Why I Oughta...

Yesterday, I posted a 'garden dreaming' post about building a new, raised bed section in our backyard to grow even more vegetables and flowers.   And, right before the new year, I posted by 2025 to-do list scorecard .  I bring both of those posts up because they are both involved in this post about lazy beds.   First, the scorecard .  I graded myself 18/25, but one of the seven incompletes was #23 - "More Lazy Bed Extensions" and I mentioned in the post that I have reserved the right to update my scorecard total if I get these bed extensions done before the end of January.   Time is important on these lazy bed extensions as we need time to suppress the turf that exists, 'melt away' the cardboard and allow the biosolids to mellow out a little bit.  I've done them in the Fall and the beds were ready come Spring.  And, I've done some on a quicker turnaround.   If I get these done in January, I'll have 120ish days of cure time....

The hits-and-misses that I've had with cut flowers and vegetables this past year has me (already) thinking about next year.  I wanted to make 2025 the year of 'even more cut flowers' and with all of the dahlias that I planted, we made that happen.  But, the constraints of our property mean that I'm close to the limit on what I can do going forward.  We have a ton of garden space in the backyard.  But, MOST OF IT is in shade.  That means that if I want to grow more things like dahlias and other cut flowers that need sun, I have to rethink things.   I could plant up more of the front yard or...I could do something bigger.   That something BIGGER is a cut flower garden.  In a part of the backyard that *is* in sun for a good part of the day.   And, a cut flower garden that uses raised beds.  We had raised beds in Elmhurst that lived inside of a fenced-in enclosure.  That garden produced a BOUNTY every season.  Vegeta...

The season is over.  The post-Christmas darkness is here.  So, let's do a full recap of the gardening year that was 2025.   I initially posted my 2025 to-do list in early April this year with 25 items .  In Mid-August, I did a check-in post that showed: 11 Done 7 In Process 7 Incomplete Let's do the final report. Here is the 2024 final report where I went 18/25 .   1. Gravel Path Improvement. Done.  I did the biggest part of this, but still have the 'gate-back' portion left to do.  But, I'm calling this done.  2. Make the Pizza Oven operational.  Done.    I closed in the enclosure, put the roof layer on and no longer have to deal with a tarp.  We also had a soapstone landing installed out front and started on the veneer - the very first "finishes".   3. Expand and plant the Island bed in front.  Done.   I've done A LOT up here, but haven't planted everything I was planning-to.  I'd li...

Earlier this year, I posted a couple of pieces on the notion of 'legibility' in the garden .  It was new (to me) and as part of learning about it, I wrote out my thoughts, researched what other people were saying and then followed-up with a post that outlined what Dr. Jared Barnes has created in his list of 'elements' that create garden legibility . Here are the seven elements (or components) of Garden Legibility ( via Dr. Jared Barnes ): 1. Clean edges 2. Desire lines and paths 3. Primary and secondary axes 4. Sightlines 5. Focal points 6. Entrances 7. Seeing over plantings Clean edges includes cut-edging, but also installed edges.  I've written about garden edges a number of times over the years.  Here , here , here and here .  Most recently, I was drawn to this timber-edging from a YouTube gardener and thought about using it as a retaining-wall(ish) under the Greenspire Lindens .  I still think that's a good idea (note for 2026 projects), but I was pointed...

I planted a small one-gallon Green Mountain Boxwood shrub in October of 2021 in the bed behind the Tree Swing Oak Tree.  Two Winters later (2023), I posted this photo about how this shrub had totally bronzed-out .  When I planted it, I noted that this is pyramidal in form and that's what I was drawn-to when buying it.  Now, four years later, we're starting to see that upright, pyramidal shape.   Below is a photo showing the current shape of this Green Mountain Boxwood: Thinking about this being in the ground for four-full-growing-seasons, it sure feels like this has been slow-growing.  Looking back at the original post with the description , that checks out.  I planted two more Green Mountain Boxwoods in 2023 back by the Firepit , but like this one (above), they have been pretty slow-growing, too.   The bed where this solo Green Mountain Boxwood is set for changes this coming year.  It sits in the back of the (new) Pizza Oven bed, while...

