Why I Oughta...

The groundcover that caused me to 'fall' for groundcover was Ajuga 'Chocolate Chip'.  Over the years, I've planted small plugs in various spots all around our garden.  But, the very first place I planted it is the island bed that lies between our driveway and our front stoop.  I've added additional plugs in that bed in subsequent years including last year when I split a six-pack between this bed and the front (sidewalk) island bed.  Some Winters are tougher than others on this groundcover, but it seems that this year we have some good news:  I'm seeing new, curly growth on the Ajuga in the driveway island bed.  below are a couple of photos showing the current state of this bed: And, the other three (of the six-pack I mentioned above) are planted down along the sidewalk in *that* island bed.  These went in the ground in mid-August and that appears to have done the trick in terms of giving them enough time to establish themselves before dormancy. ...

I went and picked up more dahlia tubers.  These would be (I think) 25 + 7 + 2 = 33rd and 34th new tuber for the season .    Here is my initial order from Bonny Blooms .  Then, a few more from Longfield Gardens .    Then, I bought some more from Longfield from Costco .  And, most recently these seven from Menards .   I also wrote this post showing some of the other tubers Menards carries and mentioned a few that jumped out to me.  The first one in that post is named Blue Wish.  And... I said : "This is one that I will buy if I go back." Bad news for dahlia haters.  I went back. And bought a package of two Blue Wish Tubers. They are waterlily dahlias.  That stay under 36" tall.   I'll find a home for them, I'm sure.   Here's what Breck's says about it : An elegant, colour-changing, water lily-type dahlia. A true spectacle in the garden, this dahlia's 4½" blooms transform from delicate white petals ...

After a few years of lackluster peony growth, last Spring I finally saw some positive improvement in the flower output of the two colonies that are dotted around our garden.  I've moved the peonies into those two colonies based on sun conditions.  The first one is in the IB2DWs bed where I have a couple of plants.  And the second is in the "kitchen curved bed" in the back where I have three more.   Below are some photos showing the red tips emerging from the mulch.  These photos are from April 6th.   I've done similar "Peonies are Back" posts over the years.  Here is that post from April 2025 - one year ago .   Last year, I cut and preserved the blooms at the "marshmallow stage" and had peony flowers for Nat's birthday in July .  I'll do that again this year.  

The small colony of the lovely Spring ephemeral Sanguinaria canadensis - or commonly called Bloodroot is in bloom in early April.  This post is going up on April 14th, but I took this photo on April 6th.    My neighbor to the south dug-up and gave me a clump of this pretty cool perennial in Spring of 2023 and it has come back and bloomed every Spring since.  Here's the post from last year showing both this Bloodroot and the neighboring Virginia Bluebells .  You can see the Bluebells in the photo below on the left.   These are seemingly slow to expand, but I'm happy this initial colony is thriving with even more blooms this year than in the past.  

The pizza oven beds that I created last year are sitting on top of one of our large drywells.  The natural soil in this area was dug up, a huge pit of gravel was installed and then the builder backfilled the top with what appears to be a lot of clay soil.  That means that the area isn't great for gardening.  Starting last year, I have begun to amend the soil in an attempt to grow more things in this area.  Last week, I posted about how I was burning some leaf litter in-place in this bed .  My thinking was that adding this ash to the bed can amend the clay as it works its way down through the layers.   This year, ahead of planting this bed up, I went and grabbed some municipal biosolids and dumped about 20 gallons on both sides of the pizza oven bed.  Below are some photos showing the biosolids on top of the existing mulch.  You can see the darker color in contrast to what was there in-place.  My plan is to use the west-side to plant pere...

Last Spring, I planted two new Disneyland Roses, bringing the total number of these Floribunda roses in the sideyard to five .    The two new ones outperformed the established ones and were highly productive all the way up to Thanksgiving last Fall.   One of the decisions I made last Fall was to take a relaxed approach to overwintering these roses - which is different than what I've done in the past.  In some years, I've created rings of Chicken Wire and stuffed them with leaf litter to create an insulation layer on top of the canes.  Other years, I've used municipal biosolids + leaf litter to mound up around the crowns.   This year, I let nature take its course and have whatever leaf litter that collected around the canes to provide that insulation layer.   And....either due to a not-so-bad Winter...or....the reality that these appear to living in a small microclimate on the southside of our house, tucked in against the foundation...ha...