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Showing posts with the label backyard

Clean Edges and Paths As Part of Garden Legibility - January 2025

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Yesterday, I published a post detailing the idea of "Legibility in the Garden" and talked how Dr. Jared Barnes introduced me to the concept via his Meristem blog.  Barnes has developed a set of elements that he feels are the core components of "Legibility" and how we as gardeners can achieve it :   1. Clean edges 2. Desire lines and paths 3. Primary and secondary axes 4. Sightlines 5. Focal points 6. Entrances 7. Seeing over plantings Edging is something that I've posted about a number of times .  And, it seems to check a few of Dr. Barnes' components:  clean lines, paths and entrances.   Edging is something that I posted about last Fall when I included some inspiration from a YouTube channel (Moxie Gardens) and talked about how he used railroad ties and other wood beams cut up into chunks to edge various parts of his garden and beds.   A couple weeks ago, Amy at Pretty Purple Door sent a newsletter that talked about creating a dog-frie...

Jim Putnam HortTube - Green Giant Thuja Video - January 2025

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Jim Putnam over at HortTube has a video up all about Green Giant Thujas .   I've embedded it below.  I've long watched Jim's videos and always learn something, despite him gardening in Raleigh, North Carolina where the conditions are much different than my backyard Zone 5b/6a garden.   His video taught me a few things about these Thujas - that I've posted about before - that I didn't know before.  Jim says that these Green Giant Thujas don't "off-color" as much as other conifers during the Winter and that's been my experience as well.   He also talks about their fast-growing nature and how they get B I G.  I'm growing them in a little bit of part shade and lightly irrigated, so they haven't been 'rockets'.  He said that they 'pick up speed over time' - once they are well-established.  Here's hoping that mine are in that 'well-established' place and we'll see them shoot up tall. He also talks about how they...

Removing Ornamental Grasses - Rabbit Winter Hiding Spot - January 2025

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Yesterday, I posted photos of how the (dang!) rabbits had removed the bark from the ground all the way up about 18" on all eight trunks of the apple (fruit) trees that I planted in 2020 as part of a Belgian Fence espalier .  The removal of bark by rabbits during Winter is called "Girdling" and essentially kills the tree.   I said that it is time to 'play for keeps' with these rabbits and the first step took place today with the removal of - what I think - is their hiding place.  These Miscanthus grasses that are in front of the Belgian Fence. See below for the current state of these grasses: They provide a TON of 'Winter Interest' - so like all the other ornamental grasses, I've left them up.  But, that's also provided a place for the rabbits to shelter during the Winter. Now...pay no attention to the fact that we are a Certified Wildlife Habitat.  In fact....look away, please. Because I'm taking these grasses down to the ground and removing t...

Rabbit Pressure In Winter - Tree Bark Destroyed - Girdled Trees - Belgian Fence Espalier of Apple Trees - January 2025

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I went out back to have a look around at the garden a few days ago and I noticed something odd - that drew my eyes to them as being sort-of...out of place.  I noticed what appeared to be some BRIGHT, UPRIGHT lines along the fence that were easily contrasted from the dark(er) grey of the wood fence behind them.   What the what?   I went over to take a closer look and this is what I saw - in the photo below.   See the bright, upright lines that stand out?   DEEP SIGH..... These are the trunks of the eight fruit apple trees that I planted in 2020 - during the height of COVID lockdowns .  Three Golden Delicious trees.  Five Honeycrisp trees.  They're pollinators of each-other, so they were selected deliberately.   Right after planting, I held my breath...and cut off their heads to limit the trunk height to like 18" tall from the ground . A year later, they had ALREADY put out a bunch of limbs and were climbing the trell...

Adding More Green Giant Thujas To Back Yard Along Fence - January 2025

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A big part of writing a [garden diary] all-year-around is using the dormant season - like RIGHT NOW, deep in the coldest part of the year - to noodle on garden edits and additions.  I've done it most Winters - educating myself about plants, shrubs and trees.  Sketching out edits to beds.  Thinking about what I should/could add to the garden in various spots. With the temps so low lately, I only get out to the backyard garden to dump our kitchen scraps into the compost bins.  I scurry from the backdoor to the bins in the back of the yard.  And then scurry right back.  So, I only have brief glimpses to notice/document the garden. But, one of the spots that I have been looking at (on these walks) is along the south fence line where we have three Green Giant Thujas that are spaced about five-feet apart.   These three went in the ground in April of 2022 and were small(ish).  Looking back at the photos from when they were planted , the tips of the...

