My almost complete pond

[waynefrcan]

Hello folks, just wanting to get your guys opinions on whether I should put some larger shade trees on both sides of the pond on the cedar slope? Cedar slope is 20 x12 ft on both sides. They would be small now at 9ft by 3ft but in 10-15 years they will be 25 ft by 20 wide and will take up the whole areas. And the leaves would be nuts.

Or just get small trees or shrubs to reach 6 - 13 ft above the 6 ft fense height?

Thanks

Wayne

 

[callingcolleen1]

hELLO wAYNE! :alieneyesa: I think you can find many different trees that would look good and not be too big or messy down the road. I am not real good with trees, but if you look at the garden centre you may find something still available that should suit your needs. If I were planting that area, I would get some small trees, such as a cherry and maybe an apple too, a smaller lilic bush, maybe a couple, one pink and one purple, maybe white too. Then for summer blooms would have two or three hardy rose bushes, (stay away from yellow cause they get bugged), and then I would plant some hostas under the fruit trees when they get larger.

Fruit trees can be messy, but they bloom so nice in the spring and add color to the landscape and smell so wonderful. I would deal with the small mess later...
Lilic bushes are my favorite for spring flowering trees, as they just smell just heavenly!
Smaller trees will offer enough shade, and they are easy to chop down if you decide to get rid of them. I have huge trees that took over most of the yard and I wish I had pulled them out when they were just weed trees, but hubby wanted them, they do provide lots of shade and save of money on summer cooling, but they make a big fat mess for me to clean every spring and fall! Then, now that they are big, I want to remove them, but that would cost thousands of dollars and envolve heavy equipment..

So my advice is to just stick to small stuff that will still give you what you want, and still be easy to remove down the road. I myself prefer flowering trees shurbs, but evergreen type trees and bushes grow better up north and I envy them come fall, as you can decorate them with lights.

 

[callingcolleen1]

Plant the trees and shrubs on the far side and leave one side open so that your beautiful pond can still shine threw! :blueflower:

 

[waynefrcan]

Thanks for taking the time sister, and knew I could count on you. When I get more time I'll look at your posts as you have had some bad luck of late.

I agree with what you said. I have decided to go with a fruit tree max height 13 ft H. And a Amur Maple shrub that turns bright red leaves in the fall 10 ftx 10 ft max Height and width. i will do shrubs and flowers around them.

I decided to keep the rock waterfall area free of most plants as I like the rock look.

I am slow this year as I had a bit of a health problem myself. Tooth pulled complications that required a small surgery procedure.

Remember after 35 it's all down hill until death lol. Depressing but true.

 

[callingcolleen1]

I thought "down hill" meant it was all "easy going" ha ha ha!! Yes old age catching up with us all, and maybe by the time those trees get too big, we will be too old to care! Ha ha ha!

Actually I consider myself "lucky"! I am lucky the flood did not get me, and that little "flash flood" a couple weeks later did no damage even though it flooded half my front yard, cause now my roses are blooming like crazy since they got a good soaking!

The fish that I took from the middle pond to my sister house during the big June flood threat, are still mostly up there, cause her water is so Pea green I can't see to catch them, although I did manage to get one Koi back from her. My sister Beverley did tell me that there was a big bird (heron) fishing in her pond shortly after I brought some of my fish up, and I do know that the one big fat long tailed goldfish is missing from her pond too, and I suspect others may be missing as well. If or When the pea green water she has ever clears up, I will go see what is left, and maybe I will let her have those fish. I do still have the rest of my big koi in my pond, as well as others, and I was thinking that they were looking pretty darn big this year, and maybe there was too many....

I do seem to be missing some small goldfish from the bottom pond, as snakes may have came again like last year and dined on a few for lunch, such is life, just when you start to get lots of colorful goldfish populating the pond nice, then someone eats a few..... natural population control not always a bad thing either....

I got a new computer, a REAL computer!! I thought this dumb tablet was a real computer, but the experts tell me it is just a glorified cell phone. My nefew is helping me learn the new computer when he is down, and I am learning lots on my own as well. The "experts" assured me that this new "laptop" will not run out of room and crash like my tablet did. I have been moving picture an video files over from my plugged up cell phone as well. The new computer is a little scary for me, and so here I sit typing on my old tablet.....

 

[addy1]

lol be brave colleen.........type on your puter!

 

[gardengirl]

type..... type......type....

 

[gardengimp]

Embrace the scary Colleen, it will take years off you and make you younger :compute:

Wayne, I would be quite careful with trees near your pond. Try to put in small, what we call 'patio' trees, that don't get much taller than 15 - 20 feet. And if they are deciduous, try to put them downwind from your pond.

My little pond looks so cute tucked in under the flowering dogwood, but dang those leaves. And those flowers, and that fruit. We have been having such a wet summer, and my dogwood has already lived past its expected life, I think it is saying it has had enough. And that is going to be just fine with me. One less tree to drop crap in my pond.

Do you have a skimmer on your pond? If not, you might want to consider one as your trees get bigger.

 

[j.w]

I love Weeping Alaskan Cedars! They look like scary long armed goblins at night when the full moon shines on them. Beautiful ghost trees is what I call them. They don't shed leaves like a deciduous tree and green all year round. Many different shapes.

 

[ShawnLimy]

put a diaper on them and change them every day :razz:

This for sure is the funniest thing i seen on a pond forum, brought tears to my eyes.

 

[waynefrcan]

Now thats one scary looking tree JW. Do cedars have long surface root systems like spruce, and pine? I'm avoiding any tall spruce or pine as I'm told surface roots can go out 20-25 ft from a full grown one and disrupt the pond edging and liner.

 

[waynefrcan]

Good advice, I don't want all the leaf mess that a large tree will bring. Also it takes up too much room full grown. I hate when people don't plan ahead for max growth with trees. How many yards do we see every tree packed in pressing against the fence and looking stupid full grown.

YEs 2 skimmers actually. System handles 10,000 gal/hr.

Embrace the scary Colleen, it will take years off you and make you younger :compute:

Wayne, I would be quite careful with trees near your pond. Try to put in small, what we call 'patio' trees, that don't get much taller than 15 - 20 feet. And if they are deciduous, try to put them downwind from your pond.

My little pond looks so cute tucked in under the flowering dogwood, but dang those leaves. And those flowers, and that fruit. We have been having such a wet summer, and my dogwood has already lived past its expected life, I think it is saying it has had enough. And that is going to be just fine with me. One less tree to drop crap in my pond.

Do you have a skimmer on your pond? If not, you might want to consider one as your trees get bigger.

 

[callingcolleen1]

Oh Brother Wayne .... the trees everywhere against my fence, that would be my yard!! Way back then I was young and stupid, and I let them grow, now how I wish I had chopped them down when they were little 25 years ago! Now I think I will hire somebody this fall to get rid of some....

 

[waynefrcan]

YEs, man needs to listen to women a liitle more :cheerful: as I read in your posts the hubby wanted to keep all the trees.

 

[j.w]

Yes I have heard Cedar trees will send off surface roots. I planted mine up on top of a big mounded island of soil and we have very sandy soil so they shouldn't be a problem here but if you just plan on putting trees in your grassy area and you have clay soil you might have a problem w/ some kinds of trees getting surface roots. Roots like to go down but if you have hard ground then they will take the easy route and may make life miserable for you. I'd check online or ask at your nursery Wayne to see which ones might not be so bad at wreaking havoc upon your yard.

Here this will make all you people that are burning up w/ high temps feel a little bit cooler...................maybe :cheerful: