DON'T FORGET TO LOOK UP

TAKING DOWN  HUGE WHITE PINES,,,

...THAT DOMINATED THE LANDSCAPE...

...AND WERE REPLACED BY AN EXPENSIVE FORMAL PLANTING...

...ONLY TO EX;POSE  THIS UGLY HIGH TENSION ELECTRIC LINE

...WHICH NOW DOMINATES THE PROPERTY

Friday, 8:30 AM.  15 degrees F at the ferry dock, 14 on the back porch.  Wind NNW, mostly calm with light gusts.  The sky is overcast, with dark clouds, the humidity 71%.  The barometer has begun to fall gently, now at 30.7".  The high today will be in the mid-20's. rising on the weekend to around 30, with partly cloudy skies.
   This is the story of a landscape design that did not accomplish what it set out to do  because the designer either did not actually visit the site or did so and did not look up. To look up is as fundamental to good design as to look all around (creating focal points, capturing distant views and all the rest).
   This 1920's cottage was pleasantly updated and added to about twenty years ago, but when it was originally built it had a row of small white pine trees planted across ts front lawn, perhaps they were meant to be kept pruned as a hedge, or perhaps no thought was given to their eventual size, but over almost a century they became very large, dominating the property.  Perhaps they threatened the foundation of the house, or perhaps they clogged the sewer lateral, or perhaps the owner was afraid of them falling on the house (there are many legitimate reasons for cutting down large trees) but they were healthy, beautiful and  gave a particular woodsy character to the property.
   In any case, much to my surprise one day they were being cut down; a massive, expensive undertaking, which changed entirely the esthetics of the property.  Which is where the landscaping comes in, which was professionally designed and obviously expensive,  with formal placement of flowering crab trees surrounded by shrubs and ornamental grasses. all within a stone border.  Frankly, the cottage was better served by the original pine trees.  But that's just my opinion and not a criticism.
   It took several days with a crew and heavy equipment to cut down, chip and dispose of the trees and grind out the stumps, which I estimate cost at least $5,000.  The design and installation of the new landscape took a crew of two, sometimes three workers three days to accomplish, probably another  $10,000 at least. That's a very conservative total estimate of $15,000 .   Now after it is all done, stand in place and look up.
   A heavy electric cable, formerly hidden by and within the huge pine trees, drapes across the front of the entire property, and would be doubly expensive to bury now that the landscaping is completed on the front lawn.  And now the owners, who live elsewhere, will need a professional gardener to maintain the expensive new plantings.
   When designing or redesigning a landscape, don't forget to look up.
 
  

WHAT A SHAME

A PICTURESQUE CENTURY OLD WHITE PINE

HUNDREDS OF OLD GROWTH TREES...

...CUT DOWN TO "IMPROVE" HWY. 13...

...TREES LIKE THIS 150 YEAR OLD PINE

Thursday, 8:30 AM.  16 degrees F at the ferry dock, 14 on the back porch.  Wind NE, very gusty.  The sky is mostly cloudy and overcast after a 1" snowfall last night,. The humidity is 69%, the barometer is rising, now at 30.68". The skies will be mixed through the weekend, with highs in the low 20's today and tomorrow, then warming to around 30 Saturday and Sunday.  Winter is settling in early.
   It began in June, 2015, someone testing what they could get away with; cutting down several dozen ancient pine and oak trees along Hwy 13 between Washburn and Bayfield.  Trees that had stood for more than a century, bothering no one, never hit by a vehicle.  There was an outcry by many, but the culprit...not some itinerant log thief, but the Wisconsin Department of Transportation...paid no attention.  WIDOT is a bureaucracy so large and so dense that it is only accountable to itself, plays by its own rules, and it is virtually impossible to deal with.  It was obvious at that time that WIDOT intended to clear all trees within its right of way, regardless of size, condition, or esthetic value.  It is difficult to understand the why of it at all, except that WIDOT follows their own rule book, which of course is unavailable to the general public (ask for it and see what happens). 
   So the tree clearing resumed this summer and fall, until there is not a tree of any size or character left along the roadway. So who cares?  Only the naturalists, the poets, and the artists among us. Those who understand and respect history, nature, beauty, and the character that defies tempest and time.  In short, many of us, perhaps if we look deep enough into our own souls, most of us.
   The 17th Century philosophical concepts of "The Beautiful, the Picturesque and the Sublime,"much used in historic American schools of painting and other arts, come into play here, since what has been destroyed along Scenic Wisconsin Highway 13 was beautiful and picturesque at least, and evoked primary components of American art, such as the Hudson River School,  followed by the great 19th Century art of Western scenery depicted by painters such as Cole, Church, Moran and Bierstadt.  Anyone who has viewed their work has glimpsed the very heart and soul of young America; its awesome beauty, its deep strength, and the character which forged our nation.
   The trees so thoughtlessly destroyed had the power to promote emotions of wonder, beauty  and patriotism in all who took the time to actually see them as the natural art objects that they were. 
   What a shame.

