There doesn't seem to be a bigger booster of Sedges in the gardening world than Roy Diblik from Northwind Perennial Farm. He's actually where I've 'gotten to know' anything about sedges. From his YouTube videos. He posted a short video where he named his '3 favorite Carex' (embeded below), where he detailed what he likes about all three - bromoides, muehlenbergii & muskingumensis.
Well...that means I have to try ALL of them, right? I'm starting with one of them:
. Below is the sign from Roy's nursery.
The description on the sign reads: Too nice, a good looking soft foliage grass-like plant that adds contrast to all types of shade plantings. What's not to like?
He talks about combining these sedges into a pattern. Run a group of Bromoides with islands of 'Little Midge'. And fields of Pensylvanica with islands of Carex muskingumensis.
I decided to start out with four small Bromoides. Here, below is one of them - this is the same photo from the top of the post.
One of the big differences between the Pennsylvanica and Bromoides is dry vs moist soil. I'm trying them in different spots and going to see how they react. I decided to use these Carex Bromoides in a little nook in front of the Fanal Astilbes in the south beds in the backyard. I'll keep the watered and see how they do. See below for the drift of four Carex Bromoides.
Is this 'enough' for the year? I don't think so. Six plantings of ground cover for the year. I'd say I would get an 'incomplete' as of now. 10 more sedges? Then we're talking.
But, where do they need to go? A few places:
1. Out front under the Norway Maple.
2. Around the Firepit area.
3. In the way back where nothing is growing.
4. Under the Frans Fontaine Hornbeams.
That last one feels like a good excuse to buy 10 more. So does the firepit area.
First the Hornbeams. It is low-lying, so more 'wet' than dry. A mix of Bromoides with some 'Little Midge' mixed in feels right.
Firepit is more dry. That's Pennsylvanica and Muskingumensis. Ten or so 'plugs' would go a long way back there, too.
Frost is how the gardening season ends. It brings with it death. And dormancy. Another season in the books. In some ways, it also brings relief. Things slow down. Stop growing. And, I can shift into a 'closing up' mindset. But, I can't do that until we get a frost. The furthest that the forecast looks out on Weather dot com is between now and Thursday, November 5th. That's two weeks out. And, here, below is what it looks like: What is notable? The lows. Look at them. The lowest LOW listed between now and November 5th is 43 degrees. That's 11 degrees ABOVE freezing. Now, I recognize that weather forecasts aren't set in stone, but let's (for now) operate under the assumption that this is close to accurate. We won't see a frost for at least two weeks. Note: Parts of Northern Illinois had some frost earlier in October. Here's a Tweet from the National Weather S...
Move over vegetable garden and garage pavillion, there's potentially a new entrant into the currently crowded backyard at the Parrillo household. Behold: this beauty. The Cedar Summit Panorama Playset from Costco. Comes with 3 swings and a tube slide. Nat spotted this behemoth at Costco and after doing a bit of comparison shopping at a place like Menards (more expensive, I think) and Wannemaker's (don't sell these type of things any more), it appears to be a fair deal. It is a kit - so I'd be putting it together myself, but I'm up for that challenge. The real issue is getting it home. I'm going to head back to Costco to take a look to see if it will fit in Nat's car with the back seats folded down. If not, it seems like I'll be renting a truck from Home Depot. Yes, the Babe is likely too small for a lot of this, but certainly NOT the swings. We take her to the park on a regular basis and she gets a kick out of the swi...
Welp, it looks like the festival is in town. Over the next few days, tens of thousands of brave souls will hit these parks to take in a lot of great music and get sunburned. We've been hearing the bass-lines warming up and testing the PA equipment all the way up on the 64th floor the past few days. and it has been fun to watch the stages unfold and the activity ramp up. Alas...I'm no longer a festival guy and, once again, won't be in attendance. I posted a photo of the Lolla 'aftermath' here on the blog last August. But, I'm not a total went blanket. I *do* have a history with Lollapalooza. We went (twice, I think?) to the 'tour' version back in the Mid-1990's when it hit the World Music Theatre in Tinley Park when the Beastie Boys were involved and I was smuggling in food in the venue in my underpants. Ah yes. Those were the days.
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