Kentucky - I have been trying to figure out how to make some raised beds- or raised pots for the front yard landscaping. I don't want the look of basic garden vegetable beds for around the front of the house though. I thought maybe I could dig 2 ft hole and put a 2 ft raised planter on top of it, that night work. I iam also thinking about making very big planters (they are ridiculously expensive to buy. I am not sure about the aestetic for my front landscaping, but after considering many materials and my craftsmanship capabilities I have a plan. I will just have to try it and see how it looks. It could sit above ground, part in ground or in ground. My design is 2"x2" wood frame cube (or taller) dark cedar stained (ECO friendly and plant safe). Side and bottom panels of 1" hardware cloth. Inner lining of natural burlap. It would sit on 8" concrete blocks (in ground) with the hole side up foradditional drainage. Inside bottom filled with river rocks then another lining of burlap to contain the soil and the plant and finally mulch on top, of course. It would have to be big enough to allow 3'x3' space for the roots to grow in the soil area. Again, the aestetic is the probelm (aside form all the hard work and digging). I think it wold look descent but odd. To build a retaining wall for the space under the front window of the house would not look right eiterh at the height I need it to be. I think the real solution is to pay for a backhoe to come in here and excavate the clay and then have new soil put in - way too expensive for me right now. I do have one narrow strip on the west side of the front yard that I am lining with concrete blocks to build up that soil area. I plan on very tall trellises lining that hill (all my land is hilly) and covering them with rose and jasmine vines as a privacy fence. The probelm is the area is part shade - never sunny and that is not goo for any of the plants I like. I bought the Charles Darrow Hybrid Musk for that location as it is reported by others to grow and bloom very well in shade. I also have some varieties of Jasmine that might do in that spot. I am also thinking of Camelias and Sky Pencil Holly. My Hollies are about 1ft tall now. It will be years before they grow big enough.

I don't have any long term experience with this species and cultivar specifically. Tom, aka tsugajunkie, inspired me to get a Sargent Cherry as he has one that might be close to 20 years old now. Different cultivar but still awesome fall color. I was drawn to Pink Flair originally as it reportedly flowers 1-2 weeks later than the species which is important in my zone. Its also a somewhat narrow upright so you don't have to dedicate alot of space. I liked it enough to buy another one for my new place. The combo of blooms, although short lived, fall color and metallic barks makes it a nice ornamental. Most cherry are short lived but Sargent Cherry is one of the longer lived species in the genius. Sure I have more pics but all I can find off the cuff

" It was so hot these two months.. on top of that i didnt get the chance to water it at all " That is pretty much the kiss of death for any maple grown in a container!! And with high heat, I'd say it was even a guarantee! My collection of containerized maples - most in much larger containers and not subject to even moderately high temps - require a thorough watering every other day. Not watering them for two weeks, let alone two months, would ensure their demise. I suspect yours will follow suit. Green twigs or under the bark is not a confirmation of viability. It takes time for the woody tissue to lose its moisture so remaining 'green' is not an indication that it is alive. And the dried and shriveled foliage is not 'early dormancy', which is triggered by conditions far removed from heat and lack of water but far more likely to be a sign that your tree is toast from a combination of heat and drought. Why did you not water during this period?

I've been ordering plants by mail for 40 years, but this year it's become clear that mail order is a crap shoot--and it's due to the carriers, not the nurseries. I've already posted in a couple of forums about the first disaster. Fed Ex completely ignored the correct address label the nursery placed on the package and delivered it to an old address. Fortunately, that address was only 4 miles up the road and the bare root tree, despite having spent a full day in hot sun, was in very good shape and is doing well. The second was only a near disaster through the PO. The label had a minor flaw in so it couldn't be read by machine, thus there was no tracking. (PO workers tell me that happens all the time.) The plants however arrived. The third just happened. I had placed an order almost 3 months ago of over $100 with Gardens of the Blue Ridge for native plants. It was shipped April 16 and tracking was completely dead by April 19--simply said "in transit." As of today, Earth Day, April 22, it's still lost in the PO system. Live plants. No, sorry, that would be dead plants in another day or so. The nursery refunded my order as soon as I explained the problem before I even requested it. Good for the nursery. Bad for the PO. But what are we to do? Bad enough if canned/packaged food stuffs arrive late--they're still good, and if they're lost (as an order of mine was about a month ago)--they can be replaced. Plants, not so much, especially as timing can be an issue. The USPS has deteriorated so much in the last few years, I'd never use it--except I have to. As do the rest of us much of the time. I've had magazines lost for weeks, magazines and mail so mutilated they can't be read, mail clearly meant for someone many miles away delivered to me, and all this as costs continue to rise. Just recently announced is that mail in WV must go through Pittsburg before it returns to WV, so if I send a card to a neighbor two doors away, the letter has to go through Pittsburg before it returns to WV. Louis de Joy is clearly out to destroy the PO system. And he's doing a great job of it.