Nice! And very nicely done display table! Your fence (first pic above) looks exactly like the one I built for an area of my garden. You have good taste!
Good stuff. I'd be careful with the birch - they're very susceptible to fungal attack, and the mushroom growing in the pot suggests conditions are favourable for that. Consider spraying with fungicide perhaps.
Ive heavily inoculated them to out compete problematic species of fungi. I forget the exact species name but it's in the Glomus genus. They're symbiotic and benign.
I do use copper, neem, daconil, and a couple other targeted antifungal chemicals as necessary when bad fungi strike.
Ive heavily inoculated them to out compete problematic species of fungi. I forget the exact species name but it's in the Glomus genus. They're symbiotic and benign.
Very 'green' thinking there.
A while back I started to make a small deadwood planting with Birch Polypore (the bracket fungus), to use as an accent. Then I realised that as I was also trying to grow birch bonsai, it probably wasn't a good idea to be introducing a species that was definitely problematic into the garden...
Last year I was reticent to perform aggressive pruning. I was busy, overwhelmed, and wanted to go easy on my trees to ensure they would bulk up after a move.
This year I will be a bit more aggressive—especially on the healthiest shohin—at pruning to encourage ramification.
I'm going to focus on quality over quantity so I am paring down my tree count. Here are two that I just potted up yesterday for my mother. They're Ilex crenata 'Dwarf Pagoda' and Shimpaku juniper. The holly has been receiving clip and grow techniques for three growing seasons and the juniper received a little wiring last year (it needs a lot more).
Nice group of trees. Most of them look like cut down gallons of assorted varieties. Thats good, BUT...one piece of advice...if you were my student and I've had many, I would learn you quick the art of cutting back harder. I know your in Oregon and stuff does not always grow super speedy, but no sense wasting the time watching it grow only to say "self, why didn't you cut that back harder in the first place".