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.
