Why I Oughta...

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,

Today, September 23rd is the first, official day of Fall.  And I'm also seeing the first signs of foliage turning seasonal red with the clump of three Little Henry Sweetspires out front showing red at the tips.  See below for a photo showing this set of shrubs (it really is one shrub at this point, right?)  Supplementing this shrub - with groundcover and/or layered plantings should be something I consider for 2024 as this area has been left as-is since the day we moved in.

I planted a 1# Cascade Hops Vine in early Summer 2021 that I bought at The Growing Place (Aurora Location).  At that time, the plant was pretty mature; based on the bulging, root-bound container.  So, it wasn't a surprise that I saw hops (fruits) that first season .   Then, in year two (2022), I was surprised to see that the very same vine that fruited so easily produce no hops in the following year.  Here's the vine a year ago - with no hops on it anywhere.  This year, we're back in the hops-producing mode as the vine has some larger, mature hops and some tiny, small ones.  Before I show the hops, let's talk about the vine.  I created a wire (attached to the fence) trellis a few years back , but I believe that hops vines want to REALLY CLIMB.  This goes to six-feet-tall and appears to have been cut-back at the top.  My hunch is that I didn't manage the vine enough and it started to climb over the fence and the neighbor trimmed it back.  The vine is also climbing

How do our Frans Fontaine European Hornbeam Trees look this season?  Like this photo below- showing the green foliage covering the upright, columnar habit of these trees planted along the northside of our property as a screen between our house and our neighbor's property.  You can see part of the gable of our neighbor's house at the top of the photo below: One of the most comment questions that I get on the blog is from someone making a comment asking about these trees.  Things like:  How do they look now?  Any update?  How far are they spaced?  Someone (locally...who grew up in Naperville, but current lives in Barrington and is planning on putting up some Frans Fontaine Hornbeams in their yard) just posted a comment on this post - asking how they're doing .   Last Summer I posted a detailed history of the trees - showing their growth and how they closed in the last remaining gaps between the trees.  I have not pruned these at all - other than the random branch or two tha

A couple weeks shy of five-years-ago, we planted a tiny Bald Cypress tree in our front yard .  At the time, i was dealing with a 'clay bowl' or ' bathtub effect' in the area (on a different tree), so we went beyond in terms of digging a 'five-dollar-hole'.  Five years later, I can saw - without a doubt - that this Bald Cypress is the most successful tiny tree that we've had since we started here in Downers.  Not only has the tree survived, it has put on A LOT of size.  Height and width and even caliper . I last measured it a year ago when it was just about a 3.5" caliper tree.   Today?  I haven't done the caliper (yet), but by the eye-test?  It has grown even bigger. See below for the current - late Summer state of our Bald Cypress that sits in-between-two-driveways. Having learned my lesson on pruning small trees, I've left this one alone totally.  Not a prune.  At least on our side.  Turns out...when our neighbors built their new driveway, th

My 2023 yard and garden to-do list had 25 items on it and with most 1 of the growing season behind us, I thought it would be helpful (for me!) to do a mid-season check-in.  How am I doing against my priorities?  What do I need to do before the season ends?  Let's run through the list and see how we're doing: 1.  Evergreens.  I wanted to plant more evergreens.  I've planted 19 evergreens so far this season:  five Boxwoods in front, a Columnar Scotch Pine tree in back and now 13 more Boxwoods in back.  I also transplanted a large Boxwood from the front-to-back.  So..20 evergreens including one transplant.  I'd say... Done .  2.  IB2DW Extension.   I wanted to extend the bed and add 'clustered evergreens' along with other things like grasses and annuals.  I haven't added anything, but I did amend the soil with biosolids and carved out some turf to extend the bed a little bit.  I'd say this is: Incomplete.   3.  Front porch bed.   I amended the bed with

We might have a problem in the garden.  Or, we might have something else totally.  I'm talking about the volunteer Silver Maple tree that popped up last season and one that I have left alone all this year.  Has it grown?  Yeah.  It.has.grown.  A LOT. I last posted about this tree in mid-July (about 50 days ago) and it has not slowed down since then.  I mentioned in that post that I was guessing it had put on 3' of new growth this year.  Now?  I'd say it is more like five feet of new growth.  It is every bit as tall as the Exclamation London Planetrees that sit by the fence .  Below, is a look at the current state of this (questionable-in-value) tree that is in our south beds: I didn't plan for this tree.  And...I've read all about the merits of Silver Maples.   Naturalist Donald Peattie wrote an length about the Silver Maple and called it a paradox . Both the pros - fast-growing, beautiful crowns and ability to grow in hard-to-grow spots and their cons - it gets

