Your Collection then and Now

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post a picture of your collection when you first got started and a more recent picture of how it looks now. Here is mine, summer 2014 and spring 2017.
 

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RKatzin

Omono
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Sorry I don't have any pics available of my earlier years, stored in my old desktop PC, but I can give a brief description.
I had about three dozen trees, all in small training pots. Most were the typical stick in a pot and the general consensus was always that they needed to grow out.
About eight years ago I started building grow boxes and planted all my trees either in the ground or a box. I am just now considering that many are now ready for reduction to training size containers. Oh yeah, I still have all those little pots. I really getting tired of moving all these boxes of dirt around. There's roughly two hundred trees in this pic.14963275707001928952648.jpg
 

chicago1980

Omono
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I like your growing area @VAFisher

Really nice Junipers @chicago1980 how is Randy Knight one coming along?
Coming along well, lots of new scale growth, management of the native soil is a bit tricky. I'll be drilling holes in the wood box to promote a quicker dry time of the soil. Here is a photo of the tree as I rotated it last week.IMG_20170528_184853944~2.jpg
 

Brian Van Fleet

Pretty Fly for a Bonsai Guy
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You got it bad, @mattspiniken! Looks like your deck is about to be overrun...
Here is my progression, earliest photos were from 2-3 years in, around 1997 in Ames, IA:
IMG_0414.JPG IMG_0415.JPG
Nothing from our 3-month Nashville stint, but our first place in Bham, 1999:
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First house in Bham, around 2003 and 2005:
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2nd house around 2012:
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Current:
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Waltron

Chumono
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Built this bench in 2015
982B807D-82FA-43DF-8B0C-BB43464B4C47.jpg 6CF4E06C-FFE6-4175-AEEC-B4A1BF32A351.jpg



Today, it's still sloppy, but unlike my wife, I like to think it matches the trees, so there is balance there,(hah) i view the growing area as a fun aspect of the hobby in itself, I feel that it grows with the grower, and develops along with the trees. in time, both the trees and area will be presentable to regular folk, but it may be a while for me. These are huddled for auto sprinkler watering coming up so they are extra cluttered here.
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Decided not to grow veggies this year,just trees. hah i don't think the wife even actually realizes that yet she loves veggies

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herzausstahl

Chumono
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You got it bad, @mattspiniken! Looks like your deck is about to be overrun...
Here is my progression, earliest photos were from 2-3 years in, around 1997 in Ames, IA:
View attachment 148018 View attachment 148019
Nothing from our 3-month Nashville stint, but our first place in Bham, 1999:
View attachment 148020
First house in Bham, around 2003 and 2005:
View attachment 148021 View attachment 148023
2nd house around 2012:
View attachment 148024
Current:
View attachment 148026
I've said it before & I'll say it again, when the more experienced members here post pics of their earlier work or "ugly trees/failures " it's as valuable to us newer members as your detailed instructional posts because it reminds us that everyone has to start somewhere & even the experts on here have experienced the same questions, frustrations & learning curves we have. I've gotten to see this from the other side on the pond forum I'm on (I'm not an expert there, just more experienced than in bonsai!) who was at the high point of frustration trying to set up her waterfall in her pond build. Being able to experience it from both ends of the spectrum just hammers home this point to me even more. So please continue to help us newbs with our trees as your knowledge, successes & failures are among the most invaluable parts of this forum. To be honest I enjoy helping new ponders sort out issues as much as I enjoy working on & evolving my own pond.
 

herzausstahl

Chumono
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Built this bench in 2015
View attachment 148013 View attachment 148014



Today, it's still sloppy, but unlike my wife, I like to think it matches the trees, so there is balance there,(hah) i view the growing area as a fun aspect of the hobby in itself, I feel that it grows with the grower, and develops along with the trees. in time, both the trees and area will be presentable to regular folk, but it may be a while for me. These are huddled for auto sprinkler watering coming up so they are extra cluttered here.
View attachment 148017



Decided not to grow veggies this year,just trees. hah i don't think the wife even actually realizes that yet she loves veggies

View attachment 148015
lol I've done the opposite in regards to veggies, held off on new grow beds/in ground grow boxes building new raised garden beds for my wife. But have separate areas in the yard for each.
 

Underdog

Masterpiece
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Spring 2015 it began with this 20 roadside van purchase.
Fido new.jpg
Last year was my second season. this is from 6/2016
IMG_20160421_161644975.jpg pic from last month and this isn't all of them. Yea, I got it bad too...
IMG_20170511_181408581.jpg
 

herzausstahl

Chumono
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Spring 2015 it began with this 20 roadside van purchase.
View attachment 148031
Last year was my second season. this is from 6/2016
View attachment 148032 pic from last month and this isn't all of them. Yea, I got it bad too...
View attachment 148034
Got it bad in pounding or bonsai, or both like me? Lol btw that upper pool could easily be made into a nice bog filter if you ever wanted too instead of the skippy one you planned to make if I remember correctly. Either way nice job incorporating the 2 passions together!
 

JudyB

Queen of the Nuts
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Had to get in the wayback machine to get these out of my photos, but here is my SIAP collection, and what I am up to now. The little tiny signs in each pot were watering category labels for one year I had someone come to water during vacation...

It's hard to get good bench shots with the sun!
IMG_0011.jpg P1020327.jpg P1020328.jpg P1020335.jpg P1020338.jpg P1020339.jpg
 

MACH5

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Not exactly playing by your rules Matt but here is my garden before and after. It is still a work in progress but here it is anyway. Before I built the arbor my trees used to be placed on simple benches supported by cinderblocks right on the grass. Eventually I decided to design and build an area specifically to grow and display bonsai.

All started with an arbor... and a dream :p







 
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Thanks for the great pics everyone. Looking at some of the after pics I am considering putting in landscape fabric and pea gravel in my bonsai area.
 

Brian Van Fleet

Pretty Fly for a Bonsai Guy
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Thanks for the great pics everyone. Looking at some of the after pics I am considering putting in landscape fabric and pea gravel in my bonsai area.
I was very happy when I put down a gravel base. I didn't do the landscape fabric, but the base was 4" thick, so very little got through. Fallen seeds grew on it though, so I had to hit the area with roundup every month or two.

I liked my previous garden better than this one. This one is good for displaying, but really tough to work on trees "in place". It's also downstairs from the main living area. The last one was right out the back door, and the trees were easily accessible to trim and examine. Both displays have the pots up to about 3-4 feet off the ground, which I like.

@JudyB and @MACH5 ... wow! Looking great. Several nice gardens here. Nice pond @Underdog
 

MACH5

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Thanks for the great pics everyone. Looking at some of the after pics I am considering putting in landscape fabric and pea gravel in my bonsai area.


Matt, I like gravel because it gives you a nice clean look. Be aware that even with fabric you will still get some weeds, but as long as you keep up with it they are easy to pull from the gravel. I rake it every so often to prevent it from settling too much and keeps it looking nice.


Not fair @MACH5 !!! Lets see your baby pics... Or did you come out holding a fully wired maple clump that most of us would die for?:p

But thanks for sharing the now photos, that rock with the tree on it takes my breath.


LOL ok Juds here are my baby pics. Back in the 90's and a little more grown up now :p





 

JudyB

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LOL ok Juds here are my baby pics. Back in the 90's and a little more grown up now :p
Just as I thought, you went straight from kindergarten to high school, HA! Yes all grown up and wearing proper clothes.:)
 
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