Redbud Tree

BY SKEETER

 My Redbud Tree is blooming in my GEORGIA GARDENS! A few weeks early but I am enjoying its pretty blooms. The Azalea bushes to the left and right are blooming as well.

March 2009

Here I was back in 2009 the day the Saint planted it for me in late March. He had brought this little tree home to me as a surprise.

March 2, 2017

 She started her show in Early March being full of buds.

Now those buds have opened into a bouquet of Pink Blooms. I love my little REDBUD TREE, In the Garden...

Words and Photos Property of In the Garden Blog Team, In the Garden

Oh Deer, My Poor Magnolia UPDATED Jan 2017

BY SKEETER

 

The first Magnolia tree here in my Georgia Gardens has been doing great this past year. Well, until now. Look what I woke up to this morning! 

Limbs stripped from the center down on my beloved Little Gem! 

My first thought was those darn squirrels. Upon closer examination, we do not think this damage is from a squirrel. The bark is too rubbed off the small trunk.

Odd scratches from the side of the trunk.

And this deep print in the dirt below, have us thinking on another course.

We have heard that male deer will rub their antlers on trees during rutting season. And the fact that we spotted this 10 point Buck (male deer) in our woods soon after examining our tree, leads us to believe we have solved the mystery.  OH DEER, MY POOR MAGNOLIA, In the Garden...

Note: I tried for a better pic of the Buck but he would not come out of the woods for a photo op. He was after a nearby Doe. Bet we have more babies next spring...

UPDATE: January 2017
In response to a new comment, I decided to add a little update to my original posting about the deer and Magnolia tree...

As you can see, the Magnolia tree is still with me today. Not only did the deer strip the lower limbs and scrap the bark of the tree, squirrels have been an issue as well. The deer used the tree as a marker for their sent by rubbing their antlers on it twice! And then squirrels started to climb the tree and eat the blooms while in their budding stage.

 Since we enjoy the critters within our gardens, we try to live in harmony. So instead of Annie grabbing her gun and shooting the creatures on the earth, she instead tries to balance things a bit. I have found a way to keep the squirrels at bay with a stove pipe around the trunk. This worked well for the Crabapple tree and now it flourishes. I also squirt a bit of "Liquid Fence" in the area to ward off the deer.

As you can see, the limbs from the deer destruction back in Oct. 2012 never grew back. Hopefully in time the Magnolia Tree or Topiary as I now call it, will thrive. But for now, she just chugs along ever so slowly. It is never a dull moment in my Georgia Gardens with the wildlife.

Words and Photos Property of In the Garden Blog Team, In the Garden

Planting a REALLY Large River Birch Tree

Welcome to sunny Alabama! Where roses grow and bloom freely and where October and November are the absolutely best months to visit. I am on just such a visit helping out with my granddaughter while her father recovers from a surgery. He is doing well. Farmer Fix-it remains at home holding down the fort and working the land. We are both so connected to that land I'm almost ready to pitch a tent and hang out there more often. Today's post is kind of about the land in that it has a lot to do with planting trees. I have already moved several trees to the land including some large ones. So far they are all doing really well. I love trees. Trees and shrubs are my thing in the garden and, as I've said before, perennials and flowers are the supporting players. I always start with trees in my garden then move to the shrubs. Trees are ever so important in southern Alabama because they provide much needed shade and cooling effects via their respiration (okay, so it may be subtle but it is there!)

My daughter lives in a newer subdivision that used to be a tree farm. Yes, you heard that right. Prior to the houses being built here the red clay of the southern Alabama wiregrass region housed thousands of trees. The trees are mainly maples but there are also river birches in the mix. Unfortunately, the builder chose to take out all of the trees in parts of the subdivision, including the area where my daughter's house is located. Can you believe that? Beautiful trees and they are all just bull dozed over and disposed of? How could anyone build a house in the south and do away with all of the trees? The builder is now leaving more and more trees in the newer houses that are being built daily. A smart move. And I must say he is doing a good job of landscaping the lots. I even noticed the trees are being mulched and limbed up-properly! A really good thing as trees growing in tree farms can use some maintenance and the trees here all need it. 

