Landscaping Our Cabin Property Part 3

Some people spend the winter and early spring curled up with seed catalogs dreaming of spring planting in their gardens and yards. I dreamt about planting the blank slate that surrounds our cabin property once our big trees were taken care of. I love to play on Photoshop, and today I'm sharing some landscaping I added to photos of our bare yard using Photoshop. The "after" photos aren't real! Our cabin isn't even completely painted yet, and no planting around the foundation will be done until then. 

I once in a while get a comment that indicates a reader thinks a photoshopped picture is the real deal. I always explain when a photo is photoshopped. Sometimes I just look at photos on blogs and don't read the text below them, too, so I'm saying it here and now, these after photos are not real! They're my plans created on Photoshop. 

I've had so much fun learning about the unique requirements of high Rocky Mountain landscaping. Bulletin 862 about short season high altitude gardening by the University of Idaho Extension (available online in a .pdf file you can download) was invaluable, and I think most, if not all, the flowers, shrubs, and trees we plan to use came from their lists of plants native to Idaho. It was essential we chose plants that could survive our winter snow loads as well as plants needing no additional summer watering, since we have no automatic irrigation system and sometimes no one is at our cabin for weeks at a time. We also don't want to spend our vacation time weeding, dividing, and deadheading, so we're choosing simple care-free options. 

If you have a cabin or vacation home in a similar growing zone (3b) I hope our plans will give you some ideas, and as always, I'm still learning and welcome your comments.

When we bought our cabin in the fall of 2016, it was screened from the road by a solid line of tall evergreen trees. They had been topped by Idaho Power twice, and more than half of them were already well on their way to dying. Our tree care specialist recommended taking the dying trees out in phases so we could maintain some privacy while replanting. Eventually, every tree in this row will die and need to be cut down. Even though we were prepared to lose the trees, it was a shock to suddenly be so exposed to the road. 

These are some "before" photos on top followed by future planned and photoshopped "after" photos on the bottom.

Replanting this area is our highest landscaping priority. We like being able to see the forest across the street now, so we have chosen a hedge of Red Twig Dogwood shrubs that will grow to about ten feet tall. One white fir tree looks lonely now, but will eventually grow up to 20' wide. The split rail fence section will be added to protect our bushes from the city snowplow. No-care perennial wild flowers that die back in the winter will be sprinkled in front of the fence. As the rest of the topped trees die and are removed, we'll continue this landscaping all along the street.

During the winter the Red Twig Dogwoods will still maintain our privacy while adding beautiful color and interest.

The front of our cabin gets very little light because there are  three huge fir trees growing here. For along the foundation we will plant native ferns and in the whiskey barrels, drought tolerant fountain grasses. We'd love to grow colorful flowers here, but we just won't be around enough to keep them watered. We'll try succulents in the window boxes, but if they need more water than they'll get, we'll just fill them with pine cones and moss. We love to watch the bird feeder from our front window and will add a birdbath under the trees in the summer. We're also thinking about building a box around all the ugly electric cables. 

I photoshopped some paint and metal stars on the garage where the ferns will be continued under the shady trees. Gosh, I can't wait until all the painting is finished!

The south side of our cabin gets some pretty intense sun in the summer afternoons, so we looked for a sun loving solution. In addition, this side gets an enormous snow load from the snow sliding off the roof in the winter that would break shrub branches. We also have a melting snow and rain drainage problem we have to address. So we'll be building up the soil here along the foundation and planting a rock garden that will direct the water away from the cabin. This low scale of landscaping suits the size of our small cabin where bigger bushes would make it look even smaller, and this natural mountain theme appeals to us. We've never had a rock garden before and are looking forward to playing with it.

The rock garden will continue around this sunny corner to the back of the cabin. 

Here I've photoshopped some more paint and shutters onto the back of our cabin. We have a small deck out here where we put a table and chairs in the summer for dining outside. We'll probably add a few more potted plants out here on the deck.

This smallish flat area surrounded by trees is just off the deck and the only area where we'll plant grass. It will be a native variety of grass that grows only about six inches tall and doesn't require mowing. Watering every few weeks in the summer should keep it green.

