Planting trees

[HemiEd]

So let's hear about the trees you have planted. Shade? Fruit bearing? Decorative?

How are they doing?

My wife says I have an obsession with them and probably do.

Now that we are in our last home here at the lake, I am having fun with it. Here is my list.

14 Colorado Blue Spruce
1 Loblolly pine
2 plum
2 peach
1 pear
1 cherry
1 Brown turkey fig
1 Chicago fig

What you got?

[HemiEd]

Originally Posted by Buehler445

I live in a desert. Trees are hard to get going. Red cedars are used in windbreaks a lot. Because they're the roughest toughest meanest sons of bitches around. And we still have to baby them and water them and love them.

I've planted a pissassload of cedars. I planted a bunch of lilacs. Planted a shiload of Sandhills plums. Tried to get some peach and pear trees going. At my last house we planted a shamrock linden. That was a hell of a tree.

If you're wanting fruit, plant some Sandhill plums. They are glorious.

As for the cedars, see if you can get some grazon. Cut them off hit them with Grazon. Talk to NRCS and see if you can get some.

Thanks! When we first bought the place, little cedars were cropping up everywhere. I put a stop to that, but you are sure welcome to come and get some in the wild areas. I will double check on the kind of plum trees I planted. The one that has been in the ground for two years is doing exceptional.

Originally Posted by srvy

They smell good but the MDC consider them a noxious weed. I dont plant many but I have killed a lot running centerline roads and highways for clearing. I have gone to war with Black locust, Honey locust, Osage Orange, Hackberry and Hickory.

I miss Southern Missouri in the spring as the dogwoods bloom and the smell of sassafras when cut its strong smell of root beer.

It was beautiful this spring for sure. We are blessed with a bounty of huge oak trees. When the leaves are off, they are something to amaze.

Originally Posted by KChiefs1

We have a lot of rock & clay. Digging holes is a bitch.

We've had trouble getting a few to live. In one spot we've planted 3 trees & all have died.

Any suggestions?


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I will take a picture of the pick that I doubled over trying to dig holes for our azaleas. I buy pretty much everything small, as the holes are hard to dig when the majority of the ground is rock.

Originally Posted by Mr_Tomahawk

Cotton Burr Compost...lots of it.

Depends what you are trying to plant.

When you dig your hole, dig it as wide as you can...at least twice the size of the container/BB size you are putting it. Then back-fill with a mixture of your excavated soil and cotton burr compost. Obviously if you can substitute the excavated soil with a pulverizes soil of sorts, the better.

People around here dig their holes not large enough. And with our clay soil, they essentially are forming a clay pot to put their trees in and end up over-watering and drowning them.

Go wide...get high quality backfill.

Great advise, but I have never heard of cotton burr compost. The tag on all of the trees I planted said to dig the hole double, and that is extremely difficult


Lewdog, I will take some pictures and post them.

[SAUTO]

Originally Posted by KChiefs1

We have a lot of rock & clay. Digging holes is a bitch.

We've had trouble getting a few to live. In one spot we've planted 3 trees & all have died.

Any suggestions?


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quit planting trees in that spot?

[lewdog]

Originally Posted by HemiEd

Have your citrus trees provided any usable citrus yet? How old are they?

I have a friend in Az that is growing some cactus that has very short lived blossoms.

The deer love to clean all the leaves off of our hibiscus plants. I am going to have to move them inside the fence.

Hibiscus down there? Mine are even frost sensitive here for a few weeks in the winter and need covering to make it through. Even had one die one winter.

Mine bloom from February to November....continuous. Love them.

I'll get some pictures.

[mlyonsd]

Originally Posted by KChiefs1

We have a lot of rock & clay. Digging holes is a bitch.

We've had trouble getting a few to live. In one spot we've planted 3 trees & all have died.

Any suggestions?


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Take some pictures and show them to a local reputable nursery. They'll be glad to help.

Sometimes they'll actually come out and plant it for you if you buy one of their trees.

[WilliamTheIrish]

Originally Posted by HemiEd

I forgot to include the 20 poplar trees that are to be a curtain between us and a hated neighbor.

A hated neighbor? All the way to the retirement destination and you have a hated neighbor?

That sucks Ed.

[HemiEd]

Originally Posted by lewdog

Would love to see some picture if you guys have some time to snap some!

Things have changed and it is more difficult for me to post pictures than it used to be, not sure why. This the brown turkey fig that my SIL sent me last year, it was about 6 inches tall and came UPS. It reached 6 ft. last summer, but is much bushier this year.

[WilliamTheIrish]

I love me some lilac trees. Those give off an incredible scent for several weeks. Just love em.

[HemiEd]

Originally Posted by WilliamTheIrish

A hated neighbor? All the way to the retirement destination and you have a hated neighbor?

That sucks Ed.

Yes sir, I made the mistake of trying to be peacemaker in a feud. Had wonderful neighbors everywhere we have lived.

This old bastard retired in 97, but is no longer relevant down here, things have changed.

Dad warned me to stay out of it, but it was too late.

The worst part, we are on a shared well together.

