Why I Oughta...

It was just last week when I posted a couple of photos showing the full, orange and brown Oak tree canopy in our backyard .  Our two largest trees were holding ALL of their leaves until early November of this year.   Then, we had a HUGE storm.  I'm talking heavy winds.  If you watched the Illini vs. Michigan State football game and saw the punts (into the wind), you know what storm I'm talking about.  What happened to our trees and their marcescence?  Most all of the leaves were stripped from the trees.  What does the backyard look like right now - in mid-November?  See below for a photo showing the very few leaves still on the tree-swing Oak tree and nothing else anywhere. 

The biggest 'project' item on my 2022 to-do list was to begin the side-yard retaining wall/walkway project in some way.  I called it #3 on the list and said that I should start with the 'upper' wall and planting box .  This was based on a late-March post showing how I could tackle the project by building an upper and lower retaining wall and 'placing' the walkway on 'top and in-between' those two walls.  When I did my check-in on the list in early September, I was pretty confident that I wasn't going to get to this item .  Today - in mid-November - I now can say:  I didn't get to it.  As I went into project-planning mode, I went and looked around the Web for ideas.  I also looked at our lived environment for ideas, too.  And, that's where I came across a recently-installed landscape timber retaining wall project a couple of blocks away from our house.  We were out on a walk and saw this fresh, treated lumber wall that looked nicely done: Thi

The guys who planted our new Triumph Elm tree in our front yard told me three things when they were leaving it:  1.  Put the tree away wet.  2.  Wrap the trunk this winter to protect against sun scald and cracking.  3.  Don't touch the tree for years.    Of that advice, I *sort of* understood the first and third one.  Watering in a new tree for a couple of weeks is very important.  But, having the tree installed so late in the season meant that I could 'put it away wet'.  As for #3 - pruning - I've learned my lesson and don't touch trees for a number of years.  But, #2...wrapping the tree.  That was new to me. So, what is sun scald?  From the University of Arkansas Extension office comes this explainer : Sunscald is a fairly common physiological problem found most commonly on young, thin-barked ornamental and fruit trees. Research suggests that during the winter, frozen tissue on the south or southwest side of the trunk which is also being heated by the sun, thaws

I took a walk around the garden this weekend thinking about what I needed to do to button the yard and beds up for the Winter and came across a bunch of rabbit-caused problems.  The dang rabbits are giving me a lot of worries about this Winter.  I posted about some of the problems they've caused over the years including how they went whole hog on our small Oakleaf Hydrangeas last year .  We didn't get ANY blooms because of their chomping.  They ate off ALL the most recent growth - and Oakleaf Hydrangeas bloom on 'old wood' (aka...last season's growth) .   Those dang! rabbits have destroyed all of my Toad Lillies , killed a Canadian Hemlock tree , stunted some of sedges and chewed off a bunch of branches on our Hicks Yews.   Knowing my enemy, I've started to protect things with cages of chicken wire - including these Arrowwood (Chicago Lustre) Viburnum  and some of our Hemlocks .  And...(this year)... ALL of our Oakleaf Hydrangeas .   However...it is clear that

This past weekend, we went over to the local garden center to meet the Big Guy and his reindeer.  We've done this same deal a number of years and it is a nice way to start the holiday season.  In addition to having the kids visit with Santa for a few minutes, we also buy our annual allotment of Christmas flowers - Amaryllis bulbs.  These bulbs are big and nicely cared for and (this year) cost $21 each.  I'm pretty sure that when we started doing this, these bulbs were $15.  This year, we're growing three new bulbs as well as attempting to force four from last year.  I picked out one and two of the kids picked out their own, too.   Below are the tags of the three we came home with:  Flamenco Queen, Magic Touch and Sunshine Nymph.   These bulbs come nicely packed with a little padding for protection.  They're also MUCH larger than the bulbs you'd find in the typical packaged 'set' that includes a container, potting material and the bulb.  MUCH larger.  See bel

I mentioned that I started to split some of the Norway Maple tree firewood that resulting from the removal of the large tree in our front yard.  In a post a couple weeks ago, I talked about how I've started to split some of the larger rounds with my axe.  I've taken a slow-but-steady approach to the project and will continue to split this wood over the next few months.  The first splits resulted in pieces that I am putting up on a rack to season for the year.  I did, however, want to begin to track the moisture content of this freshly cut, green wood.  Here, below, is a photo of my moisture meter showing 50% moisture in this piece:  The moisture level that split, dry firewood needs to get to in order to be considered 'seasoned' is below 20% - so we have a long way to go.  Norway Maple is known for 'drying quickly' , so I'll test this theory by trying to track these freshly split pieces in the coming weeks/months.  Will it be ready this season?  I doubt it,

This post is going up on November 15th, but the photos are from earlier this month - on November 3rd.  Thus...for YoY garden diary record keeping, let's call this 'early November'.   Here's a peek at the large red oaks in our backyard - just about a year ago .  They were holding ALL of their leaves and looking good.  By early December, they had dropped *most*, but were still holding some .  Come Spring, they were still bare in early April .   What do they look like this year - in early November 2022?  See below for the photo showing the brown and orange leaves all over our tree canopy. Here's the same tree two years ago .   We had a VERY big wind storm this past week, so the trees look VERY different today.  I'll post an updated photo - showing mid-November - in the coming days.