5 Project Updates! (Things are Looking Awesome! )
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00:00 and they are looking so good. I'm so proud of these plants. I kind of trash
00:04 talked them earlier this spring and maybe they heard me but about three
00:08 years ago, maybe it was two years ago, they suffered a super bad spider mite
00:13 infestation. In fact if you kind of come in close on these you can still see some
00:17 of the damage. Right in here, see that? Spider mites suck the sap out of your
00:22 leaves and they give them that really kind of mottled appearance and in super
00:27 severe cases it models them so much that they almost turn white, which these were.
00:30 So that's where the problem started started to occur and we took care of
00:35 that problem and then they kind of grew up and I was thinking well I need to let
00:39 these things grow out past that damage because the damage doesn't reverse. I
00:43 needed fresh growth on the outsides. Well I think I let them maybe grow a little
00:48 bit too much past the damage and then they started getting a little bit floppy
00:51 and I was trimming on them a little bit here and there but they got to a point
00:55 where we had a rainstorm earlier this summer that just flattened them
01:00 out because they didn't have a strong enough network of branches down below
01:03 and I just thought we're done. We're done with these because this is too much of a
01:07 centerpiece in this garden and I need something that's going to hold up to a
01:11 rainstorm and hold up to spider mites and all of that stuff. So I thought this
01:15 is kind of my last-ditch effort. I'm going to come in with my hedge trimmers
01:19 and I cut these back hard, hard to where they looked really bad but I thought
01:24 it's either that, you know, kind of take them back down let them form up that
01:28 network of branches and flush out new growth or we're going to rip them out
01:32 all together. And look at them now. They just, they have really done a good job.
01:38 You know we have had a favorable summer for a lot of plants. We've had a lot more
01:43 moisture and a lot more cool days than normal. Usually we have weeks and weeks
01:48 and weeks of 100 plus degree temperatures and I think maybe what
01:51 Erin, 10 days maybe tops of 100 plus days which that's rare for us. So plants
01:57 have had a chance to rebound. So I'm really happy with this. I mean clearly if
02:02 you get close you can still see some of that damage but I feel like even now the
02:07 plants are a little bit stronger than they were. In fact when they started to
02:11 flush back I thought oh man I should have taken them back even further like
02:14 right to here. You can kind of see like a little bit of where maybe I started
02:18 letting them kind of grow a little bit more wild. So anyway we'll just see how
02:24 it goes. We will be trimming these in the next couple of weeks because I want to
02:28 keep that tight growth habit. But anyway I thought that you guys might like to
02:32 see an update because it's only been what two months since I did that maybe.
02:36 We'll look at the dates but anyway very happy with that. And on that note I'd
02:39 like to show you these Sprinter Boxwoods on the west side as well because we did
02:43 take after those that same and that same time period. Actually two updates in this
02:48 area. Boxwoods first and then we're going to talk about these begonias right here.
02:52 But we had kind of the same issue with these in the not quite as severe as the
02:57 ones we just looked at but during that same rainstorm all of these kind of
03:00 splayed out. I did notice they had a little bit more of a sturdiness about
03:04 them than the other ones but they had a tremendous amount of spider mite damage.
