Why I Oughta...

The Anemone Lucky Charm (from Northwind Perennial Farm) are just beginning to pop-off with their bloom cycle.  These are, I suppose "Late Bloomers".  This post from 2023 includes the description of this 'Lucky Charm' variety .  It also shows a similar late-August bloom time.  Here's a post from 2022 that includes the nursery sign when we bought them .  I've used these as filler/accent flowers in arrangements the past few seasons and I'll likely do the same this year.  Here, below, is the first cut of the year.  I like the closed-up buds better than I like the actual flowers in arrangements. Here below, is how they look on the plant: And, here below, is how the plants have filled-in and recovered from the planting of that Blue Spruce (on Standard).   They've filled-in the entire space and have created a living mulch of sorts with their spreading habit: I took a couple of divisions from this plant and put them near the pizza oven.  They're...

I saw this DIY fountain project featuring an Alpine trough and pondless setup on Instagram recently and it stuck with me so much that I've gone back to it a few times.  It is a small concrete (or stone or faux, I have no idea) trough, a simple copper faucet and an underground storage chamber that creates a pondless fountain situation.  Very European garden-feeling.  (To me, at least.)  Here it is embedded below:  View this post on Instagram A post shared by Sebastian Streich (@my.garden.life.and.home) It is small but pretty striking.  I've talked about upgrading our water-feature situation over the years and even included an upgrade on my 2026 to-do list (#23) .   I've read and watched a ton of stories/videos about hypertufa and have recently poked around on DIY'ing an Alpine trough.  It seems that one of the ways forward is using a foam chassis that you wrap in concrete to create a lightweight tub.  That seems......

Back a few years back, I was on a real "dark foliage" kick.  I was seeking out "dark foliage" plants like Dark Side of the Moon Astilbe.  And... I ended up planting a pair of Eiffel Tower Elderberries in the backyard, under the secondary Oak tree along the south fence line .  The plant tags showed JET BLACK foliage.  The description said that the leaves emerge green and age to a dark black.   I don't think I've gotten black foliage.  Yet.  I posted photos in October 2024 (their second growing season) and they were...well...green .   What about now?  Below is a photo showing this pair of plants.  They're supposed to be 'upright', but mine are kind of lingering.   One thing that I just revisited is this little tid-bit of maintenance.  From my original planting post : Black Tower Elderberry is excellent for the back of the border and adds some textural drama to tight spaces. Plant in full coastal sun or partial shad...

One of the things that I wanted to try this year was growing some accent or filler plants (for cut flower arrangements) in the vertical planter (Greenstalk) that we keep on the patio.  Last year, I grew some herbs, veggies and Zinnias.  This year, I put that very thing on my 2026 to-do list at #9.  Here's what I wrote : 9. Accents, too. Speaking of adding variety to cut flower arrangements, we can do better job of growing accent plants for foliage. Plan to use the Greenstalk Vertical Garden for these cut flower accent plants this year. Instead of growing vegetables. Do a row of herbs and then load up the vertical garden pockets with accent plants like the Eucalyptus that I grew last year . Well...I didn't end up planting a 'row of herbs', but I did use one layer of the Greenstalk for accent plants.  And, I did use Eucalyptus, in fact.     I started with plugs from The Garden Club.  Eight Silver Dollar Eucalptus plugs.  Six of those went int...

There is too much going on in the garden to break everything down into an individual post in the [garden diary].  Some of the more meaningful things that I'd like to track get their own posts, but other things that I just want to note are going to be included here in this round-up.  Calling it "A Look Around the Garden Beds".   Start with the Garden Edit under the tree swing tree.  The Summer Beauty Alium are in bloom, but starting to fade.  They're doing great here.  Makes me remember why I liked them out of the gate. One of the climbing hydrangeas that I planted on that same tree swing tree is growing.  See the vine climbing up the trunk: A little bit behind these Allium is a layered look of ornamental grasses and Little Lime Hydrangeas. And Three Miscanthus sinensis 'Adagio' Maiden Grasses. The grasses are "dwarf" grasses, so they're staying shorter than most grasses, allowing the blooms of the (also dwarf) Hydrangea show through. I've ...

It might be August, but I'm starting to think about firewood.  And, putting together my order for the year.  Like I've done in the past few years, I wanted to take an inventory of what we have on-hand (and what we've burned thru) and get an idea of how much we need to order.   I did this type of post last year and showed that I had about 150 pieces left .  And, I ended up ordering three facecords (Birch, Oak, Cherry).  Most estimates say that a Full Facecord has between 200 and 275 pieces.  Let's call it 250 for easy math.  That means that I started with 150.  Added 750.  Ended up with 900 pieces of firewood. I stashed them on the various racks.  Inside the screened porch.  Out on the side stoop.  Under the cover in the sideyard.  And, a new place for last year:  under the pizza oven.   Here's how the racks look today.  After a full Winter of burning indoors.  And, a bunch of pizza oven burnin...