Why I Oughta...

We were over at Nat's folks house and (like they do EVERY YEAR), they had some Anchor Brewing Christmas Ale on hand ahead of the Christmas holidays.  I've posted photos and details of this ' Special Ale ' over the years here on the blog where the beer is less interesting to me, but the drawings of the trees are what I'm drawn to when it comes to this annual Christmas beer.  This year's beer is inspired by an Italian liqueur and features a drawing of a famous tree in San Francisco: a Blue Gum Eucalptus tree.  From this post on NewSchoolBeer comes this description of the tree on the label : This year’s hand-drawn label features a Blue Gum Eucalyptus tree, a nod to Mary Ellen Pleasant – a 19th-century San Francisco entrepreneur, financier, abolitionist, and civil rights activist. Pleasant, who is recognized as the “Mother of Civil Rights in California” for her impact during gold-rush San Francisco, planted Blue Gum Eucalyptus trees outside her Pacific Heights mans...

Like I've done the past few years, I attempted to lay out a lawn care (feeding and treatment) schedule this year by listing what I was planning to do to the front and back lawns.  This year's schedule was posted in March .  So...how did I do?   I'd call it a mixed grade.  I started out with a synthetic weed and feed in March .  Good.   I skipped adding lime to the backyard to help treat the wild onions.  But, I did, remove a few more emerging clumps.  Not so good.   I also skipped insect and grub treatments.  Ran out of time.  Not good. And skipped fungicide.  Also...not good. I also skipped 4th of July and Labor day feedings in the backyard.   But, what did I do?  I detathed, aerated the backyard.   Good. I also identified and treated Nimblewill in the backyard .  Good.  And, most importantly...I overseeded the entire backyard with a blend of Kentucky Blue Grass and Tall Fescu...

In a remarkable coincidence (at least to me, dear reader...), I'm posting a front porch sunrise one day shy of one year from the date that I posted a very similar photo here on the blog .  This is from November 29, 2021 .  What was the sunrise like a few days ago from our house?  See below for what is a vivid sunrise in the suburbs in November: What a way to start a day.   I have a whole archive of posts over the years that are tagged with [colorful sunrise] .  

A couple of weeks ago, I was able to create the chicken wire ring to help protect one of our Disneyland Rose bushes (They are a Floribunda Rose) on the southside of our house.  I picked - at that time - the middle one of the three to protect.  I've done this a number of years now and I'm NOT certain that it does anything really.  But...it doesn't take much effort and I'd hate to lose these flowers, so I decided to do all three this year.   That's what you see below:  all three Disneyland Rose bushes now protected by a ring of 2' tall, 1" chicken wire.  Then, filled with leaf litter to help create (hopefully) an insulation blanket for Winter.    I still have a tiny bit of leaf collection/pickup/mulching to do, but I'm hoping these 'settle' a bit so I can put more leaves in the bins. 

I've gone about splitting, stacking and seasoning firewood in different bursts (of activity) over the past few years.  Usually, I process, split, stack the wood during the winter months in preparation for Fall/next Winter burning.  Here's a look at some January 2021 winter-time splitting .  I've done this with a splitting axe.  But, the Norway Maple rounds that I recently put on the new rack in the backyard are different than what I've dealt with previously.  Some of these rounds are *so* big and *so* heavy that I can't really move them, let alone put them up on a block to begin splitting.  So, the axe has worked, but it has mostly - what I call - 'nibbled' around the edge.  You can see those results here from the end of October where there are a lot of thin slices.   My Dad recommended that I try a splitting wedge on the very big, borderline immovable rounds.  The theory is that the wedge can split them in-place and by removing 1/2 to ...

