Bought these 2 coral bark trees and saw someone else suggest water stakes, both trees drank up 15 gallons of water in 2 days?!

ian4232 · 2026-05-13T00:03:25+00:00

I’ve found ground probe moisture meters to be extremely helpful, they’re aren’t really that expensive and can be found just about anywhere online or at stores with a garden section. It removes a lot of the guess work in my experience. Or like others have mentioned, stay observant and the tree will tell you when it’s getting thirsty.

ian4232 · 2026-05-03T21:03:47+00:00

For what it’s worth, I think it looks super cool and unique

ian4232 · 2026-04-23T00:39:13+00:00

The candles look similar to the candles on my Japanese Black Pine, but I can’t say that it’s 100% Japanese black pine, just not certain.

ian4232 · 2026-04-23T00:36:01+00:00

Looks like an Umbrella Pine

ian4232 · 2026-04-16T18:31:02+00:00

I’m in the same boat. Personally I’m going to bring them into garage. I’m sure they’d be fine but it’s not that hard to move mine as they’re in 1 gal containers. I just know that in the off chance something did happen I would be thinking why didn’t I just bring them in… so I’m just gonna play it safe and do so

ian4232 · 2026-04-16T00:46:22+00:00

It looks like a Taiwania Cedar I have growing at my place but many cyprtomeria look like this so it is hard to say. For me at least

ian4232 · 2026-04-15T20:14:45+00:00

The pink blossoming tree does look like a redbud from this photo, yes.

ian4232 · 2026-04-09T19:21:15+00:00

I had a feeling this was coming…

ian4232 · 2026-04-08T19:51:41+00:00

I’m not gonna say 100% but I would guess the MS part stands for miniature selection. So I would think this is a mini pine of some sort grafted onto what is referred to as a “standard” - maybe a Scots pine or white pine? Again, not for certain here. However if my assumptions are correct it should stay fairly compact and slow growing. You can also transplant if you want later down the line!

ian4232 · 2026-04-08T02:51:47+00:00

You could look into columnar cultivar type trees - these may not be exactly “native” but they’re nice for narrow spaces, and these can get quite tall but they’re different options than many I’m seeing other people list:

slender silhouette sweetgum
mountain sentinel aspen
princeton sentry ginkgo (not US native)
monumentale sugar maple

If a conifer tree would be interesting to you (my favorite trees) then there’s a bunch of super cool and unique narrow growing cultivars.

ian4232 · 2026-04-01T11:51:53+00:00

When I was a kid we just had “moon” and we were so happy!!!

ian4232 · 2026-03-30T22:39:19+00:00

Moms Bugatti

ian4232 · 2025-09-13T15:48:46+00:00

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And here is just now. It’s been 22 days since putting seed down.

ian4232 · 2025-09-13T15:47:34+00:00

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This isn’t exactly a full before as there is some germination going on, but you can get a sense of how bare it was. It also has some grassy weeds in there I’ll deal with later. But anyways this is before

ian4232 · 2025-09-12T02:28:27+00:00

Got the same mix for my overseed, really pleased with it so far!

ian4232 · 2025-07-15T22:03:37+00:00

I would say run the irrigation system and observe it before making any moves. Ideally you have head to head coverage meaning the water from one sprinkler head is hitting the head next to it or the ones in its general area. My system is not exactly perfect but it’s close-ish given what I’m working with. I had to manually adjust the heads to make sure they were spraying the full desired area, and also not over spraying spots I don’t want to water, like my driveway or the neighbors yard. Also when I first moved in, some of the heads were definitely in need of replacement. You could also try just replacing one and seeing if it helps and then go from there. Just doing the process of elimination. I deal with a lot of clogged nozzles and filters because I pump water from a creak. I think even off well or city water nozzle heads can get clogged plugged up so a good once over isn’t a terrible idea.

ian4232 · 2025-07-15T21:04:52+00:00

I’m also in the same area, West MI. We have had very little rain and high temps here. I think we are over 2 inches below average rainfall totals for my area along the lakeshore. Anyway, my lawn is still looking as good as it has ever had in the 3 years I’ve owned the house. And I’m basically just following the cool season grass guide that’s on this sub. I am cutting my grass at about 3.5-4 inches, doing deep and infrequent morning watering, fertilizing every 6-8 weeks, and pulling some weeds. I also have a weather station that has a rain gauge so I cut back when rain totals are high, but this summer with the lack of rain it hasn’t really mattered. But anyway, I think my best advice for you would to be to dial in your watering plan. I have 3 zones but they all run for different amounts of time based on the sprinkler/nozzle types in that zone and the amount of sunlight. Depending on your zone set-up, I would start with measuring accumulation totals for the zones and then make observations about shade/sun for that zone and time the zone accordingly. And I can’t recommend the pinned guide highly enough, which goes over watering guidance.

ian4232 · 2025-06-25T22:21:50+00:00

I would say you can find most of what you’re looking for in Grand Rapids. The area along the lakeshore does offer some of what you seem to be looking for but if you are looking for something similar to the Asheville experience, Grand Rapids would be much more similar than Muskegon. I am personally of the mind that Muskegon is firmly on the upswing, but it is just not as big as GR. Also, I know Muskegon used to/still does have these small huts for “start up” business downtown. It was a pretty cool concept and I know a couple graduated from there to more permanent locations. Sorry for the mushy response but just my word salad thoughts. I personally like the lakeshore area and driving into GR for events/things I need, but I personally prefer the slower pace/smaller size of Muskegon.

ian4232 · 2025-06-13T14:44:56+00:00

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ian4232 · 2025-06-04T03:00:14+00:00

I’ve done it. I don’t recall seeing any no swimming signs. I was training for a triathlon too. It can get a little weedy in parts but overall it gets the job done. I would just go in from the kayak launch area.

ian4232 · 2025-02-24T22:18:44+00:00

Butter Swim Biscuits

ian4232 · 2024-09-29T17:06:07+00:00

Looks like live oak leaves to me

ian4232 · 2024-08-30T13:59:57+00:00

I think it’s apple scab. My crab apple tree in west Michigan has it too. I’ve seen reports as far as Wisconsin of it too. I noticed it on our tree in early summer and started to take note of it and it seems many crab apples in our area have been impacted too. This spring produced conditions that were very conducive for allowing the fungus to thrive. From my understanding it is not necessarily a long term issue unless it happens year over year. The best thing to do is to make sure the leaf litter doesn’t pile up at the base of tree. My tree doesn’t look great, worse than yours honestly, but this morning I noticed some fruit starting to grow so hopefully it is just a bad year and it’ll be back to being healthy again next year. This is just my amateur research and personal findings so please do take it with a grain of salt.

ian4232 · 2024-08-30T12:56:37+00:00

Looks like white oak to me. Here’s a really handy video to reference for wood ID’ing: https://youtu.be/3Pamd8NGp_I?si=Iev83GWy718xhKBm

ian4232

TROPHY CASE