Your yard really looks great,
do you still have any Cactus?
Any backyard pics?

Very nice pics! Im suprised that the crape died to the ground (I thought they were hardier), but it still looks awesome despite that!
Thanks for sharing! Your yard has grown a ton the past few years!
-Alex

Your yard looks beautiful! Very nicely done. Do you leave the basjoo and washingtonias in the ground over winter or are they dug up/pot planted? If you leave your basjoo in the ground, how do you protect it? I must be doing something wrong with mine, as it's only about 5 feet and been in the ground for 6 years now.

Jim - lots o cactus. See my other post. I needed Id's on 3 of them. I've been meaning to hit you up on tips for your ensete. I potted mine up last year but it took up a lot of space and didn't ultimately save all the trunk I thought it would. Do you store that bareroot? I did it once successfully bareroot and then the 2nd year it rotted all the was back to the corm.

Tropical - that is a dynamite crape which is not supposed to be as hardy as the "indian" cultivars. However that has always come back, one of the hardier ones bit the dust last winter. Go figure.

Island- the washies will be dug up as long as it's possible. They don't grow that fast up here and its pretty easy to dig up for now. The basjoo has been in the ground 3 years. I just throw a few bags of leaves on top of it in the winter and it has always gotten to at least 10'. My guess is that your soil is not great and/or you don't fertilize as much as I do. My soil is pretty darn good, heavily amended with organic material. I threw about 10-12 cups of chicken manure on it this year, and I fertilized at least 6 times with fish emulsion.

Great yard! What zone are you in?

T.J.

The dynamite Crapes are one of my favorites! They are one of the most common ones found here next to the classic pink ones and some purplish ones (maybe Zuni). I never get tired of Crapes!
-Alex

Great looking yard! Everything is filling in good. I with Alex I love some crape myrtles too. I can always find a place in my yard for one. As a matter of fack I just transplanted a japanese maple and replaced it with a tonto dwarf dynamite. Not sure where you are but those Mimosa's get huge here. Are you going to let it grow or keep it cut back?

You're correct, my soil is mainly clay because I'm only about a mile from Lake Erie, on an island as a matter of fact, so I mixed in some sand to break the clay up. I do fertilize quite a bit, but I don't use fish emulsion, so that could definitely be an advantage too. Either way, beautiful job on your yard.

Karate - I live in the coldest 6a in America in north cantral Pa.

Chad - see above. I'll let it grow, there are a couple of 15-20 footers around here that look beautiful. I'll worry about cutting it back then.

Island - My native soil is pure clay and rock here. Whenever I amend new beds you can't put enough organic material in. Sand is good for drainage but does nothing for nutrition. I save and compost all of mine and my neighbors leaves every year to amend soil with. I also add lots of composted humus and cow manure. This with give you the desired tilth and drainage as well as lots of nutrition.

One more thing Island re: fertilizers. I use only organics which are much more expensive, however they continually add beneficial material to the soil and attract beneficial organisms which will also help to improve the soil. Synthetics will kill or repel beneficials, destroy soil structure and can burn plants, especially bananas. Too much Miracle-Gro will burn the edges of the leaves. You can't overfertilize with organics.

Beautiful stuff! great job!

I did store it bare root.
You have to be careful about bruising it when
you bring it inside,any damage can result in
a portion/or all of it rotting as you noticed.
Even leaning it against a wall can cause it to
rot at the point where the stress is-that said,
it's easy after that,you just need a cool enough
spot to inhibit growth.

Your yard is stellar-nice job!

Wow nice basjoo! Amazing! Do they still die off in the winter even at that size?