Why I Oughta...

Yesterday, I walked through an exploration of an area in one of my beds that calls for a mix of Tardiva Hydrangea and (now) an upright evergreen layer .  That requires the moving/transplanting of four Lilac shrubs that have never taken off due to shade.  My #1 backyard priority for 2022 is a focus on shrubs and being deliberate about buying and planting them - versus say...perennial flowers.  I've talked about buying and adding a series of Arrowwood Viburnum shrubs in various spots, but there's a segment of our landscape plan that is directly adjacent to yesterday's Lilac replacement area that calls for a mix of hydrangeas and evergreens.   Here's a look (below)  at this 18-20' area that is bound on one side by the Kwanzan Flowering Cherry tree and on the other by a large (2nd largest on our property) Northern Red Oak tree.  You can see the tree here in this post showing some winter/snow damage .  That Oak is on the right.  In Yellow is a run of various hostas. 

Having locked-in my 2022 priorities for the yard and garden last week , I have begun to think about the practical implementation of the first item on the list:  Shrubs.  A discussion of some of the shrub needs were walked thru earlier in March in this post that laid out a list of needs and included a reference to adding three Tardiva Hydrangeas.  Back in 2017, I included a look at that part of the beds that called for these Tardiva Hydrangeas here .   With all that background out of the way, I think it is useful to look at the current conditions of this portion of the bed AND my current thinking in terms of deciduous shrubs based on some pointers from others.   To be sure, this is NOT a 'clean slate' situation.  I've planted things there that NEED to be relocated. First, I have four Lilac shrubs planted along the fenceline.  Two common Lilacs ( planted in 2018 ) and two Nocture Lilacs ( planted in 2019 ).  NONE of these have worked here.  They haven't died.  But, they

A few days ago, I posted a photo of a new-to-us fossil find from our backyard (a Crinoid fossil) and mentioned about how I used my first backyard fossil find (a Trilobite) as a use case to try to understand the world of NFTs and the platform OpenSea.  I posted a photo of my Trilobite fossil on OpenSea , but didn't list it for sale (due to the 'gas fees'), so I'm not totally sure what the utility of the exercise was (in that case), but it also lead me to a different platform:  VeVe.  VeVe is an NFT marketplace for 'digital collectibles '.  From brands.  Digital art, images and comic books are what they're mostly dealing with on the platform from brands like Marvel, Disney, Pixar , James Bond, Back to the Future and Adventure Time among others.  Veve offers a store - where you can buy these digital collectibles.  They also offer a 'drop' system where creators 'drop' collectibles at a specific time when they (seemingly) get gobbled up by collec

Earlier here on the blog, I posted about the idea of a 'fountain wall' right next to our patio and mentioned that I thought there was an 'order of operations' post that needed to come first to ensure that I had all of the pieces sorted out and that any project that I took on would not have to be REDONE when I moved on to other projects.  However....in order to get to that 'order of operations' post, I think I need to lay out a few more of the building blocks/underlying projects that make up the choices I have to make.   One of the biggest ones is to finish up solving the 'entrance' to our backyard.    I've gone around-and-around on how to best solve the situation I'm facing:  a gradient that transverses the path we need to complete from our front yard (driveway) back to our patio. Last year, I put in a gravel walkway that covers half of the area .  And, we love it.  But, I can't simply lay down a gravel walkway for the rest of this walkway b

I saw this bag of Lesco 19-0-7 lawn fertilizer with pre-emergent at one of the big box stores recently and thought it was worth tracking here for both price and N-P-K makeup.  For reference, Milorganite has a 6-4-0 N-P-K and based on what I've both read/watched and my initial soil testing, finding something like this that has a # in the Potassium part of the equation is, inherently interesting to me.  At $68 a bag, it is a little bit LESS interesting, though. This post and photo, however...reminds me that I NEED to keep an eye on my 2022 lawn care schedule as I'm planning on making some changes to the treatments this year - especially as I try to balance my historical heavy N-P's in the N-P-K analysis.

