Sadly Removing a Big Dead Spruce Tree with Aaron & Planting 4 Fall Containers! 🌲🍂🪓

Hey guys, how's it going? It is an absolutely glorious morning here in Eastern Oregon. I'm not sure what the temperature is. I think it was supposed to get down to like 44 last night, but it's definitely chilly enough to have an extra layer on to start off with, and I love that. So I was out here just walking around taking a look at things and enjoying the cooler, the cooler temperatures. It feels so comfortable to be out here. Our pansies and Dusty Miller look great. They look awesome, and I always like to watch my topiaries. I don't know why. After I've pruned them, I always want to keep an eye on them just to see how the tips are looking and that they don't seem to have formed up any dried edges. I think we did our trimming on a good day with good, not too hot of temperatures. And soon we'll be able to get after these boxwoods. I can't wait to see them all shorn and looking nice and tidy again all through here. It's going to look so great. But today we've got a couple of things going on. First off, Erin and the kids right now, they have headed behind the barn and they are going to take out the big spruce tree that we have essentially lost. There's like a tiny bit of green left in it, tiny, and it's, I think it's halfway dead. The green that's there looks kind of gray. Like if you shook the branch, those needles might fall off as well. So Erin wanted to try taking that out of himself. So they are out there doing that, and I think he's going to capture that process. And then we are going to run down to the garden center really quickly because I would like to plant up the three pots that are in front of the berry beds. There's a lot of flowering annuals in there, but there's also one sweet potato vine we put in each pot and they just got enormous and they kind of took over the whole thing. So that's all you see. And I'm ready to switch stuff over. I mean, we just started doing all of that and we've got a trailer load of beautiful smaller annuals, but I need some centerpiece plants for those pots. I've got the, it's called Jade Princess Millet, which is beautiful. We put the Purple Baron Millet in the Savannah Urns and I love that look, but I don't have enough of the Jade Millet and I don't think it's going to be like showy enough right there. I kind of want an evergreen because in the wintertime, I did notice last year that I pretty much lose everything in that space and we'll show you around when we're out there. And I would like to have some winter interest in those pots, possibly to put some Christmas lights on because there's nothing else in that area really that I can remember us ever putting Christmas lights on. So anyway, I thought that would be kind of fun. So we're going to head down there, take a look. And I'm really planning on getting maybe four pots done, those three, and then the pot that's near our entryway. They're all the same style and the same size. And then if we get anything extra done above that, that's great. Let's head out. All right, you guys. So I made it down to the garden center and Monica, my mom, and I decided to run out to the farm stand real quick. So we've got some things. Mom got some raspberries, make some jam. Some jam because all the guys in our family love raspberries. They do. One peach for lunch. And then I see your cantaloupe made it way up there. I'll get it. I've got a truck hoe. This is my box right here. So I got some corn for dinner tonight since ours is past its prime. We got some honey crisp apples, make some sauce. I got some peaches. I got a cantaloupe as well. This is our truck hoe. I keep a garden hoe in here because then you can reach forward and scoot your stuff forward. Check that out. Nice. There we go. That's a good system. It is. Works out. All right. So now we're going to run out into the nursery and we're going to pick us out three pot centerpieces. All righty. Now the area where we're going to put these has a lot of green around it. At least right now it has a lot of green. But there is a small evergreen in the flower bed just in front that is green. So I'm thinking of putting something blue in these pots. I think that would shine and it would really show up in that spot. So let's check it out. First, I got to grab my cart. There's so many sweet, small evergreens right now. Like look at those. Those would look really cute in a smaller pot. I also love the structure of this one right in here. This might be a Royal Splendor, which is what I have nearby. Yep. That is. I love that structure. These would look cute in pots. Little arbs. Little round arbs. I like those. Those are green, but those are really cool in the structure department. Look at those. A little Dr. Seuss-esque. And you guys, at this point of the season, most everything has been moved up here, minus some of the trees that are on the racks in the back. So it's much more condensed. They're right in the middle of their fall sale as well, which most everything out here is 40 to 50% off, minus like the new fall plants. I want to look at this space over here because I found an Avatar Blue Spruce the other day right here. This is what I think we should do. I think those are the absolute perfect size. And they grow, what do they grow? Like 25 by 15, 20 by 15, which after we're done with them in pots, I think I would love to have these out in the landscape because I have this variety planted out in the landscape already and they're doing really well. So if we did one, two, three, those all have kind of matching leaders, I think that would be great. That's an easy decision. All right, this is weird. I started with that cart. How did I get this cart? Where did I pick that up at? Oh, thank you. I could have done that. Yeah, I think our job here is done. Quickest garden center shopping trip ever, but we got stuff to do at home. So I'm going to get these loaded up and we're going to head back. Bye. See you later. All right, you