My yard...secondary focus

So here's what happens when bonsai is mainly a secondary focus occasionally tossed in the forefront. I plan to make a main focus going forward (maybe I'll finally relax next to a pond but doubt it...).

Here's my space:





Fenced in area is my garden. Aside from taller evergreens anything planted their is open for harvesting as yardadori bonsai. It's got a variety of junipers plus some seedlings that wrre planted a few years ago. I forget the varieties of juniper but not shimpaku. Old Gold & possibly Sea Green I'd wager. Seedlings were white pine, black hills spruce, white cedar (gotten from here http://www.hickorygrovenursery.com/), some 1 gallon Scots Pines from a year Walmart carried them.

Here's a maple I grew from seed, got it from an old duplex my sister in law lived at, forget the variety. My brother told me, Trident or Silver maple variety/hybrid possibly. I plan to keep it as a yard tree but need his advice on picking a leader & what to get rid of. He's an arborist, mostly a climber the last decade plus, as in he does removals by roping in to the tree & climbing with his chainsaw, gear, etc. but I digress, point being I might try my hand at sir layering the branches I decide to remove. Sorry in advance Vance for any pics you have difficulty seeing, were all taken by iPhone in late afternoon light after work.



Here's some Dawn Redwoods that were grown from seed & last spring dug up & replanted here to get rid of the tap root & let them continue to grow out. Should've planted over a tile or board initially but this whole thing will be live, learn, & grow in the right direction moving forward but that's bound to happen when it's a secondary focus.

Not sure if the damage is from voles or the one rabbit who moved into my garden before I fenced off the gaps in my fence gates in fall, who ignored the dog scent in the yard & im guessing openly mocks/laughs at my live trap I've had out for it.

Here's my potting bench I built last summer.

The hole you see is for that Rubbermaid container you see on the bottom right shelf to sit in for repotting. Gives me a basin for the loose soil & puts it at a level easy to work with. Not sure how functional that top shelf will be. Everything is screwed in so the design is fluid.

Decided to try harder a little more last summer but mostly just repotted stuff I had in napa 8822 seeing @sorce & @M. Frary success with it reading on here last summer. Gonna work out a better mix going forward & experiment to find a decent mix for growing out. @Leo in N E Illinois is being a great help & hooking me up with his source of pumice. Here's some crappy stock but it will be good to learn how to kill/keep alive, wire, etc.





Something was digging in this pot & the one next to it. Will need to move my winter protection to a better spot next year.

Here's next to the garage where I'll set up winter protection next fall.

Hard to see but grow beds to the left, then ground growing jumble, followed by rock storage. Growbed soil is a mix of equal parts, sand, topsoil, pea gravel, compost from the yard waste site they tout as "mulch" but it's mostly compost.



Ground growing. Larch is from that local nursery started as a 12-18" seedling a cpl years ago. Can get larch seedlings from them for about $3 each bareroot.


Rock storage area I plan to clear out in spring/summer. Either add more display benches, grow beds, ground growing, or use to heal in nursery container/pond basket material to allow roots to escape but easier to trim deeper roots. Might experiment, not sure yet. Also could be a spot for a small greenhouse if I ever want one.

These were both collected from the yard waste site. First one I figured could be good practice carving the trunks if it survived, second one was a 1 - 1 1/2" trunk juniper, also worth practice if it lived.

Dawn Redwoods. All started out as 1' seedlings purchased on eBay.

Just like these. I liked how they weren't barerooted.


These were also dug up, tap roots cut & replanted.


These haven't been touched in 3-4 years since I planted them. Probably will air layer at some point. Then chop & leave in ground to recover before eventually digging up & putting in pond baskets to grow roots. Hopefully by then my knowledge base will be better.

I think going forward with my grow beds I might start using pallet boards instead of tiles on the bottom to prevent tap roots. Then they could decay as the trees grow. Or is a tile better? I thought the layer of clay under the beds would form a great barrier, but guessing the larchs & redwood roots went right into it without skipping a beat. In these next pictures are larchs, some nanas, mugos, spruce (Colorado or black hills), scots pine, white pine & hidden in there my 1 yew. All nursery except larchs, black hills & white pine were from hickory grove nursery. Need to order more spruce, larch & possibly cedar from them next year. I also have my garden to use as a grow bed.

Here's my ground growing jumble.


Scots pine fromm1 gallon Walmart material. Need to start following Vances mugs advice with it.


I have a couple shimpakus but I think this is a sea green I let grow out before putting in this pond basket.


Nana's & a shimpaku behind them I believe.

