Why I Oughta...

For the past few years, I've been a 'stick to the plan' gardener.  That plan was a layout/design, but it was also a plan in terms of sticking to plants that I know and understand how they'd perform.  It also was VERY limited on flowers.  I've talked about foliage gardening and thanks to our deep shade yard, I've mostly had foliage plants over the years. But, this #FallPlanting season, I felt a little moved to step out of my comfort zone and decided to buy a couple of things at the various end-of-season sales including a number of new (to me) flowering perennials.  The first one that I put in my cart was 'Midnight Masquerade' Penstemom or Beardtongue.  That's the 1# container at the top of this post.   It is a Proven Winner and here's what Walters Garden has to say : This Penstemon will help fill the gap in your lineup for a taller, attractive foliage option. 'Midnight Masquerade' produces a sturdy clump of deep burgundy purple leaves. The

The #FallPlanting beat goes on with a new (to me) shrub that I planted in the front porch bed - sort-of tucked in between the new (this year) Disneyland Roses and the tiny Green Velvet Boxwoods .   Was this in the plan that I had in mind?  Nope. Then...why would it go here? The answer to that is, of course rooted in Fall nursery sales.  But, a good price wouldn't be enough to get me to make the leap.  Nope. What made this all come together is this specific shrub:  A Matcha Ball Ash Leaf Spirea.  Here, below, is the young shrub planted in its spot in my front porch bed: What's so special about this shrub?  Well...you can tell a lot by just looking at it.  Here's what First Editions says about it : Forming a perfect round ball fern-like leaves cover Matcha Ball® in a fresh shade of green, much like Matcha tea. When the leaves first emerge in very early spring, the leaves and petioles have hints of red and orange-peach that ultimately mature to green in the summer and yellow

Influenced?  Or inspired?  What do you call it when you come across something on Instagram (or YouTube) that shows you something new, isn't pushing a product but...does...indeed compel you to act - and purchase something.  I'm going to say that I was inspired.  Not influenced.   And that inspiration came from seeing a 'white garden' that was planted up with silver and white perennials and exposed me to something new (to me):  Artemisia.   There are a few varieties that you'll see out at the nursery, but the one that I think might be the biggest (not the best) in the trade is Silver Mound Artemisia.  It is a soft-texture white plant that Walters Garden describes as a 'cushion' .  Here's what they say: Aptly named, 'Silver Mound' has soft, feathery foliage and forms a compact, silky, cushion-like mound. It has many applications in the garden including: edging, rock gardens, pots, or a filler plant for hot, dry areas. It has long been one of the mos

Earlier this Summer, I posted some photos and details of the plantings in the beds of the Fragrance Garden at the Morton Arboretum and documented some of the things that I struck me as interesting - including the use of a new (to me) plant:  Cardoon. So imagine my surprise when I came across this sign at The Growing Place.  Sure enough...Cardoon.  It is in the herbs and vegetables section.  It was cheap to begin with...and with 50% off, I figured I'd take a shot.   Is it cold hardy to Zone 5B?  I don't think so.  But, I planted it - this late in the season - anyway.  Only way to learn, right?  And, for two bucks, why not get a little joy out of this freakshow of a plant. I put it IB2DWs - where I would see it A LOT.  See below for location. Cardoon planted as a bedding plant I'm going to mulch it in pretty hard (pile biosolids on top of the crown) when the foliage dies back, but I'm pretty sure this won't come back - as it is usually listed to Zone 7 .  But, next y

Looking at my 2023 to-do list, there are a number of items that sort-of 'work together'.  Like...evergreens and under the lindens.  #3 (improve the front porch bed) and #17 (keep going with groundcover) are like that:  they work together. This post is the lastest in my 'Fall Planting' series and focuses on groundcover - specifically Ajuga Chocolate Chip .  The past week or so, I bought two small ones from Lowe's and a six-pack from the orange big box store.  Fall Planting in full swing. I tucked the two larger ones in the island bed on the stair-side of the Karl Foerster Grasses.  Below is how they look from the driveway: And below is the view from the stairs; the two groundcover plants are tucked in close and will (hopefully) fill in this area with a sort-of 'living mulch'. The six-pack is like the ones that I planted earlier this year: I put three of the six in that same island bed, but this time on the driveway side: And, I put the other three in a line o

One of the plants that I have learned to absolutely love is Ajuga 'Chocolate Chip'.  I've planted it in a few places and each time I see it, I say to myself:  I should put this stuff everywhere.   It is a great 'living mulch' and plays well with other plants - won't take over in the same ways that something like Creeping Jenny seems to do in my garden.  I've mostly added 'Chocolate Chip' , but earlier this year I also planted six Ajuga 'Bronze Beauty' plugs in the back garden.  I haven't really noticed them doing anything, but most of them seem to have established themselves this Summer.   That Ajuga 'exploration' is the reason why I came home with a single plant (yes...I know one groundcover plant is a mistake) from the Lowe's end-of-the-season sale:  A Burgundy Glow Ajuga.  See below for a look at the foliage: What makes Burgundy Glow special?  From Walters Garden come these features:  tri-colored foliage, blue flowers and

