Why I Oughta...

Watch out Maude Flanders .  The Illini have a giant t-shirt cannon they roll out onto the court during some timeouts to launch t-shirts up into the seats at the Assembly Hall State Farm Center down in Champaign.  To be honest...I was disappointed by the distance they were getting.  They might want to amp-up the gas pressure and get those shirts way up into the 200 section.  

This Christmas, my brother-in-law gifted me a new snow shovel:  The Snow Plow 24" pusher shovel.  I'm not sure where he got it from, but guessing either Amazon or Ace Hardware.  And, I'll tell you:  it is a great shovel.  And, it is American made .  A big consideration for me (when it comes to snow shovels) is the size.  I don't want something so big and heavy that I can't deal with it when it is loaded down with heavy, wet snow.  There's an idea that you should upgrade your everyday items when you replace them.  And then, when you find something that works well for you, you stick with it.  This snow shovel feels like an upgrade. With just a few snowfalls in, I'm already in love with this pusher shovel.  It does a great job, has a clean edge and is easy-to-handle.  It is also lightweight.  The website talks about how the blade is made from UHMW (Ultra High Molecular Weight Polyethylene ) - which sounds like a remarkab...

One of my ' early early' potential projects was to add a garden arch to the backyard.  That's because I was gifted a garden arch for Christmas.  It is still in the box, so I'm not totally sure what it looks like, but believe it to be a square one (non-arch) and it is made of wood.  Where could it go?  The first spot is obviously the fire pit entrance.  To help frame/create that as the 'entrance' to the fire pit .  Like this: But, I could also put it closer to the house.  Either off the boardwalk.  Or, as part of a 'hide-and-reveal' entrance off the patio?  If I did that....what would we do back by the firepit?   The answer is, of course easy:  Revisit the idea of building a moongate back there .   I suppose the installation of the arch certainly isn't permanent.  So, if I end up starting with it back there, it doesn't mean we can't build the moongate, right? 

Mid-January means it is about ten weeks since I brought home the two large Amaryllis bulbs from Wannemaker's Christmas Open House and planted them in some pots .  Like I've done every year, after planting them up, I put them in a spot with good sun exposure (full view of the sky) along with some heat (a stone table that sits on top of a heat vent from our furnace).   The first of the two bulbs - Flamed Amadeus - bloomed a couple of weeks ago - and has since had those first flower blooms die back .  The second stem with a bud is coming up out of the bulb right now.  The second Amaryllis was named Shine Dream.  Here's the post when I brought it home .  By early December, this Shine Dream was showing some 'action' .  That means (to me) ...a tip was emerging from the bulb.  It was a slow two weeks until that same bud grew up and out of the bulb a tiny bit .   Today, it looks like this: Shine Dream is tall.  Much taller than the Fla...

Here, below is a look at an unfinished part of a 2024 'garden edit'.  There are just three Hakonechloa Macra (straight green) grasses planted.  I think there's room for four or five more.   The other side of this bed (the pizza oven bed) is on my early, early priority list for adding the same grasses.  I'm thinking we need to do both ends:

Earlier in January, I posted an exploration of the expansion of my front yard "island bed " and talked about how I'd like to clean up the edges and expand the bed in a direction that will allow for even-more future bed expansion.  In that post, I suggested attacking from the sidewalk back to the house.  And, by expanding by going across the front of the yard along the sidewalk - connecting to the edge of the property line.   But, after staring at the bed every time I came/went on a walk, I have come to the realization: "The Defense is wrong." Well...at least *partially* wrong.   Since I put the Island Bed in back in 2024, I said I wanted to create three things: 1. A path. 2. A bern. 3. ...and some miegakure. My previous approach focused on the 'path'.  And, expanded a little bit of beds.   Here's how the beds looked last Spring when they were freshly mulched  below.  The lines, while clean, aren't what I want in terms of 'sweeping...

A couple of my backyard 'garden edits' involved what I termed the "Hosta Replacement Project" - where I yanked out some hostas and replaced them with something else that persisted in the winter (grasses, astilbes, etc).   I moved a bunch of them out, but there are many more left in place.  Perhaps, another section of the great 'hosta replacement project' could be one of my potential "2026 priority projects"?  I'm not convinced.  But, like Paul Graham has said :  writing helps you understand what you actually think.  As he put it , "Writing about something, even something you know well, usually shows you that you didn't know it as well as you thought." Below is a photo showing the northside bed that is about half-way back (behind the picnic table).  The thing you see standing tall and proud are those white stalks.  Those are hosta flower stalks that are hanging around after the foliage disappeared when the perennial went dormant.   ...