I've just about had it with the dang rabbits.  Most recently, I posted some photos of how they've gnawed at one of our contorted trees and one of our evergreens (Mugo Pine) .  And, before that, there are a bunch of posts showing these pests eating things up in the garden .   For the most part, the dang! rabbits seem to have focused on everything but the sedges in my garden.  Until..... Today. That's when I was out puttering around and saw what they had done to a few of the Everillo Sedges - Carex EVERCOLOR everillo .   I have five of these yellow-green (or some may say chartreuse) sedges planted around the Kwanzan Flowering Cherry Tree in our backyard.  Three from Fall 2020 , two from Spring 2021 .   They've done ok in this spot - with some of them growing larger than others, but for the most part, getting established and filling in some bare spots. This Fall-time damage is a first for these sedges.  I posted about how these same pl...

Holiday traditions are important in every family.  And they're both the same and different in every family.  Thanksgiving in our house means a few things:  turkey trots, turkey bowls, turkey legs, football and...The Last Waltz.  We used to watch the whole thing.  (This is the Royal "We", as it really means *me*).  Now, I try to find time to turn it on and let it play while I putter around doing whatever else I need to do in between the trot and bowl.   I've done this for a number of years and have covered it here on the blog for those same years, but last year, we did something new:  watched the Peter Jackson program on The Beatles:  Get Back.   This year, I'm going to start with what I've always watched:  The Last Waltz.   Here, below, is Bob singing with his backing band in what feels like (during the show) a very transition-y number: Here, below, are the Thanksgiving Day archives from "Why I Oughta..."  This i...

Yesterday, I posted a photo of this strange feather grass that is still green and alive in a large container on my patio and mentioned that everything else has gone dormant and has suffered from the series of frost-filled overnights that we had last week.  Almost all of the various shrubs have dropped their leaves and most of the low-and-mid-height perennials have let their leaves and flowers shed.  But, there are a few things of note in the garden that I thought I'd document for the diary here. First, the Alice Oakleaf Hydrangeas.  They're still holding their leaves.  And those leaves are a dark, dark red/maroon.  A few green ones, too.  See below for a peek at one of these in our backyard: Also, below, you can see the three Twinkle Toes Pulmonaria that are wilting from the frost.

I planted an ornamental grass in one of our back patio containers this Summer and seems that I failed to document what the variety was/is when I installed the rest of the flowers.  Here's a link to a Summertime post showing the labels from a bunch of the plants in the containers, but it didn't include the ornamental grass in the center of the large, round ceramic container.  Based on poking around online, I'm *pretty sure* that it is a Mexican Feather Grass - Nassella .   I'm posting about it, not just to document it in the [garden diary], but rather because of the state it is currently in - post frost in late November.  See below for a photo of the container including this Mexican Feather Grass still showing a lot of green blades: Nassella Mexican Feather Grass is hardy down to just Zone 7 , so perhaps I'm wrong with the identification.  Listen...everything else.  Literally EVERYTHING ELSE in my garden (aside from the Autumn Ferns) have shriveled up ...

It was just last week when I posted a couple of photos showing the full, orange and brown Oak tree canopy in our backyard .  Our two largest trees were holding ALL of their leaves until early November of this year.   Then, we had a HUGE storm.  I'm talking heavy winds.  If you watched the Illini vs. Michigan State football game and saw the punts (into the wind), you know what storm I'm talking about.  What happened to our trees and their marcescence?  Most all of the leaves were stripped from the trees.  What does the backyard look like right now - in mid-November?  See below for a photo showing the very few leaves still on the tree-swing Oak tree and nothing else anywhere. 

The biggest 'project' item on my 2022 to-do list was to begin the side-yard retaining wall/walkway project in some way.  I called it #3 on the list and said that I should start with the 'upper' wall and planting box .  This was based on a late-March post showing how I could tackle the project by building an upper and lower retaining wall and 'placing' the walkway on 'top and in-between' those two walls.  When I did my check-in on the list in early September, I was pretty confident that I wasn't going to get to this item .  Today - in mid-November - I now can say:  I didn't get to it.  As I went into project-planning mode, I went and looked around the Web for ideas.  I also looked at our lived environment for ideas, too.  And, that's where I came across a recently-installed landscape timber retaining wall project a couple of blocks away from our house.  We were out on a walk and saw this fresh, treated lumber wall that looked nicely done: Thi...

