Stunning, sensory overload. It must be even more amazing in person.

Matt , you are doing a great job !

will have to add later

BIG thanks for post

ron

Awesome Matt !
You've got a lot of great cultivars...
and deciduous trees as well.
Gorgeous property and gardens!!!

Thanks for the tour!

Ken, Steve duggins, Ron and AlleyCat,

The grass has been a project now for a couple years. I ended up buying a sprayer that mounts to the back of my tractor. The only thing I do is spray weed and feed 1-2 times a year. I still have some areas that need TLC, but having an 8 acre yard means that I can only do so much. On good years it is green, lush and fairly weed free. Bad years...let's not go threre. :)

Regarding tools, I have a small kubota tractor with a bucket. Most of the time it acts like a very expensive wheel barrow as I carry tools and plants around the yard. But in the spring it comes in very handy as I am installing new beds or mulching. I'm currently mulching somewhere between 20-40 cubic yards. My latest bed I'm putting in is going to use 20 cubic yards of dirt. Since my property was previously farm acreage, it is flat and sometimes has standing water in some areas. I get around this by building up my beds so that they are about 18-20 inches above grade and gradually taper off. So far, this has proven to work fairly well to get the plants established and make sure they do not have soggy feet in the spring/rainy part of ohio weather. I am somewhere between 100-200 conifers and at last count around 40 japanese maples. The earliest beds were only started in 2017 or so and there are still beds being put in. So some areas are finally starting to fill in (too much in some cases which means I now have to start moving things around), while other areas are too young to show their true potential yet.

I work at home right now, so after a meeting that doesn't go well, or after work is done for the day, I enjoy strolling through the yard as it calms and relieves stress. I usually stop to pick a weed or two as that is an eternal problem. But like you said, I can't stop the critical evaluation of what needs to be pruned, staked, weeded, or moved. It makes it hard to always appreciate as we are always trying to tweak and tune our gardens to get them perfect - which will never come.

Anyway, thank you for the kind words. As you all know, trees and landscaping is a labor of love that not everyone appreciates. So it is fun to interact with you guys.

Thanks,

Matt

PS - I will get an underside picture of Esk Sunset shortly.

Thanks Matt!

I'm awestruck. :-)

How long have you been working on this place?

We bought an ‘expensive wheelbarrow‘ this year - a Cub Cadet 7275 with loader - and I already can’t figure how we got along without it. I’m on about 3 acres, and it’s made a huge difference in maintaining our property. I can only imagine how much help it is on 8 acres.

Thanks for sharing! Awesome garden and great selections!

Pretty place and a lot of interesting plants. It all looks fertile and splendid. Do you see yourself having to do any editing of the beds in the next 10 years, or are you confident the plants will not overwhelm each other?

Giving proper room between plants has been one of the more difficult garden challenges for me. I move more of them than I should, but some are just too big, and it will hopefully become apparent which ones should be removed.

Incredible. Thanks for sharing

Wow Matt, terrific garden. Thank you for taking the time to share all of this!

I've got to take time and go back through the pictures when I have more time

Wingle's Weeper, I've got to post a picture of of specimen at Bickelhaupt Arboretum in Clinton, IA, a massive beauty, good choice! My favorites have become those small starts (like from Stanley or Gees) that become beautiful specimens in time before your own eyes.

"I enjoy strolling through the yard as it calms and relieves stress. I usually stop to pick a weed or two as that is an eternal problem. But like you said, I can't stop the critical evaluation of what needs to be pruned, staked, weeded, or moved. It makes it hard to always appreciate as we are always trying to tweak and tune our gardens to get them perfect - which will never come."

--This couldn't be more true

I think we use the same tags, even font! again nice choice!

Keep on keepin on, I like what I see!

Round13

Round14

Round15

Round15

Round17

Round18

Roond19

Round21

I've got my eye on that Abies fraseri 'Blue Bonnet'! May I ask where you purchased it? Fraser Firs do exceedingly well around here, and I've got several nice seedling specimens on the border. I've wondered why there aren't any cultivars, and now I've got my answer. BTW, since you're in Ohio, have you seen the Dawes Arb tree that the American Conifer Society shows on their website?

