Dreary fall Monday

Pristine irrigation pond that doubles as the town skating/ice hockey place to be when it's 12” thick+

Now we're scooping up rotted wood chips as a valuable soil-making ingredient when we screen next summer. Looks like shit to everyone else, to me, it looks like gold.

Metasequoia glyptostroboides I planted from a 2 gallon pot looking truly paleolithic with branches sunken into the trunk that swirls it's way skyward

Cornus florida berries getting ready to freeze so the birds can eat them soon. I use this attribute to sell these trees and some sterile people always ask "do the berries get all over the place and make a mess?" NO- the berries are highly coveted by birds. I've never seen one on the ground.

Ilex verticillata berries getting ready to glow in the warm afternoon sun when the leaves drop off.

Stewartia pseudocamellia just sold. We are having a great tree selling year. I specialize in trees- we hold them over for years until they finally sell. This tree is a top shelf species

Oak leaf hydrangea shining in the gloomy moisture this am. Great flowers but greater fall foliage.

3 watt LED 3,000 kelvin bulbs I switched to last year. Instead of energy gulping halogen 100watts per tree we now have 6 watts per tree and get more light! Dump the old, get the new. As soon as you do, you will save moolah.

Beautiful $300 American boxwoods (infected with boxwood blight)

This is how it starts. No chemical control. No cure. The era of boxwood dominance IS OVER!

Small leafed holly (ilex crenata) is my first substitute

Deer resistant arborvitae come in lotsa cultivars (thuja plicata)

Broadly conical base of green giant arborvitae. I get 4’ new growth per year on young trees in pots. Not bad.