Why I Oughta...

Speaking of 'holding leaves' (yesterday...I posted a photo showing the espalier'd Lindens holding their leaves), the row of Frans Fontaine European Columnar Hornbeams that we have planted along the south property line are doing what they always do in Fall:  hold their leaves late.   The term for trees that hold their leaves DEEP into Winter (when they're all brown and dry, but still clinging to the branches) is named foliar Marcescence.  These aren't quite to that state, but based on previous seasons, we'll see these trees brown-out soon.  Then, one or two of them MAY drop their leaves immediately, while others may hold onto them until Spring.   You see this with Oak trees - quite a bit.  They'll hold some of their leaves all Winter .   Here's a post showing what the trees looked like in February of 2023 - still holding small, crinkled, curled-up leaves that late into the Winter .   And here's a post from one-year-and-one-...

Most of the trees in our yard, but for the Frans Fontaine European Hornbeams have dropped their leaves.  That's normal.  But, there's another set of trees that are holding their leaves late this year - these two Greenspire Lindens that are in a horizontal Cordon espalier form.  You can see them with their mix of green, orange and yellow leaves this late in November: When the leaves eventually drop, they'll reveal the structure underneath.   And, from the look of it, they'll also reveal A TON of vertical waterspouts on the top level of the espalier.  

In thankfulness to the Band and all the fellas...

Last year, I made my first few Winter arrangements featuring a mix of foraged materials and some store-bought highlights.  Last year, I leaned heavily on evergreens and ecualyptus with the only pops of color coming from either red Dogwood branches or crabapples that I foraged from parking lot trees. Here's the first one I made last year in a vintage Santa ceramic pot .  And, here's what I called V2 - that was more upright and I put together in a Goodwill thrifted vase .  I used some foraged curly Willow branches to give that one A LOT of height.    I also bleached pinecones for the first time and I liked how those turned out - the sort-of 'stood out' or had more contrast against the green needles.  And, I even started to give them away - here's one I gave to my sister .   With all of the dahlia arrangements that I worked on this Summer, I felt emboldened to go a little bit further with my 2024 Winter (evergreen) arrangements.   Last yea...

I spent a long time thinking and planning and (eventually) buying and planting a full hedge of (at that time) small Hicks Yews across the back of our yard back in 2019.  I planted twelve 1# pots in the Summer of 2019 and they've had (now) six growing seasons ('19, '20, '21, '22, '23, '24). I picked these because they're shade-tolerant.  And, evergreen.  And, narrow/upright.   But, I was hesitant.  Why?  Because...well...Yews have a bad reputation.  Ask any gardener my age if their parents had yews in front of their house when they were growing up and the answer is:  yes.   I was hesitant to use Yews because of what I had grown-up with in the garden.  Everywhere you look in suburban gardens, people have been using Boxwoods.  And, I have, too.  Boxwoods here.  Boxwoods there.  But, after some hemming-and-hawing...I opted for these $5.00 Hicks, upright Yews for the hedge.    I came across this 'undu...

In the Fall of 2021, I was on a "Hicks Yew High" - where I planted these tiny shade-loving evergreen shrubs all over the backyard.  I put six of them in the south bed with designs to 'replicate' the undulating hedge from the back border .  Here are the six in winter when the contrast with the snow shows how small they really were in January of 2022 .  In Summer of 2022, I did a 'garden edit' where I pulled out some Lilacs and replaced them with some Green Giant Thujas.  At at that time, I also relocated three of the Hicks Yews .   Three remained.  Set on sort-of 'an angle'.   I set up my wine barrel 'water feature' next to them.  And, haven't thought about them much at all.  (that is the wine barrel that I've turned over for the winter in the photo...) Have they grown?  Yep.  The photo at the top shows their current state.  I'm hoping that - with time - the gaps will close and a small 'hedge' of sorts appears here....

