Morgana the maple.
Yesterday, after getting some things moved out of the garage (and handed off to a co-worker) viridis_ama and I headed down to Shelmerdine's to look for a new tree.
Not having any tree cover in the back yard was really weighing on me, and I know the only way to solve this problem was to start planting stuff sooner than later.
I wanted to make certain that we picked a good shade tree that grew up straight and strong. We have two Linden trees in our front yard, so I was sort've partial to them... but I was won over by the idea of trying a different tree that'd be tolerant of our conditions and sometimes my neglect. We ended up picking a Freeman Maple, which we then named Morgana; Morgan Freeman Maple would've just been to obvious.
Not only is this tree supposed to be quite hardy, but also the leaves turn an amazing red in fall and the tree is supposed to be quite attractive to nesting birds. I likes da birdies.
Right now she is a bit wee and fragile, and if the trees could understand the things the way we could, she'd probably be traumatised by being surrounded by so many stumps.
The placement way seem a bit strange right now, but we tried to calculate in a both a patio area, some additional shrubbery and also if/when we replace the garage with a slightly large and less sunken one.
Using an open source program called SweetHome3D (which is pretty much easy as pie to use) we do a quick mock-up based on the survey of our property and from that we could take measurements of the planting location.
One of the little amusing things about going to Shelmerdine's is that the most direct way back home is to buzz straight down Roblin/Grant Avenue. As we cruised through the area in the middle of the Assiniboia Forest I glanced over at two bike riders who were waiting to cross. Part of my brain went "hey, pay attention" and the other part of my brain went "we've already seen them and we're watching".
What the one part of my brain was actually trying to say was that the bike riders were actually plonq and atara! Of course, there's not much stopping in a 70km/h zone so I gave a quick wave but I very much doubt they would've noticed.
After the fact my brain also said "they were at a pedestrian cross-walk and you should've stopped". This leaves the remainder of my brain to figure out if the sign showing the ambulatory person is different than the "X" pedestrian crossing, and if one is a warning and the other is the "stop-or-die".
I hate it when I don't know my stuff!
Not having any tree cover in the back yard was really weighing on me, and I know the only way to solve this problem was to start planting stuff sooner than later.
I wanted to make certain that we picked a good shade tree that grew up straight and strong. We have two Linden trees in our front yard, so I was sort've partial to them... but I was won over by the idea of trying a different tree that'd be tolerant of our conditions and sometimes my neglect. We ended up picking a Freeman Maple, which we then named Morgana; Morgan Freeman Maple would've just been to obvious.
Not only is this tree supposed to be quite hardy, but also the leaves turn an amazing red in fall and the tree is supposed to be quite attractive to nesting birds. I likes da birdies.
Right now she is a bit wee and fragile, and if the trees could understand the things the way we could, she'd probably be traumatised by being surrounded by so many stumps.
The placement way seem a bit strange right now, but we tried to calculate in a both a patio area, some additional shrubbery and also if/when we replace the garage with a slightly large and less sunken one.
Using an open source program called SweetHome3D (which is pretty much easy as pie to use) we do a quick mock-up based on the survey of our property and from that we could take measurements of the planting location.
One of the little amusing things about going to Shelmerdine's is that the most direct way back home is to buzz straight down Roblin/Grant Avenue. As we cruised through the area in the middle of the Assiniboia Forest I glanced over at two bike riders who were waiting to cross. Part of my brain went "hey, pay attention" and the other part of my brain went "we've already seen them and we're watching".
What the one part of my brain was actually trying to say was that the bike riders were actually plonq and atara! Of course, there's not much stopping in a 70km/h zone so I gave a quick wave but I very much doubt they would've noticed.
After the fact my brain also said "they were at a pedestrian cross-walk and you should've stopped". This leaves the remainder of my brain to figure out if the sign showing the ambulatory person is different than the "X" pedestrian crossing, and if one is a warning and the other is the "stop-or-die".
I hate it when I don't know my stuff!