Trees in the Whompton yard

When we moved into our home 20 years ago, the house came with a "professionally landscaped" lawn. That really meant there were a lot of bushes I didn't really like plus an accent Dogwood tree on the corner. The previous-previous owners had planted three maple trees that were strongly established (two in the front yard, one in the backyard) and those trees were gorgeous. They provided this beautiful dappled shade for our south-facing front yard. Over time two of those maples became sick and had to come down, so the last hold out is Treebeard. (Yes, we name our trees.) Treebeard is not leafed out yet but you can get a perspective of scale here. It's a big tree.

Treebeard, the Maple tree

Above is the Flowering Dogwood that came with the house. For the longest time it was incredibly shaded because our next door neighbors had a massive oak tree on the edge of their property and the dogwood was lucky to get any sun. Most of the oaks in the neighborhood are grappling with a gall wasp infestation, and our neighbor was convinced to remove his tree last fall. Suddenly a whole half of our front yard opened up to regular sunlight.

Here you can see the Dogwood next to the corner of the house and also the two Prairifire Flowering Crabapples we put on that corner of the yard. All three trees bloom pink.

Meet Beaumont, one of the two crabapples in the front yard. Although planted at the same time, Beaumont is smaller than its partner so I often think of it as a younger sibling.

This tree's name is Brooks (short for Brookings). Yes, we named the trees after WashU buildings. Both Beaumont and Brooks have a purple-green mix of leaves and bloom a shocking hot pink.

And now it's time to move to the backyard. When Eric and I moved into our home in March 2022, the backyard had two components: a large maple about 15 feet from the house and a ridiculously large honeysuckle bush -- with some poison ivy thrown in for fun -- separating our yard from our neighbor's. (It took a LOT of effort to get that honeysuckle removed.) Within the month we went to the Earth Day Festival in Forest Park and they gave us three tiny trees. We planted all of them and one survived.

This is Fred. He was advertised to be a Ash tree but, friends, he's actually an American Sycamore. He's 20 years old and is the tallest of the trees in the yard. When it comes to interesting bark and leaves, the Sycamore wins, no contest. I love him.

For the longest time, the backyard was mostly open space that seemed endless because our property adjoins to common ground. It's a long way from our house to the neighbors on the other side. Eric had visions of endless games of frisbee and T-Ball and flag football in the backyard -- and some of that happened -- but mostly it was a large open space that was rarely utilized. I finally wore him down and he agreed that I could put some trees in. I think he envisioned I would get one or two. I came back from the nursery with three and then I sent Samantha back to get one more. 

Shopping at Schmittel's Nursery was really fun. I prefer trees with interesting bark and/or leaves so, with that approach, we bypassed lots of options. I frequently said "that's a nice tree but it's not my tree." In the end, we acquired a Merlot Redbud, a Wildfire Black Gum, a Dawn Redwood, and a Bald Cypress tree.

Our Bald Cypress is A-Knee, pronounced Annie. Bald cypresses sometimes grow knees, which  stabilize the tree, so the name is a pun. That corner of the yard gets a lot of water, and A-Knee has been really happy in her location. She initially came with only five branches and, well, she's made up some ground in the past year.

The Bald Cypress is Samantha's favorite tree and you can see the delicate feathering nature of the branches and leaves here. 

My birthday tree is Sunny, a Dawn Redwood. Initially I had hopes for an Eastern White Pine but through lots of thinking I came to the realization it wasn't well suited to where I wanted it to go. When I let go of that, I opened up my eyes to another water loving tree with visual and texture attributes that are similar. Actually the Redwood and Bald Cypress have a lot of attributes in common, but the Redwood seems to have a more compressed visual appeal (for right now). Sunny had more lower branches initially but the neighborhood deer aggressively went after my tree -- we kept coming home and seeing more and more limbs broken as they eat my tree! -- so we installed a very unattractive blockade to help it survive the winter. Sunny seems to have thrived overall. 

Sunny, a Dawn Redwood

Sunny also has a bird nest in it! We are beyond thrilled about this development.

The last of the three trees on the back row of the property is the Black Gum. Black Gums are not like Sweet Gums -- no pokey balls to clean up here! Instead we got a native tree that loves water and sun and has beautiful color in its leaves all year long. The Black Gum has the capacity for substantial growth, about 1 - 2 feet per year, and I think ours had about 2.5 - 3 feet of growth in the past year. This tree is very happy in its new home.

We were not creative with this tree's name. It's a Black Gum Tupelo, and we call it Tupelo. 
Also, this picture gives some perspective on how large the common ground actually is. Tupelo is very close to the edge of our property line.

Tupelo's leaves in the spring and summer are this mix of neon green and orange. In the fall it turns bright red.

We placed the Merlot Redbud, named Merle, in line with Fred on the property. Merle gets a mix of sun and shade as a result. We purposefully put in a smaller tree in that space because tree trimming to protect the roof is a tedious affair.

Merle, a Merlot Redbud. Merle had gorgeous purple flowers in the spring.

Just appreciating its leaf color here.

And now comes the decision point. We have two more spaces where another tree might go: next to the driveway in the front yard and in between Merle and Fred in the back yard. Also, technically, if I'm willing to claim some of the common ground for my own I can put trees there too. I very much want a Yellow Poplar tree. I planted one in my yard back in Owensboro and it's a beautiful tree. However, I don't realistically have the space for it to grow wide, and so I will have to let that dream go. Instead, I'll continue to visit with the ones in my neighborhood and appreciate their beauty there.