This is exactly why we call professionals when we have to have a big tree removed!

Happy weekend!

While the photo of the blue bottle tree first caught my attention, when I went to this site I was in awe over the stunning, gorgeous photos of people’s creativity in their yards.  Go to Flickriver immediately to view the stream of “Weird Yards and Gardens” !!

The photographer used a lacy tablecloth to wrap the tree.

Look at the close up!

We are limited only by our own imagination.  This has been proven by artists, composers, architects, and now… gardeners.  Actually the artist may be insulted for me to call him “gardener” but Marinus Boezem planted De Groene Kathedraal (The Green Cathedral) in 1987.  Today – with just four years to go to reach full growth – it’s stunning.  From Architizer Blog,

Yet, whereas at Reims, the plan is, in fact, the generator of complex primary and secondary geometry and structure, the Green Cathedral simply, if intentionally, embodies its diagrammatic nature. Inlaid stone marks the crossing of groin vaults on the ground, inscribing the lawn with the means of projection for the sky above. The trees, which will never converge to roof the nave below, will eventually die and rot, giving way to a vast field of trunks.

Stunning.  Click through to see all the photos!

From my front yard…

I saw my first flower of the spring last night in full bloom.  I want to call it a daffodil, but everyone else scientific calls it the trumpet narcissus.  It was dark as I rolled down the driveway so I couldn’t get a photo.  However, Nancy of Homemade Blessings gives us a photo journey around her yard from Sunday,

The kids have been having fun swinging in this hammock that we hung out between two of the trees – it seems more like a cocoon than a hammock! Here is Anna having a turn ~

A hammock is on my agenda this year.  Bravo and thank you Nancy!  First I’ll have to scout out a couple of trees where birds don’t constantly sit (and drop).  Perhaps I’ll find one with man-made tree trunks… a self-contained hammock.

Photo by mbtrama via Flickr Creative Commons.

How often do you get up early in the morning and walk around your neighborhood, your yard, or the meadows, hills, or countryside near your home?  Perhaps this will inspire you to venture out early one morning during this holiday season.  From rlhassociates, Wintertime Fog – Crunch Crunch Crunch,

Tucked between the rows of the green guardians of the hillside
Coal bucket size puffs of snow fall from the evergreens
Keeping us alert to the directions of the winds and
The forest floor underneath our winterized boots
The woods are quiet except for the crunch crunch crunch

Beautiful.  It’s time for me to go for a long, quiet walk.

Photo by Pavel Rybin via flickr creative commons.

Photo by dbezanson via flickr creative commons.

Photo by Roger H. Goun via flickr creative commons.

One of the best things I like to do with trees, but not something that everyone considers is trimming up trees so you can walk underneath them.  Pine trees are particularly lovely when trimmed up because they’ll leave behind a bed of needles – a natural bed of “mulch” if you will.

However, it’s not always in the best interest of the tree to trim up.  The hemlock tree called Thorsen’s Weeping is a ground cover, so to trim would take away from the best the tree offers.  Ed of The Amazing World of Conifers tells how beautiful the tree can be,

This completely prostrate growing conifer, if left to grow naturally, will be a ground-hugging spreader which will create a rich green carpet of conifer. Its natural form will flow between large garden rocks and spill over walls softening hard architectural edges and give the suggestion of water flowing in the garden. Most likely, you’ll find it in the independent garden center staked to a height of three or four feet. Once in your possession, you could continue to increase its height by staking in as tall as you like confident that when it reaches the top of the stake, it will turn and flow right back to the ground.

Lovely!

Photo by magnolia1000 via flickr creative commons.