The Weeping Cherry Tree
Everyone seems to think my weeping cherry tree is awesome so I thought I’d share a season by season picture of the tree.
Here is is in all it’s glory. Â This photo was taken on April 10, 2012 in all it’s glory.
After about 2 weeks of blooms, the tree looks like this. This photo was taken on May 15, 2012
It was in May that I thought wow, maybe I’ll keep this tree. Look at this cool bird nest!
Ironically, the same photo that made me think “Cool!” also made me cringe. Look at the mess that is the branching of that tree.
This is what the form of a weeping cherry should look like:
The mess that is my tree is never going to go back to its traditional form. It’s been neglected for far too long. And that becomes painfully obvious when you see the tree in the winter…the longest season. yes, from November to April, a full half the year, this is what is looks like:
The “hand” I call it is creepy and deformed looking.  It’s also awkardly placed in our yard which is really a shame.  I’ll do what I can to save it by cutting off all the branches in the “hand” that are growing in the wrong direction but eventually, it will have to go.  I am planning on growing something else further back towards the property line to add a little privacy and once that takes, it’ll be time to chop down the cherry tree. We will have Tree Removal Southern Maryland come out and take it down for us. I may even re-read some plotless Russian literature while I do it.  (That’s a super-nerd literature reference…yeah, I’m cool.)
And that’s the saga of our tree. Â Part of me loves it’s pink blossoms and the feeling of being inside it’s sweet canopy of leaves but part of me knows that 6 months of ugly isn’t worth a month of pretty. Â Then again, perhaps it is.
What do you think? Â Chop it or leave it? Â Any advice on making it less ugly? Â I’m thinking of making a bunch of pinecone bird feeders to hang on it but I’m waiting another winter until we’re sure the Grackles are gone for good. Â The pigeons still come around from time to time making trouble but they are far less numerous than the Grackles were.
Visit us at tree service for more tips.
Sarah
Weekend Update – June 30 to July 1
I can’t believe it’s already July! Â The abundance of flowers in the backyard tells that summer is upon us.
The roses are mostly gone with a few stunners left holding on to the last grips of spring. Â The petunias are going crazy as they do. Â The gladioli are so much fun. Â They popped out this last week and are all abloom. Â I want to mark which ones are red, yellow, and pink so that I can group them by color next year for an even more stunning display.
I also had my first harvest this weekend. A handfull of beans. I didn’t even bother cooking them. They were a little bitter and I think I’ll pick them younger from here on out but they were fresh and crisp. Still no tomatoes though there is a little one forming. Seems late but perhaps it just feels that way since it’s been so hot.
Vector is bigger and still helping Daddy whenever it’s time to work on a project. Unless he’s tired… then he just sleeps on a chair and keeps an eye on the situation.
This weekend we tackled a couple unexpected problems. Namely: Pantry moths. On Thursday evening we drove out to the container store to pick up a bunch of glass jars. My mom always had the flower and sugar etc in glass cracker jars. I’m sure hers were genuine vintage but I was in a bind and had to make do with new.
They look quite cute in the ikea cupboard we have in the kitchen and once I have enough space to spread out, I think they will be really nice. In the short term they are making it hard for the pantry moths which was definitely the goal. The 1 gal jars were $6.99 plus I had a 10% off coupon so $6.30 per jar. I bough 4 large and 4 medium sized jars. They aren’t all full yet but I’m sure I’ll come up with stuff to stash in them.
I also stumbled upon these at Dollar Tree of all places.
They are tall enough to store pasta which is great. I had some concerns that they may be the gross plastic that makes your food taste bad and is supposed to give you cancer. I figured I’d just risk it for $1 a piece. Turns out, they are BPA free:
Food Safe, Microwave Safe, Freezer safe, Top-rack dishwasher safe. Awesome though I don’t know of any dishwashers that would fit that container on the top rack. These will be great for dried beans, pasta, etc and they look like the perfect fridge storage for batched cocktails.
You can see the place is still a construction zone. Yes that is ram-board on my kitchen floor and yes, it is the most awesome stuff ever. I’m entirely baffled how it works. It’s waterproof, ding proof, cuts easily with a knife, 100% recyclable. It’s pricey at $31 for a 50′ by 3′ roll but def worth it. Without it, our floors would be a mess I’m sure. Anyways, I wanted to show you the excellent catfood container we picked up while we were at the container store. We think that’s how the moths found there way into the house. I also had this amazing realization that these awesome heart shaped food prep bowls I got as a wedding gift make the worlds cutest cat bowls. I feel bad using such a nice gift to feed the cat but it was so cute I couldn’t resist.
As far as actual house stuff, you saw above Stefan and the cat working on the dishwasher. That is now wired all the way back to the breaker as is the stove and the refrigerator. We have wires coiled in the basement and pulled through the walls for the under-cabinet outlets and lights. Those still need to be pulled back to the box in the basement but that is fairly low priority and doesn’t have to be done before the drywall is fixed. We still have a good bit to do before the electric is done in the kitchen but we are making progress. We are learning as we go and we are definitely getting faster.