03:08 Worse on the backside so we'll look at that here in a second. But you could see
03:12 quite a lot of like the white parts especially like when I took it in
03:16 further right here you can kind of still see a little bit in here but they
03:20 flushed back and put on so much new growth. If you kind of come in close
03:25 right here and take a look at all of this look at all of this new growth in
03:29 here. I mean they just really have done a great job. Let's pop over to the other
03:35 side real quick. Yeah I mean look at this. This was bad. This was really bad. In fact
03:43 sorry Erin if you want to come in a little closer again look at all of this
03:46 right in here. Like all of this little green stuff right here is brand new
03:50 growth that's covering up a bunch of the old damaged stuff and when we pruned
03:56 these in because they had splayed out look at that they had splayed out so
03:59 much it had exposed a bunch of that and now you don't really notice it unless
04:04 you get close in. And the backsides here these were the worst the absolute worst
04:09 and I have to say even though they you can still see quite a bit of the damage
04:15 they have flushed a lot of new growth. So anyway I'm just very happy with how
04:19 these sprinters have recovered especially when I was thinking I'm gonna
04:24 have to replace all of these and we've waited a long time for them to create
04:27 this feel over here and the shape that they are. We have a lot of time into it
04:32 and it would be a tragedy really to have to pull them out in lieu of something
04:36 that might hold up better but if you know they're gonna respond like this I
04:40 get to live another day. Okay begonias. Okay the surefire white begonias. Now I
04:46 don't know if you guys remember what these look like when we planted them but
04:48 they were itty bitty like tiny and they had barely rooted into their cans like
04:54 you could still see where the plug roots were. A lot of the soil fell off the
04:58 roots when I popped them out of their cans which made them very easy to plant
05:01 but they were very little and I thought oh boy this is gonna take this is gonna
05:06 take forever for him to grow in they might be too puny and I kind of thought
05:10 that the first month month and a half or so it took them a while to bulk up but
05:14 boy have they ever done a great job at filling up this space. I love the way
05:18 they look I love the bold foliage of this begonia contrasted with the smaller
05:24 more well just dainty foliage of the boxwood there and the white blooms have
05:29 been wonderful a nice bright peaceful pop in here and no deadheading that's
05:34 the thing you know these what's the thing that that affects the white blooms
05:38 on these. Botrytis is that right? A lot of times they get brown and look really
05:42 crummy on a lot of other begonias. Zero zero brown crumminess on these at any
05:47 point this season. So I don't like I don't know do they have dead blooms ever
05:52 do they just disappear I don't know they just look good and fresh all the time
05:56 let's look at a couple more areas because some of these spots get a little
06:01 more Sun than others in fact you can kind of see a little Sun coming in on
06:04 that one this one gets a lot more shade right in this area but they react the
06:09 same and that's the thing finding annuals or shrubs even perennials that
06:14 can handle full Sun or full shade that's a rare thing and that's something we
06:19 have to consider over here and that's one reason why we chose boxwoods or why
06:22 we do choose boxwoods in a lot of spaces in our garden because we're dealing with
06:26 a ton of variations of light part Sun to full Sun to full shade and we need to
06:31 have something that can kind of perform the same in all those different light
06:34 requirements and that's one thing with these surefire begonias they can handle
06:39 that we rarely fertilize these they don't need any spray for insects they're
06:43 just a very low maintenance annual one more spot down here these are extra
06:48 bushy whoa look at these oh look at how gorgeous these are versus when we
06:55 planted maybe we can put a before and an after they just look so great I'm happy
07:01 with that and speaking of bushy let's go to the brick circle planting area in the
07:06 new brick patio I'm really proud of what the plants have done in this area so
07:10 we've got a king tut grass in the middle which this is kind of perfect size they
07:14 can get like way bigger than this but we planted all of these things fairly late
07:19 that I think I don't know it has still has another month month and a half to
07:23 put on some growth before we start you know getting quite a bit cooler but I
07:27 love the size of it and then the coleus my goodness we've got the golden dreams
07:33 coleus right up front here which has just kind of like boomed and has filled
07:38 in big time one thing about this coleus here is that it I don't know if it's
07:42 because the leaves are so broad on this one but it does require a little bit of
07:47 supplemental water and I did notice that when I had it planted in front of our
07:50 gazebo which used to be right there I did notice I had to drag a hose out even
07:55 though it was getting drip irrigation along with everything else it did
07:57 require a bit more and it might just be to feed that whole leaf I mean it's a
08:01 big plant and it's a high-performing plant we've also got some wicked witch
08:05 coleus in here which is the darker colored one and I think that that's so
08:09 pretty with this golden dreams that mix is so nice and then we've also got
08:15 limetime coleus which I can tell is a tiny tiny bit less vigorous but it's a