                            13...

APPLE CIDER

Wednesday, 8:30 AM.  28 degrees F at the ferry dock, 26 on the back porch.  Wind WSW, gusty at times. The sky is cloudy and it looks like snow.  The humidity is 76%. The barometer is steady, at 30.49".  The high today will be around 30, then drop significantly Thursday and Friday, with snow showers tonight.  Winter came early this year.
   Beer and hard apple cider have a lot in common. Both are practical means of storing the food and economic value of agricultural production (grains and apples); both have long, even ancient histories; both are able to be produced at home as well as commercially.  Both beer and apple cider appear rather similar in the glass, and both are good with food.  Pasteurized apple juice is often also called cider, but it has no alcohol content.
   Being a Milwaukeean born and bred, beer has been my traditional beverage, but of late I have been giving hard cider a closer look.  Hard cider was a major beverage in early America, and by all accounts more of it was drunk than beer, while wine was a relative rarity for all but the wealthy.  Apples were grown far more for cider production than for eating, and specific varieties were grown for cider, many of which were hardly usable for any other purpose.
    It wasn't until grain was produced in far greater quantities with western expansion that beer became more important than apple cider, and the popularity of the later declined.  We often forget that there was what seems today as excessive consumption of alcoholic beverages in our nation's historic past,  when water supplies were often unsafe.  Beer and wine were safe to drink, whereas water often was not.  There certainly was much abuse of distilled beverages such as whisky and gin.
   The temperance movement of the Nineteenth  and early Twentieth Century, which culminated in prohibition, drastically cut production and consumption of all alcoholic beverages, including cider, and the latter never really recovered until recently.  During those times farmers were actually encouraged to cut down their apple trees to discourage the making of cider.
   Hard cider has always been popular and available in Great Britain, much more than in the United States, but the popularity of cider has soared in the US in recent years, and represents a significant new market.  It looks like a good opportunity for Bayfield apple growers as well.

THE SPINDLE TREE

A EUROPEAN SPINDLE TREE IN BAYFIELD'S FOUNTAIN GARDEN PARK

RED BERRIES EMERGING FROM THEIR PINK COVERINGS

Tuesday, 9:30 AM.  24 degrees F on both thermometers, wind WNW, gusty at times. The sky is mostly clear, the humidity 66%.  The barometer has begun to drop and we may get a few flurries tomorrow night, but the week will be mostly cloudy and cold, the highs around 30, then warming some with rain and snow by Saturday,

   Joan had an eye doctor apointment in Duluth yesterday, and it was a good day to travel, the sun, which had been long absent, shining brightly all day.  Signs of a booming economy are more and more evident everywhere now, almost every business from fast food to warehouses to over the road trucking  companies displaying big help wanted signs, and the large rail yards in Duluth, which typically have been full of empty rail cars, are now themselves empty, the rail cars busy carrying coal, grain and goods across the country.  Most people have not recognized the boom as yet, but it is indeed here.
   Every fall a small, otherwise nondescript tree, about the size of a flowering crab apple tree, becomes a pinkish-red focal point in Bayfield's Fountain Garden Park. Adorned with unusual cerise berries about the size of a pea, which emerge from a pink covering, it is a beautiful sight, providing a splash of color even after most of the park's colored leaves have fallen.
  The European spindle tree, Euonymus europeaus,in the family Celastraceae, has long been planted as an ornamental in North America and sometimes escapes from cultivation and is reported to be invasive in some regions, but I personally have not encountered it in the wild.  In Europe and western Asia it is a woods-edge tree, usually growing on poor, rocky or calcareous soils.  The common name refers to its extremely hard wood, which was used in times past to make the spindles on spinning wheels.  It is an uncommonly pretty sight when in fruit, but it should be noted that the berries are poisonous, although they are so bitter as to be unlikely to be eaten.   In European herbal medicine an extract of the root is used as a liver stimulant.
   The common burning bush, Euonymus alata, with its prominent, blood-red fall leaf color, is an Asian relative of the spindle tree. The winged wahoo, Eunonymus americanus, which is native to eastern North America, is also in the same genus.
   European spindle tree is one of those single-emphasis plants that one may wish to have as a focal point or oddity, but it has little else to offer than its fall splash of pink and red color.