In one sentence ken is talking about pics of women , in next he says something about backside pics ? what nerve

Matt , your place is ROCKEN

I had to move my 'Wattazii last fall,, it was getting too big for spot ( I did it without killing it )

ron

round 15 shot 4 ,,,mugo jakobson ?

round 17 shot 3 ,,,real pretty parv

I know you're not talking to me, but I live 6 miles from Dawes Arb. So here you go, taken fresh today:

hmm, well that doesn't look like the same one as pictured on the ACS website. It does match the one pictured on the Dawes website. Seems Like I remember another fir with the name Wingle in it. Wingle's Weeper possibly? I drove by it and it is looking much better this year and looks more like the one pictured on the ACS website. Darn, guess I need to go back.

Found it, Abies concolor Wingle's Weeping Dwarf taken Sept 2019. It really is looking much better now. Sorry for the thread jack. Back to your regular station.

Hi friends!

Bill_minn - the main beds were started from a conifer spective in 2017. Only now are they starting to fill out and feel like I'm not dealing wtih 1 gallon starts everywhere. But I have other beds that are going in now. So those will be a couple years until I feel the desire to share them as they look a bit scraggly right now due to the small size and relative small stature of the current plants. I have had the property since 2005, but didn't get into this crazy hobby until probably around 2012 or so...

To answer a couple questions, Maackia asked if I see myself editing beds. The answer is an absolute yes. Some of that was expected as the collector vibe took over more and I find myself with an abundance of plants, and a shrinking amount of bed space. Some of that is from ignorance as to how fast some of these plants grow even though they are labelled as dwarf conifers. I have already started to move things around and have a list of what needs to be moved already. I have 3 Picea abies Murconata's grouped together to provide a small screen that is now defunct due to expanding the beds. Likewise I have a larch that has outgrown its spot, and a couple J.Maples that need to be moved. Anyway, you get the idea. Yes things already have to be moved and I have already moved about 10 rather large items to new beds or some were just simply removed/deleted (can be painful to get rid of a good plant). I think you are spot on that for collectors like myself that get joy out of new plants, growing them and observing them that it is hard to throttle that joy back due to bed/space requirements. I believe that the Blue Bonnet came from Gee Farms in michigan. Dannaher Landscaping in Columbus has some small ones also and they ship if I remember correctly. ==> http://www.dannaherlandscaping.com/2021_inventory/2021_back_hut_inventory_west_end .

Also, regarding Dawes arboretum, they have a great resource where you can search their plants and find them on the property and see the pictures of them. I look at this all of the time for one of my resources. I checked and it does have the blue bonnet pictures on the site:

https://dawesarb.arboretumexplorer.org/default.aspx

Coniferbros - yes, my wiggle's weeper is already looking good. It is going to get too big for the space in the next couple years so either it will need to move or a couple surrounding plants. I guess I will figure that out in a couple years. Its funny you point out the name plates. I didn't realize that it was you that I cheated off of, but I figured what works for someone else works for me and I didn't see a reason to reinvent the wheel. I simply pay my fee to Kincaid every other year for another round of name plates.

Plantkiller - I love the name by the way. All of my friends think I am great with plants, but I like to point out that I have killed more plants than they will ever own. They only see the small percentage I am able to keep alive :). Anyway, how big is your Wattazii? Any pictures of it pre/post move? I would love to see what I am up against as it may mean it needs to be moved sooner than later.

Round 15, pic4 is Pinus heldreichii (leucodermis) 'Banderica'.

As always, thank you to all of the kind words and feedback. It is a pleasure to share this with you guys as most of my other friends just don't get this hobby. I mainly get, "Oh Matt is buying more trees...why do you need more trees? When will you have enough trees?". Ha.

Cheers,

Matt

Steve Duggins, thank you for checking out the Blue Bonnet. I'm sorry to hear you had to spend some extra time at the arb. Damn the bad luck! Sara Malone is the ACS website editor (I think that's the title), and maybe she can clear it up for us. The lure of a rich blue fir is just too tempting. Mmm, I wonder how it would stack up against A. lasiocarpa 'Glauca Compacta'?

Matt, that was a nice writeup -- thank you. Your recommendation for Gee's is the second I've received today. I need to get myself there!

Matt,

If you told me you started 10-12 years ago I would've marveled at how much work you accomplished in that time span but 5-6? That's amazing.

I'm in a 'Zone too far' to grow such a variety of plants but enjoy growing plants none the less.

Always nice to see what's going on in other parts of the country.

I'll be looking through this thread for some time to come and surely will have more questions.

Thanks for taking the time to show us.

Matt , here is a pic after planting about 3 yrs. ago

I will add a moved pic to this comment later

ron

EDIT; actually it was 6 yrs ago

after some research of my " room for more plants " post

Here is my little Bush's Lace. Wonder which leader will win?