guys. Almost there. You can see the three pots. They've been cleaned out. Oh, I'm excited for this. All right. So you can see that they're at the end of our berry beds right here. We're going to have to do a little cleanup because we can't have branches like billowing over the top of the plants, especially over there. Our blackberries are just going nuts. It's insane. And I think they're getting so heavy that they've kind of pulled this over a little bit. So we're going to have to fix that as soon as we do some pruning. Oh, my word. If you get in there, there's still some blackberries too. When do they start bearing? It must have been like end of May, early June. And they just go. If you plant multiple varieties that have a little bit of a different harvest or what's the word I'm looking for? Anyway, ones that bear at slightly different times, then you can extend your harvest season out so much. There's a few right in here. Not quite as big as the earlier ones. Tasty and sweet. These are my favorite, though. Fall golds. Hands down. I just stand out here. I stood out here last night and just ate handful after handful of these. Mm. Mm-hmm. Yummy. This end of the bed's looking real poorly, though. What's going on? We can do a little cleanup on those. I suspect that the drip, it starts over there. And I'm wondering if it's just having a hard time getting over here. I thought we swapped it out this spring, but we might need to do fresh. I'll verify. I'll ask Erin and Paul if they did any work, but I'm going to cut any crummy looking ones away. And then over here as well. But you can see kind of parallel these pots. We've got a little walkway area. We've got our rhubarb, which is looking fantastic. We've got our royal splendor. We looked at one of those down at the garden center. So that's why I thought, well, it might be kind of nice to have some blue in here. And then we'll repeat, because the supervena whiteout will go away. I'm thinking we just do a very simple and clean look in these pots. The white with the blue, which will make them look nice now, but it'll look very good for wintertime as well. And these will give us some structure for Christmas lights. I did bring these up, though. These are the songbird white cabbage. They look really pretty and very peaceful with the white pansies. They look good with this. So we might work some of those in too. We'll see. I just didn't want a tremendous amount. Like I didn't want any grassy texture in here. I've got like little carrots that are pretty plants, but I just don't, I don't want a whole lot of fuss around them. I just kind of want it to look, I don't know, simple. You'll also see that I loaded up some autumn colors for Beckia, some of our Jade Princess Millet and some red pansies. And that's for the pot up front. We'll hit that one after we're done with these. So the only thing that I am going to skip today is swapping the drip out because I don't have enough supplies, I don't think, to swap the drip out. So we're just going to leave it the way it is today. And I'm going to leave the drip flopped out of the container, and then we'll come through and add some drip later once somebody has a chance to run and get some. I just didn't even think about it. I could have done it this morning when we were out running around, but yeah, didn't think about it. So, you know, one thing I might do is try to get these inserts out. These aqua pot inserts might work on that. I just don't know with our setup if it's worth having them in there, taking up all that reservoir for soil. I don't know. You don't have gloves, that's fine. All right. Hold on. No! Geez. You don't need no man. I don't need no husband. For the record, I tried to help. Yeah, but you've got other things going on and I've got to do this two more times. So, I'm going to put some biotone in now, a little soil recharge. Yeah, you guys, standing back, looking at these, I don't think any other type of centerpiece would have showed up as great. If it was a grass, I think it would have looked too messy with all the texture we've got going on behind it. And these are kind of a messy plant, so we needed something with some weight, some density, and a just completely different color. I'm really happy with this. We are going to have to add in some extra soil around it, and then we can go in with our pansies. But I think this looks really nice. So, you notice I didn't do a complete soil swap. I used to do that back when, I don't know, maybe I was feeling like I was a glutton for punishment back then. But now, I just leave the soil, if it's not overly taxed with roots, and we just add in the biotone or whatever, tone fertilizer, just to kind of give it more nutrients, and then top it up with fresh. So, this is the fresh soil right here I'm using. Okay, now we need to decide if we just use the white pansies or if we plug in, I don't think I want to plug these in. I think I just want it to be white pansies. Simple, no muss, no fuss. Also, these are really compatible in the water situation, or in the water realm, because the pansies are low water users, and of course, the spruce is a low water user, so this is going to be a very compatible blend. If we put the cabbage in, those would tend to dry out faster than these other two, so I think this is going to be better for longevity and the health of the plants. If I had enough red pansies, I would have probably gone in with red, making a mental note for next fall. Although I love the white, it's very crisp, I think red is so fun to use in the fall because it goes over into Christmas so beautifully. They look so good. Look at them. They just look so fresh and so tidy. I love it. This time of year, swapping over from what was in here, which they were already cleaned out so you didn't see it, but we did, I think we showed them in the tour. I did show them recently, but it was just mainly a ball of sweet potato vine, and other than the fact that the color was brighter on the sweet potato vine, it