Maid Marion, I'm a fellow gardener. Why do you wear a mask to garden? Is it because you're a city girl and people are passing? I have acres of woods buffering my gardens and me, so I don't wear a mask.
I see that you're Asian. As an Asian gardener, are you familiar with Asian fauna? I'm planting a weeping Katsura tree in the next few weeks. I'm just waiting for the soil to warm a little more. If you're not familiar with the Katsura, it smells like cotton candy when it goes gold in the fall and sends that scent through a garden. That's a magical tree.
It will go next to a Ginkgo, another magical tree that's older than the oldest dinosaurs and that loses all its fan-shaped leaves in a few hours, in a golden shower.
I have a Zelkova on the way, another Asian beauty I'm planting for fall color.
Outside my office window, I can see a couple of my Hinoki Cypresses.
In my gardens and along the periphery of my forest, I have about 90 Japanese maples. If I had to pick a most beloved plant, it would be them. Some of them shine in the spring, emerging fire engine red or pink or orange. Some are variegated. They all perform in the fall. I even found a species that's cherry red all through the spring, summer, and fall. It's called a Mallet and if you have room for one small tree, plant this one and you'll thank me forever! Warning: It's not easy to find. You'll likely have to buy it online.
Of course, I like native trees too and have planted scores of them. My gardens are Japanese-leaning, but my woods is a German forest, not in species, but in being so light-dappled and manicured. I dropped all the lesser trees and those that remain are straight as flag-poles and with healthy crowns. The Pileated woodpeckers come, looking for bugs, but they can't find any in my trees. Don't worry about the woodpeckers: I do have an adjacent lot with plenty of dead trees.
