regulator.  And, annual applications of a deep-root fertilizer and of some Two-Lined Chestnut borer treatment .   We've now done three-years of treatments on the tree. The growth regulator appeared to help and the tree seemed to have a different outlook after just one year .   I've been trying to document the canopy of the tree over the years - the last time was in Fall of 2022 when it was turning orange and brown .   The tree...

Last Spring, I put in a TINY Saratoga Ginkgo tree in amongst the Little Henry Sweetspire out front .  The height of the Ginkgo was *below* the height of the shrub, so I thought the tree would be allowed to sort-of grow-up in the shadow of the shrub.  The Saratoga is a unique Ginkgo that has longer leaves that most normal/traditional Ginkgo trees.  I didn't pay this tree too much attention over the last year, but it was watered with the sprinkler out front that was hitting the front porch beds, so I think it was watered enough to survive.  But, how does it look like one year later?  It has put on about six inches of new height.  See below for a photo showing the current state of the Saratoga Ginkgo tree.  It is now emerged above the full height of the Little Henry Sweetspire - by about eight-to-ten inches.    The American Conifer Society suggests that this tree will get to between 12-to-24-feet tall in ten years.  Lets suggest this is t...

One of the things that I've been meaning to do this growing season is to get out and capture a full caliper measure of all of our planted trees.  I didn't get to it last year, so the existing data I have on the trees size-wise is from 2020.  On this year's to-do list, I included a mention of 'capturing the caliper measures' , so it has been on my mind all season.  Have I measured all the trees?  Nope.  But, I did measure one (so far).  And it is the Bald Cypress that has grown massively over the past few growing seasons.  That growth is why I started with this tree. What does the tree look like today?  It is tall and stout and I'd consider it the best/most-productive tree that we've planted.  See below for the current state.  I have not pruned one branch off of this, but the time is coming.  See that driveway on the right side of the photo?  That wasn't there when this tree was planted, so this will now need to get limb'd up so...

My reasons for keeping my own [garden diary] are the usual ones:  get smarter (make better choices) and to document changes over time (appreciate wins/losses).  I've taken that same approach to some of our indoor house plants .  I'm interested in understanding what they look like during different seasons - seeing if they're growing, if they're in trouble, etc.  That's covered my Staghorn Fern , my Standing Mickey Topiary and even one of our umbrella plants . Just this past week, I documented my re-soil'ing of my Maidenhair Fern .  But, I haven't tracked - via my [ container diary ] the largest houseplant we have:  Nat's Fiddlehead Fig Tree.  I don't exactly know how long we've had it, but I know it was introduced in our new house - at some point.  It sits in a room that has southern exposure and has just grown and grown.  This isn't a plant that I tend to - at all.  This one is all Nat.  She waters it.  Feeds it.  Cleans ...

A few days ago, I received a new comment from a reader of my garden diary on this post all the way back in late May 2018 titled: " Frans Fontaine Hornbeam Planted - Hedgerow Spring 2018 ".  That post shows the eight columnar European Hornbeam trees that had been delivered and were being planted in our back and side yard to create (at that time, what I hoped to be) a privacy screen.  The comment - from JennyW - is here below: I've talked this before, but I write this daily online diary because I get joy out of doing it. I don't run advertisements.  I don't run sponsored content.  I also write for a pretty narrow audience - mostly myself.  I also look at the analytics data and know that there are really three audiences - in declining size order:   1.  The largest part of the audience: (mostly) one-time search readers (they search for something, click on the link and end up at my blog).   2.  Second biggest audience:  Referral....

Yesterday, I posted a couple of photos showing off some late Summer growth on our Dawn Redwood and today, wanted to add an entry to my Garden Diary showing off some similar growth on our *other* deciduous conifer:  the Bald Cypress in our front yard.  The last time that I posted about this tree was earlier this in January when it was showing some buds on the tree . Similar to the Dawn Redwood, I haven't totally baby'd this tree, but have done some hand watering around the mulch ring.   This tree is 'downhill' from one of our gutter pop-ups, so whatever rain we *do* get, this tree gets some benefit.  I also tried to break up the "clay bowl" prior to planning this tree back in 2018 .  The needles on this tree - at this point in the Summer - aren't a bright, vibrant green, but this new growth (on the tips) is providing a nice pop of color. This tree is planted pretty close to the north property line - between our driveway and the new construction site...

My history with our Dawn Redwood has been mixed overall, but over the past few years, it seems that things have been going well. Originally planted our first Spring - in 2017 - I over-pruned the tree and didn't baby it enough leading to it only lasting that first season .  By 2018, I had replaced it.  That year, I really tried to pay attention the small, thin tree.  I hand-watered it regularly and we had a little bit of a milder Summer.  And the tree made it through its first year.  By Fall of 2018 - the first full year with the replacement tree - I was seeing Fall growth .  That felt good.  It needle'd-out in the Spring of 2019 and hasn't looked back.  It grew 36" last year .  The last time that I checked in on the tree was earlier this Summer when I found a little bit of new growth on top - gaining even more height.  Today, I'm diary'ing a few photos showing some late Summer growth on the tips.  I've tried to pay a mod...

Those are four of our eight Carpinus betulus Frans Fontaine Columnar Hornbeam trees as they looked 750 days ago.  This was right after they were planted in the end of May 2018 .  There is a lot to notice in this photo besides the trees.  The cedar fence was still showing some signs of brown in the color.  The mulch is, umm, perfect.  The grass next to the trees seems pretty stressed due to the planting.  Also, at the left of the photo, you can barely make out a tree with a TreeGator watering bag around the trunk.  As for the trees?  Well...they look pretty far spaced apart. This, below, is what these same four (plus the Chanticleer Pear on the left) look like today. There are plenty of things to pick up on in the latest photo, too.  The trees have filled out and are wider and thicker.  They've grown taller, but hard to say how much.  The hostas at their base are all new - compared to their planting day in 2018. ...