Green Velvet Boxwoods Under Linden Trees - Winter Interest via Evergreen Shrubs - January 2025

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In the Summer of 2023, I planted eleven (11) small (I mean...REALLY small, 1# nursery pots that were on sale for $5 a piece) Green Velvet Boxwood shrubs in a staggered pattern at the feet of the two Greenspire Linden Trees that are currently being trained into a horizontal cordon espalier.   I wanted to add some evergreens to this bed to provide structure, formality and Winter interest.   Today, 18-months-later, those boxwoods are starting to fill-out and provide exactly what I was looking for:  winter interest.   See below for a photo showing the Green Velvet boxwoods and the pair of Linden trees in the snow: I posted a photo of these in May of 2024 when they were putting on their annual, shaggy growth .  This past Summer marked their first full year in the ground.  While still small-in-size, these Boxwoods are providing contrast against the bright-white snow.   These will, with time, get to between three-and-four-feet tall and w...

Project Notebook: Musing On The Order of Operations - Pizza Oven Buildout - January 2025

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I've done this sort of 'notebook' posts in the past and it has been helpful in organizing my thoughts when it comes to project planning.  Here's an 'order of operations' post on a big, 'new bed' backyard overhaul from 2021 that - just by writing - helped me get my head wrapped-around what I needed to do.   I've done similar 'notebook' or 'musing' posts on retaining walls and our boardwalk on the side of our house .  I've referenced Paul Graham's post about WRITING previously - but the gist his POV is: Writing doesn't just communicate ideas; it generates them.  The act of writing about something (in this case...the process around my pizza oven project) shows me that I'm in the MIDST of my learning journey on said process.    Hopefully...by the end of this, I'll have a v1 of what I need to do. I've recently updated a few posts with oven construction, but haven't shown the completed project - just yet.  The...

Snow-Covered Angelina Sedum - January 2025

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The Angelina Sedum that is planted as a groundcover in the square beds on either side of our back stoop are looking really good with the thin layer of snow (and ice) that is blanketing our garden this week.   I've noted this particular Sedum in previous Winters.  Here's a post and photo from a year ago - January 2024 .  Here's how MUCH brighter it gets by late Spring:  Have a look at May 2024 .  Something to think about in 2025:  Digging up plugs of this to transplant. 

Green Gem Boxwoods - Backyard Cluster - December 2024

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In the Fall of 2021, I planted three Green Gem Boxwoods in the backyard, about half-way back on the south side of the garden .  They were tiny, $5-ONE-GALLON shrubs that *barely* lifted their crown about the soil.  Today, they're starting to stand on their own.  See below for current state of the three Green Gem Boxwoods in early Winter along with a lot of leaf litter. Some nice moss on a couple of those small boulders, too.  

A Garden Edit Miss - Hakonechloa Macra Grasses - December 2024

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I post a lot of my own gardening wins.  So, I should also post a few of my gardening losses - including this 'garden edit' that never was.  I moved a bunch of ferns out of this bed by the tree swing tree and planned to replace them with Hakonechloa Macra Japanese Forest Grasses - to join the four existing ones.   But...I never got around to buying them and planting them.  See below - the space to the left of the existing grasses all the way past the boxwood is supposed to be these grasses.  Right now...it is BARE. Something - for sure - to do in 2025.  

Green Giant Thujas - Winter Interest - December 2024

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I planted some Green Giant Thujas back in the Spring of 2022 and....now...coming up on three years later...they are starting to have 'presence' in the garden.   Perhaps it is because everything else is in dormancy.  Or...more likely...because these have put on size - height and width.   See below for the three along the southside of the property.    I'm now thinking of putting a few more of these in the backyard - come Spring 2025.  Screening trees along the back sides of the garden - including adding even more along this same fenceline.