Our only neighbors have rarely visited their cabin in the summer so far, but planting a white fir tree to cover the gap in the trees between our places is a high priority. That is also the only spot I'm tempted to plant a flowering bush that requires a bit of attention; Limelight hydrangeas are rated for our growing zone, and I think one would be so pretty just in front of the new fir tree. In addition to adding some color, it would also draw our eyes down from the neighbor's roof until the tree gets tall enough to hide it completely. 

In the summer, looking out our side window, the shrub already here does a pretty good job of screening our neighbor's cabin, but we love Aspen trees and think this seldom used side yard of our cabin where no raking of leaves is needed, is the perfect spot for a few Aspens. They'll be beautiful in the fall when they turn bright yellow next to the red sumac that's already here. On the ground between our cabin and the Aspen trees we'll plant some easy care Blue Fescue.

That's it for our landscaping plans for right around our cabin. We would also like to add a few of our favorite deciduous trees from the native plants list sprinkled here and there around our little conifer forest away from the cabin where the leaves can fall naturally without needing to be raked up. 

Here are a few of our favorites. All of these trees would add color to an otherwise mostly green landscape, especially in the fall. 

1. Western Ash Tree

2. Quaking Aspen Trees

3. Rocky Mountain Maple Tree

4. Canadian Red Chokecherry Tree

 And there you have it. Our dreams and plans for landscaping our McCall, Idaho mountain property. It will not happen all at once, and the plans will probably be modified as we go along, but isn't that part of the fun of gardening? Now that the work of making our little forest healthy and safe has been completed, we hope to get started on our planting in places where it won't interfere with finishing up the painting of the cabin. We might even get some Red Twig Dogwood bushes planted this Memorial Day weekend. I'm excited! 

Thanks so much for coming along on our landscaping adventure the past few blog posts.

Happy Memorial Day weekend!

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A note from The North End Loft about your comments: I deleted fifty comments from my most recent blog posts by mistake while cleaning up some spam comments one day. You should have seen my face when I realized there's no way to retrieve them! I had read every comment as it was received way before making my mistake, though. I just wanted you to know why your comment's not here anymore. Hopefully, I won't make that mistake again, and I hope you'll continue commenting if the mood strikes you. Thank you!

Landscaping Our Cabin Property Part 2

When we purchased our Idaho mountain property there were about seventy large conifers growing on the quarter acre surrounding our small cabin. These beautiful tall evergreens were one of the reasons we decided to buy our cabin. During our inspection before purchasing, we could see a few stumps left from dead trees that had been removed by previous owners, but it appeared the others had been left to grow naturally. They were in various conditions; some looked healthy and strong, some had dead branches, and some appeared to have diseases and/or pests.

Since we had never cared for large conifers before, we decided to consult a professional to guide us. We had noticed some tree care equipment kept at a neighboring property and after googling the company, we gave Randy Acker at Acker Tree Service a call. We walked around the property together, and he tied orange ribbons around the trunks of the trees he thought should be cut down and also on the branches of the ones he thought should be pruned.

He also recommended we call the McCall city arborist, Kurt Wolf, for a tree care consultation. In Boise, the city won't give any advice about trees on private property, so we were pleasantly surprised to get a free consultation from the city of McCall. Kurt is such a nice person, and he spent about an hour walking around our property with me as I took notes. He identified the trees and explained their particular pests and diseases. He also explained the benefits of proper pruning and agreed with Randy Acker about which trees should be cut down because they either couldn't be saved from heavy pest infestations or because they posed a safety hazard.

After our consultation we called Acker Tree Service back and got on Randy's October calendar. The area tree services have more tree work than they can do in McCall, so I felt lucky to have found Randy and his business right around the corner. He's also a great guy and a wonderful neighbor!

This is a google photo of (Rocky Mountain) subalpine fir trees killed by a pest called the Balsam Woolly Adelgid. This pest from Europe worked its way down to our property from Northern Idaho, where it was first identified in 1983.

Kurt Wolf taught us how to identify our subalpine fir trees by the smooth bark. The tree on the right with the big crack is a subalpine fir.  

