baby Japanese maple and baby Tristana (being extremely babey)

[cimorene]

Introducing my new baby Japanese maple (Acer palmatum Atropurpureum)!



It will be at its best in fall obviously, and it hasn't had time to start growing roots and flourishing yet. Not totally prepossessing yet, but it SHOULD eventually look more like this:



I've been coveting one of these since I arrived at the garden department at work 4 weeks ago, but I was stopping myself from buying new trees willy-nilly: we have lots of trees (lots of ordinary maples even) and if anything we need more sunlight, not less. ...However, after Midsummer summer plant sales drop off dramatically, so I spent all Friday putting -50% stickers on things with my coworker. And when Wax saw it on sale, she actually read the tag and saw that it's actually a shade-tolerant bush-sized cultivar (under 2 meters), and concluded I should just buy it since I want it so much. It fits nicely in with our plan to fill in the shade garden corner with more bushes.

Meanwhile, Tristana is recovering nicely.



She's been a tiny bit subdued the last two days, but her painkiller prescription has run out and she's running and bouncing again right on schedule today.

Comments

[yvannairie]

Ohhh yes the blood maple. A yard on my old post route had two, pretty big ones. They looked the absolute coolest in the fall when the rest of the yard was bright yellow.

[cimorene]

Apparently there's more than one mutation that makes this color! Or... color family? There's a blood maple near the supermarket here that Wax says is some kind of mutation from the local species of maples, but there's also several cultivars of Japanese maple that are that color (purple-black-red? It's more dried blood?). This one is called that too, but I also saw some people calling it purple, in contrast to, I guess, other Japanese maples that are more clear or orangey reds.

A proper full-size one would obviously be a bit more impressive than a cute little bush, but start small I guess.

[yvannairie]

I have a deep affection for shrubbery, tbh. If I ever own a house with a garden, it'll probably end up being "regular plants, but they're all weirdly small??? a miniature forest that only comes up only to about your waist???"

(it's part 1 of making a garden where I don't have to worry about mowing the lawn. Part 2 is planting a shitton of red clover)

[cimorene]

I also would like a garden with 0 lawn. Unfortunately the starting place here is that there's fucking grass everywhere including the three rock gardens.

I saw clover seeds, but I fear that getting rid of the grass first would be a necessary prerequisite for getting them well established? We only have a few patches of them around the yard now and surely they would spread out more if they could.

I also really like bushes - my mom had a flower bed under an oak tree that was full of big bushes with bark mulch in between and I loved to go in there when I was a little kid. Finland has the exciting possibility of BERRY bushes of course, and we've planted a couple of rows of those in the sunny middle part of the yard too... but there's still stripes of grass in between them for now.

There's something you can sprinkle over the lawn to kill the moss in between the grass, so why isn't there something to sprinkle that would kill the grass and leave the moss??? I love the moss!

[yvannairie]

This actually got me off my arse to ask my horticulturist friend about lawnless yards. Here's what they had to say:

In northern climates, clover is hardier and more vigorous than the traditional species of grass used to make lawns. If their lawn is the teensiest bit struggling, clover will quickly overtake the areas where grasses are struggling. If they keep overseeding every year, it's likely that clover will eventually overtake everything. There's also thyme sold in seeds, that can be used as ground cover, but it's much harder to establish, and works better in dry conditions. Thyme won't overtake grass as easily as clover. If they don't mind a bit of physical labor, there are faster ways of removing grass. They can kill patches of their grass to then tear out and replace with anything of their choosing. Either by scalding patches of grass with boiling water (specifically, water that's been used to boil potatoes - don't ask, I'm not sure why that specifically myself). There are recipes with salted and vinegar water, but keep in mind that that will make it hard for anything to grow where it was used, for a while. They can also use layers of carton, like dismantled carton boxes, laid over the patches they want to kill, held in place against the wind by being watered, covered in mulch, or with stones. Once the grass is dead, they can pull it out, and seed the area with clover, or implant moss. Also, a good way to ensure the success of overseeding your lawn is to lay down a small layer of soil on the areas you plan on seeding. Not very thick, maybe about 3/4 of an inch. Err. 2cm, more or less? And then use a rake to let the soil fall between blades of grass. A light watering to moisten up the fresh soil, then voilà! A perfect bed for overseeding :D

They also seconded me on how grass is good to leave on the edges of the property, steep slopes and anywhere that erosion is a problem. Clover is also a lot more resistant to trampling than moss, but its root system is pretty small compared to grass. If you're gonna put down moss, you'll want to make a rock path for walking on.

I dream of a clover lawn with wood sorrel growing around the shady parts.... =A=)

[pensnest]

I love Japanese maples! I want one here, but am hoping to actually get a decent design done for this garden. I hope yours will flourish.

[cimorene]

You mean you want to pick the exact right spot for it with the rest of the garden mapped out too before you put it there?

[pensnest]

Oh yes! I would hate to kill such a beautiful thing. I know they grow hereabouts, but it's probably a matter of (a) getting the right balance of sunshine, shade and shelter, and (b) putting it somewhere I can see it properly,

At the moment I'm not feeling at all confident about my ability to plant stuff. The courgettes—the courgettes!—have all died!

[cathexys]

What a cutie!!! Glad she did well without the pain killers!!!