Why I Oughta...

It isn't much, but I'm going to allow it.  Allow what?  Allow myself credit for planting a (new to me) tropical in the landscape.  That means checking the box on #14 of my 2022 to-do list:  Expand my use of tropicals and sub-tropicals in the garden .  Historically, I've only utilized Elephant Ear bulbs as tropicals in my containers and a few in the ground.  This year, I wiffed on those (indeed a miss), but I did recently plant a tropical in the garden - in one of the beds.   Below, you can see the lone Canna - Canova Bronze Peach - that I planted in the backyard in a spot that is visible from the patio and kitchen windows.  I was at the orange big box nursery last week picking up a few other annuals for our front yard and back patio and I just took a shot with this peachy canna.   I'm thinking that I should have done a few more of these?  One seems like it isn't enough - and it is a direct violation of one of the gardening 'mistakes' that we've talked a

Yesterday, I shared some looks at the island beds (of annuals) that you can see in Luxembourg Gardens in Paris this year .  I've used them as inspiration in the past for some containers, but this year, I thought we'd try to use them as inspiration for our front yard in-ground bed.  I decided to use a combination of 36 (small) Dusty Millers and some other colorful annuals (that I haven't bought yet).  I don't love pinks, so maybe reds is where I'll land.  While the alternating color isn't locked in, the Dusty Millers are, indeed, 'locked-in'.  Here you can see them below:  six six-packs bought and brought home. In 2020, I planted 24 impatiens .  Last year, we planted 20 sedum and 24 begonias .  For historicals: Our first full year - in 2018 - we planted some Ranunculuses - about eight of them. In 2019, we planted 16 orange marigolds. +8 plants yoy. In 2020, we planted 24 Impatiens . +8 plants yoy. In 2021, we planted 20 Lemon Coral Sedum and 24 begoni

The past few seasons, I've planted (at least) one container with an annual flower pattern that we first saw in the beds at Luxembourg Gardens in Paris a few years back.  Here's one example - showing a combination of red, orange/yellow and blue/purple with Blue Salvia (Salvia farinacea), a yellow Zinnia and in front a red Wave petunia.  I've used marigolds in lieu of Zinnias in other years like the corner box last year .   I've drawn other inspiration from this very same garden - from chairs to edging to using cocoa bean mulch to the use of London Planetrees to falling in love with  the orangerie box to espalier of various forms .  One of the things that I was surprised by (not sure why) was that they have updated their annuals and the patterns they were using in their beds around Luxembourg Gardens in Paris this Summer (June 2022).   In the more sunny section of the garden - around the big fountain - they're now showing a series of beds that include pinks, wh

Earlier this Spring, Nat brought home a package of Caladium tubers from Costco that I finally got around to digging into the beds.  These are Aaron Caladiums that I'm treating as annuals as I don't anticipate digging these tubers up to store for the season.   Aaron Caladiums are described as: "beautifully refined element to add to a shady site; luminous white leaves with feathered dark green margins; a great border accent that will tolerate some sun" .  Here, below, is a look at the Longfield Gardens packaging showing the twelve tubers and the individual bags. I decided to dig them into the south bed where they can sit in front of the Fanal Astilbes that run part of the border .   You can see the disturbed soil in the photo below.   #14 on my 2022 to-do list was to work some tropicals into the landscape, so this checks part of that box.  And #16 on that list was to add some shade annuals.  These, too, check that box.  

Our backyard is mostly shade.  And, because of that, I'm a shade gardener and have been focused on adding shade plants to our yard over the past couple of years.  But, I haven't strayed too far from Hostas and Ferns.  I recently came this list of Shade plants that includes foliage and flowering sub-lists that I've been reading to get acquainted with some new ideas.   We also spent some time over the past few weeks at the Morton Arboretum walking the paths and looking at some of the gardens.  In particular, we spent an overcast morning puttering around the Fragrance Garden seeking inspiration based on seeing what they have planted in some of the shady spots.   Here's a few shots that include a mix of shade-tolerant perennials and annuals below.  This is where that list from Garden Design linked above comes in handy - for identification.  First up, a mix of some All Gold Hakonechloa macra grasses planted with (what I think are) Hypoestes (polka dot plant) and some bego

