Why I Oughta...

Planted in the early Fall of 2021 , this pair of Sugar Tyme Crabapple trees are starting to show a bit of espalier training form with four levels on very young trees.  One year ago ( post here ), all four layers weren't really quite established.  Today?  All of them are *started*, with the inside, bottom layer the smallest.   See below for a photo showing these flowering crabapple trees in mid-May 2023. My plan is to turn the tips up by pruning them off and driving new growth.  The 2nd-for-lowest limbs are probably the closest to being ready for that hard prune.  I recently pruned off the apical meristem in an attempt to drive new, thicker growth down the tree.  I've also left on a trunk-thickener branch at the bottom that I don't intend to train, but am using to thicken-up the trunk. 

Our hedge of Frans Fontaine Columnar Hornbeam trees is waking up for Spring and has begun to leaf-out all over the trees.  The last time that I looked at these trees was earlier this (late) Winter, when all of the trees were still clinging to some of their previous-season's leaves (something called foliar marcescence).   The screening that comes from planting these Frans Fontaine Hornbeams along the property line is starting to come into focus this growing season as the small leaves are opening from their buds.  Below, is a photo showing the current (mid/late April) state in our yard in Northern Illinois (Zone 5b).  And, here below, is a look at the leaf from the Frans Fontaine European Hornbeam (Fastigata).  They are curled and ribbed with a hob-like flower/fruit on the trees It won't be long until they fill-in for the year - check this post to see what these trees look like mid-Summer (July 2022) where they're screening our neighbor's yard. These trees were planted

There comes a time in the Spring when the allure of the big box nursery becomes too strong.  Normally...I can rely on my 'plan' and walk away without buying things that don't have a home.  But, when I came face-to-face with this pallet of (what I'll call) unique evergreen trees (or...at the *very least*...these are unique for big box stores), I was smitten.  There were like five different conifers - each with some unique characteristic.  Upright, golden, columnar, weeping.  Just...*chef's kiss*. They were all priced the same, but the one that I was most drawn-to was this one below: A closer look at the tag reveals what it is (photo below):  Pinus sylvestris - Scotch Pine Columnar. "Columnar".  You have my attention. A little look around the Web reveals the true name for this tree:  Pinus sylvestris 'Fastigiata'.  Utah State has one in their arboretum .  They describe it like this:  "This Scotch Pine is a tall and narrow pine. Like other Scotc

As a sort-of tip of my cap to the plantsman Roy Diblik, I've started to document some of my own self-guided education with new plants and trees that I've come across in a tiny series of posts all called " getting to know ".  The most recent one of these was Primrose a couple of weeks ago.  Before that, I've tried to learn about everything from Pineapple Lily to the Thai Giant to the Siberian Larch .   The latest entry in this series is a Ginkgo 1 tree that is new (to me).   I came across it in the place that I've found other, surprisingly unique species: at the Home Depot on Butterfield.  The nursery manager seems like they take the biggest risks with inventory of any of the Home Depots around us.  They have - on occasion - things you won't find at the other stores.   So, what was this unique species?  I'd describe it as odd.  It is also small.  And sitting on a pallet next to a couple of contorted Harry Lauder Walkingstick trees.  See below for th

The weather is showing snow this week, but that doesn't mean Spring isn't already here in the mind of a gardener.   Between the tulip foliage emerging and my first bloom via a Snow Crocus , you can't blame a plantsman for thinking that the time for planting is near.  And, the inventory folks at the Orange Big Box store nursery think the same thing.   I was on a quick run to the hardware store when I noticed two things;  first...the parking lot nursery wasn't quite set up.  But...they did put out a couple of shopping carts turned over on their side to sort of 'mark' the boundaries of where they're going to build their nursery - in an attempt to keep cars out of there.  And...when you walk up to the entrance, you can see the nursery tables set up on either side of the main entrance and all the way down to the garden center.   Second thing of note:  they have some early trees in their inventory along the sidewalk.  Of course, I couldn't help myself and had

One of the great joys of keeping a garden journal or garden diary is that it allows you to see how much you've changed over the years.  The changes happen with growth and die-back of the plants, but also in your tastes and preferences of plant materials.  That's certainly happened to me as I've gotten to know trees and plants and both what works and what doesn't.  But also, what is the *right* plant (natives, drought-tolerant) and what might be the *wrong* plant (invasive or short-lived).   Take for instance the flowering pear tree.  When I started, I was so excited and proud to plant a small, $5 Cleveland Pear tree in our old yard.  It thrived .  So much so, that I bought even more of them.  Little did I know (at the time) that they're both NOT great trees in terms of longevity, but also...if you get the wrong variety...they're invasive.   I even went so far as to plant a couple at our new house when we moved.  Would I plant those today?  I don't think so. 

