The 2023 Lawn, Garden, Landscape Party Discussion

[TauntonBlizzard2013]

8 minutes ago, dendrite said:

I think they have a tendency to canker easily. You'll want to prune out any growth that shows sign of it so it doesn't spread.

Thanks, is that going to be an impossible issue to deal with? Seems like it’s more prevalent in the south.

[Chrisrotary12]

Back to mushroom farming after the last two days of zero sun. 

[tamarack]

On 8/16/2023 at 9:34 AM, TauntonBlizzard2013 said:

Bought a couple of Lombardy poplars to add some interest in my backyard.

@tamarack @dendrite

 

Anything I should be on the lookout for? Seems like they are extremely fast growing 

On a site with decent fertility, they could add 4-5 feet annually.  However, they may not make it to age 30 and might be 75 feet tall by then.  (This coming from a forester who is used to 100-year (plus) ages for spruce, maple and pine, so 30 seems short.)

[WxWatcher007]

Crabgrass is awful 

[dendrite]

1 hour ago, WxWatcher007 said:

Crabgrass is awful 

It’s my chickens’ favorite grass to eat. 

[TauntonBlizzard2013]

7 hours ago, tamarack said:

On a site with decent fertility, they could add 4-5 feet annually.  However, they may not make it to age 30 and might be 75 feet tall by then.  (This coming from a forester who is used to 100-year (plus) ages for spruce, maple and pine, so 30 seems short.)

So it was a bad choice? 

[tamarack]

17 minutes ago, TauntonBlizzard2013 said:

So it was a bad choice? 

I would not plant one, but then I'm already in the woods.   

[DavisStraight]

6 hours ago, dendrite said:

It’s my chickens’ favorite grass to eat. 

Maybe I should get some, I have a lot of crabgrass.

[SJonesWX]

2 hours ago, TauntonBlizzard2013 said:

So it was a bad choice? 

they grow tall and fast, which means they have skinny trunks. while they are young, they will tip over with the slightest wind. Then when they get big and tall, they die at the root ball. Which means there is nothing in the ground to hold them up. poplars suck

[dendrite]

2 hours ago, TauntonBlizzard2013 said:

So it was a bad choice? 

What about something with some showy flowers in the spring? Like a redbud or dogwood?

A tulip tree grown in a more open space would probably get a lot more wide/full than you experience in the forest where all of the trees are trying to outrace the others to light. Those will put out beautiful flowers after a decade or so of age. They have unique beautiful leaves too.

Is there any particular look you were going for? 

[TauntonBlizzard2013]

1 hour ago, dendrite said:

What about something with some showy flowers in the spring? Like a redbud or dogwood?

A tulip tree grown in a more open space would probably get a lot more wide/full than you experience in the forest where all of the trees are trying to outrace the others to light. Those will put out beautiful flowers after a decade or so of age. They have unique beautiful leaves too.

Is there any particular look you were going for? 

I’m just trying to get some taller growing specimens. My yard isn’t huge. I planted an Armstrong maple early this year.

Going for something tall and columnar.

[TauntonBlizzard2013]

I mean, the two poplar trees are on their way and can’t be returned, but I could give them away or something.

 

if anyone had ideas for kind of compact columnar trees that have decent height, I’m all ears.

[tamarack]

11 hours ago, TauntonBlizzard2013 said:

I’m just trying to get some taller growing specimens. My yard isn’t huge. I planted an Armstrong maple early this year.

Going for something tall and columnar.

I second dendrite's recommendation.  Tulip trees are fast growing, have pretty spring flowers and when open-grown will have an attractive roundish crown.  Seeds are a bit messy but no worse than most trees.  They're surprisingly hardy - there's one in Farmington a block from Main Street that's 90+ feet tall and over 40" diameter, has a frost crack but weathered the town's coldest morning on record, -39 on Jan 20, 1994.  The town is about 2° latitude north of tulip tree's natural range.
(Tree trivia:  Tulip poplar vies with white pine and sycamore as the tallest eastern tree.  Prior to the uncut forest, each of those 3 had specimens in the 180-200 range.)

[TauntonBlizzard2013]

3 hours ago, tamarack said:

I second dendrite's recommendation.  Tulip trees are fast growing, have pretty spring flowers and when open-grown will have an attractive roundish crown.  Seeds are a bit messy but no worse than most trees.  They're surprisingly hardy - there's one in Farmington a block from Main Street that's 90+ feet tall and over 40" diameter, has a frost crack but weathered the town's coldest morning on record, -39 on Jan 20, 1994.  The town is about 2° latitude north of tulip tree's natural range.
(Tree trivia:  Tulip poplar vies with white pine and sycamore as the tallest eastern tree.  Prior to the uncut forest, each of those 3 had specimens in the 180-200 range.)

So even though tulip poplar is a poplar it’s still a good plant? 
 

And those are some pretty impressive heights 

[tamarack]

19 minutes ago, TauntonBlizzard2013 said:

So even though tulip poplar is a poplar it’s still a good plant? 
 

