My first topiary project

Hi folks,
I'm really excited today I tried my first topiary tree. What do you think?
Does it look alright. I think it looks good for my first try. I am going to do a few more with the six arborvitae's I have along the house.

Ok, so it's a Michigan redneck topiary.

I took some pics of the deer damage and was wondering what you folks do with them. Do you replace or try to get them back to normal. These were doing so well. It makes me sick.

I have been feeding these guys and some foilage is starting to come back but they still don't look right. They were eaten this past winter. Should I wait it out or just replace now. They were just sticks in March. Will they ever look right. The boxwood is doing good so I know that is a keeper but the rest are not right.

Thank you for your time.

Joel.

Joel,

To be a proper topiary you need to strip more off the bottom branches. They should be clipped clean back to the main trunk. I think I would have left more on the top. Give it some good fertilizer and make sure it gets plenty of water and wait a few years and it will be fine.

On the other deer damaged shrubs I think they'll be fine too. Keep up a good fertilizer program for them and by all means get yourself some Liquid Fence and spray them every few weeks to keep the deer off of them. This winter I'd put some burlap around them even to protect them. I put styrofoam cones over my roses to protect them in winter. I will not allow the deer and rabbits to eat my stuff when it costs so much to replace them.

Invite hunters to your property this fall. :)

I'm sorry Loon,
In the second post I thought I added that I was joking. Thanks for the advice on topiary though. I wanted to see what kind of sense of humor you guys have and the comebacks that were made.

You must have looked at that picture and thought this guy is whacked.
I can be a joker sometimes but I guess it is hard to tell on the computer. You had to of been laughing at me when you seen that. :}

I had started this landscaping on this house, I think four years ago. The deer ate everything the first year and I quit messing with this house as I have been too busy. I'm starting over and finishing the plans for the land that I had visions of four years ago. I had ground work and grades half done, beds & rock walls half finished or just started. I neglected this place for four years while the deer ate everything and had free reins of the place while I lived at another location.

I'm determined to finish this place and get it the way I saw it in my head when I bought the property. I started a blog yesterday so let me get some things written on it with pics and I will give you the address so you can see where I started, where I'm at and where I'm coming from. I did manage to salvage parts of one bed and a row of boxwoods. Thats about it and some of the rock walls that I didn't damage while chasing deer off with my car.

Now I am starting to make some progress as I took 28 days vacation last month. Actually I made more progress in the 28 days than I did in the four years.
That is how I ended up on Daves, looking for an answer to some plants I wanted to purchase. I would find part of the answer then it ended as it said I had to subscribe.
Yup Dave sucked me in and now you guys or should I say girls have to put up with my stupid questions and silly antics. I just hope the hotheaded ones can bear with me while I get through the initial learning stage.

I want to thank all you folks for all the good advice I have recieved and for future lessons in gardening.

I read a couple of my earlier posts. Is there a spell check on this editor somewhere.
It is pretty sad that a grown educated man has to go to Microsoft word to type a post and then paste it into the forum.

Whats even worse is when the spell checker can't find a suggestion for me.

Joel.

Joel,

I'll look forward to reading your blog and seeing pictures.

Don't worry about spelling. I'm much more interested in what someone has to say than how they spell the words. We're pretty friendly here and just chat away and get to typing so fast sometimes that we make errors. That's OK. We're all human.

Must be nice to take a 28 day vacation. I don't think I got that much time off work in the 40 years I worked. :)

Brenda

Joel, if you download "Mozilla firefox" Dave's works great with it! It has the spell checker built right in when your posting. And I think I can speak for "mostly" everyone here...we love jokers and all the humor we can get!
We enjoy having a good time on Daves! ^_^

Check out Mozilla..that's all I use now...I've had to many issues with internet explorer...

Delane

Thanks folks.
Delane, I will have to give that foxfire a try. I mean't to for a while now just to see what everyone is talking about. Thanks.

Brenda, We max out at 8 weeks four days paid. After that if you take time it is unpaid and has to be taken when it won't affect the work load. I usually take a week or two unpaid in the winter to get a jump on some projects before Spring hits. It is worth it even in the dead of winter.