One of the 'wins' from last garden season were the three Garden Ghost Artemisia that I planted in the front yard Island Bed along the driveway .  They quickly filled-in/filled-out, provided a nice pop of white to brighten up the bed and were *very useful* in cut flower arrangements.  I bought them from Roy Diblik's nursery up in Wisconsin (Northwind Perennial Farm) and planted them along with a couple of grasses, some annuals and the Korean Maple tree.   Here's a look at one of the MANY arrangements that I used the Garden Ghost plumes in as filler flowers . The provide a tiny bit of Winter interest, but they also have stems that help protect the crown of the plants by trapping leaf litter around the base of the woody plants.  Below is a look at the current state of these Garden Ghost Artemisias planted right next to the driveway: I've talked about it a few times, but between the early snow-fall and the deliberate adoption (at least a little bit more than normal...

Over the years, I've posted about various cheeses that I've been using for pizza-making here on the blog.    The first one (I think) is back in 2011 when I posted about how I had been using Chellino Scamorza Cheese (a low-moisture, non-smoked scamorza from Joliet) in my pizza making at home.  In 2022, I posted about a full-fat low-moisture mozzarella + Fontina combo that I was using at the time .  Today, I'm adding another chapter to my pizza cheese archives:  Buholzer Brothers Brick Cheese.  I've been using Brick cheese for a long time, but never documented the details.   Below is the brand of Brick Cheese as seen in the deli case at the local Jewels (Right next to a Muenster, of course).  This was $7.49 per pound (not on sale) this week: Buholzer Brothers Brick Cheese is from Monroe, Wisconsin.  Here's their product page .  Their listing describes their Brick Cheese as: Brick is a Wisconsin original, first made by John Jossi arou...

Last Spring, I posted some photos of the perennial garden plantings along the (then-recently) renovated Riverside Plaza that runs along the Chicago River's South Branch .  I pointed out the inclusion of some of my favorite plants (Autumn Moor Grass) and how the designer used them in mass plantings.   This past week, on a walk to the train I noticed something else in these raised beds:  winter interest.  Here, below is a photo showing the seedheads or plumes (of what I think is some sort of Astilbe or Goat's Beard) that is planted in mass.  There's something planted in the front (Looks like some Lady's Mantle foliage on the right) and something that is still green in the back (Looks like a fern like Autumn Fern) making this a layered bed.  But...there's certainly four-season interest, isn't there? Later on, I took another photo of another bed that was in the dark that shows the same seedheads.  These, however, were planted in a narrow bed, so they...

This Summer will mark seven (7) years since I planted and installed twelve (12) small Hicks Yews in the far back reach of our yard in a straight row spanning the width of our grass/yard.  Here's the post showing them in the ground for the first time when the needles were barely above the mulch .  That was mid-Summer 2019.   Seven years and this will be the eight growing season. Back then, I had a swoop-ing, undulating, but formally pruned hedge in mind .  That closely-clipped hedge was a product of YEARS of growth.   I watered them in the first year, but have mostly left them alone.  *Knock on Wood*.  I haven't lost one.  Yet.  Here they are in August of 2020 - one year after planting . Here the hedge is in November 2021 - four years ago . Here are some photos from December of 2022 showing the growth . And.. the Hicks Yews snuck into this post from Summer 2023 where I was talking about some ferns . Here's a post showing the gr...

Each year, I try to create a garden to-do list that forces me to prioritize what I work on and by publishing it here on the blog, creates a situation where I become accountable to delivering on the items in the list.  That final to-do list is based on a process where I think-thru (and write out) some priority projects in the Winter/Spring.  And, starting in 2024, I also created a draft version of some potential items that I called an "early look at potential projects" .  I did that same thing in 2025 with another 'early look' that ended up having 18 items in bullet-list format .  I think that almost every one of the eighteen ended up (in some form) on my final list, so the exercise was useful. That list last year was posted in March.   We're sitting here in the early days of January.  So, I'm going to call this one an "Early, Early" list.  And, I'll reserve the right to update this with an 'early list' later this Spring.   The easiest pla...

The compost bins were filled up this Fall.  Sort-of.  Or...I suppose it is better to say that they were filled up *partially*.   The last time I checked-in on the bins was in August of 2025 .  At that time, I mentioned that I still needed to 'turn' the bins over for the season.  However...I never was able to get to that job this Summer/Fall.  I also have - either through sheer laziness or genuine desire to improve the soil conditions - been adopting (to a greater degree than in the past) the whole 'leave the leaves' mentality to Fall cleanup.  Combine that approach with the super-early and heavy snowfall we had that cut Fall short, there are still tons of brown leaves scattered in our beds and on our lawn.   Despite that, when I look at the photo of the bins below, I see plenty of leaves that I piled in this season.  Both in the holding bin on the left and the mixed bin in the middle.  That comes back to the lack-of-turning tha...

