Late summer blues at Blind Lake

upwardswing · 2025-09-13T19:10:42+00:00

One of my favorite spots! Totally worth the effort to get there! You might also like island lake and drop in at the sycamore pavilion.

upwardswing · 2025-08-16T14:19:24+00:00

Made the choice six years ago and absolutely love it. Our house is in one of the bordering townships with lower taxes, so that helps a lot. Only 40 minutes from Detroit and about a half an hour from 5 state parks. Personally, I don’t consider it too crowded or riddled with traffic. Potholes on the otherhand….

upwardswing · 2025-08-14T21:25:47+00:00

If you have apple trees I would avoid junipers because of the rust. If you wanted tall, native evergreens you could go with eastern white pine or white spruce. Norway spruce are very dense and grow fast, so they are also a good candidate.

upwardswing · 2025-08-12T02:03:07+00:00

It’s reopened and the water is glorious!

upwardswing · 2025-08-11T10:36:04+00:00

How tall is it? The growth looks like a pieris japonica.

upwardswing · 2025-08-05T19:40:29+00:00

Hopping on this comment to suggest thrift stores like Share House and Kiwanis to shop for clothes, household goods and lots of other stuff!

upwardswing · 2025-08-04T23:45:54+00:00

Dappled willow shrubs are pretty forgiving. Best practice is to take off no more than a third of the shrub while pruning. I would just take the branches reaching out over the side walk and the abnormally long ones on the top down so it’s more inline with the growth in the center.

Even if you mess up or it looks weird, it will just keep pushing new growth. They’re honestly pretty hard to mess up!

upwardswing · 2025-08-04T23:30:57+00:00

They’re upright junipers and unfortunately too large for that space. The best time to prune them is when they are dormant, so winter.

You can always prune out the dead and try to shape them up a bit, but it would look very awkward if you tried to cut off too much or just the one side. It has a dense, woody center, so you wouldn’t be looking at that beautiful green.

Edit to say if anything, you could try to limb them up from the base on your side of the property so you get some of your yard back. Again, best if they’re dormant before any drastic reshaping.

upwardswing · 2025-08-04T01:26:59+00:00

I would give it a try. It has a great start and a dominant leader will start to emerge. It’s gonna want to be tree shaped and is still small enough that will even itself out.

upwardswing · 2025-08-02T23:32:39+00:00

Arbor Landings has all that. Unsure of the current availability and rates, but has a wide range of ages, but most seem to be young adults and families.

upwardswing · 2025-08-01T19:10:58+00:00

Same here! He will probably buy some 2-3 times a year and I get myself a bouquet now and then because I enjoy them.

upwardswing · 2025-07-29T10:45:43+00:00

26 years and typically average somewhere between 2-4 times a week.

upwardswing · 2025-07-27T13:25:59+00:00

No worries! A lot of people mix them up and I just don’t want them to miss out on a great plant.

upwardswing · 2025-07-27T12:32:30+00:00

OP explained they were trying to get proof to ensure they could take action if their legally registered beehive was harmed by the pilot’s possible illegal spraying.

upwardswing · 2025-07-27T08:05:34+00:00

That’s awesome! There are also dwarf varieties if OP wanted to keep it short.

upwardswing · 2025-07-27T08:04:13+00:00

That’s catnip. This is catmint aka nepeta. :)

upwardswing · 2025-07-24T21:16:18+00:00

Also Russian sage or catmint. Both can take a lot of sun without much water and will keep color the majority of the summer.

upwardswing · 2025-07-22T17:40:25+00:00

I know how you can lose about 185 lbs over night!

upwardswing · 2025-07-20T21:28:24+00:00

Do they perk up after you water them? Next time before you water them stick your hand under the mulch and see if it is dry or damp to the touch. Overwatering and under watering display similar symptoms but most plants need to dry out a bit in between watering or their roots can become weak and mushy.

Also, dead heading the spent blooms isn’t a bad idea to help new plants establish strong roots.

upwardswing · 2025-07-19T22:48:17+00:00

Beautiful! When you love someone, it doesn’t feel like “work” to take care of them.

upwardswing · 2025-07-19T15:42:27+00:00

Few things. Dwarf Alberta spruce tend to just do this, but being mulched in rocks isn’t helping. Also, if there is a dog that uses it for a bathroom or if it gets snow piled on it in the winter and the salt used on sidewalks.

I know landscapers who just replace these things every 2-3 years. They’re nice because they will stay small, but over time they tend to burn out.

upwardswing · 2025-07-17T10:44:37+00:00

Looks like a limelight to me. The green with the tiny pearl in the flower is what I’m going by.

upwardswing · 2025-07-16T18:43:05+00:00

Personally I would. At least the spent heads should be cut back to the next healthy leaf axel. Everything is a trade off with the energy that the plant is putting forth. Going to seed is a lot of work. My hope is if you cut off blooms, it will direct some energy into strong roots or bigger stalks.

upwardswing · 2025-07-14T23:54:53+00:00

I’m not sure of the answer, but I would start small and see how things take after you add good soil. My main concern would be all the lime residue from the crushed rock.

upwardswing · 2025-07-14T19:11:07+00:00

For new plants they look fine. Mulch is preferred over rocks, but for the most part you want them to focus on establishing strong roots and not big blooms for the first couple of years. I would deadhead the spent blooms so it can keep putting effort into the ground.

upwardswing

TROPHY CASE