Limbed up trees with conical shapes that would otherwise branch to the ground appear to be floating or perched after the bottom is removed. With the comparative minority of specimens that are left with their visually anchoring basal skirts intact being far more elegant and impressive. And when disease and pest susceptible conifers like spruces and true firs have thin or partially browning lower branch areas what these often need is a spray program. Rather than scalping. There is a persisting shared characteristic called The Savannah Mentality based in the human species having arisen in African parklands that makes it so that there is a tendency to try and make private and public outdoor spaces consist to a large extent of lawns occupied by a scattering of trees with elevated crowns. With for some reason rose family flowering and fruit trees in particular being subjected to the emulation of the parasol acacias of the savannah to the extent that stripping, topping and salad bowl haircuts are commonplace with this group.

Fred, "Now I have around 120 or so green tomatoes. All but one look pretty healthy. The plants now range in size from 4-6 feet tall and each plant has easily 5 times as many flowers as there are tomatoes on every plant. If this keeps up IÂm gonna be swimming in tomatoes." What variety of tomato is this? If these are a small variety like a cherry, plum, or grape, those fruit numbers would be understandable. Some people prune a tomato plant to a single "leader". I don't like to do that. It seems a little extreme. I do cut off some older yellowing leaves and a few "suckers", and I also snip off excess tomatoes so that the plant can pour its energy into a smaller number of tomatoes. Some people do apple trees the same way, removing many small green apples so that the remaining apples will grow bigger. What you should do with your tomatoes depends, in part, on what variety or varieties you are growing. MM

Not trying to disagree with hairmetal4ever, but my father-in-law has a Cercis 'Forest Pansy' that survived -20 with flying colors last winter with no snow cover at the end of February. We also had near record cold mid-November until early December. Have witnessed numerous redbuds (different cultivars, etc..) that all behave with no rhyme or reason as to winter survival. We stopped planting them regularly due to their inconsistency. Your particular redbud rootstock may not be hardy either. Best case scenario it will survive and you can have a neat, multi-stem redbud in the future!

I've decided to transform the leaf mould bin into a compost bin sooner rather than later. Instead of emptying out all of the leaves, I've started incorporating grass clippings and kitchen/garden scraps into the bin, making sure it gets a good green/brown ratio. Over time, by turning the existing brown materials in with the new green materials, it should make good compost. The negative about this is that I won't be able to use this stuff for about two years, when I could have actually collected leaf mould in one year. The positive is that compost is more nutrient rich but can also be used the same way, as a top dressing or mulch, for water retention and weed suppression, but giving those plants a boost that leaf mould may not do. I'll work green materials in for about a year (or unless we get it so full that it absolutely can't hold any more) then setup another swimming pool composter up. On appx April 2018, the plan is to collect compost from the first bin. On appx April 2019, I'll collect compost from the 2nd bin. Then, April 2020, from the first bin, and on and on. Meanwhile, I'm slowly building up a small farm, with rabbits, cows, chickens, and eventually, ducks, possibly turkeys, etc. Rabbit poop = instant garden fertilizer + worm food, for vermicomposting, to collect worm castings for the garden, and the worms themselves could feed some fish, for a future aquaponics setup. Cow, chicken, duck, and turkey poop will be composted. As of right now, it's all about slowly moving forward, to try to obtain a balance, where everything works together.