 I don't think I've posted photos of our front porch container in the past here on the blog.  We've done a mix over the years of DIY and even one year Nat had a pro fill our container.  This year, I went to the big box nursery and picked out some shade-loving plants to use including a big, dramatic fern on the left.  Along with some coleus, a purple sweet potato vine and (although they're hard to see, they're there) a few peach-colored Rex Begonias.    The Coleus is putting on a nice show and the vine is beginning to spill out a bit as the container hits its stride in the end of July.   I don't seem to have taken a photo of the tag for the fern, but I think it is a Cinnamon Fern.    Here's a look at the flowers before we planted them below.  The watermelon-striped plant and the Rex Begonias - which were the stunners pre-planting that you see below have been somewhat swallowed-up by everything else. Our front porch gets some early morning sun, then is in deep

Earlier this Summer, we planted a mixed border of Lemon Coral Sedum and Red Begonias in front of our boxwoods outside of our front porch.  The inspiration for this pairing was the entrance planting at the Morton Arboretum last year and after growing a variety of annuals in this bed, I thought I'd give the idea of creating a 'carpet' of the sedum a try.    I ended up planting 20 sedum and 24 begonias .  The ones in the inspiration photo are taller begonias than the ones I bought, so I've learned something.  If you go look at this post from when I planted these in early June (scroll all the way down for the initial planting photo), you'll see how this started. Here, below, is how it is going right now.   The sedum has created that carpet and knitted together really well.  It is spreading out upwards - towards the begonias and creeping just a little bit towards the edge.  I'm really happy with the sedum.  The Begonias are doing really well, too.  Nice red flowers

Since our first (and only) visit to Luxembourg Gardens in Paris a few Summers back, I've planted this large(r) corner container with the same color combination that we first saw there and have used (mostly) the same trio of plants:  Red Petunias.  Yellow Marigolds.  Purple Salvia.   Last year, I used the same red petunias.  But, used yellow Zinnias and a perennial, more woody Salvia.  Here's a look at a different container that I planted with the remnants of the wooden corner box.   This year, I used this dark purple Vista Salvia and a yellow Marigold and even tucked in an Elephant Ear bulb into the corner.  Thus far, the elephant ear hasn't put up any growth but, it might lend a nice tropical vibe to the corner of this container box.   You will also note that in the photo above, the container is still naked lumber - and hasn't been stained just yet.  That's #4 on my 2021 to-do list that hasn't been done just yet. 

Every year, we've planted annuals in our front bed to add a little pop of color to the front of our house - with mixed results.  Last year, we used 24 Devine Lavendar Impatiens in the bed .  The most plants we've put in this area.  The full progression looks like this: Our first full year - in 2018 - we planted some Ranunculuses - about eight of them.  In 2019,  we planted 16 orange marigolds.  +8 plants yoy. In 2020, we planted 24 Impatiens.   +8 plants yoy. The second goal (beyond the color) is to help improve the soil in this area as when I got started it was solid clay - from the foundation backfill.  I amended the soil with Gypsum and have added some biochar/humic acid to the area, too.  And, of course I've added mulch to these beds over the years.  First, with hardwood fines, then in 2019 and 2020, I laid down cocoa bean hull mulch .  The thinking here is that nothing aerates and breaks up clay soil better than roots growing.  Every year that I plant here will make t

Over the years, I've posted about various places that I've found gardening inspiration around the world.  There's the big one - Luxembourg Gardens in Paris - that maybe had the BIGGEST impact on me.  But there's also all of the things I've taken in around Japan including the pretty great Gotenyama Garden and all of their street trees . And, the boxwood hedges outside of the FedEx HQ that have an almost cloud-like form . And the Jacques Wirtz hedges that I've never seen in real life, but love online .  The fountain/pond at the cut flower garden inside the Morton Arboretum .   And, of course, there's Disney Parks. I've posted about their roses, trees and plants many times .  And I've added Disneyland Roses and a Belgian Fence espalier based on what I picked up there.   One of the things that I recently noticed was the color combinations in some of their annual beds.  Let's start with this bed showing off a really great Pooh Bear topiary (he's