The guys who planted our new Triumph Elm tree in our front yard told me three things when they were leaving it:  1.  Put the tree away wet.  2.  Wrap the trunk this winter to protect against sun scald and cracking.  3.  Don't touch the tree for years.    Of that advice, I *sort of* understood the first and third one.  Watering in a new tree for a couple of weeks is very important.  But, having the tree installed so late in the season meant that I could 'put it away wet'.  As for #3 - pruning - I've learned my lesson and don't touch trees for a number of years.  But, #2...wrapping the tree.  That was new to me. So, what is sun scald?  From the University of Arkansas Extension office comes this explainer : Sunscald is a fairly common physiological problem found most commonly on young, thin-barked ornamental and fruit trees. Research suggests that during the winter, frozen tissue on the south or southwest side of the tr...

I took a walk around the garden this weekend thinking about what I needed to do to button the yard and beds up for the Winter and came across a bunch of rabbit-caused problems.  The dang rabbits are giving me a lot of worries about this Winter.  I posted about some of the problems they've caused over the years including how they went whole hog on our small Oakleaf Hydrangeas last year .  We didn't get ANY blooms because of their chomping.  They ate off ALL the most recent growth - and Oakleaf Hydrangeas bloom on 'old wood' (aka...last season's growth) .   Those dang! rabbits have destroyed all of my Toad Lillies , killed a Canadian Hemlock tree , stunted some of sedges and chewed off a bunch of branches on our Hicks Yews.   Knowing my enemy, I've started to protect things with cages of chicken wire - including these Arrowwood (Chicago Lustre) Viburnum  and some of our Hemlocks .  And...(this year)... ALL of our Oakleaf Hydrangeas ....

This past weekend, we went over to the local garden center to meet the Big Guy and his reindeer.  We've done this same deal a number of years and it is a nice way to start the holiday season.  In addition to having the kids visit with Santa for a few minutes, we also buy our annual allotment of Christmas flowers - Amaryllis bulbs.  These bulbs are big and nicely cared for and (this year) cost $21 each.  I'm pretty sure that when we started doing this, these bulbs were $15.  This year, we're growing three new bulbs as well as attempting to force four from last year.  I picked out one and two of the kids picked out their own, too.   Below are the tags of the three we came home with:  Flamenco Queen, Magic Touch and Sunshine Nymph.   These bulbs come nicely packed with a little padding for protection.  They're also MUCH larger than the bulbs you'd find in the typical packaged 'set' that includes a container, potting material and t...

I mentioned that I started to split some of the Norway Maple tree firewood that resulting from the removal of the large tree in our front yard.  In a post a couple weeks ago, I talked about how I've started to split some of the larger rounds with my axe.  I've taken a slow-but-steady approach to the project and will continue to split this wood over the next few months.  The first splits resulted in pieces that I am putting up on a rack to season for the year.  I did, however, want to begin to track the moisture content of this freshly cut, green wood.  Here, below, is a photo of my moisture meter showing 50% moisture in this piece:  The moisture level that split, dry firewood needs to get to in order to be considered 'seasoned' is below 20% - so we have a long way to go.  Norway Maple is known for 'drying quickly' , so I'll test this theory by trying to track these freshly split pieces in the coming weeks/months.  Will it be ready this season?...

This post is going up on November 15th, but the photos are from earlier this month - on November 3rd.  Thus...for YoY garden diary record keeping, let's call this 'early November'.   Here's a peek at the large red oaks in our backyard - just about a year ago .  They were holding ALL of their leaves and looking good.  By early December, they had dropped *most*, but were still holding some .  Come Spring, they were still bare in early April .   What do they look like this year - in early November 2022?  See below for the photo showing the brown and orange leaves all over our tree canopy. Here's the same tree two years ago .   We had a VERY big wind storm this past week, so the trees look VERY different today.  I'll post an updated photo - showing mid-November - in the coming days.  