This was one of our Balsam Woolly Adelgid-infested subalpine fir trees. The arborist told us it would be dead and bare of needles within a year and recommended its removal. Unfortunately, all of our subalpine fir trees are infested and will eventually die. There is nothing that can stop it. We are treating the still relatively healthy ones with Bayer systemic tree care to try and lengthen their lives by keeping them stronger. Some of the trees are huge and still beautiful, so we'd like to keep them as long as possible.

before

These trees are next to our driveway between our cabin and the street. They are dying from a combination of being topped by the Idaho Electric Company and the Balsam Whoolly Adelgid infestation. A google map image shows these trees were strong, healthy and full to the ground in 2007. 

during 

Randy recommended we take these trees along the street out in phases so we can replant half before the other half is gone. 

after

before

The next three trees to be cut down were large subalpine firs that were crowding large healthier, more desirable trees.

during

after

 The McCall city arborist explained to us the importance of allowing plenty of room for growth and air circulation around our big trees. Crowded trees are more susceptible to decline from pests and disease.

before

This subalpine fir tree was crowded in next to three other trees behind our cabin.

during

 After it was cut down, you can see the damage on the tree behind it from overcrowding. When it had more room, that tree dropped its dead needles and now looks healthy again (below.)

after

Acker Tree Service also removed the bottom limbs on all our trees to leave about one foot between the ground and the bottom branches. They removed the big piles of woody debris that were lying all around our property, too. They were able to chip all of it, saving us hours of loading it into the pick up and taking it to be composted at the dump. 

  

before

 We had nine big trees cut down and many others severely pruned of dead branches. The last tree to be cut down was one of our tallest trees, and we were so sad to see it go! As you can see, it had major structural damage from a previous ant infestation, making it a danger to both us and our neighbors. 

during

after

The stump is now all that's left of that majestic towering tree! Since we've learned about the care of our trees, we walk all around our property regularly to check the health and condition of every one, so this will hopefully never happen again.

Making the forest around our cabin healthy again by cutting out damaged trees and branches and reducing overcrowding was a huge job, but one we didn't hesitate to have done. When we bought our property we felt like we took on a sacred responsibility for the health and future of these gentle giants. In return they give us the immeasurable pleasure of their beauty and the music of the wind blowing through their pine needles.

We plan to leave most of our property natural as you see it here, but next time I'll share our plans for replanting where some trees were removed and for adding some plants and flowers right around our little cabin.

See you then!

Landscaping Our Cabin Property Part 1

Our tiny 576 square foot cabin in McCall, Idaho is situated on a flat corner quarter acre lot just inside the city limits. One of the things that made us fall in love with our place is that the property seemed much larger than it is because the cabin takes up so little of it. Also, when we walked all around it we felt like we were in the middle of a forest because there were so many trees.

 When we bought our cabin in the fall of 2016, the sales listing described the landscaping as "natural." During the inspection, as I walked around taking detailed photos of the property, it dawned on me that by "natural" they actually meant there was no landscaping at all. In fact, it was plain that, like our little cabin, the land had been sorely neglected for a long, long time.

As you know, my husband and I are not strangers to home and garden renovation. However, we'd never tackled a landscaping project of this magnitude! That day I counted over seventy large evergreen conifer trees on our property, many of which looked sick and in need of professional care. 

Through these photographs I'm sharing with you what we saw as we walked around our property that day. Luckily, I think we were too focused on taking the photos to ponder much about what we were actually seeing. Otherwise, we would have been freaked out by the sheer magnitude of what needed to be done and we may not have bought our little cabin! At the time, we just focused on the birds singing and the magic of the towering pine trees and nonchalantly filed the rest (the dead tree branches, the sick trees, and the piles of yard debris) away for the future.

Our property

So what do you think? Would you have gone running when you saw the sorry state of the property we were planning to purchase? Luckily, we didn't. Instead, we rolled up our sleeves and got to work. 

I have to admit, that first fall we were getting a little discouraged when it felt like we weren't making much progress on our yard work. We hadn't even found a space in the trees we felt would make a good outdoor gathering spot for a fire pit. Then, one morning after the first snow, and as we were preparing to drive back to Boise, I jumped out of the car to take one last photo. I noticed the snow had fallen in an area beside the cabin where there were no trees, and I stood in the center of that spot and looked up at the blue sky above - through a perfect round opening in the trees big enough for the smoke from a fire pit to escape.

I'd found our spot!

We've spent many happy hours sitting there since. Next time, I'll tell you about the professionals we consulted and hired to teach us about our trees and to help us turn our sad and neglected property into a healthy forest again.

Till then, have a wonderful day!