More Yew posts.  At least...I have a few more Hicks Yew posts to document the current state of the garden.  Next up - today - is a pair of Hicks Yews that are planted along the fence in the firepit border on the south side of the gravel pad.   I last posted about these in Summer 2023 , when I discovered that I had NOT posted about their planting.  I'm going to guess that these went in the ground in 2022.  That means they have had that same 2.5 growing seasons under their belt. In the photo at the top of this post, you can see the current state of the Yews.   Slow and steady it seems.  In the shade.  Even without irrigation.   This is part of the Yew update series of posts that are documenting the various shrubs in our yard.  I've posted about the  Brown's Yew , the  hedge of small Hicks Yews (for an undulating hedge)  in the far backyard,  the Hicks Yews that I planted *behind* the Oakleaf Hydrangeas ...

The downfall of large department store shopping along Chicago's State Street is well documented.  Marshall Field's becoming Macy's occurred during my lifetime - in 2006 .  That's long enough to kind of forget what Marshall Field's was like, but recent enough to still feel the outrage.   But that outrage really only returns during the Christmas season.  And...that is likely *why* all the changes have been made.  Not enough shoppers have been visiting department stores and not enough are shopping on State Street. Before I talk about what is going on right now, during Christmas 2024, I suppose I should say that we all *should* be grateful that Macy's on State Street still exists at all.  I've covered Marshall Field's (and now Macy's) on State Street in Chicago over the years.    Here's a whole collection of posts .    More on that below the photos.   Macy's calls their State Street Christmas setup 'Santaland ' and it includes...

In July of 2022, I added a pair of Hicks Yews (if it isn't clear by now, I was *really* hot on Hicks Yews in 2021 and 2022) on either side of the 'entrance' to our firepit area.  Like the rest of the Yews on our property, these were bought and planted as #1 nursery pot shrubs (and were bought at 50% off of $9.98 - so $10 for both of them).  They've had 2.5 growing seasons - all of 2023 and 2024 and half of 2022 - the year they went in.   My thought at the time was that these will create a little 'framed' entrance to the firepit from the yard, but they would need TIME to put on the necessary size. They were probably 12" tall when planted.  Barely visible in the landscape. Below, you can see the current size of this pair of Hicks Yews: These weren't watered that much this season, so they're clearly established.  You can see the little dark spot in the soil/mulch just to the right of the Yew in the foreground.  That's the mark of the soil-injected...

Walking out the backdoor, I found a bunch of these fan-shaped Ginkgo leaves laying on the stoop.  They're from the pair of Spring Grove Ginkgo trees (dwarf, Witches broom trees) that sit on either side of our back stoop and flank the entrance.  I originally had a pair of Rhododendrons in these spots - planted in 2018 .  But, moved them out in 2023 doing a 'garden edit '.   I caught this post on Instagram from Erin - the Impatient Gardener - where she posted some photos of her own dwarf Ginkgo - a Gnome Ginkgo - and included some info that...I sort of 'observed', but didn't know what was going on with Ginkgos. Her post, embedded below, includes this line :  "Ginkgo trees develop these scars on all their leaves simultaneously, causing them to drop all at once when triggered by a hard frost." View this post on Instagram A post shared by Erin Schanen 🌿 The Impatient Gardener (@impatientgardener) "Blink and you'll miss it...

In 2021, I planted two 1# small Hicks (upright) yews in the backyard - sort of near the understory garden on the north side.  I planted them somewhat close together with eyes on (eventually) shaping them up into a 'Block I' Illinois topiary .  Earlier that year, I posted about this University of Auburn topiary frame and dreamed of a 'Block I' .  The two Hicks yews were probably 12" tall in Fall of 2021 .  They've now had three (2022, 2023 and 2024) growing seasons and have put on some size.   Here are the two Hicks Yews - below - after those three growing seasons.  They've grown up (a little bit) are are still mostly columnar. It isn't easy to determine their height, so here below, is a shovel stuck in the ground to provide a height comparison.   I CLEARLY still have time to create the 'Block I' frame out of Chicken Wire, so I'm not concerned about that.  I am, however, concerned about the 'fullness' of these.  Are they going to ge...