A couple of weeks ago, we had a 3.5" caliper Triumph Elm - Ulmus Morton Glossy - to our front porch beds.  At the time the tree arrived it has *some* leaves on it with some branches already bare having dropped their leaves.  Today - just two-or-so-weeks after planting, the tree has dropped ALL of its leaves and has a set of roundish, brown buds all over the limbs.  Below, is a look at the buds that have set on our new Triumph Elm tree: Over the years, I've documented in the [garden diary] a look at some of the tree buds in our yard - including these Exclamation London Planetree that I planted during the pandemic .  I'll go out and try to capture some photos of this year's tree buds in the Fall/Winter garden in the coming weeks.  

Just a week later and this is what our set of Paperwhite bulbs look like in their glass jar:  roots have gone wild and the tips of the stalks have all emerged and are starting to shoot upwards.  This happened REALLY fast (at least in my view) and I've tried to follow the recommendations so far - including keeping them out of a bright room while the roots establish.  Below is photo showing the current state of these Ziva Paperwhite bulbs : I went back and bought a 2nd bag of stones to help bury the bulbs up about half-way to help get them more solid ahead of the potential 'tipping' that happens with Paperwhites.   This am, I also began the poisoning of these bulbs in an attempt to keep them compact.  Below is the bottle of rubbing alcohol (91%) that I added in a small amount to the gravel.  It is about 5:1 water:alcohol added.  This will, hopefully, stunt these enough to keep them from 'flopping over'. I've used a similar alcohol treatment to Amar...

Hard to believe that it is mid-November and that we're still getting roses off of our Disneyland Roses.  Here, below, is a little set of flowers and buds that I cut off yesterday morning - right as the weather around here is beginning to turn towards Winter.   This past week, we've had temperatures in the 60's and 70's during the day, but now we're facing the harsh reality:  Winter is arriving.  This Disneyland Rose bush is putting on its final show:  This past week, I took a couple of chicken wire cages off of some hostas that have gone dormant and connected them together to make a Disneyland Rose winter protection cage.  The last time I showed these roses in our sideyard was in September when I talked about prepping for Winter .   This past Winter, I protected *some* of the roses and left others unprotected.  This year...I'm going to just try to do what I can do.  I started with one - the middle one.  You can see that cage be...

This is just over the one-year mark for a trio of grasses that I planted in our backyard late last growing season .  They've been in the ground for 13 months now and are showing their annual seed heads.  These three Miscanthus sinensis 'Adagio' Maiden Grasses are tucked in behind the All Gold Japanese Forest Grasses and in front of the Little Lime Hydrangeas .   Have a look at the photo below to see the three grasses and their first-growing-season seed heads. This being the first full growing season, I'm thinking that these put down roots this year and will begin to fill-in next year with more foliage.  I put these in this spot to help create a bit of a 'layering' affect with the layers of grasses, shrubs and the Apple tree Belgian Fence in the far back.  Like I do with all of my ornamental grasses, I'll leave these Adagio Maiden Grasses up all Winter - for 'winter interest' and will chop them down early in the Spring/late Winter for the new years...

I planted a treeform Doublefile Viburnum shrub out front of our front porch in a row where I lost a Vanilla Strawberry Hydrangea earlier this year .  I also planted a few of these out back.  But, this one - was probably out of place - but in a spot that was mixed sun/shade.  And, in the shadow of the troubled Norway Maple tree in our front porch beds.  I watered it in and watered all of the other things up there the same way.  But, this treeform Viburnum went into decline pretty quickly and is now - officially - dead.  I yanked it out recently.  See below for the tree/shrub and the rootball that I removed: I've long talked about how it is SO hard to grow stuff under that Norway Maple tree.  But with it gone, now?  I'm hopeful that I can turn this area around.  Starting with amending the soil with biosolids and composted manure .  And cultivating the soil in this bed to enrich it even more this Winter (is my plan).  I'm hopeful ...