Welp, dahlia tuber FOMO has struck again.  A few days ago, I showed off my Bonny Blooms tuber order and talked about some of the new (to me) dahlias .  And, earlier this month, I posted about how the marketing emails and TikToks and Instagram posts about tubers were getting me antsy about dahlia tuber ordering .  In that post , I showed a number of dahlias that I thought I'd like to try to grow from various growers.  Those growers included Bonny Blooms.  And, Triple Wren Farms.  And...the place that I've bought my dahlia tubers in the past:  Longfield Gardens .   I've had pretty good luck with their tubers - with one (Maarn) being a dud.  They stood by their warranty and sent another set of Maarn Tubers (after the first ones refused to sprout), but the second set were duds, too. In my first dahlia tuber FOMO post , I included a list of some dahlias that others had recommended.  And, in the Longfield Gardens section, I listed a handf...

Just a few days ago, I posted about how FOMO was arriving when it comes to Dahlia tubers around here.    In the course of doing the research from tuber sellers, I found a sale that was on-going.  That had...some dahlias that I couldn't resist clicking the 'add to cart' button.  Here's what I bought from Bonny Blooms: Some of these were 'planned'.  Others were....impulse buys. Bells Palermo Dahlia Via  Bonny Blooms Bells Palermo .  This one was more expensive than I'm used to, so I bought just one (a mistake, I know).  It is also taller than I prefer.  But, I bought it anway.  Here's what Bonny Blooms has to say about it: A stunning coral to dusty rose gold formal decorative that gradually unfurls around a beautiful green eye. The colors remind me of hazy summer evenings in the Sicilian city of Palermo. Breathtaking at dusk and during late summer sunsets. The plant is strong and productive while the blooms are angled perfectly for design...

Just yesterday, I posted my first Dahlia Tuber Ordering FOMO post about the initial tuber sale s that are about to start online.  This is coming off my second successful season 1 of growing dahlias in the ground for cut flowers.  But, before I can get busy ordering for next year, I have to dig-up and process the tubers that I have on-hand.  This season, we grew A LOT of dahlias.  Here at my house, I grew dahlias in the backyard, sideyard, front yard and IB2DWs.  I also gave away a few tubers - to my mom and sister.  We had something like 20-or-so tubers to start the year.  And, that means...the time has come to try to keep them over the winter.  Last year (my first year), I used the "Saran Wrap Method" to keep my tubers.  And, that seemed to work.  (Or, I just got lucky?).  I only lost a couple to rot with most of the rest coming thru the Winter and sprouting.   Here's a post from early December last year showing the Sara...

Last week, I received an email from Longfield Gardens with this subject line: Get Ready...Dahlia Pre-Orders Coming Soon! There's nothing quite like FOMO to make a dahlia gardener snap-to.  I haven't even dug out the tubers from our garden this season and we're already talking about pre-orders for next year.  Eek.  I need a plan. Some people have Black Friday.  Others live for 'Cyber Monday'.  But, then...there are dahlia growers who read this email (pasted below) and think:  Here we go. Where do we start?  I think the first place is to think about what worked and what didn't this year. What worked?  Melina Fluer.  Wizard of Oz.  Ivanetti.  Pooh.   What was 'mid' (as the kids say)?  Mystery Fox.  Some Melina Fleurs.    The Pablo Gallery border dahlias (slugs!) What didn't work?  Sweet Nathalie. Also...I need to think about how much MORE room I have for dahlias.  I figure...I'll always 'make roo...

Two days ago, I posted a photo of a number of Pooh Collarette Dahlias in a bud vase that I had cut and brought in from the garden.  Today...there's another small vase that is full of even more Pooh Dahlias.  They are below in the photo.  About a week ago, I posted another photo of even more Pooh Dahlias in an arrangement and talked about how I'm cutting seven-to-ten(ish) blooms at a time (off of the two plants).   Some of the stems in this set are longer and some shorter: In that same post from a week ago , I showed a few other Collarette Dahlia varieties that I might try to buy (the tubers) this off season.  I'd like to have some that *work better* with the colors of the decorative and ball dahlias that I grow (purples, pinks, salmons, peaches).  

Another morning in September means that dahlia-cutting time.   With two Pooh Collarette Dahlia plants (one on the sideyard cutting garden and the other back in the new pizza oven bed), we're starting to get to the point where we have eight-to-ten blooms at one time.  Instead of the previous onesie-twosie.  The last time I posted about these was two weeks ago (looks like we're on a two-week bloom cycle) and had seven-or-eight at that time).   The colors of these are so striking and the contrast is so strong that (so far), I've only put them in a monoculture arrangement.   Thinking about the color, I went to look at some other Collarette Dahlias that Longfield Gardens lists on their site.  Before I get to talking about a few, I didn't know this (from Longfield Gardens): Collarette dahlias are all the rage in England and increasingly popular here. I'm not the only one becoming fascinated by them it seems. Knowing that....now here's a few that ...