looked quite a lot like what was going on behind it, so it didn't show up because it was more chartreuse, but this is so much better. Oh my goodness. And the fact that we can pop some little twinkle lights on them, I think that's going to look so great. And of course, we've got the drip flopped out the side, but we'll get those fixed or swapped over to the other method of running drip to containers that we've been changing to as soon as we have the right supplies, but I just love them. And here's a look back down the other way. And I do think we stopped our little stone pathway over there, like just beyond the last bed of berries. I think we'll bring it forward because I was unsure how much space we would need. I didn't know if it would be a little bit too crowded, but I think we could take that path and sort of like swing it a little bit further in front of the pots and then have it come out this way. And this can still be flower bed all the way to the end because I do intend on planting like a cone boxwood on either side, something like that, that matches, and then everything else can be different. But I think having that stone pathway come this way will look really nice and a little bit more finished because, you know, at one point in time, while we still have wood chips, but they've kind of broken down so much that it almost just, it's a different look. It's not compost. I didn't really want compost in here and we do need to put some fresh chips down. But having the stone pathway would add that separation. We'd have the stones, mulch, wood chips. Got to have a few more of these before we head to our next project. The one thing that these fall golds don't make, I mean, they make it, but it's super, super gross looking, is jam. I thought at one point in time, oh, it'd be so beautiful and tasty to have a jam made out of these fall golds. Like I was hoping it would be kind of that orange, amber color. It was not. It looked really bad. I will not do that again. All right, we've got our junk all loaded in the back of the gator. So I need to go clear that out. We're going to go grab some Dusty Miller in the greenhouse and then we will head with our other plants to the other container. Okay, debris is gone. Picked up the new look Dusty Miller. This is a container we're going to be planting. Look at the annuals below it. They look just fantastic. Highly recommend this Diamond Mountain Euphorbia and the blooms are so tiny, like look at those itty bitty petals, but as a collective whole, oh my word, so awesome. And then we've got the Saffron Finch Supertunias down below and I mean, we've had some pretty cool nights close to 40 and they're just still rocking. Let's pick our way back here. You'll notice that this one still has an insert in it and I think I'm going to just leave it for this container. All the plants we're putting in this one in particular are annual and have much smaller root balls than the blue spruces. So we'll pop that out in the spring. Once we, all of these grow together, it's likely we'll be able just to lift a big bunch of it out, like maybe almost all the way to the insert. It'll all come out in one big piece and it'll be much easier to remove the insert. So anyway, also the containers with the spruces, I just wanted that insert out because I knew that the root ball is big enough to where it would probably be just right on top of it and I want it to be on the soil, not on the insert. And I think having more soil around it will allow the pots to one, hold more moisture in the soil and I think it gives them more room for root growth so that if we want to keep them further or longer in those containers, then we can do that. So if we decide not to change them out in the spring and pop the evergreens out, instead we leave them in there all of next season and maybe for next winter too, they'll have more reservoir for their roots to do that. And I opted for the millet in this container because we've got a Norway spruce, a beautiful one right here. We've got a Serbian spruce right here. We do have a lot of grassy texture right here, but I think, I mean, it's separated enough that I think a grassy texture would look better than an evergreen texture here. We'll have to swap the drip in this one too. However, I think all of these are working. Yeah. I think all of the drip holes in this one are working. Interesting. So I'll just leave that drip line on top of the soil for now and then when we get our supplies I can just pull it out and we can swap it. Okay. So let me show you one of these just individually. Isn't that pretty? It's so bright. It's going to show up beautifully in there. All of this stuff's going to go. And then we will be cutting these back as well. So once all of that's gone, having that bright pop will be so awesome. Now Jade Princess grows, how tall, 30 to 40 inches tall. Not this time of year though. So we are going to put three of them together in this container like we did with the purple, purple barren, barren purple. I cannot remember the name of that one. Every time I hesitate and think, I don't think that's right. I think I'm close. And then we're going to use the rudbeckia, which will give us some beautiful color. They've got lots of buds on them, no flowers yet, which is great. That's exactly where I want them. And then we've got the dusty miller and we've got the red pansies. So let's get this one done. And then we'll go take a look at the tree project that Erin did. I haven't been back there yet. I usually try to divide my containers into thirds when I'm doing three plants like this, but I'm kind of favoring, like pushing more toward the front side because that's where you see it. We're still going to plant some pretty things back here, but these things will be a little bit more visible, all three of them from the front, if we kind of scoot them. This is also going to show up beautifully too, look at that. Okay, now we're going to go in with a bunch of these red pansies and just wring around the