Impractical Gardening

Pics taken on Nov 15, but I’m just now getting around to posting.

Native cherry, rock

The seed heads of those pale purple wild asters I’ve posted before.

Highbush blueberry fall color

Seed heads of new england aster, with switchgrass in background.

You don’t think of asparagus as having fall color, but…

My new-this-year fothergilla. The color lived up to its billing.

The picture didn’t do this combo justice.

The viburnum berries have fully turned and have been hit by frost. Remains to be seen whether the birds will eat them.

Before:

Notice the various branches that have not leafed out.

Bark could be pulled off in sheets, by hand.

During:

Up he goes.

Vrrm. Surprisingly the toddler slept through it.

It’s away!

Being lowered to the street (this is actually a different limb from the above).

The main trunk now going. We had this part sawed into fireplace length. Still need to get it split.

After:

More afternoon sun now, which will be good for my new foundation garden.

The big dying cherry tree in the front yard comes down today. I have mixed feelings about this. It’ll make the front yard a lot sunnier, so we can put veg there and I can worry less about some of the full sun plants I’m planning to put in the foundation bed. On the other hand, it’s a venerable old tree that probably would still be fine if not for the grading work that was done when our house was built (60 years ago!). This kind of cherry (prunus serotina) doesn’t often get this big. And I’ll miss seeing the line of the trunk from the dining room window.

Also: prunus serotina is a tree with a good deal of wildlife value. It’s the larval host for a number of butterfly and moth species. I see birds perching on it all the time, and I really hope there aren’t any active nests up there :(

On the plus side, the tree guys will also be cutting down the invasive glossy buckthorn that seeds itself around everywhere.

Pics to come.