On my daily walk with my granddaughter I spotted a man and a skid steer. He was ripping trees out using the skid steer. The trees were all about 20 feet tall and taller. I was shocked by the roots-or lack of. I was thinking that 20+ feet tall trees would have big rootballs. Perhaps they did but when ripped out by a skid steer the rootball pretty much disintegrates. This fact is compounded by the sandy red clay of Alabama (it falls apart easily) and also by the distance the skid steer pushes the trees to get them out of the way. Nonetheless there are plenty of roots on the river birch I rescued.

The major anchoring roots were damaged, as was the trunk, but there were still plenty of fine roots that I believe could sustain this tall tree-with some accommodations. The accommodations primarily consisted of pruning a good part of the tree off, and also pruning some roots and planting the tree in good quality soil with a root stimulator containing phosphorous. More on that later.


I found out there were two river birches available after speaking to the skid steer operator. He pointed me in their direction and said those were the only two river birches he was ripping out today. He also let me know that once he pulled out the trees "They would die." I did not agree or disagree with him. I just smiled and hiked over to where the trees were laying in the brush while he continued ripping out the beautiful maple trees. My granddaughter Adella did not know what to think of it all. She was my partner in crime on this day. 

 

After surveying the birches we quickly walked home where I got my small hatchback car to haul the tree back to Christine's house. That was fun! The tree was about three times as long as my car. I placed it on top of the car, where I had laid some towels to keep it from scratching the car, tied it to the inside of the car with dog leashes, then headed back to the house. Luckily we had only a short distance to travel and the subdivision is not a high traffic area. Once I got it back to the house I propped it up in a swimming pool and tied it off to make sure it did not blow over. I was not really sure if Christine and her husband would want the tree. I had no worries in that arena. When Christine came home from work she was absolutely delighted with the tree! Her husband even said he likes it.

We decided to plant it the next day. This was a tough job even for me. I am very used to digging holes but geez, we actually could've used a pick axe to dig this hole! I thought sandy clay would be easy to dig in. The soil is probably more clay but it is gritty and sandy as well. Apparently the two mix well to form bricks when it is dry. The hole we needed to dig had to be at least five feet wide by about four feet. This is a big hole. The hole did not need to be deep. In our case just deep enough to sit the trunk into it so that it sat at the same level it was when it was in the tree farm area. Basically, our hole was only two to three feet deep. Ideally you want to dig holes two to three times the size of the root ball. We had no rootball and I felt that digging the hole big enough to match the roots was adequate-plus it was all we could do! Even with Adella's help it was a pretty hard and long job in the Alabama 80 degree heat!

The thing that helped make the hole digging task easier was water. We dug a little then filled the hole with water. That water sat for a pretty long time without draining, but it did at least soften the soil along the edges a bit. We were also helped by the fact that the dogs had dug a really big hole already. The above picture shows the tree in place and partially filled in. We were short on soil but Christy has a compost bin full of compost. A wheelbarrow of that compost plus a large pot full of topsoil, and a phosphorous supplement helped us fill in the hole and stabilize the roots.

Just planting the tree and covering the roots would never have been enough to hold the tree in place. Prior to even filling n the hole we had to stake the tree. This involved a sledgehammer, a bruised knee when the sledgehammer's head did not meet with its target, and some strong arms. Finally, the stakes were in place and the tree was securely tied up with ratchet straps (it works!). I am not sure if this tree will make it or not but having done this very same thing a few years ago I can tell you river birches are TOUGH trees. Time will tell how this one will fare, but so far it is doing well and we are looking forward to shade....

in the garden....

Words and Photos Property of In the Garden Blog Team, In the Garden

Silver Bells in the Garden

"Silverbells, silverbells,
It's Christmastime in the city
Ring-a-ling, hear them sing
Soon it will be Christmas day" 

I can't help but think of the famous Bing Crosby song 'Silver Bells' when I think of my Carolina Silverbell (4 winged Halesia tetraptera). If you saw the flowers in person you would surely think of silverbells, though maybe not about the Christmas song 'Silverbells' as I do. 