Documenting here, in the [garden diary] our front yard cast iron urn that I've planted the past few years.  I bought it off of Craigslist from a lady in LaGrange in the Spring of 2018 and we've kept it adjacent to our driveway ever since.  I'm not sure it is the best location, but for a variety of reasons, it has stayed put.  One change this year:  it is now sitting on top of a larger, square paver to give it a proper base. Here's what we had in the urn last year - which was a bit more colorful. This year, there are three plants in the container - with two of them being replicated from our backyard container that is based on a color pattern we saw in Paris at Luxembourg Gardens . This has a larger Blue Salvia (Salvia farinacea), in front a red Wave petunia, and tucked into the upper left is a small Foxtail Fern.  We've had Foxtail Ferns in containers the past few years and have had mixed results - depending on how tightly we've packed them into the

Over the years, we've tried different annuals in front of our boxwoods in our front yard bed.  Our first full year - in 2018 - we planted some Ranunculuses - about eight of them.  Last year - in 2019 - we planted 16 orange marigolds.  Neither set of those did very well.  The marigolds were better than the Ranunculuses, but they didn't spread and some did better than others.  When we started with this bed, it was about 2" of mulch and then backfilled clay.  Not a ton of organic material to deal with beyond the mulch.  Over the years, I dug up spots and added pelletized gypsum a few inches down in an attempt to loosen up the clay soils.  (speaking of which...I should probably add some gypsum to my lawn this Summer) and tried to amend the soil to improve the conditions. Last year, I used a bulb auger to dig out the holes for marigolds, planted them and covered with cocoa bean mulch.  I read somewhere that the BEST way to loosen up clay soils is to actually plant in them

For Mother's Day this year, Nat's Mom gave her a small Flowering Tobacco Jasmine plant that came in a little plastic capsule.  There was very little instructions with it other than that it was potentially poisonous (see ASPCA page on it being poisonous to dogs here !).  Nat's Mom has given us a few Disneyland Roses ( first one in 2017 and two more in 2018 ) and a couple of hydrangeas , but this is the first annual that she's gifted us. I wasn't sure where to put it, so I ended up sticking it on the side of our house on the southside - near where I put the 2018 Disneyland roses and was planning to do a Belgian Fence.  I didn't pay it much attention and didn't even water it consciously.  And look at it above:  beautifully tall and graceful.  But, this isn't just a looker.  Nope.  It does a couple of things that are interesting.  First...it transforms from day to evening.  The listing on Select Seeds calls it a "night bloomer" .  Then it

Like most 'basic' suburban folks who drive a minivan and have a massive Park District 'activity' bill, we normally doll-up our front porch in the fall with Mums.  Costco has those big ones and Nat usually just makes the move for mums on her own.  They're easy to tend to, usually put on a good show and feel quite seasonal for the fall these days, right?  I'm sure that we'll do them soon. But I also called an audible and picked up an annual on a whim:  these Celosia Intenz.  I had a couple of plastic pots laying around (I think from Mums last year!?!) and planted a pair of these in the pots and put them on the front porch.  Also, for those wanting to dig through the archives, I've posted about mums here on the blog over the years.  Last year, I gave a 'pro-tip' to tie your mums up .   Also, I guess our mums from the Fall of 2011 survived the winter and I ended up planting them in the ground in the Spring of 2012 and *like magic*, they did w

Right before we went out of town for a few days recently, I gathered all of our patio containers and put them together in order to assist the watering - which was being done by one of our neighborhood kids.  I snapped this photo of all of them in one spot to text to Nat to share with the girl's Mom so she knew what needed to be watered, but I figured I'd post it here to mark what our patio containers looked like in July of this year. In the far back, in the yellow pot 1 you can see the Chicago-hardy fig tree 2 that my Sister Vic and Equation Boy/Man gave me for my birthday this year.  Right in front of that is one of my wine barrel planters with a grapevine 3 growing on the trellis.  That's also the pot that has the Lemon Coral Sedum growing in it . In front of that wine barrel, but mostly obscured is my large basil plant.  It is sharing a pot with one of my Elephant Ears .  Then, buried under the foliage is the other wine barrel planter.  That's this one wi