Why I Oughta...

I've posted a number of times about groundcover and how I've evolved as a gardener when it comes to planting groundcover.  It was (for me) an afterthought.  (Unfortunately...the same could be said about conifers, but I've begun to change that fact).   The first groundcover that I 'got to know' and planted was Ajuga 'chocolate chip'.  I've planted it in a number of spots and will continue to add it when I can find it.  Over the years, I've added some sedums ( Angelina, a variegated variety and something that I've grown to love: John Creech Sedum .   But, I've also begun to get smarter about using annuals as bedding plants over the years.  And, thanks to some of the garden tours I've watched on YouTube has lead me to think about annuals as groundcover.  I've done *some* of that with Coleus.  And...  #6 on my 2025 to-do list was to use more coleus as a bedding plant.   And, #16 on my list was to 'keep going on groundcover'...

There aren't a ton of planting posts that I can publish that check the box on three ' to-do items ', but the three ornamental grasses that I planted in the backyard recently get that accomplished. Those three grasses are All Gold Hakonechloa macra grasses that I bought at the recent Morton Arboretum plant sale. The three relevant items are: 4. Finishing the garden edits, 10. Work on garden 'legibility' and 20. Stay focused on repetition vs. new. When I bought these three bright grasses, I wasn't sure where I was going to put them. Somewhere in the backyard or perhaps along the boardwalk. After thinking about it for weeks, I opted to place them at the end of the border that houses the rest of these All Gold Grasses. Extend the row closer to the house. At the end of April, I posted a photo showing the nine grasses in this border . With these three new ones, we're now at twelve All Golds in back. Here are the three new ones staged for planting: All Gold Hak...

I wrote about purple flowers this week.  Like I said then, I'm drawn to dark-color blooms.  The darker, the better.   When I saw this Petunia - Crazytunia Cosmic Violet - I immediately said to myself:  'add to cart'.   Here, below, is the sign at The Growing Place.  It says "Blooms deep plum purple feathering into pale lavender edges.  Crazytunias are bread for tolerance to extreme weather including heat, rain and wind.   Here's how White Flower Farm describes them : Petunia Crazytunia® Cosmic Violet is a prolific bloomer but maintains a tidy habit and won’t overwhelm its neighbors. We like the saturated purple tones of the flowers, as do pollinators. Here are a couple of photos showing the plants: I have gone back-and-forth on our smaller patio containers.  Mixed plantings vs. monocultures.   For this Crazytunia, I'm going sort-of 'in-between'.  I planted it to the side of one of our smaller containers and left ...

Last year, I planted three Inferno coleus in the island bed in our front yard after seeing them on a garden tour video and I wasn't disappointed.  By October of last year, I wrote a post praising sun-tolerant coleus as bedding plants and pledged to plant more this year.  I even included 'planting coleus as bedding plants' as one of my 2025 to-do items .   With the larger-scale planting of Crimson Gold Coleus in the (newly expanded) Island Bed in front, I decided to not walk-away-from Inferno coleus.  I bought three quart-sized pots of the red/brown annual and planned to put them into the expanded back patio corner bed.    Last Fall, I used the 'lazy bed extension' method to expand the corner bed adjacent to our back patio .  That created some new planting space that I can fill this season.   That spot gets decent sun - for our backyard at least.  It gets the MOST sun, I suppose, of anywhere in our backyard.  Thus, it seemed l...

I'm not drawn (normally) to pinks in the garden.  Or reds.  But, blues and purples?  They seem to jump off the nursery table when I see them.  At least, recently.    See the photo at the top of this post?  Little purple flowers on a trailing habit annual?  Yes, please.    That is Verbena x Lascar 'Black Velvet'.  And, I bought three of them.  What are they?  From this listing on Magic Valley Gardens : Verbena ‘Lascar™ Black Velvet’ adds rich, velvety drama to your garden with clusters of deep magenta-purple blooms that stand out beautifully against bright green foliage. This early-flowering variety features a mounded to trailing habit, making it perfect for mixed containers, hanging baskets, and sunny borders. With medium vigor and excellent weather tolerance, it delivers consistent color throughout the season. A favorite for gardeners seeking bold color and reliable, low-maintenance performance in summer plantings. Flower...

A couple weeks ago, I read this post on Martha Stewart's blog titled: Staking the Herbaceous Peonies - and realized that we're coming up quickly on peony season in our garden.  Martha uses (of course she does) stakes that she designed herself and has a huge number of peonies on her property.  We, well...don't.   Over the years, we've ended up with five peony plants.  Two in front (IB2DWs) and three in the back (Kitchen curved bed).  After the first five-or-six years in our new garden, we finally had our first *real* peony season back in 2023 .  Why did we finally get blooms?  Because I moved the peony plants we had on-hand from the back of the yard to closer to the sun/patio.  And, I moved a couple up to the front yard where they get full sun.  Last year (2024), we had even more peonies.  Here's a post showing a full vase of Sarah Bernhardt pink peonies that I cut from one of the plants .   However, due to their small-siz...

Recently, we put the oven into service for a small party where I baked eight pizzas.  I've had challenges getting the oven up to temperature with the first firing of the season, so this time I fired it up for three hours the day before the party.  Then, I pre-heated the oven with wood for five hours.  That got the fire roaring and the temps way up:  950 on the dome, 900 on the floor, 750 to 800 on the walls of the dome.   Here are a few photos - showing the fire starting and eventually "Clearing the dome" of the black soot.  Also, I pre-cooked some sausage in a cast iron pan during the pre-heat and that worked really well.   I'm learning how the oven works and how much 'feel' is required to get the pizzas to come out edible.  Also, I'm learning that the insulation that I used is WORKING.  (hooray...)