This multi-stemmed tree has been growing in Tiger Gardens for about three to four years now. It has finally gained some stature and is blooming wonderfully. This is a tree that is not a tree that yells 'look at me' from afar. You really have to be up close in order to enjoy the blooms.


Mine is sited along a fence line that gets afternoon sun. It is in organically rich soil under some oaks and a hickory tree. It will eventually grow to about 20' and is determined to be a multi-stemmed tree. I have tried in vain to grow it into a single stem tree but the trunk keeps putting out so many additional sprouts that I have decided to give up fighting the trees' nature to be multi-stemmed. This is a tree that will make the move to the new Tiger Gardens next winter. I will site it close to the house where I can enjoy it up close and personal and I will always think of  'Silverbells'...

in the garden....

It's May! Can you believe it??

Words and Photos Property of In the Garden Blog Team, In the Garden

Tree-vs-Stone

BY SKEETER

 Here is something I spotted while in Arlington Cemetery back in December.

 The base of a tree is taking over the stone marker to the Heyl resting place.

As if the tree is competing with the stone! I found this interesting and can only wonder who will win the battle of TREE-VS-STONE, In the Garden...

 

Words and Photos Property of In the Garden Blog Team, In the Garden

Sycamore Tree

BY SKEETER

The Saint and I were out for a walk in one of many wonderful parks we have here in Georgia. As you can see, the sky was a beautiful shade of blue that day. The blue made a great back drop for this clump of white trees.

They stood out to us both so I stopped the walk to snap a few pictures. At this point into zooming the lens, I still had no idea what we were seeing.

Zooming in a wee bit more, I spotted some leaves. One never knows how a photo is going to look on a sunny day. The sun seems to take over the little window.

Zooming in to something that looked round to my eyes, I found these leaves were not leaves but rather some dangling fruit balls. I suspected we were looking at Sycamore trees!

Zooming into the bark, I see the white bark is not bark but trunk where bark has peeled off. I had to rely on my zoom lens of the camera as the trees are located in a swampy type terrain.Yep, me thinks we saw beautifully highlighted SYCAMORE TREES, In the Garden... 

Words and Photos Property of In the Garden Blog Team, In the Garden

A BIG Job for the Professionals: Taking Down Two Large Trees

Black Gum Tree

When we moved into our home nearly twelve years ago the property was a mess. The house had been empty for four months when we saw it in August of 2001. Four months during the growing season in Tennessee means lots and lots of growing. The yard was covered with bramble, weeds, tall grass, tree saplings, rocks, and large trees. All had been allowed to grow wild as in 'Trees and Weeds Gone Wild!'. Apparently the previous owners did not have much of a plan for the property. And when I say a plan I do not mean a full on landscape design. I would have been happy if the owners had at least had a bit of foresight to manage the trees. Trees are by far the largest and most prominent part of a landscape in my humble opinion. They do, however, need managing in order to grow properly and fit into a landscape. For instance, you cannot let oak seedlings grow willy nilly and expect to have healthy oak trees without some thinning and management of those seedlings. Said seedlings grow into very large trees quite quickly. That was what had happened here in Tiger Gardens. The trees (mostly oaks) were overcrowded and not so healthy. I must say on a positive note that I am most grateful there were trees here at all. Many Tennessee landscapes have no trees and that is perhaps a far worse problem than mismanaged trees.

Some homeowners just can't be bothered with trees. They either cut them all down and mow a large green lawn or they let everything grow as it will. The yard quickly becomes very natural and overgrown. The problem with this is that trees will quickly colonize an area and those cute little small trees soon grow into very large trees-and they grow quite quickly in a lot of cases. When trees are left to their own devices and are allowed to grow and grow at will, you will get crowding. Crowding can consist of two very large trees growing right next to each other or it can consist of large trees crowding the house and other out buildings. Additionally, trees that are crowded compete with one another for resources such as water and nutrients and can, in some cases, even shade one another out. Trees that are crowded or have root disturbance from buildings or hardscape cannot possibly grow in ideal conditions and will become stressed. A good wind, late freeze, drought, or any number of mitigating factors will take advantage of the tree, stress the tree, then the tree is susceptible to becoming sick and not so healthy and strong. Once a tree is sick, unless measures are taken to fix the tree the tree will die or fall down before dying. When a tree falls it is possible damage will result.

