You've been very busy!! Beautiful transformation. You must have boxes delivered on a daily basis! I'm jealous.

The nasty disease of which you are clearly displaying symptoms is commonly known as "ACS" -- Addicted Conifer Syndrome. (If you haven't read it, you must find the story/article written by Susan Eyre which has been reprinted in the Conifer Quarterly. If you have not yet joined the ACS -- American Conifer Society -- you must. The arrival of your Conifer Quarterly will be the next most exciting delivery after your boxes of conifers.)

You know you're going to have to remove more of that beautiful grass as your conifers grow. Or do you have big plans for the backyard? Whatcha got out back?

Welcome! Look forward to seeing more posts from you.

Kim

Boxes daily yes. Haha. Old beater car, barely runs, needs work. Rather spend money on MORE CONIFERS! Hahah.

The grass will probably stay(but who knows!). I really like a nice backdrop and it's easy to maintain. Might give it a trim job, wack out a foot or two along the edges down the road.

A lot of my conifers were bought from Bob and Diane at Coenosium Gardens, at least many of the 'rare' ones while I've also recently found Stanley and Sons and I've used ebay, Bloom River and Forest farms.

Definetly going to join the ACS. Sounds like a great society to be a part of.

The sides of my house get little sun so that is where I have my Japanese maples planted. Still trying to fit conifers in where I can. The backyard is about a 70' x 100' triangle and gets good sun. The projects back there are just that - projects. I have a small rock garden and a couple of mixed plantings - conifers, Japanese maple dwarves and a few other colorful shrubs mixed in. I'll post a few of them though they are not finished and I'm embarrased to show things all 'roughed up' compared to some of the spotless landscapes I see in other posts. Here ya go!

Back yard rock garden and mixed bed, photo from second floor window.
{{gwi:866621}}

Back yard mixed plantings and conifers and conifers waiting in line to be planted.
{{gwi:866622}}

Wow......have you counted how many cultivars you have?

Thank so much for listing all the names; that alone is a time consuming task.

I'll bet that hammock doesn't see much action!

Barbara

""I'll bet that hammock doesn't see much action!""
---------------------------------------------------

On the contrary. I'm a single firefighter and while my hobbies do consume time, I'm very lucky in that my job gives me many more 'daylight' hours to work outside then the average 9-5'ers who come home at night most of the time. During big projects, I work 2-3 hours then get a cold drink and relax in the most comfortable hammock in the world. Sitting under the shade with birds eating and bathing nearby, a fountain running, it is sinfully relaxing and I pace myself enough to get plenty of rest.

Here, take a seat...
{{gwi:866623}}

If you're ever in the neighborhood, just drive up my driveway and have a nap! hah!

Regarding my fledgling conifer collection, my paper-scribbled lists I've written down over the last year or so is about 400 cultivars deep and I have probably planted 600 total. Some I just can't get enough of. I now understand why so many conifer lovers buy more land. lol

Wow! That's a great deal of work to be completed in a short amount of time. I'm jealous that you can just amble over to Bob's or any of the other great conifer places in the PNW. You have many of the plants on my 'wish list' but I can't imagine being able to ever own that many of them. You are fortunate. Thanks for sharing.

oh for gods sake... you dont what frightful weather is.. lol .. refer to any of my pix ... lol ...

you should be able to tell the brilliant yellow skylands.. from a silver plant.. i cant tell from the pic.... which you are referring too ... cause i dont see a plant that could be called silver.. if you mean the brilliant yellow one.. its either skylands.. or its runt... tom thumb ...

that front view.. with all the scrub plants... aka shrubs.. your property??? ... its going to be them or the lawn .. as you continue to invest in more conifers... and need to move those you already have .... like you can stop buying now.. lol ...

your next winter project will have to be a database .... and this is why .. a $100 plant without a name.. is a $10 conifer ... why invest the money.. if in a decade.. you cant remember the name ... i will expand in your other posts ....

great pix... wish you could do some cultivar specific pix.. like i have been posting.. its a better reference for us.. and its a pictorial history of how your plants grow.... its fun to look at the pix.. 2...3...5 years back.. and remember that 6 inch one gallon plant.. that is taking over the walkway ...

ken

Ken, no question I am going to have to invest into some nice plant labels. I'd prefer a copperish or stainless steel look, something I won't have to replace in ten years. I see the tape you recommend on my other post(Brother TZ131), and I have a P-touch, now I just need a hookup for some nice stands. 10" tall is plenty tall enough for my needs. Did you have a source you really recommended? I'd start wth 100 of them if that would be possible.

Also no question those 'shrubs' in my front beds are on the endangered list here. They were planted 15+ years ago and while they do a nice job for most people, I have already been whacking out paths back into the slope and cutting out spots for holes for some of the larger verticle specimens I've planted amongst them. I think I'd like to slowly work from the inside-out, replacing them with upright and large 'shrubby' conifers and Japanese maples over the following months/years. The soil in there is outstanding, probably the best on my property and there are a series of rock walls(the same type of rocks I am using amongst my mini conifers) that will provide the effect of natural retaining walls. If I work inside-out, there won't be any 'transition' and should be much less harsh on the eyes.

I've certainly gone 'crazy' buying conifers of late. I have COD, compulsive-obsessive-disorder, so when I get into a hobby, I generally go pretty nuts. I am not a rich person, I'm just a single firefighter, but I do budget extremely well, drive a very modest(some would say junk - except I get 40 MPG) car with no payments and don't have a family to suppost. I am very lucky to be able to pursue my hobby with such zeal. Also for the first time in my life I have accumulated some credit card debit to buy a few more conifers. My reasoning is pretty simple. It takes 5 years for credit card debit to cost you 'twice' for interest - and I plan on having it paid off by Spring, meanwhile those conifers I've bought will have five years of growth and definetly would cost more then twice what I paid now for them. I actually have some 80-100 conifers in pots in my backyard, growing and soon to be either planted or repotted for future projects. As the old saying goes, the best time to start planting trees is twenty years ago, the second best time is today.

I'll try to post 'closeups' on a lot of my conifers over the following months, it's not like the weather is getting any better. The 'Skylands/Silver Seedling' question mark is probably a Skylands, but it is growing very unusually and more like a shrub then an upright tree. I have three skylands and the one in the picture(the all gold one next to the blue pom pom) is growing quite different then my other skylands.