Why I Oughta...

We're officially in Fall.  Calendar-wise, at least.   We have football on the tv.  The temperatures are dropping.  And, the stores already have their Christmas stuff out.  So, it was time to transition our front porch container into Fall. One of my annual to-do list goals (#16) is to do 'better containers'.   Our Wintertime container is done by a porch professional:  Churchill Garden Design .  And Elise Churchill (of Churchill Garden Design ) does a GREAT job.  MUCH, MUCH better than I could ever do with these containers.   Here's our 2025 version  featuring evergreens.  We've had her do a Fall container before and it looks so good.  Here is her 2024 version that featured some kales, an ivy, some mums and I think some hot pepper plants.  Like I said...she has such a good eye and a nice touch with porch containers.   Using her Winter 2025 container as inspiration and recycling some of the thi...

I've never grown garlic.   But, that is changing.   Thanks to one of the parents of a Swim Team teammate, I'm the proud owner of a single full head of hard neck garlic that they grow in their garden each year.  Here's what it looks like: The instructions were simple:  break apart the six bulbs.  And, prepare them to plant: Removing the bulbs left this carcass of a stem and roots.   I'm actually NOT sure if I can grow garlic in a raised bed.  Will the cold temperatures freeze the bulbs? Maybe?  I didn't want to take the risk.   But, where can I grow them?  I don't have a dedicated ground-level vegetable garden that I could tuck the bulbs into.  So...where? I opted for two spots:  both IB2DWs.  Yes...I planted these garlic bulbs in amongst perennials.   The first three are near the Bald Cypress tree IB2DWs: I covered them with a little bit of garden litter as mulch: And the other three are close...

Two days ago, I posted photos and details of the six Ajuga 'Chocolate Chip' plugs I planted in the sideyard along our property line in an attempt to help with some erosion control that is needed due to a couple of downspout pop-ups that bring a lot of surface water to this area.   When I bought Chocolate Chip, I also bought a six-pack of Ajuga Burgundy Glow.  I've planted this Ajuga before ( here this year in May ) and it is larger-leaf'd than Chocolate Chip and brighter in color.  The tray was full of healthy plants.  Here's a couple of photos showing the six-pack and the root system that has been created this growing season: These being bigger than the Chocolate Chip and having this large, seemingly healthy root system means that I can put them a little bit more 'upstream' where the water seems to be running stronger.  This area below shows the location:  right in front of the grown-from-cutting Limelight Hydrangea.  (we should talk about that,...

Over the past few weeks, I've made mention of a challenging infestation of Spider Mites that have come to take over a good swath of the dahlias in the sideyard.  Despite treating them multiple ways, they seemed to stick around and continue to attack the plants. I started by spraying everything with my normal miticide - Bifenthrin.  That has (historically) done the trick.  But, either the Spider Mites are immune to it, or I wasn't mixing it strong enough.  Because, they not only survived, they seemed to grow.  And take over more plants.  I did all the non-synthentic things, too.  Like...giving the plants a STRONG spray of water to knock the mites off.  And, I went for two-plus weeks with a heavy-hand of Neem Oil concentrate.  I sprayed the tops of the leaves.  I sprayed the bottoms of the leaves.  I sprayed the stems.  I sprayed the soil.  I sprayed the blooms.   Nothing would stop these freaking Spider mite...

I found a six-pack of Ajuga 'Chocolate Chip' plugs at Home Depot in their 50% off Fall sale and grabbed the best-looking one of the bunch.  I've had mixed results with some of these six-packs.  Most of the time, they're great and the plants get established and take-off.  Other times, I've bought some other packs that didn't work at all.   I've planted Ajuga in the Fall before and have also had mixed results.  Some of them get established enough and come back in Spring.  Others don't.  Farmer's Almanac has October 11th as our first frost , so we're just a couple weeks away.  Eeeeek.  Time to get these into the ground. Here's the pack below.  Looks healthy: Over on the side of our house, we have an erosion problem.  Between a couple of downspout pop-ups, this area sees a lot of water movement.  I've been using this cobbled-together mix of bricks, stones and other blocks to try to slow things down.  Right behind it is wh...