A couple of weeks ago, I posted a couple of photos that showed the process of how the arborists at Davey Tree Services are treating our Northern Red Oak trees with a solution to inoculate them against something called the Two-lined Chestnut borer with a deep-soil-injected solution around the footprint of the canopy of the two Oak trees in our backyard.  That's the first application of the season that has been - for the past two seasons - come before the application of a liquid soil-probe-application fertilizer treatment for all our trees and shrubs.   Starting in 2020, we've worked with Davey to apply something called Arbor Green Pro to every tree and shrub in our yard.   Here's the post showing the 2020 treatment in late October . Here's the post showing the 2021 treatment in mid-November . The crew arrived and set up the long hose line from their tanker truck at the curb all the way to the back of the yard.   You can see in the photos that they a...

Posting a photo and trying to take a 'partial dubya' for a down-list item on my 2022 to-do list in the garden and yard .  This is an item that I was pretty sure I wasn't going to solve - and in fact - stated that on my late-season check-in .  But...I wanted to post here in the [garden diary] a note to show that I should take a partial victory.  Why?  I transplanted a small Karl Foerster Feather Reed Grass that was under the Norway Maple to back by the gate.  See below, for a photo of the grass next to the fence gate on the south side: #24 on the list this year read like this : Clean up the south side gate entrance area. Expand the bed forward towards the street (and fill in the gully), lay out large flagstones for walkway and add self-closing gate hardware. Think about cleaning out strawberries that have run wild there and (potentially) expand the beds under the Lindens. This grass is helpful in moving that from 'kinda' to 'yes...a little bit'.   

Almost everything but our large, mature Northern Red Oak trees have dropped their leaves this season and have begun their long Winter's nap.  I say *almost* because there's one big outlier:  Our Frans Fontaine European Hornbeam trees.  Not only are they still holding their leaves....they're still green.  See below for a photo of the current state - during the first week of November - of what these trees look like.  You'll see some yellow here and there, but there's a remarkable amount of green foliage:  The most recent check-in on these trees (with photos) was during their peak in early Summer - July of 2022 - when they were alive and lush .   I documented these trees on December 1st of 2021 when they were still clinging to *some* of their leaves, but they were all dry, desiccated and brown .  Will these stay green until December?  Not a chance, right?  But, the trees (this year) are MATERIALLY DIFFERENT than what they showed in 202...

Planted in 2021, all three of our Butterscotch Amsonia have made it through two growing seasons and are starting to fill in.  But, they're also doing what they're SUPPOSED TO DO:  put on a nice Fall show.   Below, you can see the trio of these that - to the naked eye - almost look ELECTRIC.  Like they're plugged in.  They've put on size and are showing way more fine, yellow foliage than last year .   These get big - and over time - they'll fill in even more, but I'm already thinking that I could plant more of these in other parts of the garden next year.   I should include these on a newly created Morton Plant Sale 2023 Wish list.  

For the past few Christmas seasons, we've grown Amaryllis flowers from bulbs with (mostly) good results and have learned a little bit about different bulbs and planting situations with those .  This year, I'm trying (for the first time) to reuse some of my Amaryllis bulbs from last year .  I grew them in containers and had them bloom in the dark of Winter.  Then, I put their pots out in the sun all Summer-long.  And, finally brought them in to try to force them by putting them in the basement and trimming all the foliage off.  They've been in my basement (currently) for ten weeks.  I'll get them out in mid-November.   Besides, Amaryllis bulbs, another winter-time gardening project that people take on is growing Paperwhites from bulbs.  I found an eight-pack of Ziva bulbs and decided to try these at home.  Here, below, is the packaging from the bulbs from the orange Big Box store: Interesting that these are 'grown in Israel', no? ...