They are really coming along, b2! I agree, it's good to have pics to document their progress. I need to remember to do that here, too.

Remind me, was the spruce the standard species or a cultivar?

Thank you Marj!

Thank you Barb! Somehow I still have the picture I took of it while it was one the cart at Echter's. The third one shown below. It's the standard species Colorado blue spruce.

Also, Barb, I have a question-

When I planted the new ones in 2013- the first and second photos here- I made sure to dig great big potting holes, with that good soil at O'toole's for conifers. I spent a long time reading up and talking with their conifer guy at the nursery. I also mixed in the right amount of that stuff they love, the Mycorrhizae fungus stuff, before I set in the baby trees.

My question is this- do I need to add more Mycorrhizae? If so, do you prefer liquid form? or granules? I have no clue. Thanks!

If I may...

Mycorrhizae is not needed. If the fungi in the surrounding soil has not infected by now, it never will. Hopefully you purchased the right type initially and it was formulated for the families you planted.

I love the way you’re documenting the progress of your
trees, B2!

My first impulse was to say that it won’t be long before
some of them start eating others, but I see you can already tell they’re
starting to salivate, so no problem!
It’s going to be a wonderful forest before you need to move or somehow
“thin” them.

What Dan says!
Mycorrhizae isn’t like “fertilizer,” you don’t just add more every now
and then. If you’re going to use it at
all it should be applied when you’re planting—and after that it either helps or
it doesn’t. In a “normal residential
yard” I wouldn’t even bother with it. It
may help, it certainly won’t “hurt” anything, but since you’re “actively”
caring for your plants, watering, etc., I doubt that it will make any
noticeable difference.

Having said that, last year I did a lot of “research” about
mycorrhizae because I was buying some tree seedlings that were to be planted on
a hot, dry mesa top just south of Mesa Verde, where they’d only be watered at
and for a while immediately after planting, and then they were on their
own! To make matters worse, the area
where they were to be planted burned about 15 years ago, there has been very
little recovery of ANYTHING in the area, and the heat of the fires very
probably destroyed at least some, and possibly most, of the naturally occurring
soil fungi. I wound up getting the
seedlings from CSU/CSFS and all the seedling trees they sell are already
inoculated with the appropriate mycorrhiza, so, gratefully, I didn’t need to
actually buy any myself to treat the seedlings.

But in the process of my “research” I saved a whole bunch of
links, so I’ll post a few of them here in case you’re interested in checking it
out further. Most of this information is
aimed at commercial growers and other commercial operations, but I think it’s
still pretty interesting!

Here are a couple sites with some very basic info!

http://www.blm.gov/nstc/soil/fungi/

http://aggie-horticulture.tamu.edu/faculty/davies/research/mycorrhizae.html

If you ever do want to use if again for something, this is
the best page I’ve found that tells which type should be used with which
plants!

http://mycorrhizae.com/wp-content/uploads/Types-of-Mycorrhizal-Plants.pdf

And this is probably way more than you’re interested in, but
I thought it was interesting! Seriously!

http://faculty.msvu.ca/fungal_ecology/Publi_Pdf/Mycorrhizal%20diversity-%20Cause%20and%20effect.pdf

I have LOTS more pages/reports/studies saved if you’re ever
interested, and also found some places to buy it before I found out I wouldn’t
need to!

We’ll be looking for more pics of your human-planted forest
next year,

Skybird

P.S. Do you know that
Nebraska has the only “human planted” National forest in the country????? Possibly in the whole world, but I wasn’t
able to verify that for sure!

There have been no scientifically documented benefits of commercially available myco, BTW. No need to purchase that product, especially when there are large pine trees nearby (in the OP's case). And also when noting it needs to be kept in controlled conditions, and you have no idea how it was shipped and stored prior to when you got it.

Caveat emptor.

(and the bed looks nice, BTW).

Very nice "forest" you have started, b2! Good to see that the trees are still thriving and looking happy.

Though former owners planted full sized blue spruces along the north side of the property, my yard is small so the only conifers I have planted here are dwarf conifers. I know trees never stop growing, but I'll be long gone by the time they outgrow my yard, lol; right now they are carefully placed and have all the room they need. Love to see how other peoples' gardens grow, perhaps especially when the plants are something that I can't grow!

Holly

They look great, B2! You have a little more space between the trees and the fence than I first thought. They should knock down the wind tunnel effect some. They look very happy! Your iris are beautiful, too.

Great job!

Barb