Showing posts with label Mountain Ash. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Mountain Ash. Show all posts

Saturday, April 23, 2016

What's Blooming? 4.23.16

Lilac "Bloomerang" 4.23.16

Iris "Florentina".  4.23.16

Iris, either Mme Chereau or Swertii.  Bought as Mme Chereau.  Amazing fragrance.

Mountain Ash.  4.23.16

Viburnum "sterile".  4.23.16

Sunday, April 26, 2015

Colors today. 4.26.15

Meadowfoam.  Limnanthes douglasii  4.26.15

Mountain Ash.  Sorbus aucuparia.  4.26.15

Ning's flowers.   4.26.15

Shan Xha.  Crataegus pinnatifida.  4.27.15

Ning's Tree Peony.  4.27.15

Crimson Maple.  4.27.15

Viburnum opulus "Sterile".  4.27.15

Camassia
Lilac "Bloomerang"

Meadowfoam.  Limnanthes douglasii


Mulberry "Illinois Everbearing"

Persimmon "Saijo"


Saturday, November 08, 2014

Fall Chores. Leaf Harvest. Mulch. Perennial Border. Tree Progress Report. 11.8.14

Tree Row.  11.8.14

Tree Row.  11.8.14
 Leaves are collected from the big maple.  It took some effort.  It's our tree, but near the neighbor yard.  If I don't get them, they collect and burn.   I don't want to argue.  So I collected when I could.  This was a lot of leaves, none the less. 

Instead of a large leaf pile for compost, I piled them around trees and shrubs for mulch.  Seedlings of weeds were beginning to grow in the grass clipping mulch I applied early summer, now wet.  The leaves will kill those weeds and add more nutrients to soil.  The worms will like them.  Once I mow, it will look neat.

Tree row - most look good, becoming established nicely.  Linden, laburnum, Crimson maple, Mountain Ash, all excellent growth.
Front Perennial Border, West  11.8.18

Front Perennial Border, East.  11.8.18
The only tree in this row that didn't make it was Kousa Dogwood.  My fault for not being aggressive about root pruning when I planted it.  Now replaced by Japanese maple, a volunteer from Vancouver yard, has a lot or promise and surprisingly large in its 3rd year.  Will need some formative pruning winter, no problem.  That one has nice green stems and reddish fall leaf color, weeping branches.  Nice.

Front border, the big western end is done.  Added cedar chips on top of the pine needles.  The pine needles were too sparse, would have allowed weed seedlings.  I hope this is low maintenance for a long time. 

The eastern end hasn't been started.  I have to pace myself.  Want to today but it's 1:00 and a ton of homework to do. 

I love the fog in the fall mornings.  Peaceful, soothing, mellow.

Thursday, May 08, 2014

Puttering. 5.8.14

Hollywood Plum Cuttings

Sungold Tomato Plants 5.8.14
 Puttering around the yard.

The Hollywood Plum cuttings continue to have small leaves.  None of them has dried off.  The Shiro Plum cuttings' leaves all crispified and died.  I weeded around the living cuttings.  It is raining today.  If they stay alive, that's a bunch of little plum trees.  Hollywood is a very tasty, very richly colored plum.

Planted the 2 Sungold tomato plants today.  They doubled in size in a couple of weeks.  I hope the seedlings progress well too.

The Cincinnati Market radishes are interesting.  They are shaped like carrots, but the flavor is all radish, juicy and peppery.


Cincinnati Market Radish.  5.8.14
 The front yard trees all look pretty good.  I planted these Summer 2012.   This is the first bloom for the Mountain ash.   The Laburnum bloomed last year, but it was cut short by frost.  I don't know if the Greenspire Linden will  bloom.

The Laburnum was leaning with the wind, so it got a stake to straighten it.  That will need to stay in place for a year or two.

All of the trees have had some dilute doses of organic nitrogen in late winter and spring, for a boost.
Front Yard Trees.  5.8.14

Thursday, September 20, 2012

More Tree Planting

I had some anxiety about transporting such tall trees. Bundled and tied. Cushioned over the tailgate with cardboard. No super fast highway speeds. They don't look like they've lost a leaf. The prior trees that I transported the same way, have settled in and none the worse. So I think these will too.
Aspen. I saw it at the nursery and that was that. Raymond will like that. Aspens have an amazing ability. Clones with tens of thousands of trees, all originate with one seedling. Some aspens in the US have not propagated from seed since the last ice age. They just continue sending up new shoots. The shoots remain connected together, resulting in what is considered the world's largest organism. I love the description, "the leaves dance in the slightest breeze". That was true even for this little specimen. It's a bit crooked, but perfection is not an option. Each crook, each bend, each asymmetry, makes beauty. None of these are lollypop trees. It will fill out and reach upward with time. Especially important, a stake made from aspen wood is one of the few weapons that can be used to kill vampires. With all of the garlic I grow, however, I shouldn't need an aspen stake. Aspens are also known to drive off evil spirits. There are some disease problems for aspens in the Pacific Northwest, but if it grows, awesome!
This maple was super cheap. Looking at the wounded trunk, I'm not surprised. The buyer is aware.
The trunk has a slash about 1/3 the circumference of the trunk, with some evidence of healing. The healing tells me it's not new, and the tree has survived so far. I did not trim the wound, or paint it. Painting is discouraged by tree experts. It did not appear to need trimming. We planted with the damaged side to the South, so it would dry faster after rain. At $18.00 this is a big tree, and it's not much of an investment, so if it doesn't survive, not a lot lost. I've seen worse damage that was overcome with minor care.
I kept thinking, can such a tall tree have such a small root ball and survive? It must have - this is the end of summer, and this tree was surely in the container all summer long. There were only a couple of potentially girdling roots. I pruned them.
Maple planted. This variety is called "Summer Red". With that wound, it might be "Summer Brown" but I enjoy a challenge and I have pretty good success with nurturing wounded and sick plant life.
Mountain ash. This was also a $18.00 tree, tall tree with small root mass. Again, not much by way of encircling roots. I thought that was odd. Pruned the ones that looked like potential problems. I tasted one of the berries. Bitter! Awful!