Why I Oughta...

More groundcover (or living mulch) is something I've been working-on for a couple of growing seasons.  This month, I put in six Ajuga 'Chocolate Chip' plugs in the [kitchen curved] bed in the backyard and six Ajuga 'Burgundy Glow' in the backyard near the colony of Hellebores on the northside .  This week, I put in six more Ajuga 'Chocolate Chip' plugs in the front of the Island Bed in our front yard down along the sidewalk.  This brings my 2026 groundcover planting total to 24. Here, below, is a look at the six new plugs that are to the left of the three existing ones that went in last year in August .   Here are the three existing groudcover plants last Fall .  One of the challenges down by the sidewalk is retaining the mulch, so I'm hoping these plugs will grow-in and provide a 'living mulch' mat that stretches the front of the bed along the sidewalk.  You can see the six new ones in this photo of the red coleus annuals: These weren't the...

The little colony of Epimedium - which I have hoped would take off, but never have....is once again flowering with their little yellow "jester hat" flowers.  They are pretty neat.  They flowered like this in 2024 (and maybe last year?).   Below are a couple photos showing this groundcover in bloom in the shade.   I was hoping they'd fill-in some of this space, but they mostly just persist, in their existing footprint.  Maybe I haven't planted them close-enough together?  Nothing a little "stream" of sedges can't fix, right? 

Over the years, I've added two sets of Sun King Aralias to our backyard.  First, were six as part of a garden edit in the 'nook' garden in 2024 .  Last year, I planted three more on the opposite side of the garden .  In service of reptition and planting what works in the garden, I bought three more at this year's Morton Arboretum Plant sale.  See below for the tag/sign at the sale: When I brought them home, they were already good-sized plants.  See below for a look at the box of plants the day of the sale in my garage.  Compare the Sun Kings to the All Gold grasses right next to them: This Spring, the existing Sun Kings suffered some late-frost damage, so I held back on introducing these to the garden for weeks.  But, the time finally arrived. They were getting big and drying out. One of the things that I've been talking about over the years is what I've described as a 'hosta replacement' project on the northside.  I took this opportunity to remov...

Last year, I planted ten small white Polka Dot Plants (Hypoestes) in be-twix the Boxwoods underneath the Linden Espalier.   I sort-of bought them on a whim and stuck them in there because they do well in shade.  By August, I was declaring them a [gardening win ] because of how they brightened up a dark space in the garden and were mostly care-free.   At Wannemakers recently, I picked up a full flat of Confetti White Hypoestes Polka Dot plants.  That's 40 annuals.   See below for the flat and plant tag.  I wanted to use these as bedding plants (on my 2026 list) and talked about how planting these in a couple of spots in the backyard can help bring that notion of repetition - (which...ahem...improves garden legibility).   I haven't planted all forty just yet, but here's how I've started with them below.  I started with seventeen (17) under the Lindens.   Along the southside, I planted two little pockets of bright white....

Last year, I planted three Inferno Coleus in the corner patio bed and as they grew up (and out), I really loved them.  I called them a [garden win] specifically.   This year, I found some small quarts at Wannemakers of a new (to me) variety - Talavera Moondust Coleus.  See below for a few photos showing the tag and the speckled foliage.  It is easy to see why this one jumped off the bench, right? Here is how Ball Seed describes Talavera Moondust Coleus : Sun-tolerant varieties maintain color and foliage patterns in both sun and shade conditions. These late-flowering selections are tidy, non-bolting plants in the garden. Sun-tolerant.  Check. Maintains color and foliage pattern in sun.  Check. Late-flowering.  Check. Non-bolting.  Check.  What's not to love? Below is a photo of the back of the plant tag where they mention it is 'well-branching' and 'stunning' and 'rich'. Select Seeds adds these details in their product listing : Unsurpassed i...

One of the [garden wins] that I hung on the scoreboard last year was planting coleus as a bedding plant in the garden.  Both in the front yard (island bed) and in the back ( corner patio bed ).  Last year, I planted twelve Versa Gold Coleus as bedding annuals up front in the Island bed and they filled-in and put on a great foliage show all season.  I was pretty good about dead-heading them and pinching off the flowers to keep the growth focused on the foliage.  I put on my 2026 to-do list to use more annuals (again) including coleus and talked about repetition via annuals.  More on that soon.   But, for the Island bed, I picked up sixteen (16) small Wizard Red Velvet Red Coleus plants: Wizard Red Sun Coleus is described by Ball Seed as : Compact, mid-sized foliage plant with upright habit is ideal for mixed containers, planters, baskets and landscapes. Easy-care plants are late flowering, extending their landscape value. These are likely to be a bit ...

I'm always on the hunt for a pizza-making edge.  A tip.  A tweak.  A recommendation.  Over the years, I've collected them from forums, social posts and a lot of YouTube videos.  But, I've also been getting them in the past few years from email newsletters.  One of those newsletters arrives from a dude that I started following on YouTube named Charlie Anderson.  I mentioned him in this post from last year when I rounded up a number of pizza-related tips and lessons . He is prolific when it comes to pizza and the Web.  He has his YouTube channel .  And he seems to have begun to offer online classes recently .  Oh, and he runs an actual pizza place .  In real life.  So, he knows theory and practice.  Check out this feature on the What's Good Dough channel that profiles him and the efficiencies he's brought to life in his own store.  Neat stuff.   The tip for this post came from Charlie in a recent email he sen...

