Why I Oughta...

The star of our early Fall garden?  It is clearly the Lucky Charm Anemone in the 'kitchen curved' bed in the backyard.  I've posted about this same 'early Fall' or 'late Summer' flower show over the years including last year when I showed it in late August .  Or in 2023 when I posted (again) in Late August .   I posted a month ago when this first started blooming in late August of this year.   This photo below is posted on the very last day of September, so more than a month later than the past two years.  I'd describe this as being 'peak bloom' right now with the top of the long flower stems being FULL of pink petals with yellow centers.  I've been using cuts of this flower in arrangements for the past few months and as the petals drop, what is left behind is a sort-of chartreuse 'ball' on top of the thin, wire-y stem that I can also use in the final few Dahlia arrangements in the next few weeks.  This is another 'garden win'...

The calendar may say September, but the elves over at Menards have been busy building out their annual Enchanted Forest.  "Merry Christmas. Merry, Merry Christmas."   The setup is full of lights, outdoor decor, ornaments, inflatables and indoor decorations (so far) and features two end-caps full of merchandise from Mr. Christmas.  Mr. Christmas has a site that shows off tons of their products .  And...includes some "Mr. Halloween" items, too.   Most of this stuff is vintage-adjacent, but almost all of it is 'mechanical' in some way and most of them are also 'musical'.  

We went down to see the Big Noon Kickoff show out in Grange Grove.  It was an interesting experience, but I'd be lying if I said that we were able to see much of anything.  Between the big crowd and all the signs up front, we mostly were watching the action on the video boards vs. seeing the crew on stage.  Still...was a a lot of fun to be a part of the energy down in Champaign in Grange Grove.  Never hurts to come away with the W, either. 

This was a birthday bouquet for a friend that includes a variety of dahlia blooms, a spray of Autumn Fern, some rosemary, Lucky Charm anemone and Artemesia Garden ghost for the upright white colors. The colors of some of the dahlias are changing as the season grows on: half of the Wizard of Oz have gotten much whiter.  The Melina Fleurs are darkening and the Ivanettis are doing what they do best:  showing off.

Two days ago, I posted a photo of a number of Pooh Collarette Dahlias in a bud vase that I had cut and brought in from the garden.  Today...there's another small vase that is full of even more Pooh Dahlias.  They are below in the photo.  About a week ago, I posted another photo of even more Pooh Dahlias in an arrangement and talked about how I'm cutting seven-to-ten(ish) blooms at a time (off of the two plants).   Some of the stems in this set are longer and some shorter: In that same post from a week ago , I showed a few other Collarette Dahlia varieties that I might try to buy (the tubers) this off season.  I'd like to have some that *work better* with the colors of the decorative and ball dahlias that I grow (purples, pinks, salmons, peaches).  

Back in May, I planted three small quart-sized containers of a new (to me) Nepeta named Chartreuse on the Loose .  I put them in near the timbers of the retaining wall for the pizza oven that is a part-sun spot.  It gets shade all morning, then full sun from late morning (as the sun comes over our house) until mid-afternoon (when the sun hides behind the canopy of the large trees in our backyard).   When they were planted, the three plants looked small.  And far apart from each other .   Now, four-plus-months later, here is what those same three small plug-like plants look like (below):  a colony of Nepeta. Back in the original post , I included this plant description from Walter's Garden on this variety of Nepeta: 'Chartreuse on the Loose' is a perennial with season long interest perfect for lining the front of the border. The foliage allows for a full three seasons of interest with bright chartreuse yellow leaves. Clusters of lavender blue flow...

With the weather-proofing complete on the oven (enclosure and roof structure/sheathing in place), I'm thinking I can start to use it a bit more regularly than I've been able to this Summer.  No need to look at the forecast and find windows where theres no rain in the next few days.  I had to peel off the tarp, install the chimney, fire-up the oven and use it.  Then, wait for it to cool down before I could remove the chimney and then re-cover with the tarp.   Now, the oven is ready to roll when I am ready to bake.  My priority #2 for this year - making the oven function - is completed .  I've learned over the past six months that if I am planning to fire-it-up on a specific day, it is best to light a small fire the night before.  That helps get the oven up to temp and makes the second-day pre-heating go faster/better/easier/quicker. That's what I did this past weekend.  I ran a 4-log fire on one evening.  The next day, I started the pre-h...

Because I've only included these red and yellow Collarette Dahlias (Variety is named Pooh, of course), in monoculture arrangements, I've mostly put them in other glasses, vases, jars that have one-inch-or-larger necks.   Because I had it out, I decided to stuff a bunch of Pooh Dahlia stems into a Bud vase.  It was very tight, but I like the way they are pulled together.   Pooh Collarette Dahlia

Here are a couple of dahlia-bloom-heavy arrangements that I brought over to Oakbrook Terrace this past weekend.  Both are filled with various dahlia types including pompon, ball and decorative.  Ivanetti and Mystery Fox are looking pretty good with their ombre looks.  And, the pinks of Wizard of Oz highlight the bright tones of Melina Fleur decorative dahlias.  There was one more that I cut and put-together at the same time, but I didn't get photos of it before it went off to its final home.  Both of these are in re-used jars.  A small yogurt jar on the left and a mason jar on the right.   These are different than the one I posted yesterday (two photos) and it is clear that dahlia bloom season is upon us.  

