Sunday, June 27, 2010

The Great Landscape Redesign - 2010 Edition

We had a professional come in some years ago to design a landscape for our acreage.  That was a mistake.  This person did not appreciate the issues when planning a landscape in the country.  Trees were selected that were borderline hardy for our zone (Zone 2).  Some plants happened to be a deer's most favorite food in the whole wide world.  But the biggest problem was the importance of a windbreak was totally ignored.  So I've got to fix this.

Today I tried propagating some acute willows based on this technique.  They are a beautiful tree, very hardy, and work well as a windbreak.  I've started off with about a dozen and I'll watch them over the next few days.  If it seems like they are taking, I'll go into production and do about 50 more.  I've also got my eye on a bunch of other trees in the area around where I work.

The idea is to eventually fill in the yard with all kinds of trees and flowerbeds.  It is way too open right now.  The wind gets in and whips around and tears stuff up.  If I can get enough stuff planted, I should be able to create my own micro-climate and do some interesting things out here.  At the same time, that will cut down on the amount of grass / weeds around this place that I need to mow. 

I've started a layout using Google Sketchup to help visualize how this will all look in the end.  Naturally.

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