The Coffee House

terri · Apr 28, 2022

SquarePeg said:
Happy almost Friday Hosers! Time to turn the Coffee House focus back to where it belongs - chit chat!

I’m obsessively watching the Kwanzan Cherry tree that I planted last fall waiting for it to flower. There are so many little blooms waiting to open right now!! I’m so happy about this. I was really worried I might have killed the tree last year when I planted it and then I did some research and realized all the things I had done wrong… So I dug it up and planted it again! It was a lot of extra work and risky but so happy that I did because it looks so healthy and has so many buds!!! Planting in the fall is preferred but it’s a long wait to see how you did.

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That's a lot of work, but it seems to have paid off! It looks pretty already and the blooms haven't even opened up all the way.

Agree with you about fall planting. It's hard to sit back and not know the outcome for months.

Congrats!

snowbear · Apr 28, 2022

I'm finally going to get to try some planting without killing everything. By the time we get to the house, Spring will be over, so we'll try Fall plants.

Lilacs. I can handle lilacs.

Warhorse · Apr 29, 2022

snowbear said:
I'm finally going to get to try some planting without killing everything. By the time we get to the house, Spring will be over, so we'll try Fall plants.

Lilacs. I can handle lilacs.

Growing Lilacs = easy
Killing Lilacs = not so easy

Darn things spread like wildfire!

Dean_Gretsch · Apr 29, 2022

My wife planted an ornamental almond tree a few years ago. @fishing4sanity ( I believe it was him without checking ) posted a pic of one in your weekly challenge thread Bokehlicious @SquarePeg. They are beautiful just like I believe your Cherry tree will be.

Dean_Gretsch · Apr 29, 2022

Warhorse said:
Growing Lilacs = easy
Killing Lilacs = not so easy

Darn things spread like wildfire!

We noticed Ash borers on ours last year. My wife thinks the foliage isn't as full this year because of them.

SquarePeg · Apr 29, 2022

Dean_Gretsch said:
My wife planted an ornamental almond tree a few years ago. @fishing4sanity ( I believe it was him without checking ) posted a pic of one in your weekly challenge thread Bokehlicious @SquarePeg. They are beautiful just like I believe your Cherry tree will be.

Almond blossoms are so beautiful - they make me think of van Gogh. This was from the immersive van Gogh exhibit I went to back in Feb.

SquarePeg · Apr 29, 2022

This spring’s plantings:

Replaced the lilac bush Princess bought me for Mother’s Day that got crushed during snowmageddon a few years ago. I missed the boat on these a couple of years in a row because I waited too long to buy and none of the local nurseries had any left. This year I made sure to get there first! This is planted near my bedroom window so I can enjoy their beautiful fragrance.

And this is the new magnolia I bought. Not a saucer magnolia like the 40ft tall one on Beacon St in Boston that I love - I don’t really have a good spot for something that size.. This is a Ricki magnolia which has darker flowers and is more of a low and round tree that grows to about 12 ft. I’m planning to make it the center of a small wildflower garden on the side of our house.

snowbear · Apr 29, 2022

Warhorse said:
Growing Lilacs = easy
Killing Lilacs = not so easy

Darn things spread like wildfire!

But that is a good thing. Black-Eyed Susans are also on my list to plant, being the state flower. The biggest yard job will be trying to eradicate the bamboo. Unfortunately, I don't have any pandas laying around.

ac12 · Apr 29, 2022

snowbear said:
The biggest yard job will be trying to eradicate the bamboo. Unfortunately, I don't have any pandas laying around.

Use a systemic poison similar to Roundup. AND ALWAYS WEAR A POISON RATED RESPIRATOR.
It may take a few years to kill the bamboo.
It took me 5 years to kill the weeds in my backyard. Each year I would kill what I did not kill the year before, and gradually the weed jungle got smaller and smaller.

snowbear · Apr 30, 2022

What I would like to do is go after it with a Deere compact - front bucket to dig roots, then the backhoe to dig the perimeter and put in a barrier to keep the neighbor's bamboo out. We will only be there a few years, so I'll probably cut and dig. A number of years ago we tried using Vapam to kill some major weeds in another yard. After reading through the instructions and warnings, I nicknamed it "Agent Orange."

Though very highly unlikely, I really love the pandas solution.

SquarePeg · Apr 30, 2022

Just under 10k steps today which isn’t all that amazing until I tell you that other than a quick run to HDepot I never left my front yard! Most of the yard is now mowed, weeded, planted, composted and mulched. Just the flower bed in front left to do. Got some pansies and dahlia tubers. I always leave that bed for last because it’s easy and the most visible so doing that last motivates me to get the rest of the stuff finished.

ac12 · Apr 30, 2022

SquarePeg said:
Just under 10k steps today which isn’t all that amazing until I tell you that other than a quick run to HDepot I never left my front yard! Most of the yard is now mowed, weeded, planted, composted and mulched. Just the flower bed in front left to do. Got some pansies and dahlia tubers. I always leave that bed for last because it’s easy and the most visible so doing that last motivates me to get the rest of the stuff finished.

You have way more energy than me.