Mid-December, the first of our two Amaryllis bulbs - the Flamed Amadeus - was sending up its first flower buds .  Now, three-ish weeks later, the flower petals are opening up and starting to put on a wintertime flower show on our counter.   Below are a couple of photos showing the first two flowers to begin to open with a third on this stem following right behind.    These are billed as being some of the 'largest Amaryllis blooms', so my expectations are high.  The stem isn't too tall, so there's no toppling-over (yet).   This stage of these 'double amaryllis' (when the petals are still unfurling) is interesting as it appears crumpled in the center, but standing proud on the perimeter.  You sort-of get that double opening experience in one bloom.   We're well past Christmas now and that means the decorations are coming down and the wintertime-induced seasonal depression begins to creep in.  This pop of countertop color is a goo...

Last week I posted a list of 'potential' sites to expand (and amend the soil) of various bed sites around the garden.  Some of these were/are small extensions (adding inches to the width/depth of the beds) and others are much larger (adding feet of width/depth).  I wrote up the list and posted it in January not JUST because of the Wintertime-induced garden-related cabin fever, but also because a key element of my 1 'lazy bed extension' method involves TIME.  Time to supress and kill the turf.  That's because my 'lazy bed extension' method doesn't require the removal of turf, instead I just smother it with cardboard and then top the cardboard with various materials (biosolids + compost + leaf litter + mulch). On that list were a few front yard locations including expanding the Magnolia bed (which is a tight circle currently), connecting the Oregon Green bed to the front porch bed (about four-feet of distance) and expanding the small (12" deep) bed ...

Over the years, I've written and linked to various 'garden rules' and 'garden mistakes' lists.  And, I've made a bunch of those mistakes. And, learned from the 'rules'.  But, over the holidays, I was talking to my oldest sister and my brother-in-law about gardening.  They're taking on a new, exciting project and are in the midst of planning a clean-sheet garden at their lake house in Michigan.  The conversation drifted towards them asking for advice on where to start.  And, that made me think about what I would tell other gardeners.  I went home and ended up writing a Google Doc that included some advice, links and thoughts.  After editing a little bit, it ended up taking the shape of being a list of rules (or advice) that I've seemingly adopted for my own garden.  I thought it was worth sharing as (in this case, like many others here on the blog), I've adopted Paul Graham's advice and wrote things out.  The act of *writing this list* ta...

For those who are on the receiving end of our Christmas card, there was something special included this year.  I write an annual 'year in review' post on a family website and include screenshots of the front/back of the card.   I'm not linking to it here, but I am going to paste a screenshot of one of the photos below.  I've redacted some of the info and blurred out the faces of some of the participants, but there's something noteworthy in the copy.  Can you pick it up?  That's right, people.  In addition to the typical seasonal greetings (Christmas, Hannukah, New Year), we saw in 2025 a return to the inclusion of " Happy Festivus " (To all those who celebrate, of course) on the card.   I'm calling that a win for the year.  This isn't the first year of including Festivus greetings to our friends, family and neighbors (for the rest-of-us), but for reasons that I don't quite understand, we took a few years off being included.   S...

The air temperature recently exceeded the water temperature in Barth Pond and created this eerie scene with a mist coming off the water and hanging over the pond.  We couldn't get all the way around the pond as the cross-over bridge in the Southeast corner was topping-over via the little spillway out there.   So, instead, we walked the half-way around to the bridge and came back.  The Geese are still hanging around and between their mess and the hissing, it sure would be nice if there was a good way to chase them off.  

Yesterday, I posted a 'garden dreaming' post about building a new, raised bed section in our backyard to grow even more vegetables and flowers.   And, right before the new year, I posted by 2025 to-do list scorecard .  I bring both of those posts up because they are both involved in this post about lazy beds.   First, the scorecard .  I graded myself 18/25, but one of the seven incompletes was #23 - "More Lazy Bed Extensions" and I mentioned in the post that I have reserved the right to update my scorecard total if I get these bed extensions done before the end of January.   Time is important on these lazy bed extensions as we need time to suppress the turf that exists, 'melt away' the cardboard and allow the biosolids to mellow out a little bit.  I've done them in the Fall and the beds were ready come Spring.  And, I've done some on a quicker turnaround.   If I get these done in January, I'll have 120ish days of cure time....