Yesterday, I posted photos and details of how I'm starting a bulb lawn with (just) 95 crocus corms and mentioned that I also was expanding the bulb lawn by planting some bulbs in the parkway. Like the Crocus varieties that I planted (Ruby Giant, King of the Striped and Romance), when I was looking at the Daffodils, I also wanted something a bit shorter in height.  I ended up buying (for now) just one package of 14 Tete a Tete Daffodil bulbs.  Here's how Longfield Gardens describes them : A miniature daffodil with one to three perfect little blossoms per stem. Though Tete a Tete stands just 7" tall, the bright yellow flowers can be seen from a great distance. Emphasis, mine.   Miniature and bright yellow.  Sounds great. These bulbs are a bit bigger than the Crocus bulbs: I've long thought about how to transform the parkway into something more interesting than turf grass.  I don't have built-in irrigation and the parkway is pretty far from our hose bib, so...

Back at the beginning of September, I posted some details about planting a bulb lawn and took a photo of a set of bulbs at Menards that included some short-stature (in height) crocus flowers and other Fall-planting bulbs/corms.  I'm looking for short early-bloomers and after doing a little bit of research, I found that three crocus flowers were right for me.   I ended up buying one package of Ruby Giant, King of the Striped and Romance.  Here, below, is a photo of the bags.  35 + 25 + 35 = 95 crocus corms. #13 on my 2026 to-do list was to get some bulbs in the ground : 13. Plant fall bulbs. For my first few gardening seasons, I was pretty good about planting fall bulbs. Alliums and tulips, mostly. But, I got away from it. Get back to it this Fall. And…Try a bulb lawn in front. Yes…a bulb lawn. Or, at least a patch of bulb lawn as an experiment. A bulb lawn.  Doing one would require WAY, WAY, WAY more bulbs (corms).  Less than 100 is like dipping my to...

I seem to have gotten on top of the spider mites in the sideyard.  Those plants are starting to show new, green growth (I'll post on that separately), but those plants haven't begun to re-flower.  Yet.  But, the rest of the dahlias are still popping off.  The heavy rain we had over the weekend has weighed down the plants and flower heads, so I cut a bunch off and brought them inside.  One arrangement on the left that is a little bit more compact and tight.  And, one on the right that is a bit more wild and splayed open. Milena Fleur, Rip City, Saint Martin, Brown Sugar and Crichton Honey.   #6 on my 2026 to-do list ( marked incomplete earlier this month ) was to "Go Bigger on Dahlias".  Seems that has been done.  

I've been working on a wasserspiel (water feature) that includes a DIY Alpine trough that can be part of an upgraded water feature in the backyard.  The current water feature is a half-barrel with an insert that is stuck about half-way back in the garden and it is mostly a sound-feature.   The inspiration for the new feature is in this post (via Instagram) and includes a basin dug into the ground, covered in gravel with a stone trough on top that empties into the gravel and then recirculates.   That means that I have to identify a spot that I can dig out for a basin, cover it with gravel and set the DIY Alpine trough on top.  Oh...I also have to make the LARGER trough, as my current one is simply proof-of-concept.   I've been thinking about water features around the patio for years.  This post from 2017 (almost 10 years ago, eeek) shows a waterfall/creek that I fell in love with and talked about how it could work around the steps to the pat...

Over the past week or so, I've posted the first posts in my compost bin turning process.  In part one, I emptied the tumbler, removed the (mostly) finished compost from the third (finishing) bin and filled the tumbler back up .  In part two , I upgraded the finishing bin with some additional cedar boards to hold in more of that "black gold" near the bottom.   In that part two post, I outlined what was going to happen next :  The next step (which I'll cover in Part 3) is to open up the middle (mixing) bin and the left (holding bin) and pull everything out and build a mixed pile that I can load up into the finishing bin. I'll add a couple of layers of mixed material, slide in the first level of the aeration pipes. Add more material, then add the second level of pipes. Then, pile in the rest of the material to fill the finishing bin. I typically OVERFILL the the finishing bin. Mound up the material HIGHER than the rails of the bin. When the pile decomposes, i...