Tomorrow is the holiday and we have big plans. We are going to finish up the kitchen electric and plumbing with help of Gold Medal Plumbing and Drain and get a big hole in the kitchen wall ready for the gas and drain for the laundry room upstairs. The kitchen windows come on Friday and If all goes according to plan, we will get those installed next weekend and work on water supply and electric for the closet/laundry room. Then we can have the drywall installed and start getting our kitchen to start looking like a kitchen again!
Have a wonderful Independence Day and don’t forget to remember what this day is all about!
Sarah
Weeds!
My backyard is quite the eco-system. We have cut back on the pigeons now that the roof is closed up. I haven’t seen them in a while so I assume they have found a new home. The squirrels are as feisty as ever but I don’t think they are back inside. We have a Grackle nest in the sewer vent pipe but the rest of them mostly just squalk and try to get in. I’m hoping by winter they will have given up and found a different poorly maintained house to live in. I’m also going to put a gazillion birdhouses in the backhard. I figure I had better give those feisty birds plenty of places that aren’t my attic to live. I also want to manage to keep some robbins and blue-bird nests from getting ransacked by the Grackles.
I’ve got a ton of roses…covered in Aphids and what the neighbor thinks is a Spirea that has swarms of them. I also have a host of weeds. Goutweed is one of the worst around here. I’ve got a couple patches but my behind neighbor was kinds enough to work on them for a while earlier this spring when I didn’t have the time. It was spring vacation week and she made her kids help clean out my backyard. I think she considered it preventative maintenance/boredom buster/whining discipline. Hey sure, I can always supply some punishment chores.
My first bloom. B-E-A-utiful!
A bit of trumpet vine in the front. I need to get rid of it but I hate to kill a good plant. The stuff is a nightmare though. Perhaps I’ll get it started up the shed once we have that in place. I believe it is the tendril type vine not the sucker type so it’s relatively safe. It grows a mile a minute it seems.
Here is a photo of the Spirea-candidate. She should get pink and white blooms if she is indeed spirea. She was covered in Aphids and so far the spray I used seems to have worked. You can see a bunch of dead aphids on her.
I found a small bit of goutweed to show you. Â It doesn’t look like much but it’s the underground spreading method that is so difficult. It’s the little 3-leafed plant.
I do have plenty of mustard which runs rampant but isn’t nearly as hard to get rid of.
It pulls up real easily which is a definite plus. The yard is also covered in Bugleweed. I think it’s bugleweed. It’s either that or catmint. Can any weed experts tell? It has a square stem, little purple flowers, and it seems to spread like a ground creeper rather than upright like catmint.  It smells great and doesn’t seem to mind being mowed so I think I’ll just let it compete with the grass for now.  I moved a bunch of it to the front yard hoping it would take over.
I also have this vine growing on the ugly chain link fence on the right side of the backyard. I believe it to be False Virginia Creeper. It definitely has little spiral grabbers and the characteristic 5 leaves. I just hope it isn’t something bad like Poison Sumac but I don’t think that grows up here. I’ll tear it out once I have a chance to get rid of that fence but I don’t want it to take to my deck or something in the meantime.
There are also always the dandilions and Violets that scatter the lawn but those aren’t too interesting. There are a couple strange ferns and some plants with carrot-y leaves that I’ve pulled here and there but nothing recognizable. I’ll have to let some grow up and see if anything interesting blooms.
Here is one odd one. Looks viscous.
Oh, another great addition to the wildlife, we were gifted a squirrel tail this weekend. It seems some neighborhood cat has adopted us. I hope to get a peek at him sometime but so far, I haven’t seen any cats around.
I love all the nature in our little .15 acre lot. So many birds and plants. I’ve seen bluejays, bluebirds, a robin in her nest, lots of chickadees and of course the ugly grackles and the pigeons that we evicted. I even saw a hawk grab a chickadee out of the tree next to the house! It looks like there used to be a big hawk nest in the tree next door but it has been abandoned probably since the grackle population has drastically declined. Maybe next summer I’ll put out a bird feeder and a bird bath and see who comes to the neighborhood but until we have these grackles under control, we won’t be encouraging birds of any kind.
My Robin nest that was prematurely abandoned:
I’m not a huge fan of this weeping cherry. Sure the robins nest was cool and It’s beautiful in early spring but I don’t love the placement and I don’t love the shape especially in the winter. Here is a picture of it at its most beautiful:
Here it is from the side yard. Â You can see deck building going on in the foreground.
I need a National Audubon Society book so I can identify all the birds that I see. I know Finches and Chickadees and the blue-jay but there are so many that I don’t know. Do you know of any good regional weed books? I’d love to identify some of the things I’m pulling in the garden.
Sarah
Roses Roses Roses
My roses are blooming like crazy!  It’s awesome.  I have a beautiful sunset colored rose.  The outside petals are pink and the inside ones are yellow.  There is also a deep pink one, and a yellow rose and a huge fuchsia one.  There are even a few that haven’t bloomed yet so they are surprises!
My grammy would love it!