Over the years I have tried to fix the situation here at Tiger Gardens by culling some trees and planting others. The plan has worked well but I was overlooking a few problems due to the sheer immensity of the problem-namely the large trees in difficult positions. The main problem was a multi-trunked silver maple tree. I posted about that tree several years ago found at this link. Silver maples are notorious for above the ground roots, brittle wood, and fast growth. They are also messy. To be fair they have a few good points. The cedar waxwings love to eat the buds in the spring, they provide good shade, and are reliable-until they snap or fall. Not bad, but when coupled with the fact that my multi-trunked silver maple was growing right next to the property line where I happen to have a nice privacy fence; which was being muscled out by the tree; and that the tree had grown tremendously in the years we have lived here, I felt it was time to take it down. 

The second problem tree was a black gum tree. While I loved the tree and it was in a fairly good location with no major issues, it had some stresses wrought by the late freeze in 2007, subsequent drought, and then several years of summer droughts. This past summer the gum lost all of its canopy in June, then partially regrew it in July when the rains returned. I could tell it was stressed. In the past five years it has had the same cycle of losing its leaves due to droughts and I knew it was only a matter of time before it succumbed to its abuses. Trees are not hardwired to produce two canopies per year and the toll was slowly killing the gum tree. Also, while I have read black gum trees grow to about 85 feet, I swear this one was over 100 feet tall and very mature. This black gum was not at all resilient like the oaks and even the silver maple. Even though I truly hated to remove it I felt the time was right for the gum tree to go as well as the silver maple.

Removing the Black Gum Tree

One of the reasons I had not had the trees taken down before was because the trees were hazard trees in that they were going to be difficult, if not impossible, to fell without damaging other trees or structures or what have you. Obviously my garden has grown up around these trees which made the situation even more precarious. Had I taken out at least the silver maple when we first moved in twelve years ago the job would've been much easier and cheaper. Finding a tree cutter who would even touch the job was difficult. I first called on my go to tree trimmer whom I have used on numerous occasions. He came out and gave me an estimate for only one of the two trees. He said no on the silver maple. I don't blame him at all for that. You see, special equipment was going to be needed to take down the silver maple due to its location next to the privacy fence and above several structures and gardens. The smart guy that he is he suggested I check with Huskey Tree Service here in Clarksville. I almost never ever recommend a local service on this blog but with the difficulty I had finding a reliable tree trimmer to take down my trees and with the professionalism, speed, and ease Huskey Tree Service did the job I felt I should put a link in here to their website.

Removing the Silver Maple. Note the multiple trunks and close proximity to the privacy fence.

You see, in addition to my normal tree trim service man who told me he could not do the one tree, I had also called several other tree trimmers. One in particular that had been recommended due to the fact he had the proper equipment to take down my problem trees (a crane) didn't even bother to return my calls. I could totally understand if he was all booked up but if you are a business, at least take the time to return a call to a prospective customer. I was frustrated to say the least because I knew the two trees should come down and come down before another year had passed. Well, when my regular tree man suggested I try Huskey I did. Within two days both trees were smoothly and safely removed!!!

Target Tree Black Gum

I have to say Huskey Tree Service was most easy to work with. The owner of Huskey asked my neighbor if he could access the silver maple from his side of the fence. The neighbor quickly agreed. I had actually mentioned to said neighbor more than a year prior that I was hoping to remove the silver maple and would he mind if the tree trimmers took it down from his side. He agreed, then and asked if he could have the wood. It seems he burns a lot of it in his fireplace. Well, the tree service did not mind him having the wood at all. I did not particularly want the wood so did not care where it went. 

