Happy birthday to me... :)

[Alain]

Hi there,
It's been 1 year more or less I started to try to do bonsai and it had been an amazing journey until now, in part grace to you guys, thanks for that.

I was thinking in doing this kind of thread to commemorate my 1 year anniversary (don't worry, I don't think I'll do that every year) and Darlene gave me the tribune this afternoon but suggesting that we should start personal thread on the trees we are happy to display on our benches.

This week I 'built' two benches: a real one and an internet one.

The real one is in my yard and I put my living trees on top of it, the virtual one is on my Facebook page - address below - with the official opening of the 'pre-bonsai taxidermy department', or whatever.

On this virtual one I display a mummified tree I did.

Because of course along the way of this amazing journey I had my share of kills.

The tree there is a juniper chinensis I bought last year at home-depot.
I liked it a lot, the overall structure, the foliage, the double trunks



and was very happy to see it making it through my first Illinois winter as bonsai apprentice.

I pruned it in spring and it started to die.
So when he actually died I embalmed it as it was in my eyes at this time.







The second bench, the real one, with the tree I like a lot follows

 

[Alain]

I actually built the real one this long week-end with mainly palettes I brought from the dumpster at my job.
I bought 3 $0.80 something 8' 2" by 3" at home depot and protected it with the rest of the product I used to protect our deck this summer (I hope it's not poisonous? you guys will tell me)



Even the racoon couldn't believed I did such a nice job



and one of the tree I love the most is this trumpet vine I dug out from our yard last year



and this how it looks now








Thanks for everything guys!

 

[Cadillactaste]

I actually had kept the first few dead trees...called it my bonsai graveyard. They sat on a shelf in the greenhouse. As a reminder that all was not lost if a valuable lesson was gained. Finally, when those words felt real to me. I tossed the trees into our lake's compost area.

I do like your table and display area. And thanks for giving me more detailed photos of your trumpet vine. I was planning on asking about that one. Pretty sweet...and coming along nicely! One you must be overly proud of.

Love the raccoon as well...job well done!

 

[sorce]

Nice build for $2.40.!

Good thing cuz it already looks like you need another!

Nice racoon shot!
Sorce

 

[Cadillactaste]

By the way...

 

[Alain]

I actually had kept the first few dead trees...called it my bonsai graveyard. They sat on a shelf in the greenhouse. As a reminder that all was not lost if a valuable lesson was gained. Finally, when those words felt real to me. I tossed the trees into our lake's compost area.

I do like your table and display area. And thanks for giving me more detailed photos of your trumpet vine. I was planning on asking about that one. Pretty sweet...and coming along nicely! One you must be overly proud of.

Love the raccoon as well...job well done!

Thanks

My dead one is actually for sale on my facebook page (everything including myself is for sale on my facebook page anyway ) $20 plus shipping (which will be the most expensive part if I do have to ship it, it's so fragile!).

Regarding the trumpet vine something I learned: it's actually harder to kill them than keep them alive when you dig! Granted that during all winter it looked a lot like a twisted stick in a pot but since it started to bud it never stopped, I had to prune it a least 7 times during the spring/summer! Now the next step will be to plant it higher in the pot in order to reveal more of the trunk/big root which you could see starting on the picture of the base. And also may be wire it a little more when the leaves will be gone and that it will be easier to see something of the branches. But first I suck at wiring (the black paint on my dead juniper is actually my best wiring ever ) and second I'll have to take real care because the branches are really fragile. They start to be brittle when they are still green! So may be not wiring but more a lot of guy wires instead.

Nice build for $2.40.!

Good thing cuz it already looks like you need another!

Nice racoon shot!View attachment 81865
Sorce

Thanks!

I know that I need to build another one already (a bunch of my little babies trees are not even on this one!)
The harder part is to gather the palettes with big 3x3 posts to make the legs of the bench. These ones aren't frequent in the dumpster (I always check the garbage when I go smoking outside, it's incredible the stuff one can find, this is my 'tramp side' according to my son).
The good thing of the palettes (on top of being free) is that the wood is already cut at the right dimension. I suck at woodcraft, always did. In particular I am totally unable to saw right (whatever the kind of saw I'm using) but with this bench I didn't have to saw anything, it was like building a Lego

 

[Alain]

Btw: do you guys think that the product I use to protect the wood of the bench could be dangerous for the trees?

 

[sorce]

I'm all Tramp then!

Sorce

 

[Alain]

I'm all Tramp then!

Sorce

Me too.

Actually the 2 rectangular plastic pots you could see at the left on the 1st level on the bench came from the dumpster: in my building somewhere there is a lab working with living animals and these are the containers they use as the bottom for the cages (but these one have never been used, no rat's pee there ).
They are really nice as the bottom is made of a sort plastic grid covered with filter-paper screen so all the base is draining and furthermore you could see thru the pot (to check the root grow).
I have more of those if you are interested.