And those are some pretty impressive heights 

Though it's called a poplar, it's not in the genus Populus, which includes aspens, cottonwood, Lombardy poplars and other similar species.  The tulip poplar (also tuliptree) genus is Liriodendron, so it's unrelated to the "real" poplars.

As for heights, where I grew up in NNJ there were forest-grown tuliptrees 120 feet tall or more with no branches below 50 feet.  However, the one my grandfather planted at their summer place sometime 1935-40 was about 60 feet tall when I last saw it (mid '60s) with 15-20 feet of bare trunk topped by a full ovoid crown.  Beautiful specimen.

[Lava Rock]

About as lush as I can get it

Sent from my SM-G981U1 using Tapatalk

[Chrisrotary12]

2 hours ago, Lava Rock said:

About as lush as I can get it

Sent from my SM-G981U1 using Tapatalk
 

This is vastly improved from a couple years ago. Well done

[dendrite]

27 minutes ago, Chrisrotary12 said:

This is vastly improved from a couple years ago. Well done

Now he just needs a summer with 80% clouds and 20” of rain every year. 

[TauntonBlizzard2013]

Thoughts on this as opposed to poplar?

 

https://www.fast-growing-trees.com/products/dakota-pinnacle-birch?variant=31662972698686&region_id=000022&utm_source=google&utm_medium=cpc&utm_campaign=CTC / Shopping / pMax / Feed Only - NB - CATCH ALL - 3.1&utm_term=&utm_campaign_id=19772930616&utm_ad_group_id=&gad=1&gclid=Cj0KCQjwuZGnBhD1ARIsACxbAViQBiUD6ilDC1YCWTz8U8pyRr1FV73NurN9tfzJjhfIi2AocVv0AMoaAsJaEALw_wcB

[dendrite]

Eh. $140?

Why not just a clump river birch or something? Trees should be like half off at local nurseries right now. 

[tamarack]

19 hours ago, dendrite said:

Eh. $140?

Why not just a clump river birch or something? Trees should be like half off at local nurseries right now. 

If it's just a 5-foot whip, that's grossly overpriced.  If it's 2" caliper, that's quite reasonable, even in late August.

[DavisStraight]

42 minutes ago, tamarack said:

If it's just a 5-foot whip, that's grossly overpriced.  If it's 2" caliper, that's quite reasonable, even in late August.

I bought all my fruit trees at the end of the summer for a discount, they're all doing well but for some reason I didn't get peaches this year, first year I don't. Usually, I get more than we could eat.

[Ginx snewx]

20 hours ago, dendrite said:

Eh. $140?

Why not just a clump river birch or something? Trees should be like half off at local nurseries right now. 

So now I become Dendrite lite as I prepare ground for a new chicken coup and elevated gardens.

[tunafish]

15 hours ago, DavisStraight said:

I bought all my fruit trees at the end of the summer for a discount, they're all doing well but for some reason I didn't get peaches this year, first year I don't. Usually, I get more than we could eat.

Did you get that freeze in May?  

[dendrite]

Most of the orchards up here lost their entire apple crop from the May hard freeze. Sucks.

[tamarack]

2 hours ago, dendrite said:

Most of the orchards up here lost their entire apple crop from the May hard freeze. Sucks.

Somehow most of our apple blossoms survived the 25° morning.  Having totally lost blossoms (more than once) from late frosts in the past, I was cheered greatly when we returned 5 days later from a family reunion in Lancaster, PA.

[DavisStraight]

On 8/24/2023 at 7:49 AM, tunafish said:

Did you get that freeze in May?  

Pretty sure I did though at the time I didn't think much of it since it was early in the year, I didn't get pears either and I usually get a good crop.  I finally got apples for the first time, not many though.

[moneypitmike]

so......should one make a choice between a fall (september) treatment vs. seeding?  Or, can both happen with good results?

 

Thanks!

[wxeyeNH]

Our apple trees are loaded with apples.  Fortunately, because we are at a higher elevation the May freeze was not as bad as down below.  Originally in 1907 the owner of our house planted about 40 apple trees.  Most are now gone but a few still survive including this one near a surface well.  Over the past 5 years we have planted about 20 more apple trees and now some are bearing fruit.  The problem is that there are more bears now than the past 75 years and they keep destroying the young trees.

[wxeyeNH]

Meteorological summer is about over.   Our lawns enjoyed the rain.  We have had to do very little watering.  This picture is of the back of the house.  We are trying to save our Ash tree from the Ash Borer and have had it treated the past couple of years.  I'm sure it is a loosing battle after we are dead and gone.  In the meantime we planted a Eastern Redbud ( I think) that is on the left of this picture.  We also planted a oak tree (not in picture) that is just off to the right.  That will be the shade tree in future years if the Ash does not survive.  That Ash is now getting so big that it may interfere a bit with my anemometer during NW wind events.