The four chestnut trees. They grew quickly, about 3 or 4 feet a year. There should be a good chestnut crop in the next few years. This year there were a couple of dozen.
A volunteer Japanese maple. This was a volunteer that I dug up and replanted, twice. It was worth it. The fall colors are brilliant.
I wanted to get it done so I could get the sunroom back. Plus I didn't want too many unfinished projects around.
First, here is the completed plant stand. The metal is painted "bronze" which is black with tiny metallic flecks that show in sunlight. I did something different with the finials, described below. The table top is now solid wood instead of that cheapo particle board. It has a raised edge to reduce issues of spills, and a vinyl flooring surface to make it water impermeable. The wooden edge is painted black with a surface coat of polyurethane for durability and cleanliness. Up close, some wood grain shows through that paint, which is an effect that I like.
The finials came out interesting. This is what happens when you spray the with black spray paint and then spray with an incompatible brass look metallic spray paint. I liked this cool looking textured and multicolored effect although I don't know what to call it. The finials were a wood-look-something, maybe resin. This is nicer.
The tabletop was exactly what I had in mind. It's a little bigger because that's the size of the boards I used and I didn't feel like cutting one lengthwise. I decided the added surface area would be a bonus. It gives a little more room for starting garden plants this winter.
This is the underside of the table top, before I painted it all black. The extra braces are glued and screwed to the main boards, which are also glued together. I think this is a very strong result, probably stronger than a single wide board. All of this is scraps from the shed. I love taking something that was headed for the scrap heap and making something good from it. Plus, I enjoy doing creative furniture refinishing. I think the result here was much better than the original, will last longer, is more functional and is much more solid.
What a mess! And, I over-sprayed some areas of the porcelain tile flooring. Fortunately, paint thinner and steel wool cleaned that up completely.
For comparison here is what I started with. I almost can't believe I kept it :-) By the way, I decided the drawers were not useful, and looked to junky. So the replacement table top does not have drawers, just sort of an apron which adds strength and looks more complete.
This year I let a few of the Musik garlic plants develop "seed heads". "Seed" is in quotes because it's not seeds, but tiny garlic bulbs (bulbils) that form at the top. I planted those at the same time as the garlic plants, a few weeks ago.
Yesterday I saw the tiny plants emerging. I didn't know if they would grow at all. These were really tiny. It will be interesting to see if they survive the winter. The purpose is to grow a reserve of bulbs to plant next fall. That way I am less dependent on preserving so many full size bulbs in the summer. They generally take two or three years to reach full size.
If they all grow, there should be 50 to 100 of them. A cold winter is predicted. I don't know what to expect as far as survival. This is where I get to learn.
It's interesting that these are ahead of most of the full size garlic cloves that I planted. Most of those are still under ground.
These are a few of the trees I've planted. There are quite a lot more. Here I'm sticking mainly with non-fruit trees, because most of those don't reach great size and store up carbon like the big trees.
I don't understand how people can buy a 1 or 2 or 10 acre property and keep it almost entirely as lawn. I just don't get it. I may overdo the trees, but they are a heritage for future generations. As they grow, they also show a commitment to the land.
This ginkgo (yellow leaves) is from the three that I grew from seeds that my dad collected in his neighborhood in Illinois. I gave one start to him and brought the other tree here. The largest, by far, is in Vancouver. The second largest died a year from transplant. This one was the smallest. It was in a small container for too long, then planted in a bad spot, then I moved it here. It grew nicely, then the top died but it grew back nicely again. There is something about here that doesn't suit ginkgos well. Maybe it's underground animals that chew the roots. Now that this one has recovered, maybe it will be as majestic as its sibling.
One of the four Greenspire European Lindens that I planted in 2012. This is the second - largest. Doing quite well, handsome tree, no fertilizer or watering or other special treatment now. Tons of flowers for honeybees when blooming.
A close up of that ginkgo from above. I think it's about 15 feet tall now.
One of the four hybrid (European X Japanese) chestnut trees. This was a seedling, which has grafts from the others on four branches. I added those in case the main part is not productive, and to pollinate the others. Handsome tree. Chestnuts can be quite majestic regardless of their nut production. This one is about four years old.