Mugs with a black hills spruce behind it I think.

Larchs with a mugo hidden in there.

So here's what I have so far, lots of mistakes no doubt, lots of neglect, & lots to learn from going forward. Anything special? Probably not but that's ok because at this stage in my skill level I'd probably kill it anyway. Lol feel free to offer any comments or criticism. All is welcome, never be afraid to be realistic or harsh when critiquing any if my posts. I won't take it personally & I won't learn anything if all your doing is shoving rainbows up my arse.

Here's a pond pic in late sun, mostly a lot of cleaning up here to get rid of the excessive overgrown look. I want natural but not overgrown except for the front side. My goal here is to create a tree wall on the front with the ponds/streams hidden behind to create a hidden garden if you will. Mostly a lot of weeding. But that is for my other forum.
And Vance when I start asking for advice of specific trees I promise better pics taken with a camera & as neutral a background with better lighting as I can.

Looks like you got a ton of material to fidget with. Nice!

On what side of the house is that part with snow? Maybe you could put a greenhouse over there instead of in the corner. That way you'll have a greenhouse and winter storage in one and then you don't have to clean out the stone corner

Tentakelaertje said:

Looks like you got a ton of material to fidget with. Nice!

On what side of the house is that part with snow? Maybe you could put a greenhouse over there instead of in the corner. That way you'll have a greenhouse and winter storage in one and then you don't have to clean out the stone corner

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I wanna say North side, only issue is that it's full shade. I am mostly going to go with trees my zone or preferably lower, so my winter storage will focus on keeping rabbits & rodents out but let light & precipitation in. Still have to design it.

herzausstahl said:

I wanna say North side, only issue is that it's full shade. I am mostly going to go with trees my zone or preferably lower, so my winter storage will focus on keeping rabbits & rodents out but let light & precipitation in. Still have to design it.

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Shade is good for over wintering. It allows the trees to stay at a more consistent temperature throughout winter, in the sun the soil can freeze then thaw daily which is not good for roots.

Aaron

aml1014 said:

Shade is good for over wintering. It allows the trees to stay at a more consistent temperature throughout winter, in the sun the soil can freeze then thaw daily which is not good for roots.

Aaron

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Sorry I meant to say only issue for putting a greenhouse there. Reasons you stated above why I plan to use it for overwintering.

herzausstahl said:

So here's what happens when bonsai is mainly a secondary focus occasionally tossed in the forefront. I plan to make a main focus going forward (maybe I'll finally relax next to a pond but doubt it...).


Here's my space:

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Fenced in area is my garden. Aside from taller evergreens anything planted their is open for harvesting as yardadori bonsai. It's got a variety of junipers plus some seedlings that wrre planted a few years ago. I forget the varieties of juniper but not shimpaku. Old Gold & possibly Sea Green I'd wager. Seedlings were white pine, black hills spruce, white cedar (gotten from here http://www.hickorygrovenursery.com/), some 1 gallon Scots Pines from a year Walmart carried them.

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What a fantastic space for having a large and varied bonsai collection. I look forward to seeing what you do with it.

miker said:

What a fantastic space for having a large and varied bonsai collection. I look forward to seeing what you do with it.

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Thanks! I have the new kind of corner lot, instead of being the smallest lots with almost no yard space, now they are the biggest ones.

I've also realized the majority of the stuff not in grow beds is gonna be good for styling fodder & not much else. Some might have some potential but I'll have to explore closer in a month when it warms up & will stay warm. Not the week of warmth we are going to get.

Disclaimer on following pictures, they were taking with lower light so I've adjusted the brightness on all of them so foliage colors might be slightly off. That & due to winter color but any dead brown won't be & is most likely a result of underwatering last summer.

So pretty sure the tag on this one said Andorra juniper. Was repotted last spring in oil dri I think. Plan to just thin out excess dead foliage to let light in. Possible repot if general consensus is oil dri is worse than repot. Otherwise leave it alone to recuperate. Most of these that aren't still in nursery containers won't really be able to be style practice as they were just repotted last spring. If I liked it, it was put in napa 8822, if it was "meh" like this one it probably went into oil dri as I had it on hand, ignorance is bliss right? But why I say most of what is to follow is practice fodder.

Next up is a shimpaku that was repotted in napa 8822. Want it to grow out. Not sure if best left here or put in a grow bed.

Makes me wish I had a bigger yard!

Juniper I dug out of a field before apartments went up. Potted last spring in mix of haydite, perlite, oil dri, gravel. Probably plant in garden to grow out.