08:20 nice bright pop in there now I had some surefire rose begonias and some coconut
08:25 namesia which if you come this way you can kind of see most of them have been
08:29 bullied out I did not anticipate that happening but you can see some little
08:34 bit of color there and then coconut namesia which if that was all the way
08:38 around that would be so pretty you could see that kind of bright white bloom in
08:41 there and then this side has you can see gets quite a bit more shade so things
08:48 just didn't boom on this side but overall very very happy with how this
08:54 looked especially because it was kind of a it was a cobble together of some of
08:59 the things that we had left over from our college planting project and a
09:02 couple other projects in fact I had to steal some of the coconut namesia from
09:05 other pots that we had already planted to make it work all the way around but
09:10 anyway I'm very happy with that also the coleus area right over here just while
09:14 we're here let's take a look so this whole bed right here full of coleus
09:18 we've got newly noir right here which is that really deep maroon it's a fairly
09:23 new one and I've left these largely alone you can see that that one has
09:28 started to set blooms which it just started to do that color blaze coleus
09:32 have been bred to either not bloom at all or set their blooms really late in
09:36 the season and I would consider now like getting toward the end part of August
09:41 being a little bit later in the season so if you can get that far without them
09:44 blooming that's really great and some of you guys love the coleus blooms and I
09:48 don't mind them but most of the time we are growing coleus kind of like we're
09:51 growing hostas for their leaves not so much for their blooms we've got the
09:55 cherry brandy right in here and I love that it's got a little flux of green
09:58 like it's mostly red but it's got a little bit of green to make it bright
10:04 and pop and it also helps it tie into the limetime coleus which is right back
10:07 in there we've also got two there's only two of the albrito coleus back in there
10:14 but it kind of gives you a really good idea of what albrito does in a very
10:19 shady situation so the pink on it actually stays more pink and coral and
10:24 it's a lot less than if you have it in Sun albrito is a very vibrant coleus
10:29 very vibrant but it just takes on a different hue you know based on the
10:34 light situation more the golden dreams so look at the difference here how big
10:38 the golden dreams is compared to the others so no wonder it needs more water
10:41 the growth habit just kind of requires that and then we've got a new coleus
10:46 called cherry drop I love this one I've had one that's been struggling it's
10:51 probably not near an emitter but it doesn't matter they just look so pretty
10:55 right in here I also popped up just for right over on this side of the walkway
10:59 sorry I hope the lighting is okay right now we're getting some strong morning
11:02 light coming in through here and then I also put some of the double up white
11:06 begonias in here just for a little pop of color and then as you move this way
11:13 there are a few of the wicked witch right in here with more of the begonias
11:19 anyway I didn't anticipate showing this spot but it's looking really good I
11:24 think okay let's go to area number four this area right here has changed so much
11:29 this season and while I didn't plant all of this in a video I do think we have a
11:32 before shot of what this looks like at least when the pathway had just been
11:36 installed so that's the first thing the pathway is brand new and it leads you
11:39 all the way up to the house and it's been so nice because it also kind of
11:43 shoots you out like if we turn around here we do a lot of work out here in the
11:47 new property where the high tunnel is and I've got onions and potatoes and
11:50 stuff out there so it kind of directs you right in that area and I'm thankful
11:54 that this spot is in the Sun or in the shade rather right now it'll be in the
11:57 Sun here shortly but first of all super chunya vista mini vista yellow oh my
12:04 word is that like not the most beautiful thing I just decided to toss that out
12:10 here along with the hella christmas icicles which we wintered over in our
12:14 greenhouse now we do have the pink senorita or senorita pink zinnias back
12:20 here that Benjamin and I came out and planted not that long ago and I do think
12:23 we put that in a video for you so when we planted them they were really little
12:27 I had started those in the greenhouse and they're just starting to bulk up and
12:30 bush out and they've got a bunch of beautiful color and they look gorgeous
12:33 with everything here we've also got the super beena storm burst going so that
12:38 beautiful lavender with the soft yellow and then that salmon pink is just a
12:43 really pretty combination to me I really love it in this I mean I tried this one
12:49 out for the first time last year both in the ground and in containers and I'm so
12:53 impressed with its landscape vigor and how many blooms it has versus leaves like
12:59 you mostly just see blooms on this plant all season long it never lulls it never
13:05 looks bad and I've just really loved it I also noticed that the the petals and
13:10 maybe it's because it's a mini vista it's got smaller blooms but they hold it
13:13 better to a lot of moisture which is not something I've had to really think about
13:17 until this year with all of the deluges of rain we have been receiving but it
