u/Nature_Boy_4x40

Something bored into this red maple late last year - at the time it was a single hole round hole with a black sap trail running out of it.

This year, the bark around it has clearly died and is pulling away from the tree around the hole.

Unfortunately this is just below a major “Y” intersection with a main leader that accounts for 1/4-1/3 of the canopy. Is there a “best” place to remove the damaged leader, without causing serious damage to the other? are there other options to deal with this? Seems like the best spot to cut would be where the whole assembly connects to the trunk but that would leave a huge wound, and remove a huge portion of the tree…

What better way to celebrate the 4th of July than by buying a British sports car! This little GT6 followed me home over the weekend, despite barely fitting in the Uhaul. I always wanted one of these, and almost bought one about 15 years ago that wound up needing more work than I was willing to put into it at the time. I wound up buying a FJ40 Land Cruiser instead. While I don’t regret the Toyota, I’ve always casually had an eye out for another GT6, so when this one popped up an hour away, I had to go take a look…

It’s definitely at a bit of a crossroads - the body was restored in the 90’s but the frame, while solid, needs help. It needs a tune-up, idles at about 1400rpm and overheats in about 10 minutes, diesels on shutdown. Everything leaks. Interior is so/so but generally speaking it’s fairly complete.

Now I just need to clear out some space in the garage, get it out of the weather and start getting it sorted out!

The Serviceberry tree I planted last fall got positively walloped by rust this spring. Probably 95% of berries affected.

There are a ton of dozens of red cedar trees on my property and the neighboring properties have them as well, so I knew this was a risk when I planted them, but wow!

I noticed in addition to some of the large tentacled galls on the cedar trees, the bark of some of their branches is covered in orange fungus as well. Is this a different kind of rust? Or just a heavily infected tree?

This was a weird year, with heavy snow over winter and late frosts, but I wouldn’t say it has been particularly wet up until this week. I know some years are worse than others. Has this been a particularly bad year, or is my property just extra infested?

Is there anything I should bother doing with the rust affected branches and fruits? If I can’t realistically break the cycle, is it best to just let it run its course? As this is freshly planted (year 1 in the ground) I don’t want to go crazy pruning it…

I planted a couple of roughly 3-4 ft tall black gums this spring (about 3 weeks ago). They’ve been getting slow/deep waterings weekly, the top of the root flare is at soil level, the hole was 3X the size of the pot they came in. The roots were slightly encircled in the pot so I did my best to break them loose and get them directed outward. There was certainly some root damage but it was hopefully minimal.

The tree is in full sun, slightly acidic (pH6) high-silt loam that tends to be pretty compacted/hard when dry, but holds water for a while when wet, near a run-off ditch. Seemed like a good location for a black gum…

For the first couple of weeks the tree looked great, no immediate signs of stress after planting. Last week we had a hot spell we had (mid 90’s for 3-4 days or so) and this one started to brown out.

I’m guessing this might be transplant shock, but the onset seems a little late for that, and the dieback looks a little weird - from the margins on some leaves, blotchy on others…

I’m going to keep it watered and see what happens but was wondering if anyone else has some advice!

Hi all,

Northeast Corner of Maryland, Zone 7

I asked about this a couple of weeks ago, but (incorrectly) assumed that this small bed, being in the North side of a shed, was mostly shaded/blocked from the sun at mid day. As we approach summer, I’ve come to find that from mid May - summer, this little bed will be in full sun. During spring/fall, it is shaded from about 10am - 2:30pm. With full sun early morning/late afternoon.

The bed is about 4 ft deep on the left, tapering to 3ft deep on the right, about 8ft long in total.

Details:

- Soil is a silt loam, about 63% silt, 33% sand, 4% clay by jar-test.

- It is often dry, but also poorly draining when wet. So a very “feast/famine” water cycle. Soil dries to a hard crust that tends to run-off. Mulch helps.

- pH is slightly acid, 5.5-6.

- Heavy rabbit pressure, deer are present but don’t typically come this close to the house.

Ideally, I’d like something fairly compact in this bed. I’d like to keep air-flow by the shed, and avoid encroaching into the walkway through the gate.

I’m busy with work and chasing kids around so I’m looking for natives that thrive on neglect! Monarda fistulosa, penstemmon digitalis, and packera have done well elsewhere. Ilex glabra has survived as a foundation planting (but it’s admittedly a little boring).

I was thinking some sort of shrub (originally maple leaf viburnum) toward the door in the wider section, and maybe some flowering perennials to the right in the narrower section.

Something that would play off the blue shed (red? Gold?) might be fun.

Due to the wall, I can’t do anything with aggressive roots.

What would you do?

Hi all,

I have been steadily clearing back hundreds of Autumn Olive bushes from my property. I’m trying to convert my 4 acres back to primarily native plants, BUT - my kids absolutely love exploring/playing in the canopies “tunnels” these thickets create. They’re constantly building “forts” and “camping,” climbing the bushes’ branches, and generally finding cool treasures back there. Despite their super invasive nature, it’s my kids’ favorite part of the yard… they smell nice too… The kids are currently 4 and 7 years old so obviously the best time to start this endeavor was 7 years ago, but maybe there’s something fast growing out there that would fit the bill…

My question - are there bushes/small trees out there that I could use to form a similar densely canopied, but low, thicket - say 20-30ft tall, relatively fast-growing (these olives get this size in about 5-7 years) with an arching structure like this that take well the being “hollowed out” underneath? I’m sure the deer will do that, regardless…

Some details:

- Northeast corner of Maryland, Zone 7

- Mildly Acid (pH 5.5-6) fairly compacted, usually dry but poor draining silt loam

- significant deer pressure

- lots of cedar rust (which heavily effects my Amalanchier, and I suspect would equally affect Hawthorne species)

- black knot and fireblight issues as well.

TLDR version:
I’m looking for a native shrub/tree to 25ft tall to form a native thicket that my kids can build forts in (but also benefit native wildlife, birds, pollinators)