Mid2Mod: trees

Showing posts with label trees. Show all posts

Saturday, August 20, 2016

Our hawks

As I walked out the front door a few days ago, something huge whooshed out of our flower bed and lit on a low tree branch. When I recovered my wits and got out my cell phone, I was able to snap this photo.

I'm no ornithologist...not even a casual birdwatcher, in fact...but my best guess is that it was a red-tailed hawk, though I have no idea whether it was male or female.

I read that some hawks are monogamous and may defend the same nesting territory for years. They mate in the late winter/early spring, and the eggs hatch in about six weeks.

Later in the day, I spotted two small hawks perched on our back fence, which is probably safe to say were maturing babies, as their size seemed to fit the mating/hatching timeline.

While this may seem at first to have nothing to do with owning a mid-century home, it actually does. We have 21 live oak trees in our back yard, which were probably planted around the time the house was built in 1950, so they are extremely large and very tall...just where hawks like to build their nests. Living in a house with a yard that was established over 60 years ago has all sorts of benefits, including the opportunity to see wildlife you might not see in a newer neighborhood.

Wednesday, March 9, 2011

Mid-century landscaping: shrubs and trees

After the success of posts on authentic mid-century houseplants and perennials for the yard, some discussion of trees and shrubs that look great with MCM homes is certainly in order. If you like any of the suggestions in this post, you can discuss them with your local landscaping expert to find out if they do well in your area.

I'll start with nandina, also known as Heavenly Bamboo, because I love it and because I'm literally surrounded by it! It is planted in a U-shape around my patio, and I'm reasonably certain it has been there since the house was built in 1950 or soon thereafter. In the summer, the leaves are green and the shrubs are covered with clumps of bright green berries. During the winter months, many of the leaves (and all, in the case of some young plants) will turn purple, and the berries will become bright red. My nandina is well over six feet tall and is very dense, providing complete privacy on the patio...and providing a pair of cardinals the perfect place to raise a family every year. When I was growing up, everyone I knew had nandina in their yard.

Bamboo is a stunning backdrop for a mid-century home, often planted on the perimeter of the property, but it can spread quickly and become invasive. If bamboo is what you want, it's best to plant the clumping variety, instead of the running rhizome type. The clumping variety is much easier to control.

Japanese red maple displays red foliage all summer, which becomes even brighter red in the fall, making it a spectacular focal point for a landscape. It is very common to see them here in a small rock garden near the front of a house.

Another good specimen tree is the cedar. A theme in mid-century landscaping seems to be a ruggedness, and several small varieties of cedar fit that description perfectly. Cedars have rough bark and twisted branches and can be trained to shapes.