Why I Oughta...

In Summer 2023, I planted a low-grafted small Waterfall Japanese Maple about half-way back in our yard on the southside.  It was (at that time) my first green-leaf Japanese Maple and I planted it close to the front of the bed since it was small and growing close to the ground.   A year later, a large tree limb fell from one of the mature trees in the yard, crushing this small ornament Japanese Maple .  Basically taking ALL of the limbs off this poor tree.  The canopy was cut off by 75% in an instant.  Not good. I did the only thing I could:  leave the tree alone.   By last Summer, the tree seemed to begin to recover and put on some new growth . Looking at it today, I'm again seeing some new foliage growth and canopy expansion for the season. Below are a couple of photos showing the current state of this small Japanese Maple (weeping) tucked in amongst some hostas and the stalks of a couple of Fall-planted Allium bulbs: It is going to take a ...

In the Summer of 2023, I planted a couple of Japanese Maple trees including a high-grafted Inaba Shadire , a Seiryu upright , a small First Ghost , a Firefly Japanese Maple , a small, mis-labeled cutleaf red Japanese Maple , an Emperor 1 JM in the Kitchen Curved bed,  and a Waterfall (or Virdis) low-grafted weeping Japanese Maple .   Of those seven Japanese Maples planted in 2023, just two of them are still with us in the garden.  The Emperor 1 in the "kitchen curved" bed is doing well (despite the Cicada damage last year) and the Waterfall weeping Japanese Maple.  The other five are gone.   When the Waterfall tree went in , it had a couple of primary branches that extended in each direction from the trunk.  It seemed to get established in 2023 and came back in 2024.   Then, it suffered a setback.  In the Summer of 2024, we had a significant storm that dropped some limbs from one of our Black Walnut trees.  That fallen branch (...