Swimpy's Landscaping Thread

One down and one to go.

Tree on the other side is stripped. (View from front porch)

As seen from the front

And then there were none,

Yaaaaay!

Wow!

I agree that something smaller and prettier (dogwood or something else) will go much better in that space than the two big (whatevertheyweres).

Congrats!

Going to head to the garden center to see what they have.

Oh, now finally we can see your beautiful house. There must be so much more
light coming through the windows, right?

Such skinny trunks!

Yea, it's amazing how skinny they were.

I just got back from the garden center. I wanted to see what was available and get your input. I saw a couple of gorgeous crab apple trees. One is Prairie Fire http://www.mnpower.com/treebook/fact54.html This one gets up to 20', so it may be too large for the front yard.
Another is Coralburst http://www.ngnursery.com/Coral%20Burst%20Crabapple.htm This one only gets 8" to 10'.

CJ, it's great. I feel like I can breathe again!

Soz, they were Colorado blue spruce. They were still babies at only 29 years old.

I'm hesitant... wish one of them grew 10-12... 8 seems a little short for full maturity, but on the other hand, fits better with the lines and scale of the house than 20' does, to me I mean. 15... still might be a little high to me, figure it would be somewhere around the top of the skylights.

Lessee, the taller one has more vertical form, the other, more umbrella-like. My early vote is for the smaller, but want to think about it some more.
The taller one has a non descript pruning job..

Well, shoot, today's opinion is that the 'coralburst' fits better with the house at maturity. But never mind me, what do you think, Swimpy..

I'm also toying with the idea of not centering them where the other trees were, if I'm right about where they were, but more towards the left edge of the left window and equidistant from the center of the front door to the right, guessing that you have the yard room, thus leaving a full view and light toward the front entry... at least I'd like to measure that out re where it would land for mature growth. ( or possibly somewhere in between the old place and the edge of window..)

If you plunk them centered on that window and equidistant on the other side, wouldn't you still have a lot of blank land near the neighbors and yet be pretty much veiling the house (at maturity)?

Just musing. In the field, we plunk the pots down and stare at them...

Also, natch, be sure to leave enough room between the trees and the house for mature growth.. for shapely trees.

Do you have a plan anymore? you could always draw the front of the house out on quarterscale grid (pads often available at the drugstore), and then plot it out using the mature tree measurements. That involves measuring the front of the house and the length of the yard, but that's not all so hard with the right tape measure. Given the yard is so wide, you might make that at 2 feet to a quarter inch.. (1/8" scale) so the paper isn't all that big.

Or, plop the pots down and walk it off, putting stakes where you figure the edges of the mature trees would be (half the diameter of the tree width from each side of the pot), and then stand across the street and stare.. moving the pots if you don't like it...

Oh, I love the Coralburst, what beautiful flowers that tree has. A tree like that will be the envy of the neighborhood, Swimpy

I do not have a plan anymore. I'm just planting the two trees in the front this fall. There will need to be more of a plan for the front yard, but that will have to wait. I was thinking of not getting two of the same tree, but rather one of teh tall ones and the small coral burst. Don't know exactly how I'm going to place them. I don't want so much symmetry.

If you notice on the left we have a Japanese maple:



What if I put the coralburst in front of the windows to the left of the porch. The put the taller one toward the far end of the porch rather than centered on the two front porch windows?

I meant to say that's all I'm doing in the front this year. The rest of the job will be in the back yard. That will start next week. It's been raining so I don't have any photos of the back yard. I'll try to get some posted this weekend.

I can see that, was starting to think that way, though I'd only gotten to three trees, two being closer to each other on the right. But I like you're doing both, that sounds/looks good to me, and it does fit the rhythm of the house (and I think it fits better than the opposite, the tall in front of the left and short in front of the right. But, play with that thought in case you disagree.)

Good thinking!

That's yours? Ahh, property line further over than I was thinking.

Hah, now I might put in two shorties (oh, never mind, that's only a might).