Below are a pair of photos showing one over-stuffed dahlia arrangement that is full of decorative (Melina Fleur), Ball (Mystery Fox,  Ivanetti) and Pompon (Wizard of Oz) blooms that range from (almost) white to very pale pink to bubble-gum pink to Salmon with yellow centers contrasting with some shades close to dark velvet.   I crammed all the stems into a narrow-mouth vase because I wanted it to fit into a car cup holder for ease of transport as this one was headed to Elmhurst for my sister. 

While one of my children hustles around a practice field on an evening this past week, I walked the paved trail around the perimeter of Oak Brook's Central Park where I found this pair of critters eating dinner.  They were up against the fence that lines the border of Route 83 and didn't seem bothered by me walking by them.  Get it while its still green, guys.  

Another morning in September means that dahlia-cutting time.   With two Pooh Collarette Dahlia plants (one on the sideyard cutting garden and the other back in the new pizza oven bed), we're starting to get to the point where we have eight-to-ten blooms at one time.  Instead of the previous onesie-twosie.  The last time I posted about these was two weeks ago (looks like we're on a two-week bloom cycle) and had seven-or-eight at that time).   The colors of these are so striking and the contrast is so strong that (so far), I've only put them in a monoculture arrangement.   Thinking about the color, I went to look at some other Collarette Dahlias that Longfield Gardens lists on their site.  Before I get to talking about a few, I didn't know this (from Longfield Gardens): Collarette dahlias are all the rage in England and increasingly popular here. I'm not the only one becoming fascinated by them it seems. Knowing that....now here's a few that ...

In the middle of April, I planted a *very small caliper* Black Tupelo (or Black Gum) native tree in our parkway as a replacement for another tree that didn't come back this Spring .  At that time, the Tupelo still had NOT leaf'd out and had some curly branches attached all over the trunk.   Almost immediately, the apical meristem (leader) die'd back and I thought the tree was lost.   But, thanks to some (occasional and deep) watering, the tree seems to have navigated the hot part of Summer and is (mostly) leafy-green in late September.  This is five months after being put in the ground: I haven't pruned anything on this tree other than taking off the dead leader.  The lower-trunk branches are still curly and there's some red-ish Fall color that is starting to appear on a few of the leaves.   The Black Tupelo is noted for its "pyramidal form", but so far....our tree isn't showing any thing close to that shape.   I'll watch this (and ...

I walked out to the back and noticed that one of our dahlia plants is in RAPID DECLINE.  I mean...rapid.  It went from (I'm pretty sure) totally healthy what you see in the photo below overnight.  It is wilted with very little rigidity in the plant everywhere.   This happened before in this bed, but the dahlia recovered very quickly.  What I figured out (then) was that the poor soil conditions (this is a ton of clay) along with a period of heavy rain caused the tubers to drown and become overwatered.  Is that what is happening here? Or is it a pest issue like spider mites?   Or, something else.  Like a disease? I'm treating this two ways (right now). First...I dug up some of the soil around the tuber to try to help dry out the clay and let the tuber breath a little bit.  See below: Second, I'm seeing some tiny webbing (and what I think are Spider Mites) near the top of the plant.  So, I've applied a heavy dose of mite-icide to ...

Another day, another mixed dahlia arrangement .  This one (below) includes some larger blooms from the Melina Fleur plants, a bunch of Ivanetti dark purple blooms and some smaller Wizard of Oz ball dahlias along with a little bit of eucalyptus, some rosemary, Dusty Miller and the Lucky Charm Anemones that are thriving right now in the back garden. The tags that show off the full catalog of dahlia arrangements include [ countertop flowers ], [ dahlia arrangement ] and [ arrangement ].  

It has been a few (hot) months since I last burned in the pizza oven. But, with the final winterization happening, we can turn back to the oven this Fall.  The first, small fire I burned on the floor is below:

Now that the pizza oven enclosure sidewalls are done , I could move on to sheathing the roof and button'ing-up the whole thing.  Before I could close-up the roof, I wanted to add a little bit more insulation to the top and sides of the dome.  On top of the firebrick, I have 4" of cal-sil blanket insulation - which I hard-coated.  On-top of that 4" of blanket is going 20 cubic feet of vermiculite and perlite.  I bought these big 4 cubic-foot-bags of the stuff.  Asbestos-free, of course.   They aren't *that* heavy, so I tug'd each one up the ladder, ripped open the bag and began to pour the insulation in the cavity.  It filled the voids down the sides of the oven along the walls and corners and came-up to the top of the oven.  Adding five-or-so inches of insulation to the sides and a couple to the top.  See below for the vermiculite pour-in: At the top of the dome and below this truss framing, I put in another layer of 2" CalSil insulation...