Earlier this month, I identified the Elijah Blue Fescue ornamental grasses that are planted in the IB2DWs bed were ready to divide.  One of them was suffering from 'center rot', while the other ones were just not performing.  Were they suriving?  Yeah...but not doing what I wanted them to do.  So, I've opted to include them in my annual 'Fall Dividing' program.   I started the  process with three Elijiah Blue Fescue clumps that I planted in April of 2022 .   I took the one with center rot and pulled it out: And, I pulled out the other two and divided them.   Here, below, is a look at the 'best' one of the bunch with a nice root ball: I used my Hori Hori to divide the clumps.  Like the Everillo sedges that I divided recently, it wasn't as easy as dividing grasses.  The root system is different and not-as-easily 'splitable'.   See below for a Elijah Blue Fescue grass divided in the Fall: I started with three and now I have six small Blue Fescue clu

#17 on my 2023 to-do list was to 'keep going with groundcover' and that's something that I've done in little pockets all season-long.  The idea of 'living mulch' along with the ability to buy LESS wood mulch is quite attractive to me.  Not to mention the increased competition with weeds, the 'reduction of footcandles' (as Roy Diblik puts it ) and the filling in spaces.  There's, frankly, a lot of reasons to like groundcover.   Last year, I added 20-or-so groundcover plants including some Ajuga and Carex. This year, I've looked at how well the Ajuga 'Chocolate Chip' has done and posted about my groundcover progress for 2023 .  Earlier this Summer -in early August - I ran a subtotal of my groundcover plantings for the 2023 season .  At that time, I totaled 30 new groundcover plants and plugs for 2023: 1  Epimedium warleyense  - Orange Queen Epimedium 3  Spine Tingler Epimedium 14  Ajuga Chocolate Chip 6  Ajuga Bronze Beauty 3  Carex Montana

Last month, I provided an update on some of the nursery stock that I've been growing from seeds and cuttings including a look at the (then) one-year-old Limelight Hydrangea that I have been growing from a cutting .   The small shrub has been putting on some size and has two primary trunks that have emerged from the cutting that now have more than eight sets of leaves growing up the (now) 12-inch-or-so shrub.  They were originally planted in a small one quart nursery pot - that you can see below. The roots were peeking out the bottom of the small container, so I figured it was time to upgrade this to a one-gallon pot.  See below for the roots that have emerged after one year in the quart container: Here, below, is the 'after' - the Limelight Hydrangea in its new one-gallon nursery pot that I've put back in the landscape to live out the rest of the growing season.  I'll do what I've done in the past - dig these in the ground an mulch them in - to overwinter.  My

Over the years, I've bought dozens of succulents and - without thinking about it - potted them up as container plants.  I mean...they're not hardy for our zone, right?   That's what I've sort-of thought.  On occassion, I'd come across something succulent-looking in a garden and sort of wonder:  why am I not growing those?  Sometimes they're sedums.  But...other times, I think they're something called Sempervivum.   The reason that I bring this up is that at the end-of-the-season sale at Lowes, one of the kids wanted to buy a Sempervivum 'Hopewell'.  It was 50% off $5, so for $2.50, we were going to get an experiment. I ended up planting it down IB2DWs - by the sidewalk in the 'hard to grow' area right near the Shenandoah red Switchgrass .  What is Sempervivum ‘Hopewell'?  Sempervivum ‘Hopewell’ is an historic garden plant with succulent foliage. It will form large, open rosettes of emerald-green leaves with leaf margins that turn maroon i

The original (to our garden) sedges - Everillo Sedges - have been in the ground since the Fall of 2020 .  They're bright grasses in a dark, shade garden.  But, I don't think that I've been using them in the right ways - as I've planted them in a colony together with very little matrix-planting around them/interplanted with them.   They've been mostly neglected and suffered a bit from rabbits .  Below is a look at the 'pre-dividing' planting of these sedges: A closer look at the one on the top of that photo shows that there's some 'center rot' going on and there are a number of smaller, independent sedges.  This is just like what is going on with the Elijah Blue Fescue grass IB2DWs .  Below is a look at the carex in question that I decided to divide: There's a small buckthorn seedling coming up in there that is (obviously) due for removal.  But, It is easy to see a number of sedges here.  I opted for dividing this clump into five.  Three *real

Do you have a pile of Norway Maple firewood laying around?  Processed (into rounds) or unprocessed.  Split or unsplit.  I don't think it matters.   What doesn't matter, Jake?   I don't think it matters if you've done everything you can to Norway Maple firewood to get it dry and seasoned.  You'll still have some fungus growth.  See below for a peek at the mushrooms that are growing on some of my Norway Maple that I've been working through since last Fall: We had this large Maple tree taken down last Fall and I started to split the rounds immediately .  I've worked through a bunch of it (not all, though) in the 12 months since.  I've stored the wood up on racks to keep it off the ground and it hasn't mattered. I've even measured the moisture content .   Note...this pile is NOT covered.  But, it still gets mushrooms.   #20 on my 2023 to-do list was to finish processing this wood.   Have I done that?  Nope.  But, I was able to get a bunch of it done

