Why I Oughta...

A couple of weeks ago, I spread 5 gallons of biosolids on a rectangle of turf in our backyard.  Here's that post .  Today if you look out there, the grass is, ummm, different.  It is different than any of the reset of the grass in our yard.  It is deeper green and has taller growth than any other section of grass in our entire backyard.  If you look at the photo at the top, you can see the arker area that runs from top to bottom, right?  A couple of weeks in and you can still see the material that is in large chunks, but some of it has made its way into the thatch.  I was out there on a day that it had rained and it seemed that the original smell from the biosolids was invigorated a bit. That's a downside of topdressing with biosolids.  But, the upside?  It is visible in this photo - clear as day.  With that smell and our kids being heavy users of our yard during the Spring and Summer, I'm wondering if Fall is the best time to consider topdressing with biosolids.  It

Yesterday, I posted (for my own thinking) a lumber order for the building of a Versailles Orangerie Planter box and mentioned that it was one of a couple of projects I'm thinking about as part of our social distancing program.  I recently received the catalog from Gardeners Supply Company - which is a joy to read right now - and saw this large cedar obelisk.  They're asking $199.00 for what seems to be a pretty " good quality item ".  But, I know that I can beat that price if I built them myself. Here's the Gardener's Supply Company Obelisk.  This is NOT my photo - it is via their catalog here: Source via Gardener's Supply . As for the 'why' add an obelisk, well...I'm not totally sure just now, but thinking about growing something like hops.  We had Golden Hops planted in our yard back in Elmhurst and I liked having them grow up a trellis.  It took a couple of seasons to get them to grow vertically, but by the time we moved, they

Over the weekend, I started to organize some of my garden tools in preparation for the Spring garden season and began to turn to my hand tools.  Part of stimulating my organization this weekend was the whole 'social distancing' thing that we're doing, but it was also this video from Erin - the Impatient Gardener - where she talked about how she sharpens and treats her garden tools . I'll come back to that video in another post (mostly because....ummm...the whole Niwaki pruners are pretty sweet and warrant a post where I lust after them, right?) I have collected my tools and have begun to think about how to store them in an easy-to-use way for the season.  I also began to look at my gloves and inventory'd them.  Out of that exercise, I think I'm going to call it now:  I need to add something to my 2020 to-do list:  Upgrade my garden gloves.  Here's my full 2020 list .  For the past few years, I've been MOSTLY using disposable gloves in the gar

Right at the end of last year, I posted a photo of a Wave Hill Garden chair and talked about how I was struck by the design of the chair - and the fact that it wasn't a traditional adirondack chair that you see everywhere.  We had spent some time in Luxembourg Gardens in Paris last year and fell in love with lots of things - including their chairs - and have been thinking about how I bring a chair or two to our backyard and garden.  The Wave Hill chair seemed to scratch me right where I itch. A gardener named Dan Benarcik has developed plans for the chair and is selling them for $35 (the updated plan version) on his site . I put the idea of creating a chair like this on my 2020 Gardening To-Do List .  #11 on the list is to 'build something' like these chairs (or a raised bed).  I haven't sprung for the plans (yet), but I've been nosing around the Web for some additional inspiration.  I came across this post on Reddit that featured a photo of a modified Wave

Over the past few years, I've posted a few times about Japanese-inspired gardening and how I'm increasingly drawn to it for various reasons.  I spent a bit of time walking around Gotenyama Gardens in Tokyo and as I walked down the steps into the kind-of sunken garden, I was surrounded by a lush garden in the middle of a metropolitan city.   And that fascination with Japanese gardens has manifested itself in a couple of things, but mostly columnar trees .  But, there are other elements that I've talked about including ferns and this Japanese Forest Grass , too.  One of the types of tree that I don't seem to have covered at all here on the blog is a Japanese Maple tree.  I've seen them at the garden center over the past few years and they're always tempting (and pricey), but I didn't know too much about them to ever make a decision on them.  This Winter, I started to poke around them as thinking about this part of our yard and wanted to get a little bit smar

I posted (in jest) last September a look at what Allyn Hane calls the 'domination line' in our front yard showing the fruit of the efforts of tending to the turf look like after most of a season.  Back in September, you can tell that the grass that I had fed over the season appeared darker.  Today, I'm posting a photo that I took recently to add to the [ garden diary ] of what our front yard grass/turf looks like after a rough Winter.  I'm including the 'domination line' as a way to see the difference in my grass over time.  The photo above is shot from the sidewalk toward the house with my yard on the right side.  The brown-est part in the middle of the photo (closer to the bed) is also the 'highest spot' in that area.  So, I'm not certain that it has to do simply with feeding or if the contours or grade of the yard is involved, too.  I have a gutter that comes out in the area of the bed near the house that runs each time it rains and the I