There are a few plants in our garden that are there because I was drawn to them.  There are a few that were simply impulse-bought.  There are others that I was influenced by others like Roy Diblik , Austin Eischeid or Erin the Impatient Gardener.   Then...there's this other set:  They are the ones that exist in our yard and garden because of Nat.     That list of Nat-influenced plants includes the Saucer Magnolia and any/all of our Allium.  Another one of those that Nat-influenced plantings are anemones.  I've likely written this story before, but the connection with Anemone flowers comes back to our wedding day.  We've had them (now) in both of our houses (not in Equation Boy/Man and Vic's house that we lived in for two years) since last year when I planted three from Northwind Perennial Farm. Here's a post from more than ten years ago (eeek!  ten years!) of the plant that Nat's Mom gifted us for our garden back in Elmhurst .  And h ere's a post from Augus

Our front yard hydrangeas have never had a better year than this year.  Full stop.  They are covered with blooms.  And those blooms are big and full.  Leading to the WORST flopping that we've ever hard - even with the large Limelight Hydrangeas that have been the most productive over the years. First...the Vanilla Strawberry Hydrangeas.  They are starting to 'turn' with pink showing up on the flowers - you can see one of them below: I've tracked this 'turning' over the years - in 2017 it started in July , in 2018 it was in September,  same in 2019  and in 2022 (last year), I only documented them when they were in full color - October.   This year it is late August when they're starting to add pink to the big, white mophead blooms. As for the flopping, it appears that the removal of the Norway Maple has changed so much up there and that I'll have to deal with them this Summer (trying to string them up) and that my pruning technique will have to change sta

I was away from the yard and garden for more than a week recently, so on a recent walkabout, I noticed a few new things - or seemingly new (to me).  One of those new (to me) things was all the Summer growth on the pair of Rhododendrons in our backyard.    There are two of these tropical-looking shrubs that I transplanted from our back stoop to the feet of the Dawn Redwood in the back .  They suffered and struggled in the stoop area for what I think are multiple reasons (the conditions AND the fact that there are Chipmunks eating the roots) and while I didn't want to just toss them out, I didn't have much hope that they'd come back strong. That's why I'm surprised at seeing all this new growth on the tips of these.  Are they (now) thick and full shrubs?  No.  But, are they showing signs of life that is surprising?  Yep.  See the photo at the top of this post that shows off the new five-or-so inches of growth that has pop'd-off on the tips of the branches. There a

Last Summer (June 2022), I bought three Little Lime Hydrangea (a dwarf cultivar of Limelight ) and planted them in front of the Belgian Fence of Apple trees.  They were small, but produced a handful of blooms in late July that first growing season . Fast-forward a year and these three flowering shrubs have changed quite a bit.  They're thicker, more full and...FULL of blooms this year.  See below for a photo of their current (mid-August) state: These are a really good solve for this spot - they're at the back of the bed, but with the Belgian Fence behind, I couldn't use a full-height shrub here as they'd obscure the espalier.  So, this dwarf version is perfect.   It also has me thinking about how I could re-use these in other spots that are mid-bed.  Further back on this same northside of the backyard, there are spots.  And, maybe even IB2DWS?

100-or-so days after planting a 5-gallon Climbing Hydrangea ( Hydrangea anomala petiolaris ) back by the firepit, we're seeing some real upwards leader growth.  Or...what I plantsmen call "aerial rootlets".   We have this climbing, flowering vine going up a Hackberry tree and the R O U G H bark sure seems to be helpful in giving those aerial roots something to grab on-to. See below for the current mid-Summer form of our Climbing Hydrangea:  There are a few, sparse blooms on it this year, too.  So, that's kinda nice, right?   I'm hoping that this will wrap around (and not injure) the tree, so that it can be viewed from all angles. This also has me wondering:  where else could I plant one?  I've long talked about espalier'd trees along the garage, but maybe this is a better answer there, too?  Or...what about both? Last year, I saw one of these at 50% off the end-of-year sale at the Growing Place .  I'll have to pop back over there again this year. 

The Cascade Hops Vine (Humulus Cascade Hops) has grown up the small, temporary trellis and is covering a good-sized width of the fence behind the plant these days.  Below, is a photo showing the Hops vine as it stands today - happy foliage and plenty of vines seeking upward growth. I planted this vine in Summer 2021 , so this the third growing season and last year, I added some wire (screwed to the fence) as a trellis for it to grow up .   The vine quickly consumed that trellis and wants EVEN MORE. In terms of fruit, it threw off some of those beautiful hops in the first season ( August ), but struggled last Summer and started to turn yellow by early September .    I'll watch this August to see if we get any hops.    One thing that is certain - I have to do even more trellis-wise on this next year.  Maybe it is up a wire?  Or around a hoop?