Target Tree Multi-Trunked Silver Maple

Huskey Tree Service had a crane and some really experienced operators. I was totally amazed at just how quickly and safely the two trees came down. Taking down the silver maple commenced first. My neighbors (white house in the background) all stood outside on their deck to watch the process. I was able to watch only periodically because I was working and quite busy with a design at the time. I was glad I did not watch the whole thing because it was actually nerve wracking. The process is that a man in a bucket truck goes up to the an area near the top of the tree and secures a chain/tie to the tree. The tie is attached to the crane. The crane then pulls that tie taut and secures it. The man in the bucket then goes in and cuts the tree. The tree trunk then swings out. Do you see my greenhouse to the right of the picture? I was a bit terrified a large tree trunk would swing into the greenhouse as it dangled above. Nerve wracking indeed!

Silver Maple after removal-yeah the sun shines in!!

  The job is complete now! I am SO happy to have that silver maple gone. Not only can I now garden in the area but the plants will all do so much better now that they will get some sun and not have that silver maple wick away all available water. I had already planted a couple of Japanese maples in the area and also a crabapple tree. This has ensured trees will continue in this area of my garden even without the huge silver maple. I have also already taken measures to put a new garden in place of the tree stump and the garden is growing well. Of course this involved bringing in two tons of soil to fill in over the maple's roots but that is a story for another day....

in the garden....

As a side note: The huge wind storm we had December 19th and 20th actually felled a large silver maple on the other side of the above neighbor's property. The tree fell on another neighbor's garage. Fortunately damage was minor. My neighbor here in the white house has been most busy cutting up all of that wood. We were both happy I had had my silver maple removed because you just never really know if a tree will come down. The silver maple that did fall in his yard was completely hollow inside. Mine was not but still, there are no guarantees with trees.

Words and Photos Property of In the Garden Blog Team, In the Garden

Bonaventure Oak Trees

BY SKEETER

I left my Georgia Gardens for a few days of R & R (Rest and Relaxation) last week. One of my favorite get-a-ways is Savannah, Georgia. My last overnight visit to this fun city was back in 2009 when I talked about the Bonaventure Cemetery. Click HERE to see. Being so close to this wonderful city, (3.5 hours) we should get there more often then we do.

I enjoy visiting the Bonaventure Cemetery. The History alone is worth the visit. Click HERE to learn more. It's stately Live Oak Trees are covered with Spanish Moss found throughout the cemetery.

The trees are magnificent sculptors of nature. Standing tall and hundreds of years old, they have seen a lot. The Live Oaks at Bonaventure Cemetery (once a Plantation) were put on the Georgia Landmark and Historic Tree Register in 2004. Click HERE to see more. 

 Spanish Moss drapes most trees Old and Young within the grounds. Click HERE to learn about this Moss.

Wildflowers can be spotted as one strolls about.

I was happy to see this sign and was looking for the "Garden" portion from this sign.

As you can see, the
Water Pumps remain but I could only see few signs of a garden from long ago.

Garden beauties such as Hydrangea are seen as one lingers about.

Some interesting blooms too. A Hibiscus maybe?

Gulf Fritillary and Yellow Butterflies were fluttering all over this Cemetery. Telling me, there's plenty of nectar for them to enjoy. There were so many Fritillary's that I first thought I was in the middle of a Migration of the Monarch Butterflies. This one above was kind enough to stop for a picture on a large Lantana Bush.

This is a view I did not expect to see in the Cemetery. But being on the coast, these palm trees did not surprise me. Even though, I was in a Cemetery, scenes such as this put smiles on my face.

Sago Palms were scattered about as well.

This wall caught my eye. Looks as if old stones were reused to make a wall. This gave me inspiration.

I could only salivate for this bench. I have never seen one so ornate. It has been there so long that the legs are starting to fade below the soil. I wanted to remove the sandy soil but decided I should leave well enough alone. After all, this Cemetery is protected by the City and I did not want to have to explain that I was not going to steal it but rather show its beauty. The Saint was happy I walked away.

I spotted flowers on many grave markers as well as animals, angels, etc. I shall show you more of these markers on Thursday. I must first weed through tons of pictures I snapped. I just love the BONAVENTURE OAK TREES, In the Garden...

Words and Photos Property of In the Garden Blog Team, In the Garden