13:21 holds up better they're stronger petals they don't collapse like some petunias
13:25 do so that's been really nice but if you come this way you can see you know just
13:30 that huge drift of super beena we've got the random orange throwing it off but it
13:36 kind of adds a little bit of like I don't know it reminds us that we're not
13:40 in control right so there is a red one and an orange one here that are popped
13:45 in but if you continue this way you can see how it kind of blends into the
13:49 Russian stage which that was an original this was here when we moved in as well
13:53 as the I think that's a Maximilian sunflower is that what it's called they
13:58 get massively huge and they'll put on some yellow blooms here very soon and
14:02 that kind of leads you to our new shade area which is looking really good all
14:06 the plants are thriving looking great
14:11 yeah and speaking of zinnias I do want to show you the zinnias in the cut
14:15 flower garden this is gonna turn into like just a tour because there's there's
14:19 a lot of pretty things right now this is the California Giants mix which does get
14:23 about 36 inches tall just a wild blend of color my first crop of zinnias which
14:28 are closer to the flower shed they still are producing blooms and they're still
14:32 productive plants but they look tired so it's nice to have this fresh crop right
14:37 by our driveway so when anybody or we're driving in and out from the house you
14:42 get to see this huge row of fresh-looking flowers and it just looks
14:48 so so happy look at this interesting one that just caught my eye isn't that
14:54 pretty oh okay now let's head to number five okay I'm gonna talk about project
15:01 number five because it's the trees are kind of my baby these are autumn blaze
15:04 maples this is a three-year update we planted these in late September of 2020
15:10 and they've probably put on about six to eight feet of growth since then they
15:14 started off a little slow and last year they did not look great honestly by this
15:20 time they were looking very tired we did have a hard year last year but we just
15:25 didn't get good fall color this year I went hard on I didn't do a lot of it but
15:31 I put chelated iron on them probably six or seven times this year just a little
15:36 bit of chelated iron not a lot but I would go through and just put a little
15:40 bit around there and I honestly think that they were just suffering before
15:43 from just a lack of iron there's iron I think in the soil they just can't take
15:48 it up with our high pH so anyway this year they're looking the best I'm
15:52 actually really excited to see how they look this fall because I think this year
15:56 is gonna be the first year that we get like that really vibrant red you know
16:00 autumn color so quick rundown on the stats they grow 50 feet tall 40 feet
16:05 wide at maturity there's zone 4 through 8 I saw a couple websites that said 3
16:10 through 8 so you know we're a zone 6 so I'm not really sure what that the cold
16:14 zone really is but somewhere in that range but take a look at these leaves
16:18 they're they're looking I mean we we're hot here we have lots of days in the
16:22 hundreds so at the very edges there's a little bit of burning but for the most
16:26 part they're nice and green and they're not they don't have that you know
16:30 chlorosis veining I think that they're doing really really well and I'm really
16:34 happy about him I was joking with Laura actually about how I feel like I've
16:38 bonded with our trees the last like year or so you know I've talked in the past
16:43 about how you know maybe one day we would move to having more space or
16:49 scaling down I don't know but at this point I feel like it would actually be
16:53 really hard and the trees for me would be one of the hardest parts if we were
16:57 to ever to move because I feel like I've bonded with them like they're my trees
17:02 the other thing I should mention is that in the spring we go through and we go
17:06 pretty hard on tree tone fertilizer from Espoma we'll put like a half a bag or a
17:13 whole bag on the entire tree so it ends up it's kind of expensive but I think
17:18 that's very helpful giving them nutrients and I don't know what it is
17:23 with those tree tone bags but when you read the directions on how much to use
17:26 and you look at the caliper of how large your tree is it it's correct you need to
17:31 go through quite a bit of fertilizer to to follow the directions anyway so
17:36 anyway there's your three-year update I'm very happy with how they're doing
17:40 and hopefully we can do this again another three years and they're twice
17:44 the size so that is all the updates we wanted to give you guys today it's kind
17:47 of fun to go through and just kind of remember some of the things that you've
17:50 tackled earlier on and especially when they're looking so good and not
17:54 everything turns out great every single year but it's been a it's been a
17:58 tremendous year weather-wise I feel like things are coming into their own you
18:02 know a lot of things that we've planted three years ago out here in the South
18:06 Garden that's kind of when we started developing this they're really starting
18:09 to take off and it's fun to see that and it can be a hard wait on some of those
18:13 things because you know that you know that they're gonna get some size
18:16 eventually and you have to resist the urge to go in and plant so many other
18:20 things around them but to see that growth start to take off that's just so
18:23 much fun but anyway thank you guys so much for watching this video I hope you
18:27 enjoyed it and we will see you in the next one bye