 

[Stickroot]

I like your Trumpet vine tree, nice work!
I hate Coons! Little Jerks have been digging my beds up for years!
Most catch high velocity lead poisoning, don't know how

 

[GGB]

I like your Trumpet vine tree, nice work!
I hate Coons! Little Jerks have been digging my beds up for years!
Most catch high velocity lead poisoning, don't know how

I've been at war with squirrels. Just caught my 4th one this season. I catch and release to make my girlfriend happy, my pellet gun is getting dusty. Also I'd imagine if the finish dried fully on your bench it's probably fine.

 

[Alain]

I like your Trumpet vine tree, nice work!
I hate Coons! Little Jerks have been digging my beds up for years!
Most catch high velocity lead poisoning, don't know how

I actually like raccoon, but we don't have a lot in our yard (only the 2nd I see in 2 years), we have a bunch of skunks though...

 

[Alain]

Also I'd imagine if the finish dried fully on your bench it's probably fine.

Yes, that's what I was thinking too. I let it dry in full sun 1 day and a half and it was really full sun as this week-end we reach more than 90, it was the hottest week and week-end this year I think!

 

[whfarro]

I actually like raccoon, but we don't have a lot in our yard...

Raccoon = good eats...lol

 

[whfarro]

Squirrels on the other hand are thugs and are really a blight on society in general.

 

[Alain]

Ok guys,

I showed you me dead tree
I showed my nice tree

Now I'll show you my 'Oops tree'

So I started trying to do bonsai last year first by collecting as much trees as I could in any phase of their development in order to build a nursery to work on.

In the meantime and really luckily my wife told me that after our first summer in our new place she decided that she'd prefer to get ride of all the bushes the former owners had planted in order to plant flower.
Hence I immediately started to dig the yard out, that's how I got the trumpet vine.

That's also how I got that bush I had no clue what it was.



I didn't know if it was bonsai-ifiable.
I didn't know you guys.
I had now idea what to do with these long sticks of branches with sort of crowns of leaves.
The roots were impossible to comb.
The base of the trunk was just a huge piece of wood
And the tree didn't fit in any of my containers.

So I tore it apart.



and then, in the following weeks, I started to trow away its pieces one by one as soon as I had lost faith in finding any use for them.

Until I bought an azalea satsuki for $2 in a yard sale and realized that my bush was an azalea...



So now I have my Oops tree, the only remaining piece of the initial bush




Less than 1" thick at the base for a total of a little bit than 3 and 1/2" the main part of trunk being above the canopy...



Canopy comprising of 7 leaves.




But anyway it's alive and sorry but if this isn't the size's reduction of the year 'well slap my ass and call me Judy'! (Friends, season 1, episode 15)

 

[sorce]

C'mere Judy!

Sorce

 

[Alain]

C'mere Judy!

Sorce

"C'mere"?

 

[Stickroot]

Ok guys,

I showed you me dead tree
I showed my nice tree

Now I'll show you my 'Oops tree'

So I started trying to do bonsai last year first by collecting as much trees as I could in any phase of their development in order to build a nursery to work on.

In the meantime and really luckily my wife told me that after our first summer in our new place she decided that she'd prefer to get ride of all the bushes the former owners had planted in order to plant flower.
Hence I immediately started to dig the yard out, that's how I got the trumpet vine.

That's also how I got that bush I had no clue what it was.

View attachment 82030

I didn't know if it was bonsai-ifiable.
I didn't know you guys.
I had now idea what to do with these long sticks of branches with sort of crowns of leaves.
The roots were impossible to comb.
The base of the trunk was just a huge piece of wood
And the tree didn't fit in any of my containers.

So I tore it apart.

View attachment 82031

and then, in the following weeks, I started to trow away its pieces one by one as soon as I had lost faith in finding any use for them.

Until I bought an azalea satsuki for $2 in a yard sale and realized that my bush was an azalea...



So now I have my Oops tree, the only remaining piece of the initial bush

View attachment 82032


Less than 1" thick at the base for a total of a little bit than 3 and 1/2" the main part of trunk being above the canopy...

View attachment 82033

Canopy comprising of 7 leaves.

View attachment 82034


But anyway it's alive and sorry but if this isn't the size's reduction of the year 'well slap my ass and call me Judy'! (Friends, season 1, episode 15)

Send me that Azalea and I'll send you the $2+shipping and a free gift

 

[Alain]

Send me that Azalea and I'll send you the $2+shipping and a free gift

My 'Oops tree' I keep it
First because, who knows? It might become a 'not so oops tree' at one point in the future and then to remind me that shits happen

The $2 satsuki I found in a yard sale last year is there:
http://bonsainut.com/index.php?threads/2-satsuki-azalea.16975/

Unfortunately it didn't make it thru the winter, I still have the pot though, which worth more than $2 anyway, so not a bad deal overall...

Actually I have a thing with azalea. I already killed 3 plus the oops tree, that 4 attempts with a 100% success on shitty results