Need help on arbor vitae that seem too large - options?
Navin Johnson
8 years ago
We planted two arbor vitae beside our front entrance
approximately 15 years ago. We have
stucco quoin corners and surrounds that accent the house. I feel like the arbor vitae are now just too large
and are taking away from the exterior of the house.
I am not aware of a way to cut conifers like these. Is the best option to pull them out and plant a smaller variety of another conifer?
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Comments (9)
wisconsitom
8 years agoRelated Discussions
is this arbor vitae dead?
Comments (9)Yep, no more sharing, I learned my lesson. Just feel really bad I dug it up in the first place...but she was doing so much work/planting in her yard already...and we set up an evening to dig up/pick up...I surely didn't expect this! I do believe, like Ken said, it was not properly planted in the pot (because the intention was that it was going to be planted right away!) and it was not watered (her comment, "I watered when I remembered." It was extremely wet when I came and got it, although she knew I was coming to get it late the evening before. Partially my fault, had I known it was going to sit ANY length of time, I would have properly planted it in the pot, but the timing was arranged between us both, for what suited us both, and I was under the impression the tree was going to be planted right away. And...what I can learn from this is...just not to do it again! I had one of these shrubs, in a different location, suffer greatly from salt runoff (I believe). I was sure it was dead. This thing was brown in spots, and BLACK in other spots...no green whatsoever. It came back, eventually. I guess I had a small hope that perhaps this one would. I learned to keep sidwalk salt away from them, keep dogs from peeing on them (learned from experience they burn from dog pee), and now neglectful friends....lol....See MoreCan I plant an Arbor Vitae Green Giant now?
Comments (14)All matrices of growing plants do produce organic matter, long after initial planting. Although we may tend to think of plant roots as static, permanent structures, the fine "feeder" roots, which do the actual absorption of water, with nutrients dissolved in that water, are replaced numerous times during the course of a single growing season. All this sloughed-off root system is organic matter, and this is the reason, for example, that old, well-established park lawns can often look pretty good even though there are almost no inputs in terms of fertilizers. If there are trees in the area, those too are growing/dying/sloughing off the active portions of their root systems over the course of a single year. So I can't agree that once applied, the gradual loss of organic matter via decomposition is a one-way street headed to OM depletion. That's not what I see, and if one were to, say, mulch over the top, with wood chips, bark, cocoa hulls, pine straw, name your organic material....this too is easily enough to maintain the OM content through time. None of which should be taken to indicate that amending holes at time of planting, for such relatively permanent plants as trees and shrubs, is a good idea. It's not, and the drainage anomalies are the reason. If the plant came in a ball of highly organic potting medium, water will not move into that course material until all the surrounding finer-textured soil is saturated. If for whatever reason, the transplant came with very fine soil and is then planted into a courser soil, it will be prone to being inundated with water. Water cannot move from fine textured soils to coarse-textured ones until the fine stuff is completely saturated. You don't want such issues to be plaguing your plantings. I also install large areas of bedding plants, ie. flower beds, and there, the incorporation of well-cured compost is simply an amazing improvement, with one caveat: Some species you may wish to grow actually will perform better in a dry, lifeless, almost sterile soil. Adding compost to beds where you wish to grow such plants will often yield big, floppy plants which can't hold themselves up, and which often do not produce flowers. But for all other cases, it works wonders. +oM...See Moremidcentury modern flooring options - I need help!
Comments (20)awm, thank you! Our house isn't Architectually Important or anything, but I really love it. And I totally agree about split-levels. They get a bad rap, but when they're done right, they're very interesting. I'm so thankful that the previous owners did such a nice job on the addition - it really works with the flow of the house in a very seamless way. Although the cosmetic details aren't my thing, the overall flow really enhances the house. So it sounds like the consensus is to not do flagstone in the breakfast room, and to use the same flooring in the LR/DR, kitchen, entry and breakfast room - perhaps with the exception of a stone area in the entry. Any votes for trying to recreate the original flooring in the kitchen and entry - a mosaic tile? These are the original tiles that I've dug out from under the edges of the existing flooring. (yes, I go on "fact-finding" missions in my own house. I think of it as domestic archaeology!): To be clear - I wouldn't do the same colors - I'd use a mosaic tile but in a different colorway. I'm pretty sure I don't want to do this, but the purist in me thinks it could be interesting. Thoughts? Too weird? Too impractical?...See More48" Wolf Range and Hood, too many options! help!
Comments (20)I have addressed this type of system often enough to not want to do it again. You are welcome to search for comments. Instead, I suggest you imagine a meter per second rising cooking plume being deviated to the (tiny) entrance aperture of the downdraft, taking into account that the velocity of the hood air current a small aperture dimension away from a hood aperture is a fraction of the velocity at the hood produced by the hood blower. Somehow this pittance of transverse air flow at the plume is supposed to completely remove the vertical momentum of the plume and make it horizontal. Leave these devices to what they can accomplish -- collecting a part of a back burner's steam plume -- and embrace the fact that configuration deviations from standard commercial practice mean reductions in efficiency and/or performance. Even a real hood on its side attempting to do this would have to have a lot higher flow rate than when it is above and letting the natural momentum of the plume bring the plume to the hood. One of the smaller sized turbofan engines would probably work as a blower, but might be a tad noisy. And if the plume can be fully deviated to horizontal, so can the burner flames....See Moreken_adrian Adrian MI cold Z5
8 years agoEmbothrium
8 years ago
bengz6westmd
8 years agoNavin Johnson
8 years agolaceyvail 6A, WV
8 years ago
Mike Larkin
8 years agolast modified: 8 years agoToronado3800 Zone 6 St Louis
8 years ago
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David Olszyk, President, American Conifer Society