Category: shrubs and trees

07 Jan 2015
January 7, 2015 0 Comments By masterpiecelandscapingadmin About Masterpiece, battling the Minnesota climate, boulders and stone, perennials, Pruning, shrubs and trees, The Art of Landscaping, winter landscapes

The Cold and Empty Minnesota Winter Landscape

The Landscape Garden of classic western and oriental culture is supposed to be an art form. "One is closest to God in the Garden"......Paradise of nearly all known human cultures has been described, imagined as a "Garden". Yet, at today's universities, in those which bother to include something oriented to landscaping of any kind, preach and enforce politics. Botany has become an unknown science to university undergraduate and graduate students except for perhaps at institutions...

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12 Nov 2014
November 12, 2014 0 Comments By masterpiecelandscapingadmin battling the Minnesota climate, shrubs and trees

It has been reported that within 48 hours, the Temperature here Will Reach -3 degrees Fahrenheit

Imagine such a temperature forecast in these days of 'POLITICAL GLOBAL WARMING!" Anything for a vote! Fortunately, in the part of the Twin City metropolitan area where I live, about three inches of snow fell a few nights ago. Fortunately too, the half-acre of landscaped garden I manage has already been covered 'naturally' by four inches of fallen leaves blown in mostly from neighbors' mature oak, maple, and cottonwood trees. Quiz question: Which of these...

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19 May 2014
May 19, 2014 0 Comments By masterpiecelandscapingadmin battling the Minnesota climate, garden seasons, shrubs and trees

Damage from the Winter’s Mood

This past Twin City area winter was a winter of my childhood through teen age years. Cold and long. Normally a true "test winter', that is a killer winter in at its worst in our area occurs similar to this past cold and windy winter.....but without snow cover. We had snow cover this past season and it came before the bitter cold and winds. That which was covered was protected and therefore survived quite well....

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11 Mar 2014
March 11, 2014 0 Comments By masterpiecelandscapingadmin battling the Minnesota climate, garden maintenance, Plant health, shrubs and trees, winter landscape maintenance

Winter 2013-14, the Winter of Those in my Childhood

I have long rooted for global warming....well, not so much global warming as Minnesota warming.....up to a point, of course. That point would occur when the Earth around where I live enters Horticultural zone five.....No warmer, and certainly no cooler. Why would I want to slip back into the dark ages of landscaping in Horticultural zone 3.5 or 4.0? I'll never see the day, but I have craved to be able to landscape in a...

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30 Jan 2014
January 30, 2014 0 Comments By masterpiecelandscapingadmin battling the Minnesota climate, shrubs and trees, The Art of Landscaping, winter landscapes

What a Beautiful Winter Here in Twin Cities, MN!

.....if one, especially the homeowner, has prepared for it. I cannot remember a winter more visually more beautiful than our present sample of snow and cold. It's been colder, much colder in the past. It has snowed, and snowed heavier in the past....but a winter such as ours here in the Twin Cities of Minnesota this season, cannot be beat for its beauty. I wonder how many of our fellow Twin Citians have recognized what...

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17 Jan 2014
January 17, 2014 0 Comments By masterpiecelandscapingadmin garden maintenance, shrubs and trees, winter landscape maintenance

Deer, not Unicorns, Love my Winter Landscaped Garden

I love deer. My hunter-son hunts them during hunting season. We both are devoted to our occasionally gainful occupation in life, landscape gardening. My home, therefore my landscape gardened grounds which surround it, is located in the third tier of middle, very middle class Minneapolis suburbs. Streets here were planned to curve when homes were built in the late 1950s. The lots are bigger, more often the 250 by 120 foot irreglarly-shaped kind rather than...

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18 Nov 2013
November 18, 2013 0 Comments By masterpiecelandscapingadmin battling the Minnesota climate, shrubs and trees, The Art of Landscaping, winter landscapes

Beauty and Your Landscape Garden

Unfortunately for the broader community, our Minnesota landscape industry does not view 'landscaping' as an art form. At university it is not taught as an art form. The ladies of the garden clubs love flowers. They do not consider the home grounds as a canvas for landscape garden beauty. Husbands are allowed to mow the lawn. Cities often demand trees be planted along the roadways whether needed or not and without regard for beauty. My...

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18 Sep 2013
September 18, 2013 0 Comments By masterpiecelandscapingadmin Plant health, shrubs and trees

Some Woody Plants Aren’t What The Label Sizes them up To Be

In general the Minnesota home owner knows little to nothing about the landscape garden world. They do not understand it as an art form. They do not know the names or the habits of the plants in the neighborhood as well as on their property. A shade tree gets big, conifers are called pines, shrubs are bushy. No one really pays much attention to names. "I don't like spiraeas", a recent new client uttered in...

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14 Sep 2013
September 14, 2013 0 Comments By masterpiecelandscapingadmin battling the Minnesota climate, garden seasons, shrubs and trees

Autumn Yellowing Conifer Panic Suggests a Good Eye

Panic in autumn regarding Minnesota conifers is a condition of the human Minnesotan who notices yellowing of foliage among conifers and begins to worry about it. These Minnesota's conifers don't panic for they are doing their normal conifer thing....ridding themselves of yesteryears' leaves, foliage, needles, whichever you wish to call their stuff turning brown in the autumn....usually the leaves older than three to five years. Usually only the garden-aware Minnesotans pay attention to such environmental...

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25 Aug 2013
August 25, 2013 0 Comments By masterpiecelandscapingadmin battling the Minnesota climate, shrubs and trees

Pond Life at Glenn’s

My landscape garden abuts a man-made pond with about 200 feet of "shoreline". The pond was the trumpcard ensuring my drive to purchase the property late 1973. True, the house was an uninteresting box and smaller than our Minneapolis home, but I was finished with city life. Hippies with all of their ugly, had invaded our neighborhood....and I had three children to raise. The box was at the end of a cul de sac where...

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