I had marked 32 cedar trees with a red x to be removed, all on my property. Some were on my side of the neighbors dam from an old farm pond.

He had his lawyer write me a letter that the extension service said the dam would deteriorate when the roots rotted once cut down. I would be liable for the dam and damage.

My lawyer said I am in the right, but it will cost me about $10,000 for the due process.

I have tried and tried to get along with this old asshole, but finally threw him off my property.

[WilliamTheIrish]

Ed, that is so ****ed. Country people...salt of the earth and all that...

[HemiEd]

Originally Posted by WilliamTheIrish

I love me some lilac trees. Those give off an incredible scent for several weeks. Just love em.

I agree

Dad used to have them line the whole side of his circle drive. They were beautiful. I had planted a volunteer off of his in Illinois which did really well, then brought a volunteer off it down here but it didn't make it.

I do have a couple of volunteer burning bushes off of the ones up there that have succeeded down here.

I also planted 13 volunteer maple trees from up there, only one has survived, but it is really doing well and I have moved it twice.

[HemiEd]

Originally Posted by WilliamTheIrish

Ed, that is so ****ed. Country people...salt of the earth and all that...

I agree, I guess he really bullied the previous owners of this place. It is not a nice thing to say, but we are looking forward to father time solving the problem.

I could make his life absolutely miserable if I wanted to spend the money to do it, but we just try and avoid them. Most of our neighbors feel the same way.

It is kind of odd here as nobody, and I mean nobody is native to the area. These people are retired from Lincoln, Nebraska.

Eleven of the 20 poplar trees survived our three week vacation shortly after they were planted and will grow tall pretty darn fast.

[HemiEd]

Originally Posted by lewdog

Hibiscus down there? Mine are even frost sensitive here for a few weeks in the winter and need covering to make it through. Even had one die one winter.

Mine bloom from February to November....continuous. Love them.

I'll get some pictures.

Looking forward to seeing your pictures!

Yep. One of our neighbors has done real well with them, leaving them out all winter.

Last year I planted one and it flourished, beautiful. Then the deer literally cleaned it of any leaves in the fall.

So, this spring I planted two, and the deer cleaned them night before last. I am hoping they pull out of it with the few leaves that are left. I put gallon jugs with water and moth balls vented near them hoping it will keep the deer away.

Here is a picture of four of the fruit trees, plum, apple, peach and pear. The pear and peach are loaded right now with fruit. The plums have all fallen off prematurely.

[lewdog]

Alright, here I go. We had nothing in this back yard but grass and a pool when we moved in. Not one plant.

Hedgehog Cactus. Blooms once a year for about 7-14 days.


Fishhook barrel cactus. Blooms once a year for 3-4 weeks. Got this cactus from a construction site in the desert where it had to be re-moved. I was given it in a cardboard box. Forgot about it for a week in the heat of the summer. Planted it anyway even though I thought it might have died. It's thriving.


Hemi Ed, here's the lime tree. It's 4-5 years old I think. Was planted 1.5 years ago. During the first year, I took most fruit off so the tree didn't have the stress and instead focused on growing/expanding. I have eaten about a dozen limes off this tree since we got it. This year, as you can see, I am letting more set on the tree.



Very small dwarf Meyer Lemon tree next to Agave. Bought at Home Depot for $28. Supposed to get max 8-10' tall but produce prolific lemons all year once more mature with a fairly large canopy.



Golden barrel cactus along with a firestick in the back. The firestick is a succulent that actually turns more red/orange once temperatures drop in the winter here. Adds some nice landscape color when other things aren't blooming.



Corner pool section. Red/Pink Hibiscus, about 5' tall. Pygmy palms with a Mediterranean palm in the middle. Small Sago palm in front of that. Two purple lantan flowers for spreading ground cover.





Variegated Agave. This plant was so small. It grew massive within the past 1.5 years.



Green Cloud Sage. Likes to blooms frequently, more frequently during Monsoon season with the increased humidity.

[lewdog]

Originally Posted by HemiEd

Looking forward to seeing your pictures!

Yep. One of our neighbors has done real well with them, leaving them out all winter.

Last year I planted one and it flourished, beautiful. Then the deer literally cleaned it of any leaves in the fall.

So, this spring I planted two, and the deer cleaned them night before last. I am hoping they pull out of it with the few leaves that are left. I put gallon jugs with water and moth balls vented near them hoping it will keep the deer away.

Here is a picture of four of the fruit trees, plum, apple, peach and pear. The pear and peach are loaded right now with fruit. The plums have all fallen off prematurely.

How cold are your winters? I get frost damage, even with covering, on our hibiscus. I wait until it's warmer and then remove the damaged parts. They come back nicely but many people here don't cover theirs and lose them during the winters here. Anything under 35 at night and they don't do so well.

Fruit trees are awesome. I am finding that lime trees here are pretty sensitive and need quite a bit of baby sitting/work. Mine has had some leaf curling recently that I can't figure out. Love the variety of fruit trees you have. Do you have the deer and birds eating them constantly?

[HemiEd]

Wow, gorgeous! You have done a tremendous job! Thanks for sharing those!

Maybe I should do like you and remove the fruit from our young trees?