2024 Yard and Garden To-Do List

 

The season is here. The Yard and Garden Season, that is. Each Spring arrives and I’m OVERWHELMED by what I need to do, should do, have to do, might do in and around our garden. The arrival of trees, shrubs, perennials and annuals at the big box stores and nurseries just add to the strong urge to GET GOING out there. But, over the years, I’ve learned that I need to prioritize. And plan. And give myself something to measure-up against, so I know that I’ve accomplished what I thought I needed to focus on each season.

The first year I did one was 2019 and I've done one every year.

Here is 2020.  2021.  2022.  And last year - 2023.  Each year, I score myself against the 25 items that I picked out.  Last year, in addition to scoring (22 out of 25 marked 'complete'), I also wrote up a list of 10 takeaways/lessons learned that have become important in thinking about my path forward.  In that list of 10 takeaways, I included things like:  no more shade trees (for now), but instead focus on Japanese Maples and Conifers only.  I also noted that I have MUCH ground to make-up on evergreens/conifers and groundcover.  Improved containers (resist the big box store for containers), adding bedding plants in mass (marigolds, coleus) and just get comfortable with flowers in general.  I also learned that a large construction project (like the boardwalk) create new needs.  

Armed with that knowledge, let's jump into my 25 things for 2024.

1.  Build the pizza oven.  I expect to burn a wood fire and bake pizza in our own wood-fired oven this season.  Now that I've added gravel to the site, that means:  pour the slab, build the stand, pour the hearth.  Then, build the dome.  Finally, build the surround and finish the exterior.  This is a big, big, big project and, I suspect will impact A LOT of the rest of this list.

2.  Push through the discomfort around flowers.  I'm a foliage gardener.  But, I need to keep going on flowers.  Plant and try to save some dahlias.  Direct sow zinnia seeds.  Same with Nicotiana seeds.  Put down annuals in mass in the front yard.  Buy a few flowering perennials up at Northwind.   If the new Disneyland Roses didn't make it (they might not have), replace with something similar/the same.

3.  Groundcover everywhere.  Living mulch as a way to reduce my annual mulch bill and suppress weeds.  Ajuga 'Chocolate Chip' is a standout and I should have it all-over.  Sedums all-over in the front.  The Angelina sedum that is by the back stoop is ready for further division and planting in the backyard and I should get aggressive with the Creeping Jenny and Vinca that is around the property.  Divide some of the Ajuga to see how it responds.  

4.  Conifers should come first.  Or, at least...for me...conifers should *HAVE* come first, so keep doing the make-up work.  That means more conifers.  Dwarf and intermediate ones.  Front yard, sidewalk bed.  Backyard.  Once the pizza oven project is done.  Around the patio (see below).  Maybe a blue and purple combo. 

5.  Hosta Replacement Theory.  And Ostrich Fern Replacement Theory.  Division helped me fill in spots.  And so did Ostrich Ferns. Now, need to go down the path of replacing any common hosta and digging out the ferns.  Unique ones like Praying Hands?  Waterslide with the ruffles.  Tiny Hacksaw Hosta.  The Island Breeze Hosta from the Morton sale.  The REALLY white Forbidden Fruit ones.  Keep and divide.   The rest?  Replace with high-performing shade tolerant things like Autumn Ferns and All Gold Hakonechloa Forest Grasses (also transplant the pizza oven ones) or the straight-green Hakonecloa Macras from up at Northwind.   Lastly, lay off the Heucheras.  They don't work for us.  For the Ostrich Ferns, just dig up the clumps and move them to the far back.  There might be some that just go in the compost bin (gasp).

6.  Lighting and water feature plus-ups.  Last year, I added some landscape lighting and a whiskey barrel water feature.  This year, I need to sort-out the lighting situation that I caused with my mower (cut up some of the line) and extend the lighting back to the far edge of the property.  I also need to finish the firepit string light project.  For the water feature.....do I want a pond? Of course.  But, this won't be the year.  This year is the year to improve what I have - by upgrading.  Last year, the container pond filled with debris.  This year, I'd like to make it less container pond and more pondless fountain.  That means, adding a screen and gravel to keep the debris out.  

7.   Do better containers.  Front porch bin and back patio containers.  Resist the annuals from the big box nursery. Resist Spring and buying too early. Better containers means better materials and better combinations. Front porch box could be like the inspiration photo with big fern and begonias/white.  Backyard patio corner container should keep being inspired from Paris.   A monoculture of a more-unique begonia for the front porch would be a nice compliment.  Annual grasses in the center with colorful spreaders/creepers could be a simple win, too.  

