Why I Oughta...

 Our garage door is oversized.  And, when I say oversized, I mean oversized...by a lot.  It is a normal width, but the height makes it bigger than most.  And heavier than most. Our spring snapped after just three years.  Seems like it didn't have a normal life.  So, instead of swapping out like-for-like, we replaced it with this monster: Still needs tweaking because it SCREAMS on the way up and on the way down.    The Garage Door Guy has an idea - and it involves PVC pipe to separate the spring from the metal rod.

Back a few weeks ago, I posted some photos showing how Yellow Jackets covering our espalier'd Greenspire Linden trees due to (based on what I found line) what appeared to be aphids infesting the tree.   Recently, we had a couple of nights of frost (overnight) and that has killed away all the yellow jackets.  So, I could finally get close enough to the tree to inspect what is going on.  My assumption was that the frost likely killed off WHATEVER was eating the leaves and causing the Yellow Jackets to feast.   But, I was pleasantly surprised when I grabbed a leaf and turned it over.  The lace-like leaf had a couple of inhabitants on the underside.  Here's what I saw: See them?  Here's a closer look: Two guys that are yellow and black striped and hanging out on the underside of the leaf. But, what are they?  Pretty sure they are Linden Aphids.  The Bug Guide has a photo that sure looks a lot like these things and, ummm, they're on a Linden tree.  But, what do I do next? 

The second step in our process with the arborist from Davey is feeding the trees.  We started with applying growth regulator to the two most vulnerable trees (Norway Maple in Front and Red Oak in back) in late September .   Recently the guys came back out for step two:  applying fertilizer. In Davey's case, it is called Arbor Green Pro - a one year application that they fed to both large Oaks in back and the Maple up front.  Here's the Davey team applying the fert - around the area of the tree canopy.  It was raining, but he still went ahead with injecting it right into the ground.  What is Arbor Green Pro?  From their site :   The description says that it can last 'up to 2 years'.  But, what the guy told me was: every year. We have one more application to just the Oaks before Winter that I'll post about when it occurs. 

Back at the end of April, we planted a tree on Earth Day outside of our screened porch.  It is a Chanticleer Pear - which, I know....I know...isn't the best tree to be planting in our landscape, but we were facing a set of circumstances that warranted this approach.  Our neighbors to the north were building their house all this calendar year and while we had planted our row of eight Frans Fontaine European Columnar Hornbeams to provide screening from our back patio and screened porch , we planted them without knowing where the house was going to be built.   By Earth Day, the new house next door had the framing done and - much to our surprise - we had *most* of their windows screened with trees.  But, there was ONE new window - closer to the front of the house that was basically unblocked by the Frans Fontaine Hornbeams. Have a look at this post from back in April - where you can see the window I'm talking about . And now, have a look at the same view as it looks now - in late O

Our Dawn Redwood is my favorite tree in our yard.  It is easy to miss or forget due to it being tucked away in the back of our yard and is still pretty small.  This is the replacement tree and I planted this version of the tree in the Summer of 2018 and this version of the tree has done well over the past three growing seasons.  It survived in 2018.  In 2019, it shot way up.  Like 3' of new growth. The tree is putting on a nice fall show with orange needles.  You can see it in the photo above.  Our yard is mostly yellows and greens and browns come Fall.  But this Dawn Redwood is a lovely orange.  The last time I checked in with this tree was in September when it was throwing off some new, lush growth after weathering the heat of the Summer.   However, I'm a little uneasy on this tree as the orange is a little different than last year - which I know was a positive Fall season because the tree came back this Spring. It wasn't until November - about a month later than today

  A week or so ago, it was warm enough to have our windows opened.  And as is the way these days, I was working from home in my office.  We have construction going on next door to us, so it isn't that weird to have heavy equipment running and noises coming from various forms of trades and construction.  But, what I *thought* heard wasn't construction equipment, but what sounded like chainsaws.   My firewood hoarding antenna shot up.  And I went out to see what was doing.   Sure enough, there was a crew of guys taking a couple of trees down in the yard behind us (and one to the south).  I walked over there and asked them what they were doing with the wood.  And what kind it was.  They said it was a mix of Ash and Pine.  They said that I could have the Ash. So, over the next twenty minutes or so, the guys proceeded to bring the rounds and drop them over our fence into the far part of our backyard.  You can see what I received in the photo above.  This tree is really chewed throug

The last time I checked in on out compost bin was in May of this year before the heat of the Summer worked to heat up the pile.   At that time, I had the 3 bin setup in the easement behind our yard.  One active bin, one carbon storage bin and one nitrogen storage bin.  Earlier in the Spring, I worked to install a passive aeration system by inserting six 2" perforated pvc pipes in the bottom third of the pile . But as fall arrived, I've come to realization that the pile isn't in enough sun, so I thought that I'd move it to a place where I think it can get a little more heat.  That meant deconstructing and digging out the full pile.   When I dug out the bottom of the pile, I came to the realization that something had occurred.  Why?  Because we had some black gold.  Either time.  Or the passive aeration.  Or both? Something exerted the right pressure on the pile and transformed our yard waste into that black gold.   The other thing that I noticed is the shrinkage.  The