Way cool Whaas, Good to see you on here!

...and so the thrill of the hunt is renewed.

I guess you could call it tabula whaasa.

The couple of plants I got are doing well, btw.

tj

How much acreage?

Dax

alley, same to you!

Tom, I had to look that one up! lol. Its a blessing and a challenge. I'm a bit behind due to injuries one of which needed surgery and the next one I'm trying my best to avoid but it may be inevitable and it bit more serious.

Yes, I remember that 'Jakobsen' having crazy roots!

Dax, you can file that one under "not enough!"

I hear ya. I would like to have 10. 4 of that being native that wouldn't need mowing/upkeep. 10 because that drops into a low tax bracket for IL. My six is about right for upkeep.

Dax

That may be the next ticket when I get closer to retirement. I have little ones so school district limits our choices!

Happy thus far as we have 1.5 acres of outlots (no taxes and not build-able) with native trees and grasses. Then I have 1.5 acres to my own device.

Woo hoo! Look at that blank canvas. So happy your going to be back in action. Can't wait to see what you will be putting in. Please do keep us posted.

Great to hear from you,,,looks like it's gonna be fun

ron

so where is your neck of the woods now ?

Garen, you bet. Nice to see things are starting to mature for you. Amazing on quickly things begin to settle in.

Ron, still hanging in SE WI...call it 7 min from the last place, lol

welcome back ...

have you interviewed conifer kingdom dude ... brent ... gotta think you guys are old buds from way back ... if you call him.. tell him i said hi ....

ken

I have Western Evergreen all lined up! His media is the best in the industry.

Now that winter has arrived (at least the snow and temp say its here), I'm jonesing looking back at some of the plants I want to use again.

Wow -- that is quite the border. Whaas, nice to see you back at GW. Are all of those from your old place? Nicely done.

Man, you had such great combinations going there.

maackia, you bet! Unfortunately it was a short 5.5 years. Did you catch the Maackia in pic 3? The most underrated tree for zone 4/5. I'm shocked that a few horticulturists around here aren't aware of this plant.

Garen, I certainly lucked out in certain cases! Trial and error they say. It has always been a challenge getting a mix of colors in the upper limits of zone 5. I always envied those with more acidic soil in zone 6. Amazing how many more plants can be used, especially JMs. If I live long enough I'm retiring to the PNW or somewhere more remote in the NE!

Whaas, ever try 'Seiryu' A.pal. up there? It's reliably hardy here and grows like a champ.

Dax

P.s. beautiful to revisit your garden.

P.p.s. Broken Arrow has Corylus fargesii last I checked. That's one you cannot pass up! I've got one on order. It appears they have their online nursery shut down for winter.

i meant consult with him as the landscape architect he is ... ken

Hey Dax, Thanks for the suggestion! I'll have to try that one. I had a few that did well after that nasty winter we had in 2013 (I believe).

Ah yes, I did see that and I should have just bought one. Hopefully they still have them in the spring. The bark is incredible even at a young age.

Hey Ken, makes sense now! I have a quite a few commercial architect contacts (outside WI) that referred me to their landscape architect contacts but the out of state thing didn't seem to work for my vision. I had better, more in depth conversations with those that could visit the house and take it all in the flesh. The view from the inside is just as important as the view from the outside.

I remember that was a beauty! Good to see the 'Hoodie' is doing good! Wish I could have relocated more plants to tell you the truth.

Looking forward to the new journey.

Getting Started...

5 years later...

Getting started...

5 years later...

Getting started...

5 years later...

Looking forward!

Yeah, you've got talent buddy. How old are you? I'm ask because it takes a lot of hard work to do things like this over and over again, and, I know this next one will be your third. I still remember the first time I saw your garden the house prior to the photos above and I thought to myself, 'there's a guy with talent'.

Dax

Appreciate the comment, but I don't know about that I'm just an amateur!
I do know my plants though!

I feel ancient with some of the issues creeping up but I'm going to keep pushing as this is my passion. The new place is going to be more permanent so I'm going to take my time on this one.

Speaking of the last house, er, two houses ago I did a drive by. I was floored at how things filled in. The Seven Sons Flower that planted say 8 years ago was the most gorgeous specimen I've ever seen of this particular plant. There are new owners now and I was thinking about asking to do a tour next spring.

As you should. I still drop by my first house once a year, skip a year, or look a few times a year. I have to put my head over the fence to look. I used probably 99% of the conifers there from Stanley & Sons. Whenever they had a 3 or 5 gallon for sale I'd buy it for the most part. I wouldn't call it that original. A paperbark maple I planted in 2002 is now the most gorgeous plant there. It's now 25 ft. tall easily and gaining a lot of caliper. I'm in awe each time I think about it. A metasequoia planted the same year has got to be 60' tall now. The measequoia was 2.5' tall when planted and the griseum was a beanpole 5-6' tall. It literally was about an inch diameter all the way up to six feet. Looked like a #3 pot. It was in a terra cotta pot when I brought it home from the nursery I then worked at.

Dax