A few days ago, I applied my final (for this season) granular fertilizer application to all of the dahlias around the front/back/side yards as well as the five Disneyland Roses on the side of the house.  I (once again) used a three-in-one systemic granular that includes fertilizer, insecticide and fungicide from BioAdvanced.  I started using this stuff in May this season, so this marks the fifth application on the plants in 2025.   Here, below, is a peek at the base of one of the Dahlia tubers in the sideyard.  I use the cap from the bottle as the measuring device and dropped the granules at the base of each one.  Last year, I was getting blooms all the way up to the first frost in Mid-October, so this feeding will go for the next 5-or-so weeks.

This is always one of the toughest times in the garden for me:  things are done for the year and we're facing Fall decline.  But, that doesn't stop the weeds from showing up.  And, I've usually been not-so-good about keeping on top of them.  That's part of why I put "Be a gardener who weeds" at the #8 slot on my 2025 to-do list .  Last year, I let clover go too much.   This year, I've been better.  Between using my push-pull hoe and just yanking out clumps of weeds (and lots of clover), I've tried to stay on top of the weeds and get to them before they can flower.  In early August, I posted a photo of a big handful of clover I yanked out one evening .   This week, I did the same thing:  walked and pulled.   Clover, yes.  But, also some other stuff that was in flower.  Just-in-the-nick-of-time, I think. Here's to being a better weeder this year.

Dahlia Season continues with pinks, purples, salmons and yellow centers.  Wizard of Oz, Melina Fleur, Mystery Fox and what I (now) think is Ivanetti dahlia blooms .   The Melina Fluers are coming into their own, but the Sweet Nathalie Dahlias continue to be VERY shy and unproductive.   I'm out of containers, so we either need to start to eat pickles (Claussen's, of course) and salsa, or I need to get to the Goodwill to see if they have any 99 cent narrow-mouth vases on the shelves.   Here is this morning's cut:

All the Oakleaf Hydrangea-related attention that I've focused on over the past year-or-so has been on the cluster of Alice Oakleaf Hydrangeas up in the 'kitchen curved' bed that is close to the house.  But, I also have a few other Oakleaf Hydrangeas in other parts of the garden including a small grouping in the 'nook' area behind the Weeping Nootka Cypress tree.   In May 2022, I planted a pair of Ruby Slippers Oakleaf Hydrangeas alongside one of the transplanted Alice Oakleaf Hydrangeas .   This post shows the location of the three of them.   Last year, I covered these when they were in bloom and when they turned bright red in the Fall .   Last week, I posted a photo of the new (to me) flowers on the Japanese Sun King Aralias .  In the photo below, you can see those same Sun King's on the bottom left and one of the Oakleaf Hydrangeas right behind it (in the middle of the photo).   I think this tall one is an Alice Oakleaf....

Planted two years ago in a #FallPlanting sprint of October 2023 , the small upright Montrose Charm Spruce tree has put out some cones on the upper tips of the tree.   The photo below shows the cones, but doesn't show the rest of the tree, but when I look back at the planting photo, I can say that the tree has put on some new growth in the two years since it was put in.   Looking back at the tree in October 2023, the tree had a thin middle with a growing crown.  Today, the tree has shot up and out, but retained it's upright/narrow habit.  

The last time that I posted about our backyard pizza oven was earlier this Summer in Late May when I showed a long burn in the brick chamber .  But, that doesn't mean progress hasn't been made on completing the build.  Despite some setbacks and the heat of the Summer, I've moved along with my DIY build and have been working to build the enclosure.   That requires walls and a roof.  Both are underway.  But, the photo below shows a milestone:  one of the sidewalls is now completely enclosed.  The corners are built from concrete blocks and the middle section is now covered in fire-resistant concrete board.   I will post the details of the enclosure build (including the concrete blocks) and the roof.  The next step that I'm facing is to close in the other three faces.  Then, pour in some loose insulation.  And, finally...finish the roof.  

In the post that I shared yesterday showing off a handful of dahlia stems that I cut from the garden, I included a photo that showed off my first (real) Sweet Nathalie Decorative Dahlia bloom.  I mentioned a few days ago that Sweet Nathalie has been a slow-to-bloom grower for me this year and that my first bloom was somehow 'nipped' off at the bud .  But, the second bloom was quick to follow and you can see it in the photo below:  

Yesterday, I posted a photo of a bunch of Pooh Collarette Dahlia blooms that I cut and brought inside this week and talked about how I'm seeing "Dahlia Season" beginning to arrive with increased blooms.  That's due to a couple of things:  the time/maturity of the plants this season along with some recovery from a mite infestation.  The colors, shapes and textures of this morning's cuttings sure are fun to see.  Below are a couple of photos showing what is in bloom and how the colors are changing based on the time of year.   This is (mostly) the usual bunch ( like the cut flowers I posted a few days ago ):  Wizard of Oz, Melina Fleur, Mystery Fox and that dark purple dahlia.