The treeform Doublefile Viburnums that we have in our backyard are in their full, Spring-blooming glory this week.  At least one of them, that is.  The shrubs have a layered set of branches that are home to clusters of white flowers that spread out from these little green dots.  The result is dramatic pop of white.  Below are a few photos - showing the full treeform viburnum and some close-ups of the white Doublefile Viburnum flowers.   Here's a post from a year-ago that shows the blooms on these same shrubs in Spring 2024 .  They were a few weeks ahead of this year.   A couple weeks ago, I added two more Doublefile Viburnums to the backyard - Pink Beauty .  They are shrubs - not treeform - versions that (I hope) will provide some pink-hued blooms in the coming years.  

Of all the trees, shrubs and other plants in our garden, the row of Frans Fontaine European (Columnar) Hornbeam Trees that are planted as a screen along our property line in our suburban backyard get by-far, the most comments and reactions.  The last time that I posted about these upright trees was in late April, just about a month ago , when the trees were still bare and emerging out of winter dormancy.  I posted that photo because someone commented on a different post asking to see what the trees look like this Spring.   There has been a lot of change in the garden the past thirty days as everything wakes up.  And, the Frans Fontaine Hornbeam Trees sure are showing signs of that awakening.   Below is a photo from this week showing the current state of these trees.  They're filling-up and the green leaves are screening our patio from our neighbor.  I expect them to continue to thicken-up over the coming weeks to fill-in even more than they ...

Last Summer, I posted a "getting to know" post about a new (to me) Korean Maple called Northern Glow .  After years of mixed results with Japanese Maples, discovering Korean Maple hybrids, introduced by Iseli Nursery in their "Jack Frost Collection" was an eye-opening moment.  We could get the same beauty of the Japanese Maple with a bit more cold tolerance via the Korean Maple hybrid.  What's not to love.    I ended up planting one in the Island Bed in the front yard .  Shaded it from the hot sun most of the Summer and it has come back really strongly this Spring.   The Arctic Jade is another tree from the Jack Frost collection.   Here is a photo from The Growing Place showing the Arctic Jade tree: From the description on the Iseli Nursery site : Acer x pseudosieboldianum Arctic Jade® is a member of our Jack Frost® collection of hybrid maples and is an excellent substitute for less hardy Japanese maples in harsh climate conditions. It ...

I've gone back-and-forth with our backyard patio containers over the years.  From moncultures to mixed containers.  From big-box store common plants to nursery-born more unique flowers.    One of my 2025 to-do list items this year is to 'do better containers on the patio' .   I've used Wave Petunias in some containers in the past, but have never used Superbells.  That was, until I came across this small quart container.  Here it is planted in one of our patio containers as a monoculture: Those yellow centers on a peach (or coral-colored) flower jumped off the nursery table. I bought only one of them, and I already regret it. Here's the container below: From Proven Winners listing for Superbells Coral Sun , they list these characteristics: Abundant, small petunia-like flowers all season on cascading growth, no deadheading necessary. Award Winner Continuous Bloom or Rebloomer Long Blooming Fall Interest Heat Tolerant Deadheading Not Necessary What'...

Last Fall, I planted a small Oregon Green Austrian Pine tree in our front yard that managed to handle the Winter and is seemingly doing ok this Spring.  When I planted that tree, I also wrote a 'Getting to Know" post about the tree that included this description of part of the tree: ... In the Spring...there is a firework explosion of pearly white candles that come out in clusters. Candles.  That's neat.   I was waiting to see if it would happen on our tree this Spring and watching and watching.  This past week, these white tubes began to grow and 'explode'.  Just like the description said.  See below for the candles on the Austrian Pine Oregon Green tree: Pretty neat to see them - as this is a first for me.   There is something that some folks do called "Candling", where they deliberately REMOVE or SHORTEN the candles in Spring.  Here's more from the Seattle Japanese Garden : April to May is when we begin the spring pruning process, o...

The small raised vegetable bed on our patio is home to a couple of tomato plants and some herbs every growing season.  Those plants pull the nutrients out of the soil pretty rapidly, so each Spring I need to top-off this bed with some new organic material.  Below, is a photo showing the pre-topping-off state of the raised bed showing some left-over stems and other leaf litter.   This being a vegetable bed, I'm careful with what I put in here - so this year (like last year), I opted to use a bag and a half of composted manure - brand name Moo-Nure.  I've used this in various beds in the garden to improve the soil conditions and to provide a nutrient-rich plantingbed.  See below for the Moo-Nure bag: This stuff is R I C H, so I opted to spread out the bag and just leave the bed to sort-of "mellow out".  I'll plant this up in the coming week-or-so, but will allow the composted manure to aerate-and-chill for a couple of cycles before adding the plants....

A couple weeks ago, I potted up a number of stored and newly purchased Dahlia tubers in one-gallon nursery pots .  All of the stored tubers (Melina Fleur Dahlias) from last year were stored over-winter in Saran Wrap in the garage and a few of them were already showing some growth/sprouts of new growth off the tubers.  That lead to some of them moving fast to show new foliage - above the soil - with new shoots of life.   See below for a few photos of the tubers growing new green growth.   After these put on a couple sets of leaves, I'll move them out of the basement and into the screened porch.  There, they'll get A LOT more light and a tiny bit of wind (when I open the windows) and can continue their growing process.  Once they put on another set of leaves out there, I'll begin to harden them off by putting them outside for an ever-increasing amount of time.   That means they'll be in the porch for 4-5 days, then begin to harden-off for ...