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Wow... I have to admit I am not often stumped, but I have never seen anything like this...

Akadama is a hard clay product that breaks down slowly as a soil mix component. There is no problem with using it as a temporary soil cover (for one reason or other) but you have to be careful you aren't hiding or avoiding more substantial soil work. It is very easy to kill a tree by not...

Yaupons are native to NC. "Yaupon" is a Catawban native American word... and I live on the Catawba River :) That said, I had a Yaupon holly for years in Southern California where it did not seem to need cold weather. I moved to NC and lost it in a deep freeze in 12/2022 when temps dropped to...

Make sure you water them before a deep freeze. Ice is a great insulator. I normally keep my trees on shelves/benches all winter long. We have had one night of 15F/-10C temperature this winter. I placed my olives on the ground (which does not have snow). I brought my cork oak indoors to sit...

Yeah I've got six in landscape here trying to get them to bulk up. Several have a couple of leaves still hanging on, but they are definitely browning. But no sign of any bud movement yet... even with the recent warm spell.

I'm not sure how to respond. Your quince is breaking dormancy because it is a cold-hardy tree and you are keeping it too warm. It isn't opinion - it's horticulture. Not all deciduous tree species are the same. You hopefully wouldn't try to keep an aspen in the same conditions as a jacaranda...

I haven't made one yet because I will still working on stuff for the house. I have a few ideas I am looking forward to trying out. Working on smaller pieces gives you a little more latitude to work with finer woods without bankrupting you :)

I am curious why you are keeping your tree so warm? Are you thinking that it is a tropical? Chinese quince are cold hardy to -10F. Protecting it from a low temp below 38F is akin to keeping it in Zone 10b (aka Southern California). Some deciduous trees need the cold in order to trigger their...

Be very careful with turface. Small, flat piece size holds too much water and causes problems in short order. Maybe if you are working with really small trees the small piece size would work for you.

Good thing they aren't suggesting we use AI as our primary care physicians!... Oh, wait... Joking aside, this AI response is garbage.

I made the rockers the same way - though they were obviously thicker and 100% sapele wood.

This strange little Acer rubrum volunteer seedling is growing in a pot with a Quercus montana (chestnut oak). I was curious about it because the internodes seemed quite close together, with the leaves stacking on top of one another. It also (at least for this year) seems to be quite cold...

Absolutely. However it is advanced material. It would be great material to bring to a workshop with a pro who might help you lay out the primary structure.

Each back brace is a "sandwich" of sapele (the dark wood most of the chair is made out of) and a core of ash. Ash is a very supple and bendable wood (think English longbows). The back braces are floating in the frame of the chair, so when you lean back in the chair they will bend to fit your...

@Michigan Tree Murderer by the way when I say "wrap the rootball in plastic" I am talking about shrink wrap (not plastic wrap). Put some damp paper towels on top of the soil, then wrap with something like this...

You will laugh, but I swear half the time I see photos of people working on their trees in the winter, in their basements/garages, I see woodshop tools in the background :)

Great tree, great stone. My question is the final scale of your composition. The tree (right now) feels small for the stone. The trunk line and low branching is for a smaller tree than what I think this stone deserves. However, you may already be far ahead of me and thinking of growing the...

I make furniture, cabinetry, etc, when I have time. "DIY" is sortof a broad category and I do a lot of stuff - as, quite frankly, many members of this site do!

Wow. Great tree. Your first focus should be getting it super strong and robust. When I see yellow needles on a pine (at any time of year) I get nervous. Regardless, once you get it strong and green, I think the challenge will be to address the rather lazy loopy trunk line. For a pine...

Border collies can have the same coats as Australian shepherds. Merle coats are recessive, so you have to breed a black & white coat or red & white coat with a merle... and see what you get. Twister (our puppy) is from a black & white female and a blue merle male. Our last border collie...

@BQ. I think your work is really interesting - and I can immediately see how they are hand-made and each has a different personality. I may be a buyer :) I hope that peoples' initial reaction of "who are you?" isn't too off-putting. Unfortunately we have had some bad experiences on this site...

The newest border collie member of the family...

I still have a red maple seedling that hasn't dropped all of its leaves(!)

If possible (for anyone) move your deciduous into shade. Direct sun will only exacerbate the current warm trend.

It will come. Don't worry too much about it. You can have a great tree that is small... or a not so great tree that is large. And the reality is... it is harder to fix problems with big trees than small trees. It will take a while to develop your "eye" for bonsai - and your ability to...