A grafted tree, seedling from Vancouver and top from the male ginkgo tree in my old Vancouver yard, handsome tall beautiful tree. I don't know why this grafted tree has such screwy growth - not quite vertical and not quite weeping. Did I graft upside down? Will it overcome whatever it is that's making it odd? I don't know.
Another ginkgo that I grew from seeds, this one form Vancouver. Originally I grafted the other onto it, but the graft was broken. So this is 100% the Vancouver tree. It had a slow start but is beginning to take off and grow.
This is an aspen that I started from an offshoot of another aspen that I planted in 2012. I think this one is about 4 or 5 years old. Aspens grow quickly. It must be about 15 feet tall now.
Another hybrid chestnut, one of the four total. This is the smallest and took quite a while to get growing. Now it's taking off, about 2 1/2 feet of growth this year.
These are some of the Sarracenias. This summer, with illness and hospitalization and catching up, they didn't get trimmed or repotted. Even so, some still look pretty good. This winter, I can work on them to clean them up and pot into larger containers with fresh growing medium.
This is the end of the second year for this Tasmanian Alpine Eucalyptus. Also called Tasmanian Yellow Gum. It's reportedly more cold hardy than the types known in California. With la nina this year, we'll find out.
It's difficult to see in the photo, this tree is now about 7 foot tall. That is without watering this year. I don't think deer have touched it at all. It has tough leaves with a somewhat odd fragrance, which may make them unappetizing. When fully grown, it should have colorful bark
Another close up. The new growth can be quite nice.
I planted this Dawn Redwood in November, 2016. I was going through some anticipatory grieving about my aging dog, and wanted it as a reminder of him when he was gone. He is buried among its roots, as is his companion dog and at least one chicken. I like to think that the tree contains some of Charlie's atoms.
Here was the tree as planted 11.16.16. I removed the potting soil and burlap / clay mix, and washed off the roots. I pruned off crossing and potentially girdling roots. With so little root mass remaining, I wondered if it would survive.
The tree did survive, and thrived. Here it is almost exactly four years later. I keep some fencing around it to prevent deer damage to the trunk. That might no longer be necessary but doesn't hurt anything either. It got no additional water at all this year, surviving as a natural member of the ecosystem.
Dawn Redwood is a tree that existed at the time of the dinosaurs. It is different from native redwoods, in that it drops its needles each winter. They were thought to be extinct, with only a record in fossils and coal from millions of years ago, until discovered in a forest in China in the 1940s. Before dropping, the needles change color to a brownish yellow, which they are starting to do now.
This is the second raised bed. I completed it and filled with a mix of purchased top soil mixed with prior raised bed soil. The purchased top soil is a little less than 50%. It's nearly full. I added maple leaves to the top to see if they compost and add some organic matter. For minerals, I also added about 4 cups of wood ashes, which contain the cremated femurs of 10 chickens (thighs made into dog food). That adds minerals, mainly calcium and phosphorus, with some iron, magnesium, and potassium I think.
This is for tropicals for next year - pickle cucumbers and peppers. They get planted in May or June, so it has lots of time to settle in. There is one more planned raised bed, no hurry on that either.
This year Yates American Persimmon was early. Nikita's Gift hybrid American / Asian Persimmon and Saijo Asian Persimmon are not yet ripe. The Prairie Star has fruits for the first time. They are small and I have not tasted them yet.
Nikita's Gift. The best performer, most productive, better flavor than pure Asian and much bigger than pure American.
Prairie Star. This is the first crop. I'm interested to see how they taste. Small fruits. Maybe that's the effect of this being the first crop.
Close up of Prairie Star.
Close up of Nikita's Gift, and a Prairie Star in my hand.
Just Nikita's Gift because they are so pretty.
Saijo. They never seem to produce well for me, but more than nothing anyway.
This is the plant stand that was falling apart. I took it apart, made a new shelf for it, and cleaned up the metal. Except for the tabletop surface, which will be waterproof driftwood - look flooring, I'm making it an "antique bronze". That will blend in with the other furniture and tie together the new parts and old parts.
Unfortunately I ran out of paint, ha ha. More is on order. It doesn't show in these photos, but there are microscopic shiny bronze metallic flecks in the paint that glisten in the sun.
It will be a little while before the paint comes. I ordered it online so I don't have to be around possibly infectious crazy people at the home improvement store. That slows things down but what's the hurry?