edge. And at that point in time, I'll make sure, like see that root ball isn't very covered. I'll make sure all the root balls are covered and I'll tuck it. Look at how beautiful that is. Oh, I see a container back there. I'm going to go grab that. I love it. I'll need to go grab the water tank to water it in and I'll clean off the sides at that point in time, but really nice. Now I did pop some pansies back here and I did two dusty Miller because I had a little bit of a bigger gap, but this is the side, like I said, that is just not quite as visible. I mean, you will be able to see peaks of it though. And that's why it's important to still plant something in the backside because those will puff up and fill in and you'll be able to see peaks of color from this angle. And then again, from the other side, but I just love, like my favorite thing is this dusty Miller this year. It's so beautiful. Look at that. It looks gorgeous with that chartreuse green. Also, I mean, these aren't even in their full prime yet. As soon as those rudbeckias start blooming, we're just going to have a glorious show of color. I really like it. And you know, we had yellow and white. We kind of had a repeat of this stuff in this container. And I love that for the summertime and we pulled it early because we had some aphid issues with it and it just wasn't looking good. But I'm excited to have still something bright, like a bright pop, but I like seeing this depth of color in here just for something different. So you guys, that does it for our projects today. That was my goal was to go find something to put in the center of those other three, which I can see them from here and they look awesome. It's like a little bit far away, but my goodness. I can see those three blue spruce trees. I think that's a great choice for that spot. Oh, look at that. Oh, I love it. That millet is perfection in there. Oh, what a great look. All right. And then maybe as we drive by, you can see the look that those blue spruce trees are given. See them through there. Oh, it kind of mirrors this one right here. I love that. And soon all these boxes are going to be shorn all nice and tight and you can see the gorgeous evergreens. Gosh, that was, that was a good move. I love it. Oh, we need to tackle these next. You know what? Before we take an after look, let's show you the whole process. It's a little bit more tidy that needs to be done, but look at that. Wow. I'm going to keep pointing this direction so we're not all up in our neighbors. Well, I mean, they're our providers. They've got North Poles as well, just like us. And they're really filling in beautifully. Oh, well, I'm sad that that tree did not make it. It's just one of those things that just happens. And that was one of them, like I mentioned before, that came out of that field that hadn't been tended to in lots of years. It was a risk. So, and when they got the roots out, both Paul and Aaron said that the soil looked fine. It didn't look overly soggy. It didn't look too dry. So, I don't know. Maybe it had just enough energy to survive the time that it did survive here and then it just had had it. So, I think what we're going to do is put a Leyland Cypress in here. I think I mentioned that before because they do grow pretty quickly, they're beautiful, they're soft, and they do well here. And I think that would be a good look because we've got kind of four blues in a row. Blue spruce, blue cedar, blue cedar, blue spruce. So, we need a green evergreen right here in the center. And really very minimal damage done to the hibiscus. Just like a few little snapped off branches. I was expecting much worse than that. Not bad. Well, guys, that is it for us today. I hope you enjoyed seeing those containers come together. It's just four more checked off the list. It always feels nice. We've got, let's see, I think we've got two more, four more that size to redo. The two in front of the Persephone Garden and then the two that kind of, they're kind of close to the Savannah Urns. They flank an opening where a rock pathway goes in. So, I've got to figure out, I do know what I'm going to do as a centerpiece in two of them. I just have to figure out what I'm going to do in the other two. But we'll tackle that here soon. It's fun just kind of working on a little bit here and there and just getting things done. But also adding a little bit of fun in there too, like going to the farm stand this morning. I didn't expect to do that. On my way down to the garden center, I thought, you know what, it's early enough in the day. They're probably a little bit slower when it's so chilly out. Maybe they can steal away for a little bit. We can go get a coffee, go to the farm stand. And it was really fun. I should have filmed it for you guys. I just wasn't thinking about it. But they have, it's called Purdom's Produce. And it's in Fruitland, Idaho. And it's an amazing farm stand. We've been going there, well, I went there all of my childhood years. And then they closed it for a number of years. And I was so sad because it felt like it was the death of part of my childhood. It was so weird that it affected me like that. And then they decided the kids of the people who, I think they had retired is what happened. But the kids decided to open it back up. And it's awesome. And they had a bunch of food trucks. Like a big soft pretzel truck. And a Mexican food truck. What else? Donuts. And a hot dog stand. We'd all go in and it was super busy. So it was very fun. No pumpkins out yet. I was going to ask them about that. But we're getting close to that time. Anyway, it's just been a great day. A little bit of fun. A little bit of work. Getting stuff done. And that's a huge project that Aaron got done. I think he was kind of looking forward to it. He told me today that he thinks he probably should have a legitimate chainsaw. He probably should. Anyway, thank you so much for watching. I hope you're having a great day. And we will see you in the next one. Bye.