In the Spring of 2022 (17 months ago), I undertook what I called (at that time) the Lilac Replacement Project where I dug up and transplanted a number of Lilacs.  And replaced them with some upright evergreens.  Those upright evergreens were three Green Giant Thujas that I bought at the orange big box store .  I planted three in this spot and three on the other side.  Two of those died, leaving me with four of the six originally planted remaining.   When I look back at the photos of those Green Giant Thujas right after they were planted (April 2022) , it appears that the top-tip (apical meristem) of them is right around the top of the fence.   Today - they're at least a foot over the top of the fence height.  See below for the current view - with the Green Giant Thujas in the back against the fence.   That's (obviously) not the only thing happening in this photo, so I'll document some of the other changes in this post - for the garden diary. The Thujas have survived here,

Here's a truth:  Staghorn Ferns take work.  I said that as #19 on my 2023 to-do list and while I've had ups-and-downs with my Staghorn Fern collection, I'm sharing a small win today.  In terms of Staghorn inventory, I (now) have two mounted ferns and one container fern.  One of the mounted ferns is troubled, but the other one?  It seems to be doing well.  Why do I say that?  Because I'm seeing shield fronds emerging.  Some?  Yes.  Two of them.  See below for both of the shield fronds on a mounted Staghorn Fern: I haven't had much success with the growth of these shield or basal fronds, but earlier this year the Staghorn in the container threw up a big, green basal frond .   I have one empty board as the Elkhorn Fern that I mounted last Winter didn't make it through the dry conditions inside.  

 Four months ago, I planted five (5) one-gallon Green Velvet boxwoods in our front porch bed in line with the other ones that existed in that same bed .  My plan was to sort-of 'extend' that low mound of evergreen shrubs down past the new Elm tree and wrapping around the corner.  I also (in June) planted a number of Summer Beauty Allium and Sesleria Autumnalis grasses in front of both the old and new boxwoods.   With the heat of Summer behind us, how did they all fare and what do the shrubs and perennials (and...annual French dwarf Marigolds) look like in late September?  I'd say pretty good.  See below for current state of that curved bed: All five Green Velvet Boxwoods are doing well and putting on a tiny bit of height.  The Allium have exploded and are double-or-triple their original (quart) size.  And the stars of the show are those French Marigolds .  I've been telling myself that I need to be a bit more choosy when it comes to Home Depot plants; there are some th

Last Fall, I divided two Shaggy Shield Ferns into four clumps and transplanted them to the edge of the border with the hopes that they'd take the spot of some (fallen-out-of-favor) Ostrich Ferns that I had in this bed.  I planted them in a row and then attempted to water them in all Fall.   Earlier this Spring, I stuck six (6) Ajuga 'Chocolate Chip' plugs in the same bed both in-front-of and behind the locations of the Shaggy Shield Ferns .  At that time....(Late May), I thought that I had lost ALL of the divided ferns as none of them had thrown up new growth.    They all appeared dead.  A setback when it comes to dividing ferns.   Fast forward to today.  I was puttering around and realized that SOME of those Fall 2022 Shaggy Shield Divided ferns had made it.  I had two ferns last Summer, divided to make four small ferns.  Today...I'm back up to three Shaggy Shield Ferns.  See below for a photo showing the Shaggy Shields that have come back: There's a lot going on

A couple of years ago, I planted some Elijah Blue Fescue grasses in the IB2DWs bed along with some other blue-colored plants like Cat's Pajamas Nepeta .   Those grasses have never thrived, but they seemed to have survived over the years - despite that being what I'd consider a 'hard-to-grow' area.  Between the poor soil, the adjacency to the driveway and the lack of irrigation, it isn't a great growing bed.  But, like I said...these seemingly have survived.   But, like all grasses, it appears that Elijah Blue Fescue grasses suffer from center rot.  And need to be divided every few years.  How can I tell?  Have a look at one of the crowns of the blue fescue grass below - with three distinct tufts of blades emerging from the edges: Here, below, is a look at another one of them where you can see the center of the grass is brown'ing out and showing no growth: Everything that I've read on the Web tells me that these need regular dividing and that I need to dig

The three Autumn Ferns that have changed everything I think about ferns in the garden are at their peak pre-color-change right now - mid-September.   They are full, lush and alive with fronds the reach up and out and curl ever-so-slightly in this shade bed.   Photo of the 'original three' below: Last Fall, I planted a number of small Autumn Ferns, but it appears that just six of them came back and made it this year .   There are a couple of plants that I'm going to seek out at the big box store end-of-season sales:  These Autumn Ferns and Ajuga Chocolate Chip for groundcover .