Just when everything was going dormant, dropping their foliage and going to bed for the season, I'm seeing a couple of anomalies.  First, was that Vanilla Strawberry Hydrangea bloom last week .  Everything else is in decline...but one stem and small pink bloom.  Today, I'm posting a photo of something else:  the Matcha Ball Ash Leaf Spirea in our backyard.  This is planted in the 'kitchen curved' bed on the southside, right near the Butterscotch Amsonia.   This is one of two of these shrubs that have a Japanese-garden-inspired look to their fern-like foliage.  The other one is in the front porch bed.  These never did SUPER great this year after being planted in November of 2023 .    I noticed that these had set some buds this Fall and assumed they went dormant.   But...we haven't had a hard frost...yet.  Normally it arrives in/around mid-October.  But, this year...everything is winding down very slowly. The Match...

In October of 2022, I planted a Brown's Yew back by the firepit, in the deep shade of our rear yard .   I bought it at an end-of-the-season sale because it was over-sized for the nursery pot and price.  I've mostly forgotten about it, have failed to deliberately water it and it has hung on through two full growing seasons.   Below is a look at this multi-stemmed evergreen shrub (Brown's Yew) as it stands in our garden in mid-November 2024: Like the Hicks Yews from yesterday, this one has put on some growth over the years - slowly.  Something to think about for 2025 planning - is it time to prune this/shape this a little bit? 

In the Fall of 2021, I made a big decision (or...what seemed like a BIG decision at the time) in our garden.  I opted to dig up some of our Oakleaf Hydrangeas and move them *out* from the fence .  They were planted to allow for their mature size, but tucked in closer to the fence.  After reading and observing our garden - and others online - I decided to invest in putting evergreen shrubs *behind* deciduous, flowering shrubs.  Here's the post from October 2021 where I talk about 'layering' and how most designs call for evergreens *in front of* shrubs like hydrangeas .  That's how it looks in our front yard.  But....this idea turns that concept on its ear - by putting the evergreens BEHIND the shrubs that lose their leaves in Winter.  To do that, I needed to move out the Oakleaf Hydrangeas.  And plant some evergreens.  I opted for Hicks Yews - since this is a pretty much full-shade area.  I planted a five-dollar, one-gallon Hicks Yew in O...

In October, I turned my compost over.   That meant pulling out the 'black gold' in the tumbler (that's where I finish the compost each year) and then re-filling the tumbler with more-finished (than the rest) of the compost from the right bin.  Then using a compost fork to pull out and move the stuff from the 'middle bin' to the 'right bin' - where it was properly mixed.  And finally...taking the storage bin - the 'left bin' which is mostly leaves and kitchen scraps and mixing it in the middle bin.  That left the 'storage bin' on the left empty. For like 10 days.   Here's what it looks like today - below.  The left bin (with the 'feed me' sign) is filling up with leaves that have come off our lawn and out of our gardens: There is A LOT of air in this bin, so these leaves will compact/compress to about 1/2 of the bin height.  I'm going to give it a pause for a week-or-so, then come back and fill it back up with even more leaves...

The trees and shrubs have been fed for the year.  Dormant fed. This is now year five of having the tree care folks from Davey apply a soil-injected deep-root liquid fertilizer (they call it ArborGreenPro) to all of our trees and shrubs on the property.  Here is the post from last year (2023), when they applied the fertilizer in December .  That was later than most years, as the first couple of guys who arrived didn't have long-enough hoses to reach our far backyard.   Here's the 2022 post from November 9th .  I posted on November 17th in 2021 .  And I posted in late October in 2020 - the first year of treatments .   The dude from Davey uses a long probe, attached to a hose to inject the fertilizer in/around every tree and shrub.  For the larger trees, they inject in a number of sites that line-up to the reach of the canopy of the tree. Does this stuff work?  I don't really know.  Do you???

This is the third in a series of [garden diary] posts showing off some mid-November 2024 blooms.  One of them (the Disneyland Rose) is expected .  It has bloomed this late each of the past few years.  The Dahlias are a nice surprise.  Since I haven't grown them (in the ground) before, this set of late-blooms on the dahlias is a learning lesson for me .   But....this third one....this is the strange one.   See below for one of our Vanilla Strawberry Panicle Hydrangea that sits in front of our front porch that is FULL of brown, past-their-prime blooms.  And...one, random, out-of-season, small pink bloom.   The shrub is a mix of contrasts:  seemingly over with blooming and showing those dead flower heads while dropping leaves.  Along with this one, shooting-tall limb that has a green top and this pink flower. What does this mean for these shrubs?  Healthy?  Just out of sync?  A weird seasonal anomaly?  Who...