8.  Bedding Annuals.  Plant in mass like coleus IB2DWs.  French (dwarf) Marigolds out front.  Other annuals IB2DWs closer to the house and in the backyard.  

9.  Expand the bed and plant (shrubs) around the back patio and grill landing.  With a few things in mind (pond, garden rooms, miegakure, path/steppers, access from side, view from inside, shade vs sun) and dating all the way back to this April 2020 post where I talked about boxwoods around the patio, expand the corner bed that currently houses three Karl Foerster Grasses and a volunteer Catalpa tree.  And, think about removing the turf around the patio to create new beds.  (Those grasses went in during the Fall of 2021).  In particular...the area between the hornbeams and the patio - once the oven area is done.

10.  Trees.  Lay off the big box shade trees.  But, keep going on Japanese Maples and conifers.  Dwarf, columnar and on-standard.   Unless....the Morton Sale has something that I can't live without and can plant to provide shade to the patio/in the lawn/in front.

11.  Focus on Fall planting.  For a couple of reasons:  this year, the Cicadas are coming.  Gardening might be tough.  Second, the pizza oven build - that's where my attention needs to be.  And...third...seeing results from planting in Falls has given me a belief that it might be the best time - despite being the least rewarding (initially). That means orienting my thinking around end-of-season sales and fall bulbs. Also, for perennials....ensure that I think about dying allium and tulip bulb foliage for companions.

12.  Keep going on seasonal tasks.  Feeding roses, wrapping the Elm tree, topdress with biosolids (and use for winter protection), keep up with aphids, scale and sawfly larvae.  

13.  Nursery and Plantsman.  That means nurturing the existing seedlings.  Work on boxwood and hydrangea cuttings.  And plant up the Regal Prince Columnar Oak acorns.  When I move the patio container, use the shade cloth to protect these tender seedlings.

14.  Keep going on compost.  Last year, I added the third bin and the 'Feed me' compost bin sign.  This year, I need to turn the bins twice (instead of once) and work the process.  That means, using the 'black gold' from the tumbler, moving the bins down a click and filling the 'storage' bin from the kitchen and garden.

15.  Don't stop weeding.  This is new to me, but last year I started.  Keep going.  Maybe think about adding some 'garden personality' via a 'weed bucket'.  

16.  Keep improving IB2DWs.  I mentioned annuals in #8.  But, all of the ideas can be paid off here:  groundcover, flowers, conifers.  Boxwoods in a cluster. Weeding, mulching.  Cleaning up the edges and adding more Blue Fescue clumps, too.  This part of the garden is SO visible, that I need to keep it on here to keep improving the area. 

17.  Do more/different/better arrangements.  See #2 above.  If I plant more flowers, I can do more arrangements.  Last year, I did most of them in late Summer and they ALL looked the same/included the same material.  Disneyland Roses, Zinnias and greens.  I also did a number of winter arrangements with greens.  I should get smart about structure and get better and putting them together.  And use more diverse plant material.

18.  Projects.  Fix the bee hotel and get it back in service.  Move the raise planter off the patio.  Build a tool storage shed.  Build a Versailles Orangerie planter box.  Or an obelisk.  Or a wattle fence.  I won't say 'stain the patio container', but I should.  Add bluestone chips and gravel to walkways.   

19.  Vegetable gardening.  Last year, I added the vertical garden.  This year, do more.  And think about succession planting.  

20.  Keep working the lawn.  Maybe a little less.  Synthetic weed and feed in late Spring.  Organic application in late Summer and Fall feedings.  Grub killer...yes.  Spray when I can.  Burn other stuff. But, less grass overall is better. 

21.  Southside entrance.  Move the raised planter here and convert it to more of a bench, sort the flagstone + gravel walkway.  Extend the landing on the street-side of the gate to get closer to the 'cut flower garden'.  

22.  Garden Personality.  Create a Vignette. Add some/one B-I-G Boulders.  Create a Fairy garden.  A more permanent, integrated Fairy Garden to add personality.  Signage.   Retaining wall (uneven heights)- via cut railroad ties - under the Lindens to create some elevation change.  

23.  Begin the Parkway transformation.  Plant one thing.  Remove some grass.   Just one thing to start.  Maybe a sedum.  

24.  Leaf mulch.  No plant loves growing in hardwood fines.  I've tried to get it for the full yard, but it seems impossible right now.

25.  Figure out the area behind our South Oak or the understory behind the Nootka Cypress.  The 'behind south oak' is a total bare spot.  Does a shed go here?  Extend the bed?  Ferns and grasses and groundcover?  A couple shade-tolerant shrubs - like Oakleaf Hydrangeas could work here, too.  The understory is just as wide-open, but gets A LOT more sun.