Last Fall, I was moving around a few pieces of flagstone in our yard when I - for some reason - looked closer at one of the stones and I realized I was staring at a fossil.  Weird.  Or at least it seemed weird to me.  I examined the piece of flagstone and realized there were a few fossils imprinted in the stone, so I went looking on the Web to figure out what we had.  Turns out, we're the owner of some Trilobites that are hundreds of millions of years old (yes...read that again... hundreds of millions of years old ).  Kinda neat, right?  Finding it and researching the fossil was a fun little exercise to do with the kids.   Imagine my delight when I was out in the yard this past week and noticed that a few of our pieces of flagstone and split open due to the winter and freezing.  I picked the pieces up to see if any of the freshly-revealed surfaces showed off any new (to us) fossils.  And, sure enough....along the edge of one of them looks like this: Below is another, more zoom'

What's better than one garden water feature and 'garden dreaming' post on the blog?  Certainly...You could say that: Two of those posts would be better.  But, even better than two?  That's right....three of said posts.  Especially when they run in close proximity to each other...as it serves as a document of the evolution of my thinking on projects like this and allows me the ability to work in draft format in my garden diary. First... I started this series with a look at some available stock tanks that could be used as ponds . Then, a few days ago, I posted about how I learned all about rills and what they are in the garden .  Today, I'm posting about some further inspiration that I've come across that has appeal to me as a gardener.  In terms of location, I'm talking about the patio-adjacent area to the north of our current patio .  I posted some drawings and thoughts about doing a second Belgian Fence in this area .  You can see the location here .   I st

As the calendar is showing late March, we're now STARING down the real beginning of gardening and yard care season here in USDA Growing Zone 5b.  And, like a lot of amateur gardeners and landscape caretakers, I often find myself adrift - drawn to things in garden centers that I don't have in my plans, pulled to focus on projects that steal time and end up planting things in places that don't make sense for the long haul.  However, I *do* have a landscape plan that was drawn by a professional.  I have of gardening rules don't buy just ONE of anything  and dig a $5 hole for a 50 cent plant .  (That makes me think that I *should* write a post that outlines my adopted gardening rules that I've collected over tim).  And, I have list of projects that I'd like to tackle.   Using those tools and direction SHOULD make the growing season go smoothly.  But, everybody - including me - needs to be held accountable.   That's why, over the past three growing seasons, I'

There I was....minding my own business scrolling through gardening instagram when I came across this post from....guess who?  Yep.  Erin the Impatient Gardener.  You know....the online gardener who gardens in Southern Wisconsin who I have posted about a bunch and continues to show me/teach me new things.  Here's her post below: View this post on Instagram A post shared by E R I N🌿The Impatient Gardener (@impatientgardener) Wait....What the what?  What's is this?  A Rill?!?!   I am going to admit something:  I have NEVER HEARD of a rill.  Like...this was that time when a girl in like 2nd grade mentioned something called a "Panda Bear".  I was blown away.  Never heard of a Panda Bear.  And...then..... *boom* Suddenly, this cute black and white bear was in my life.   That's how I feel about a garden rill.  This is NEW TO ME.    Sure, I've heard of water features.  Ponds, streams, waterfalls.  Even fountains .  But a rill?  I had to look aro

The past few seasons, we've had some Sedum Volunteers (or....maybe a better way to describe them is as a 'Survivor' instead of a 'Volunteer' because it has overwintered in place) in one of the small beds to the north of our back stoop where our Rhododendrons are planted.    If you look at this post from 2020, you'll see the beginnings of these Volunteers (they migrated from a container to a bed) and I was surprised to see them come back last year (2021).  In fact, based on the experience, I decided to transplant a bunch of this stuff from our front porch beds to various places in the hopes that it would survive the Winter.   Most of that stuff seems to have died over Winter.  But....the original set in back?  It seems that it might have come through once again.   Here, below, is a photo showing how some of it is green and happy. I'll monitor this set of Lemon Coral Sedum over the Spring to see if it bounces back and continues to live here - as a groundcove

One of the many things that I've found a little bit of joy with in the yard and garden over the years is in doing my lawn upkeep myself.  By 'upkeep', I mean both treating, feeding and mowing the front and back with both my push mower and the Automower.  When we first moved in, I had 'a guy', but I wasn't that happy with how they were cutting it (when, how often, height, etc), so I transitioned back to doing it myself and bought myself my own push/self-propelled lawn mower. Just like with planting, laying out the beds and other yard/garden projects, I've found it most helpful to put down a schedule here as a way of guiding my decision-making over the coming months.  I first did this in 2020 and it was a helpful steer .  Last year?  I kinda 'wing'd it' and I'm pretty sure I need to get back to the schedule this year.   Why?  Because, last year I saw the MOST weeds, the most significant damage and the worst-looking lawn (parts) since we moved i