Just when everything was starting to look a little crispy, we get absolutely SATURATED with three inches of rain that all came down in just a few hours.  What's not to love about seeing the rain gauge filled up to the [3] mark?  I'll tell you:  nothing. One of the things that I'll try to keep in mind as the cooler temperatures arrive is to keep watering.  Keep watering.  Especially those Korean Maples that went in this year.  And, the dahlias, of course.

Am I disappointed that I am NOT growing a Bell's Palermo dahlia ?  Yeah.  Sort of.  But, am I now (sort of) falling in love with whatever this dahlia that is growing in our front yard?  Yeah.  Sort of.  Is it Candela?  Maybe.  Does it have short stems?  Yes.  Certainly.   But, it also has this spectacular bloom:

I usually will open up Erin the Impatient Gardener's "Garden Stroll" YouTube videos in one tab, move it to my second screen and let it play while I fiddle around with some other stuff in other tabs.  On a couple of recent videos in her garden, she pauses and talks about a bunch of specific plants.  Many of them, I'm familiar with and some of them I have in my own garden.   But, the past few videos, there's been a plant that she talked about (and has in her garden) that is also something that Nat has recently pointed out on one of our neighborhood walks as 'a nice plant'.   That plant is Calamintha Nepeta ‘Montrose White’. Here at the 14:44 mark in her August Garden Stroll, she talks about Montrose White and how it is starting to bloom .  Late...in August.  And, how she interplants it with Sesleria Autumnalis and Alliums.  Hmmm...I like those other two? Then, in this week's September Garden Stroll video, she once again, talks up Calamintha 'Mo...

I was supposed to have two Crichton Honey tubers in the garden this year.  I'm certain that I have one.  The one next to the pizza oven.  I labeled it as dahlia #1 in my 42 tuber planting map .  I bought two Crichton Honey tubers from Bonny Blooms.   The other one is at spot #12 along the sideyard .  But, that whole bed has been suffering the past few weeks from a terrible infestation of Spider Mites.  So, I'm not seeing ANY blooms.  And, I'm not sure that it is Crichton Honey.  At least yet. But, the pizza oven version?  Have a look: And, in addition to being real (and spectacular), they're certainly popping off right now with blooms and blooms. Apricot blooms.  Almost orange.    I think they say "pumping out blooms" in the trade.  That checks out. While my time right now is spent with my little snips cutting off flowers for arrangements....I am hoping that all this above-ground plant happiness that I'm seeing means...

The Babe was going to a team dinner at the home of one of her teammates and wanted to bring a little dahlia arrangement to give to the host.  This one is small, but packs some punch.  Includes Ivanetti, Rip City 1 , Saint Martin waterlily dahlias and the star of the show:  Crichton Honey.  It also has a group of small Burlesca Pompon Dahlias - which I'm growing more fond of as the season wanes on.   I also clipped a few springs of Silver Dollar eucalytpus.  And, a spray of Lucky Charm anemone for some height.   I'm continuing to believe that I like Ball dahlias as my favorite variety, but these little pompons are growing on me.  The mix here of Waterlily, Ball and Pompon along with a semi-cactus provide some nice textural contrast.   1. I'm calling this Rip City here, but it isn't Rip City . ↩

Over the weekend, we went down to see our Fighting Illini take on the Duke Blue Devils from the Atlantic Coast Conference at Gies Memorial Stadium.  Despite the terrible outcome (feels like one of the worst losses in the Bret Bielema era, doesn't it?), this was the first time we were able to see - in person - the largest scoreboard in college sports.   That's how the University of Illinois Division of Intercollegiate Athletics and scoreboard company Daktronics bill it .   Heading into the game, we knew it was going to be BIG.  But...seeing it in person really *is* something.  It is...genuinely YUGE.  And, the team is doing some neat stuff with it in terms of engaging the fans.  I presumed it was going to be used for ALL ADS.  ALL THE TIME.  But, it really wasn't.  They also added some new boards around the stadium - above the students, along the West side.  And, under the overhang of the east side.  We sit on the east...