FIREBIRD CRABAPPLE

  MALUS  'FIREBIRD'

Monday, 8:30 AM.  26 degrees F at the ferry dock and on the back porch.  Wind SW, mostly calm with occasional light gusts.  The sky is clear, the humidity 70%.  The barometer is rising, now at 30.66".  Temperature highs will continue in the low to mid 30's during the week, with mixed skies and no precipitation predicted until next weekend. Hurrah, we see the sun at last!
   Speaking again of deer, my son, who lives in Texas, hit a deer with his car Saturday night. aybe I'll get a venison dinner yet.
   Apples and crabapples are all species of the genus Malus, in the Rose Family.  There are upwards of fifty species, all native to the temperate zone of the Northern Hemisphere.  The edible orchard apple, of which there are many varieties, is M. pumila.
   Small fruited, basically inedible species and varieties of Malus are generally called crabapples, or crab apples, or flowering crabapples.  All are small to medium sized trees, the crabapples mainly grown for their colorful blooms and decorative fruits, as well as orchard pollinators.  Most if not all are excellent wild life plants.  The genus is extremely variable genetically, and species hybridize readily.
   This year was excellent for apple production, and thus for crabapple fruit as well.  One of the best crabapples for abundant and colorful fruit is 'Firebird,' a small, very upright and formal tree.  It is a great plant for small places and makes a good small street tree, if the fruit does not pose a problem.  It is best used in a formal setting, as there is little in the natural landscape like it .

TWO MORE HOLDOUTS

HYBRID AMERICAN` ELM

RED OAK

Sunday, 8:30 AM.  37 degrees F at the ferry dock, 34 on the back porch.  Wind WNW, mostly calm with light gusts.  The sky is again cloudy, the humidity 83%.  The barometer is beginning to rise, now at 29.78".  Highs today will be in the high 30's, and the wind will pick up. The rising barometer predicts clearing skies during the week, with much colder temperatures.  It looks like our early winter weather is settling in for the duration.
   Hurrah!  Daylight saving time is over!  We hate all this tampering with nature's rhythms!
   Most red oaks have either now lost their leaves or they are hanging dead and ugly on the tree, but this oak on Hwy 13 at the south entrance to town is glorious.
   Native elm trees, the young ones which have not yet succumbed to Dutch elm disease, have lost their yellow-bronze leaves, but this hybrid elm looks like it is mid-summer.  The still-green leaves betray it's hybrid parentage with another elm species from a warmer climate.
   Trees that retain their green leaves late into the fall may well be hardy, but usually developed genetically in a warmer ecosystem.  Most species that evolved in a cold climate have learned their lesson, and go dormant early.

SWAMP WHITE OAK, A FALL HOLDOUT

SWAMP WHITE OAK

Saturday, 9:30 AM.  37 degrees F at the ferry dock, 34 on the back porch.  Wind SE, mostly calm with moderate gusts.  The sky is cloudy and overcast, the humidity 81%.  The barometer is falling, now at 30.12".  High today will be around 40, with rain showers tonight.  Temperature then will fall, with clearing skies and highs around 30 next week.  Snow showers were predicted for this morning but did not happen.
   Swamp white oak, Quercus bicolor, is a fine landscape and street tree.   Native to swamps, river banks and other wet locations somewhat further south and east in North America, it is perfectly hardy north.  Swamp white oaks, as are most riverine tree species, are suited to drier sites as well, since genetically they are tolerant of changing water levels.

   I often use swamp white oak as a privacy screening tree in a sunny location, just as I would a conifer, since the swamp white oak holds its abundant dry leaves virtually all winter long, and provides a nice variation in leaf color and texture as well as  an excellent screening effect.
   Even though the swamp white oak has a slow to moderate growth rate it will eventually become very large, so must be used with care on the small property.  The one pictured is perhaps ten years old.  Like all oaks, it may need supplemental iron fertilizer if leaves become chlorotic (yellowed).
   When most other trees have lost their leaves, swamp white oak is a fall holdout.