Answers for syntax here...

https://www.gardenweb.com/discussions/6121119/which-leader-will-win-on-this-bush-s-lace-engelmann-spruce#n=2

tj

Much appreciate, tsuga!

Some various dwarf Mugo's, Taylors Sunburst, Pinus x schwerinii 'Wiethorst', and a sorry excuse for an upright blue spruce:

Feelin' Sunny Deodar Cedar (My Dr. Seuss Tree):

The Bush's Lace lurking amongst some Edgeworthia Chrysantha, and upright Blue Hollies. This one will surely eat the makeshift path next to it in a few years:

Ok that is awesome, Valley. I love it!

That is a dandy larch specimen. Time to ditch the viburnums and go all in on conifers. Larix Valley?

I love that larch. Larix is my favorite conifer.

That larch is incredible! Thanks for sharing :)

Now, maackia - have you gotten into some Toxicodendron radicans? That's an awfully rash statement...

But, thank you all for the compliments. The Weeping Larch were house-warming gifts from Roy Klehm, way back in the day. They paired nicely on either side of the original front steps with four Viburnum dilatatum ('Asian Beauty' and 'Catskill') from Don Shadow. The viburnums loved it there too much, grew right up above the gutters and were ready to swallow the house. I think the larch ran down the railings looking for light.

The viburnums soon meandered to the brushpile, and the larch has soldiered on through two enlargements of the front steps and two replacements of the deck and railings. Fortunately, the carpenters doing the work were quite enamored of the plants and took exceptional care in weaving in and around their pendulosity.

Sorry to step on your post, Matt - though I'd be glad to give you a shout out when next I pass through Columbus. Perhaps a landscape architect could offer some ideas on editing/rearranging such a fetching collection...

Matt, I have hung in there with every photo........you have such a stunning collection of JPs and conifers! I actually was surprised at how much I loved all of them. You see, I am stuck with three 30 year old overgrown arborvitae in the front of my house which I plan to remove in fall so my hostas don’t get destroyed. I would love to plant a couple of dwarf conifers. I like the penulatas and that Tsugajunkie Canadensis Brookline. I like the low profile of that one. Also loved seeing your JPs. I just have one, a Tamukeyama JP. I would love some others but don’t have the room. Anyway thank you so much for sharing your beautiful gardens with us! You definitely have an artistic eye and a green thumb!!

debra

Hey Matt , round 3 & 3 disappeared

waaatts up ? ron

and you had Wattezii spelled right the first time

Hi Ron - I'm not following what you are saying. I see round 3, picture 3 is still up on my end. If i can figure out how to edit, I will correct the Wattezii. Grumble...grumble... weird conifer cultivar names.... :)

Ron,

Up at the top of the page, under the original posting and featured answers, there's a little link that says 'show more comments'.

I think the thread automatically truncates itself after a while so you have to re -open those.

Yes, it only shows 50 comments.

Matt,

(Phone) In your post, there's a 3 dot menu in the lower left hand side. Press that and an 'Edit' & 'Delete' option will show up.

GOT IT matt , bill

ron

Hi Matt, how long have you been growing Acer circinatum? Does it do well for you in your climate? Thanks

Matt , here is 'Wattezii ' now

into the sun

ron

Ron - that Wattezii looks great! Thanks for the awesome photos. Also, I think you may be up next for a garden tour! :)

Stuart - I have had Acer circinatum 'Sunny Sister' in the ground for 1 year. It is slow growing right now but no issues other than a minor amount of dieback due to late frost. So far so good. I think a better question would be how it is doing next year after it has had another year for establishment.

Ron- where did you get your ’Wattezii’? And did the new growth start out a creamy white or was it always powder blue? I ask because there is a good discussion with Edwin about the ID buried in this post…

https://www.gardenweb.com/discussions/1859091/some-more-spring-pictures#n=22

tj

TJ ...con . kingdom

I believe it comes out creamy ,, yes , I know the discussion

Matt , everything looks better with a fresh cover of mulch

ron

edit ; I wonder if it an environment thing

temp. , moisture , etc

Aftere reading the linked discussion above, it makes me wonder if I have Violacea or Wattezii. As you can see in my picture above, my new growth is a light green color. I would not describe it as cream, but maybe a very light green. I received mine from Gee Farms, so I tend to trust the provenance as it is not a random shop. But nonetheless I will keep an eye on it next spring for further detailed observation.

Where is everyone , vaca ?

bump...see tour