Category — Urban Garden

A while back I wrote about the Purple Robe Black Locust trees we had planted and how I thought that they were pretty great trees at first but as of late was having serious doubts about them after I noticed they did not hold up very well in storms.

We recently had to replace one of the Purple Robe in a row along one of the driveways. The landscaper planted the tree and I checked the tag to be sure even though it was not quite the same as the others. Different shape and size. Well the administration was convinced that this was not the right tree and they insisted that the landscaper planted the wrong tree. Had I not seen the tag with my own eyes I would have believed the administration. I did see it though yet this tree was definitely not the same as the others. So I started to do some research. I now have a real dilemma on my hands!

This is a picture of a tree that looks just like what was planted. I downloaded.

As you can see the shape of this tree and even the purple pink flower brackets hanging down . It is very lovely tree. The only problem is that the purple robe black locust we had planted did not look like this. So now I had to go on a search to find out what we had planted. This is what I came up with.

This is a picture of the tree we have palnted that I downloaded.

This is not a Purple Robe Black Locust it is a Robinia pseudoacacia Umbraculifera which is also a varety of black locust. I calle the nursery that sold us these tree 3 years ago and they confirmed that they had sold us the wrong trees but there was not much we could do about it as 3 years had passed.

So just to make matters worse growers are not growing this tree right now because it was found to be very suspetible to borer attack and when it was under stress it tended to sucker from it’s root sending up shoots of the root stock it was grafted to. Which is a very invasive tree that also tends to be filled with thorns. Well I decided better to start looking at all 55 of these trees and after just a couple of them I just stopped. I found that they were starting to sucker and then I checked the tres and found they were covered with borer holes and well now I guess it is time to make a decision. I have presented this to the administration and I await there decision.

These trees were all checked by the Landscape Architect that had drawn this plan ever one of the 460 trees we had planted were field checked by her. So if the person that designed this did not know what the tree looked like well I am just saying! My thought as each of these trees dies out lets replace them with the right tree. We will See

Well the summer certainly has turned up the heat here at the urban garden. The temperature has been hitting the upper 80’s and this weekend the 90’s. These are the days I really appreciate the 5am to 1pm shift we work. When the temperature gets hot it is time to be a little more cautious with your plants. Be sure that the ground does not dry out high temperatures promote quick drying conditions and especially for newer plantings with less established root systems it is important to keep the plants watered.

About a month ago we planted some trees and several almost immediately dropped most of their leaves. I thought that they may need to be replaced but I know a lot of times trees that are under stress from high heat will drop some of their leaves to save the  energy and moisture . We hit the trees with a dose of  a product called Super Thrive which is a combination of vitamins and supplements that you can find on the internet. We gave them two applications 2 weeks apart and they sprung right back to life and started popping buds. In fact one of the trees actually started to flower. They are all leafed back out and appear to be doing fine.

We are trimming the evergreen hedges here this week and next. It is a big chore but they recommend not to trim in any month with an R in it so that the plants have time to harden off any new growth from the trimmings before the freezing weather arrives. So as this is the last month without an R coming up tomorrow here we go.

Also I have been working on the irrigation system a lot. I have had to replace 14 heads that have been knocked off or run over in the last 3 weeks.I have to check the system almost daily as if one head is missing then the whole zone does not receive enough water. That is a time consumer when you have 44 irrigation zones to go through.

It is pretty hectic running a large grounds operation but somehow we always manage to get the big items taken care of and even find time to do the fine tuning stuff from time to time. If I just had 4 more guys. Oh well I just need 6 numbers to win the lottery guess I have just about the same odds on both those requests.

Sometimes things you plain turn out right sometimes they turn out even better. This combination of Annabelle Hydrangeas and Asiatic lilies are certainly one of them.

A great site in Our Serenity Garden ! They colors explode out from the Hydrangea background and it certainly is a car stopper as people drive by. In the original landscape plain the Hydrangea where ment to stand alone but as an after thought I planted the Asiatic Lilies to give it a bit more color. This is the second year for the lilies and they have really come into there own!

Sometimes the best garden designs are those that just happen as an add on. In this case it worked out well. The great thing is, had this turned out to be not such a good design the lilies could very easily been dug up and moved to a different location after they had bloomed and it would be a new lets see how it worked next summer.

Yesterday I was talking to a young gal and she was telling me about her garden. Her and her husband do not have a lot of money and they are starting out but she has gotten a lot of transplants from friends. They have a small preformed pond they want to install this summer and she was worried about plantings around it. She has a couple of roses that she wanted to plant and said that several people told her that they would not look good by the pond. Why Not? I told her that it really does not matter what others say the garden she is growing is hers and that is who it needs to please. I told her she could have a professional come in and design it based on her likes and dislikes and that would be all well and good but the professional would be designing from their perspective. What ever she likes is what she should  do and not worry about what others tell her. A garden is your space your place to unwind , enjoy, and renew yourself.

Well it is the beginning of a new week at the urban garden. This week we are working on the planting beds in the west parking lots.  We  are pruning off the suckers on the trees and mulching all the beds. Due to a very hard winter we are also getting a count on the couple of hundred perennials that we lost over the winter and placing an order. We lost a large number of Non Stop Roses as well which is unusual as they are generally very hardy and care free.

The weather has been pretty rainy as of late so the work schedule is a little off but thank goodness we are not experiencing the flooding that some in the Midwest are. We have been able to work around the rain and keep most of the schedule intact . Usually we would be starting the first round of hedge trimming this week but again the rain has slowed us a bit.

There are no major projects scheduled for the grounds this year as we are waiting for the building addition to be permitted and started. It looks like now it may be July before they break ground. The challenges still continue though we have had 7 sewer collapses this year so we have had to schedule those repairs around a very busy schedule in the parking lots.

I hope you can get out in your gardens this week and spend some time. It is really a great way to relieve some stress and get your spirits back in high gear.