Yesterday, I posted a photo of our Disneyland Roses showing off their last round of bloom s for the year and talked about how nice it is to have some of these colorful flowers this late in the season.  I suppose...it sort-of makes up for the fact that Spring seems to last FOREVER around here and the flowers don't begin to pop-off until August.  2024 has been the season of the dahlia in our garden and it seems that I 've called for 'a lid' on the dahlia season for weeks now .  The plants have been producing fewer blooms each week - starting in October and I assumed they were drawing to a close.   I wanted to extend the season as best I could, so in mid-October, when we were facing a hard frost on a couple of nights, I protected the dahlias with some frost covers .  It appeared to work - and they kept on blooming.   But, starting in November (when the weather turned cooler), I stopped watering the dahlias and began to think about my plan for trying ...

In terms of flowers, I'd like to say that this growing season has been a fantastic, rewarding one.  But...if I'm honest....I've seen a lot of new things with the dahlias.  But....This season has *really* been a mixed bag when I include our Disneyland Roses.   I had six Disneyland Roses at the end of 2023.  This year, I had just three - as the three bareroot ones that I planted in front didn't come back .  And the three that I DID have did NOT do well .  Between pests (sawfly larvae), fungus (rust) and drought, these things barely hung on in 2024.   The watering problem is something I attempted to fix later this season - as these kept dropping their leaves.  Starting in late August/Early September, when I was focused on the dahlias, I watered these three in every morning and they seemed to rebound just a little bit.  They still look sparse.   But....the good news - I'm seeing a couple of November blooms.  See below for...

In Fall 2021, I planted two small (2 gallon nursery container) Chicago Lustre Arrowwood Viburnum shrubs in a pair of locations that were part of our overall, master garden plan.  The plan calls for these Arrowwood Viburnum in a number of locations, but I've only planted two.  (Note for next year, I suppose...) That means they've had three full growing seasons (2022, 2023 and now 2024) to grow up and out.  These are at the very back of the border, so while I'd like to say that I've cared for them...that's just not true:  these have mostly been neglected.  After the first few Winters - where rabbits were eating these, I've watered them (on occasion) and mostly forgot about them.   Despite that, they've grown up and out.  In Fall 2021, they were about 12" tall from the ground/mulch.  Today, they're both over the top of the lower fence (4' tall fence).  Below is a look at the pair of Arrowwood Viburnum - which....are still....surprisingly.....

Martha Stewart hit me right between the eyes this morning with this quote about happiness.  She says that you can be happy for a year - if you get married.  And you can be happy for a decade - if you get a dog.  But...if you wanna be happy for the rest of your life - plant a garden.  See below. I'm adding this to the handful of pieces of garden advice/garden musings/garden quotes that I've collected here on my blog - including: It is better to plant a fifty-cent tree in a five dollar hole than a five dollar tree in a fifty-cent hole , Conifers should come first , never buy just one of anything , Audrey Hepburn's line/quote - "To plant a garden is to believe in tomorrow" and... the best time to plant a tree was 20 years ago. The second best? Today .  Martha's take on happiness fits right in there with these. I first came across this on TikTok in a promo for her Netflix documentary, but....on  Instagram  is where I found this (nicely laid-out four-pane...

Last month, I posted a couple of photos and details of our new Skylands Spruce tree ( ) in our front yard island bed .  This is a tree that I've looked at for years and finally found one (a small one) that I put in our garden.   I've noted tree buds forming (and setting) on various trees in the Fall/Winter over the years, but the past few years, I've begun to observe conifers a little more closely.   Here's one that is in the middle - the Dawn Redwood - which is a deciduous conifer tree - a conifer that drops its needles.    This post looks at the buds of the Dawn Redwood .   This past August, I posted a photo of the 'buds' being set on the Weeping Norway Spruces that I planted last Fall IB2DWs and how I observed them last season turn into new sets of needles.   I'm learning more and more about the health of conifers and the types of signals they send throughout the growing season - and during dormancy.  This post from the Co...