Why I Oughta...

In the Fall of 2023, I (also) planted a pair of small Baby Blue Spruce trees in the (then) newly expanded IB2DWs bed.  They were both in five-gallon containers and were small trees that were 50%-off at the end-of-year sale.    $50 for the pair .  Looking back, that's pretty good.   When I planted these, I talked about how they are dwarf trees - hence the name 'Baby Blue'.  That means they are very slow-growing and add just a few inches per year.   This will be the third full growing season (Planted in Fall 2023, so 2024, 2025 and now 2026), but I'd certainly declare these as 'slow-to-grow'.   Below are a couple of photos showing the current state of these two trees.   First up, is the tree planted further West (closer to the house).  This one is less-perfectly-pyramidal in shape.  It almost looks like it is leaning over to the right.  And...that might be the case, because of the growing canopy of the growin...

I planted a small, ball-and-burlap Oregon Green Austrian Pine tree in our front yard in the Fall of 2024 .  This came one year after my big "Fall Planting" sprint in Fall of 2023 when I had so much success with evergreens/conifers.    I wrote a 'Getting to Know' post about this tree and talked about how it will reach a 10' height in ten years and has an open-branching look.  But, it also has some of the best 'candles' of all the conifers.   Last May, I posted some photos showing off the candles emerging for the first Spring in our garden .  In that post, I talked about how some folks choose to prune those candles to keep the tree more compact.   Here below are a few photos showing the current state of this tree and the current set of candles.   Spring Candles on Oregon Green Austrian Pine Candle'ing - the pruning of these candles - typically focuses on removing or shortening the 'dominant candle'.  Others, like the folks at th...

In the Fall of 2021, I planted a pair of SugarTyme Crabapple (flowering) trees along the south-face of our house in a sunny spot .  These were my third set of espalier'd trees following my pair of Greenspire Lindens and the Apple-tree Belgian Fence.   My goal was to transform the big blank wall into something more 'green'.   Over the years, these small trees began to grow and branch-out to what they've become today:  four-tiered horizontal cordons.    Here, below is a photo showing how they look today.   The tree on the left has the lowest tier still to grow outward.  But, the tree on the right is further-along.   These trees are beginning to bloom.  Below is a photo showing some of the blooms beginning to open on the branches: These needs a little bit of work this growing season.  My plan is to try to create a support system for them that will help straighten-out the branches and remove the arching curves to som...

Spring is moving too quickly around here for individual entries into my garden diary, so I'm doing this little garden stroll/round-up of images and happenings in the garden. Starting out with a garden 'loss'.  The freaking rabbits killed one of my Canadian Hemlock trees.  I spotted this problem in January , but now the tree is officially DEAD.  Too bad.  This tree was nurtured for years from a small 8" tall tiny tree.  Below are two photos.  On the left is the de-needled carcass.  On the right is a photo of the trunk that has been gnaw'ed-at.  Jerks.  In happier-garden-news, the tulips up near the sidewalk IB2DWs bloomed mid-April and looked great.  You can see them below, along with a peek at the Sedum and the Purple Smokebush Tree on the far left of the photo: One of the deciduous shrubs that I've really fallen-for the past few years is Matcha Ball Fern-leaf Spirea.  I planted one in the front yard island bed last May , so this is...

When we inherited our property, there were a few things here that I discovered in the garden: we had some hostas, a couple of peonies, a bunch of daylilies and (at the time), I thought a bunch of Spring leafy-weeds that flowered.  Those Spring-time leafy-weeds were clustered around our south fenceline and were migrating from our neighbor to the south.  For the first few Springs after I created a mulch bed along the fenceline, I didn't like seeing these weeds and presumed them to be invasive.  So, I chopped them off and the ground level and moved on. Only to discover that I was totally wrong.  And, what I was seeing is a native Spring ephemeral named Virginia Bluebells.   A few years ago, our neighbor dug up a couple of clumps of hers and handed them to me over the fence .  What a treat.  I planted them both and now, a few years later they're thriving.   Here, below is a photo of one of those clumps of this flowering (in bloom) Spring eph...

Another day, another Spring growth on evergreen post in the garden diary.  This time, it is a similar trio of Green Velvet Boxwoods, but these are planted a year earlier, in June 2022 .  These shrubs started as TINY (TINY!) evergreen shrubs planted in a cluster IB2DWs, under the flowering pear tree along the north property line.    Take a quick look here to see how small they were when they went in the ground . Now in their fifth growing season ('22, '23, '24, '25 and now '26), they've taken a more globe-shape and have nicely rounded crowns.   See below for the current view of these three: Back when I put them in, I mentioned wanting 'structure' and 'Winter interest' in this bed.  We're starting to see those dynamics come to life.