Why I Oughta...

I planted a pair of Saint Martin Waterlily dahlia tubers this season and they've been (BY FAR) the most prolific dahlia that I've ever grown.  They have thrown off blooms since (at least) July and are still loaded with blooms on the tips of thin, but fairly strong stems.  But, those stems are different than most of the rest of my dahlias.  Most dahlia stems (in my experience) are hallow.  Like straws.  But, Saint Martin stems are far more thin.  And, if they're straw-like, the straw is super small.   These also have smaller and different texture leaves on the flower stems than most of  my other dahlias.  We've had some rain this week, so that means when the dahlia plants are full of blooms (and buds), they tend to get weighed down.  Saint Martin is almost folding in half in parts.   That lead me to cut a bunch of them while they're opened.  I also grabbed some Crichton Honey, Brown Sugar, a lone Blue Wish dahlia blo...

Last year, I made my first wreath.  A winter wreath .  That hung on our front door.  I used a grapevine wreath as the chassis.  And, used the 'pre-make piles' of materials process.  The material included Magnolia leaves and Silver Dollar Eucalyptus from Trader Joe's.  And some foraged evergreen material including Cypress branches and springs of Green Velvet Boxwoods.  It turned out pretty good.  And, even survived the Winter.  My original post went up in December .  And, I posted a photo of the wreath all the way into March (at the end of the season) and it held up .   Despite today being the last day of September, I'm already thinking about Winter containers, cut evergreen arrangements, Christmas crafts (like pinecones on a stick) and...wreath making.  I have been poking around on floral wholesalers to see what it takes to buy eucalyptus (including Silver Dollar, Seeded and even red tinted stems) and Magnolia bunches in b...

The biggest perennial star of the garden RIGHT NOW is (by a long-way) Anemone Lucky Charm.  It is planted (now) in two spots of the backyard (after I transplanted a couple of patches earlier this year).  Here, below is what the flowers look like right now:  full of pink flowers with yellow centers and covering a lot of ground: I bought these from Northwind Perennial Farm a few years ago .  I'll grab a clump of this colony and try to do a Fall transplant of this to a few other spots of the garden.  You know...in the name of REPETITION.  Right?  Not to mention, they're pretty lovely to see in bloom this late in the season. Here's a VERY SIMILAR post from right around one-year ago showing the same flowers .   I also need to replace the Garden Ghost Artemesia up front in the Island Bed.  Might this be a better performer?  

Dahlia cutting season is moving quickly these days. After waiting to cut anything for a while due to trying to cut them for the girls' Homecoming corsages, we're now flush with blooms.  On a recent morning, I went out and snip'd off a number of blooms.  That will BOTH drive more blooms to arrive, but it also has the secondary benefit of removing some of the weight on the tips of the stems.   Below are a pair of cut dahlia stem arrangements.  These are cut from the front Island Bed, IB2DWs, sideyard and both sides of the pizza oven bed.  They feature Brown Sugar, Milena Fleur, Crichton Honey, Rip City (not Rip City), Wizard of Oz, Tsuki Yori No Shisha (Messenger of the Moon) Notably, Tsuki Yori No Shisha is a fimbriated dahlia.  My only one (that I can confirm). But, perhaps the (NOT) Rip City dahlia is fimbriated, too?   Counting down the days until our first frost.  Hoping for a late October arrival.  

We're officially in Fall.  Calendar-wise, at least.   We have football on the tv.  The temperatures are dropping.  And, the stores already have their Christmas stuff out.  So, it was time to transition our front porch container into Fall. One of my annual to-do list goals (#16) is to do 'better containers'.   Our Wintertime container is done by a porch professional:  Churchill Garden Design .  And Elise Churchill (of Churchill Garden Design ) does a GREAT job.  MUCH, MUCH better than I could ever do with these containers.   Here's our 2025 version  featuring evergreens.  We've had her do a Fall container before and it looks so good.  Here is her 2024 version that featured some kales, an ivy, some mums and I think some hot pepper plants.  Like I said...she has such a good eye and a nice touch with porch containers.   Using her Winter 2025 container as inspiration and recycling some of the thi...

I've never grown garlic.   But, that is changing.   Thanks to one of the parents of a Swim Team teammate, I'm the proud owner of a single full head of hard neck garlic that they grow in their garden each year.  Here's what it looks like: The instructions were simple:  break apart the six bulbs.  And, prepare them to plant: Removing the bulbs left this carcass of a stem and roots.   I'm actually NOT sure if I can grow garlic in a raised bed.  Will the cold temperatures freeze the bulbs? Maybe?  I didn't want to take the risk.   But, where can I grow them?  I don't have a dedicated ground-level vegetable garden that I could tuck the bulbs into.  So...where? I opted for two spots:  both IB2DWs.  Yes...I planted these garlic bulbs in amongst perennials.   The first three are near the Bald Cypress tree IB2DWs: I covered them with a little bit of garden litter as mulch: And the other three are close...