Why I Oughta...

One of the conifers that we have in our backyard is *supposed* to be a really lovely columnar evergreen tree:  a Weeping White Spruce.  I planted it in 2019 along the fence on the southside with hopes that it would grow up-up-up and be a sort-of 'exclamation point' in our garden bed.  Here's what it looked like in Fall of 2019 : it was 46" tall from the soil to the top of the leader.   Then, this thing suffered a little bit from drought.  And, I lost the leader .  That was Summer of 2020.   Now...four years later, the tree is...well....ABOUT THE SAME.  See below: I took out the tape measure because my eyes weren't telling me if this thing actually grew.  This tree was 46" to the tip in Fall of 2019.  Five years since planting - and four years since the leader was lost - this tree is NOW 49" tall.  That means....we're up 3".  Just 3".  But, because of pruning of the 'lost leader', I don't think that tells the full story.  I suspec

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.

I bought this small Weeping White Spruce in the end of May this year and planted it on the southside of our property close to the fenceline here (it is a columnar, very narrow tree !) at the beginning of June .  I seem to have failed to measure it and include it in my annual yard tree inventory post this year , so I thought it would be worth sharing this thing as it goes into Winter. I don't have the best luck with Winter conifers.  This past season, I lost my other weeping tree - the Alaskan Weeping Cedar - even though I tried to protect it with Wilt-Pruf.  Welp, actually, I don't have much luck with conifers anytime as I also lost my first Fraser Fir last season . I'm torn as to if I should apply the Wilt-Pruf to this Weeping White Spruce, but I'm thinking that it can't hurt.  Last Winter was brutal and the Cedar Tree was just a casualty of it - like the buds on all of my flowering trees and the Wilt-Pruf didn't seem to help on the Cedar.  If I mix up

Last June of 2018, I posted photos and details that documented the heights of the existing trees in our inventory around the yard .  In September, I posted two more tree heights to the inventory .  This is the annual check-in with those same trees. As a reminder, here's the heights that I documented in Summer 2018: 2018 Tree Heights  Saucer Magnolia:  81" North Flowering Pear: 112" Frans Fontaine Hornbeam:  113" Red Maple Sun Valley:  96" Crimson King Maple:  112" South Flowering Pear:  80" Flowering Cherry:  112" Dawn Redwood:  63" Bald Cypress:  51"   2019 Tree Heights Saucer Magnolia:  104".  (+23").  22% growth North Flowering Pear: 182" (+70").  39% growth. Frans Fontaine Hornbeam:  162" (+49") Red Maple Sun Valley:  108"  (+12") Crimson King Maple:  112" (+0").  0% growth. South Flowering Pear:  115" (+35").  31% growth. Flowering Cherry:  12

In June of this Summer, I posted a series of photos that attempted to document the full tree height in our inventory on Hornbeam Hill .  I didn't get every tree, but I was able to put a height (approximate) on most of the new trees and that post was meant to serve as a reference post for documenting some of the trees as they grow.  But, there are at least two trees that went in *after* that post was shared that I wanted to document.  First up is the replacement Dawn Redwood .  That's the photo on top.  You can see the height of the tree (currently) is just shy of 63" tall. Below is the newly planted Bald Cypress in the front yard by the driveway.  That one is currently 51" tall.  I'll be going back to these trees (if they make it over the Winter) next year and hope to see some 'creep' going on as they shoot upwards. 

A couple of days ago, I shared the photo and details of the Fraser Fir that I planted in the back .  In that post, I included a tape measure image that showed the current height.  I figured that taking a tool around the yard of Hornbeam Hill to document some of the other trees current heights which can serve as a benchmark in the years ahead.   Here's a few of the trees that I was able to document.   First up is our Saucer Magnolia in the front yard.  It is standing at 81" tall currently.  One of our flowering pears - on the north fence line is 112" tall currently. I measured the end Frans Fontaine Hornbeam trees and it came in (as best as I could tell) at 156" inches (13'). The Red Maple Sun Valley tree that we planted for Earth Day is 96" tall currently. The weeping Cherry that we planted for Earth Day this year is currently 74" tall. The Crimson King is currently 112" tall currently. The Weeping Cedar

The reforestation continues.  When we bought the lot in Downers Grove, we knew we were going to have to take down some trees due to construction.  The Village of Downers Grove forced us to invest in quite a bit of infrastructure in the name of water management and one of the outcomes of that (digging and placing a big basin, connecting it down to the sewers, etc) was that we took down eight to ten pretty mature trees. Because of that fact and the idea that we want a private, good looking property, we've undertaken quite a bit of planting of trees in what I'm calling a 'reforestation'.  In the first year (2017), we planted exclusively deciduous trees.  Nine total.  We ended up losing three of them, so that's a net of six.  This year (2018), we've planted twelve in total.  That's 21 total, but only one of them (the weeping cedar) is a conifer or evergreen. Number 22 changes that.  Above, you'll see our first traditional evergreen - a Fraser Fir.  We