Last week, I posted some photos of six Ajuga 'Chocolate Chip' groundcover plugs in the kitchen curved bed in our backyard.  Those were #7-12 of groundcover plugs put in this year with the first six being Ajuga 'Burgundy Glow' on the other side of the yard .  Today, I planted six more Chocolate Chip a little further back and right in front of some of the All Gold grasses.  Below are a few photos showing the process. In front of these grasses is a little bit more blank space than I'd prefer.  A perfect spot for a low, creeping living mulch. The pack of plugs is tidy and healthy in their little nursery carrying container: I've learned over the years that while Ajuga spreads out, it doesn't grow massive.  It is a 'good neighbor'.  That's why I planted the six pretty close together.   This puts me at 18 groundcover plugs planted for the year.  And, my second 'upgrade' to the Stumpery - with the first one being the addition of three All Golds ...

I bought three All Gold Hakonechloa Japanese Forest Grasses at this year's Morton Arboretum annual plant sale.  I didn't buy much this year, but I wanted to add to the grasses that I already had in the garden.  Here, below, is a look at the three grasses in their one-gallon pots: About half-way back on the southside is the line of these grasses that sit on one of the curves.  I found a couple of gaps in the line and decided to fill them in with these new grasses.   The color difference between the old and new ones is distinct.  The new ones are far more green than gold.  

Yesterday, I posted a 'Getting to Know' post about a new (to me) Korean Maple:  Alpenglow Korean Maple .  This is an Iseli Nursery introduction that is part of their Jack Frost Collection that is cold-hardy down below most Japanese Maples.   #21 on my 2026 to-do list was to add another ornamental tree, so adding this Alpenglow Korean Maple checks that box.   This Alpenglow (with "merlot" foliage) is the first tree that have planted this year.   In 2024, I posted about adding a third Emperor 1 and included a drawing that highlighted the back-and-forth (and across the lawn) pattern for planting red-foliage ornamental maples in the backyard .  One of those spots that I called out in 2024 is where this tree is set to be planted. On the northside and sort-of tucked in *behind* the Tree Swing Northern Red Oak tree is a bed that was part of a previous "Garden Edit".  It is where this tree is going.  See below for the spot: A little bit fu...

Over the past few years, I have posted a few 'getting to know' posts about Korean Maples starting with Summer 2024 when I posted the first:  Northern Glow Korean Maple . Last year, I posted one about the Arctic Jade Korean Maple and then last Fall, I wrote this 'getting to know' post about North Wind Korean Maple .   Today, I came across a fourth Korean Maple:  Alpenglow Korean Maple from the Jack Frost Collection at Iseli Nursery.  This is Acer x pseudosieboldianum. I saw this at The Growing Place in Naperville where they have this point-of-sale sign where they label it 'new 2026'.   Here's how Iseli describes Alpenglow : Alpenglow® is a red-leafed, upright hybrid maple that is hardy down to –30F. In spring, merlot leaves dance on arching branches; translucent veins help them catch the light and glow. The deep red mellows to a burnished bronze in summer and finally turns to blazing orange and red in fall. A refined oval habit and sturdy branching mak...

Now in their fifth growing season, the pair of Chicago Lustre Arrowwood Viburnum that were planted as two-gallon container-grown shrubs have (finally) become significant in their coverage.  Persisting despite rabbit pressure (thanks to some chicken-wire cages), this pair of upright-habit shrubs sit behind the tree-swing Oak tree in the backyard.  They were prescribed in this spot by our plan and I've really grown to appreciate them and their utility.   Here they are in their current state below - showing the upright nature and how they received their (arrow-wood) name: I'm (still) trying to replace some of the Oakwood Hydrangeas with something more rabbit-proof like the tree-form Doublefile Viburnums.  But, one of the interesting differences between the Arrowwood and Doublefile is the bloom-time:  Doublefiles bloomed weeks ago.  Arrowwood is still forming buds.  

Back in 2023, I (finally) was fed-up with the pair of rhododendrons that were planted on either side of our back stoop and dug them up and transplanted them back into the far-reaches of the garden and replaced them with some dwarf Spring Grove Ginkgo trees.  I've never looked back and have been very happy with that change.   The rhododendrons were planted in the shadow of the Dawn Redwood and (honestly...) mostly forgotten.   Part of my frustration with these shrubs were the lack of blooms and the leggy-nature of the form.   Imagine my surprise when I was in the backyard and caught some purple blooms out of the corner of my eye.  There, under the canopy of the Dawn Redwood was one of the rhododendrons with ten-or-so purple blooms.  Here is a look at the shrub:  Pretty, pretty, pretty nice, right? 

Last week, my set of tubers from Bonny Blooms arrived (finally) and I quickly got to work planting them up in one-gallon nursery containers.  I ordered seven total dahlia tubers from Bonny Blooms in November 2025.   This was the first time I have ordered from Bonny Blooms and selected four different dahlia varieties:  Bell's Palermo (1 tuber), Peaches-N-Cream (2 tubers), Crichton Honey (2 tubers) and Brown Sugar (2 tubers).  These all were dahlias that I came across in year-end videos on Dahlia-Tok that growers/flower farmers have raved about in terms of how they look and how prolific bloomers they were in their own fields .   I was getting a little impatient because my order from Bonny Blooms had not arrived, so I went to their site where on the homepage they have a little 'chat' widget in the bottom corner .  Based on some advice on a dahlia-growing Facebook group, I pasted my order number in that chat window and inquired about shipping.  A day-...