A couple of days ago, I posted a photo of the Magnolia tree fuzzy flower bud that I spotted on the tree this Winter and talked about how observing tree buds has really shifted my mental gardening model from a Spring start and Winter finish --> Early Winter start and Fall Dormancy finish.  That means, after the trees shed the leaves, they start to set next-year's buds.  And, *that's* when the season starts (for me, now).  On the same day that I took the photo of the Saucer Magnolia tree, I wandered by the pair of early-espalier Sugar Tyme Crabapple trees that are planted on the south wall of our house.   I planted the pair of these trees in September of 2021 , so this was the first FULL growing season.  They bloomed white flowers this Spring - for their first set of flowers .  And set their first fruit (for us) this Fall .   I've begun to train and prune these trees this season into an (eventual) Palmette Verrier espalier shape  with three or four tiers.  As part of that

Tree buds are some of the stars of our Winter garden here in Northern Illinois - Zone 5B.  As I've continued to grow as a gardener and observed the natural rhythm of our garden, I've come to really appreciate buds.    I used to think about the garden season cycle as something that starts with Spring and ends with Winter, but as I've watched our garden more, I've now come to the realization the garden growing season actually starts - for many things - in the fall.  That's when trees set their buds before they head into dormancy.   Tree buds are all unique and tell a story.  One of the sets of buds that I've been following for a number of years is the Saucer Magnolia tree that we planted in our front yard in 2017.  I posted some photos of the Saucer Magnolia buds last year - in February .    Here's how it looks right now - in early January. This tree continues to grow up and out.  And, it appears that the aphid and/or scale problem that has been going on the p

We were over at Nat's folks house and (like they do EVERY YEAR), they had some Anchor Brewing Christmas Ale on hand ahead of the Christmas holidays.  I've posted photos and details of this ' Special Ale ' over the years here on the blog where the beer is less interesting to me, but the drawings of the trees are what I'm drawn to when it comes to this annual Christmas beer.  This year's beer is inspired by an Italian liqueur and features a drawing of a famous tree in San Francisco: a Blue Gum Eucalptus tree.  From this post on NewSchoolBeer comes this description of the tree on the label : This year’s hand-drawn label features a Blue Gum Eucalyptus tree, a nod to Mary Ellen Pleasant – a 19th-century San Francisco entrepreneur, financier, abolitionist, and civil rights activist. Pleasant, who is recognized as the “Mother of Civil Rights in California” for her impact during gold-rush San Francisco, planted Blue Gum Eucalyptus trees outside her Pacific Heights mans

A couple of weeks ago, I posted a couple of photos that showed the process of how the arborists at Davey Tree Services are treating our Northern Red Oak trees with a solution to inoculate them against something called the Two-lined Chestnut borer with a deep-soil-injected solution around the footprint of the canopy of the two Oak trees in our backyard.  That's the first application of the season that has been - for the past two seasons - come before the application of a liquid soil-probe-application fertilizer treatment for all our trees and shrubs.   Starting in 2020, we've worked with Davey to apply something called Arbor Green Pro to every tree and shrub in our yard.   Here's the post showing the 2020 treatment in late October . Here's the post showing the 2021 treatment in mid-November . The crew arrived and set up the long hose line from their tanker truck at the curb all the way to the back of the yard.   You can see in the photos that they apply the treatment

The pair of Greenspire Linden Trees that are planted in a horizontal cordon espalier have held on to all of their leaves to date.  They're just starting to turn yellow - see photo below - with a mix of green and yellow foliage across all four levels of the espalier.  You'll note that some other plants - like the hostas - have gone dormant and turned yellow, while others (the Summer Beauty Allium on the bottom right) have remained green.    The last time I showed this espalier was earlier this Summer (June), when the trees put on ALL of the leaves in a couple of weeks .  If you look closely at the photo above, you'll see some growth on the top level that needs to be pruned back in late Winter as the top-level continues to try to establish a leader or leaders in normal-tree fashion. As measured this Summer, these are now BOTH over 3" caliper trees and have been in the ground here since August of 2017 .  That's five years of growth here across the growing seasons. Wh

2022 is shaping up to be a pretty light year in terms of planting trees on our property.  And that's, ok in my book.  Why?  Because there are fewer and fewer spots that trees make sense left AND that means I'm becoming a little bit more picky in what I want to do.  The last tree that we planted this year was in late May when we dug in a VERY SMALL Saratoga Ginko tree that one of the kids bought at the Morton Arboretum Arbor Day sale .  When I say "very small", I mean very.small.   We tucked this tree (more like a seedling) into an existing small, curved bed in our front yard.  It is planted almost *amongst* a little cluster of Little Henry Sweetspire by our front walk.  I put it there on purpose - because the tree WAS so small, I thought it needed both a little bit of protection both from damage as well as the conditions.  This way, it can put on some new growth, get established and do that all in the shadow of the shrub.  I also didn't want to have a tiny tree -