Top Branching Growth - Espalier Trees - Greenspire Lindens - December 2024

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Each late Winter, I prune up the pair of Greenspire Lindens that are formal in shape via espalier.  They need a bunch of pruning along the top level of the horizontal cordon.  There are waterspouts EVERYWHERE.  And, this year is no different.  With these trees recently dropping their leaves, the structure has been exposed and I can see all the top-growth from that top level.  See below for the pair of trees: Come February, I'll dormant prune ALL of those off and bring it back into shape.  

Oakleaf Hydrangeas Holding Leaves Into Mid-December - December 2024

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The Alice Oakleaf Hydrangeas on the southside of our backyard in the 'kitchen curved bed' are holding on to their greenish/purple-ish leaves this late into the year.  Below in the photo you can see a number of them lined up along the back/middle-back of the border that are droop'ing, but...holding their large leaves: Also note...the leaf litter in the photo all across the beds.  I've cleaned these out a handful of times, each time trying to cut up the leaves with my mower and blowing the scraps back onto the beds.  

Back Stoop Spring Grove Ginkgo Trees - Winter Structure - December 2024

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Once I posted the structure of the front-yard Spring Grove Ginkgo tree , I figured I should include the back stoop versions (there is one on each side) in the [garden diary], too.   Both of these have a one-year head start, but are showing a bunch more height than the front-yard tree.

Backyard Red Oak Trees Dropping Leaves In Fall - Not Holding Them - December 2024

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2024 is one of the years where our large, mature Red Oak trees aren't holding their leaves late into Winter.  This year, they've dropped MOST of them already - by December 1st.  I've posted about these two backyard Oak trees - the Tree Swing Oak and the southside Oak - over the years - documenting how much foliar marcescence takes places.   This year - here are a couple of photos showing the canopy of these trees on December 1st:  mostly bare. Here is December 6, 2019 - when the Oaks were holding TONS of leaves .   Here is November 23, 2020 - when the trees (both of them) had dropped all their leaves . Here is December 2, 2021 - when the tree swing tree was holding leaves .   Here is November 22, 2023 - when they were FULL of brown leaves .  

Back (Eventually Undulating) Hicks Yew Hedge - November 2024

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I spent a long time thinking and planning and (eventually) buying and planting a full hedge of (at that time) small Hicks Yews across the back of our yard back in 2019.  I planted twelve 1# pots in the Summer of 2019 and they've had (now) six growing seasons ('19, '20, '21, '22, '23, '24). I picked these because they're shade-tolerant.  And, evergreen.  And, narrow/upright.   But, I was hesitant.  Why?  Because...well...Yews have a bad reputation.  Ask any gardener my age if their parents had yews in front of their house when they were growing up and the answer is:  yes.   I was hesitant to use Yews because of what I had grown-up with in the garden.  Everywhere you look in suburban gardens, people have been using Boxwoods.  And, I have, too.  Boxwoods here.  Boxwoods there.  But, after some hemming-and-hawing...I opted for these $5.00 Hicks, upright Yews for the hedge.    I came across this 'undu...

Mid-Back-Yard Diagonal Hicks Yews - November 2024

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In the Fall of 2021, I was on a "Hicks Yew High" - where I planted these tiny shade-loving evergreen shrubs all over the backyard.  I put six of them in the south bed with designs to 'replicate' the undulating hedge from the back border .  Here are the six in winter when the contrast with the snow shows how small they really were in January of 2022 .  In Summer of 2022, I did a 'garden edit' where I pulled out some Lilacs and replaced them with some Green Giant Thujas.  At at that time, I also relocated three of the Hicks Yews .   Three remained.  Set on sort-of 'an angle'.   I set up my wine barrel 'water feature' next to them.  And, haven't thought about them much at all.  (that is the wine barrel that I've turned over for the winter in the photo...) Have they grown?  Yep.  The photo at the top shows their current state.  I'm hoping that - with time - the gaps will close and a small 'hedge' of sorts appears here....

Firepit Entrance Yews - Update - November 2024

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In July of 2022, I added a pair of Hicks Yews (if it isn't clear by now, I was *really* hot on Hicks Yews in 2021 and 2022) on either side of the 'entrance' to our firepit area.  Like the rest of the Yews on our property, these were bought and planted as #1 nursery pot shrubs (and were bought at 50% off of $9.98 - so $10 for both of them).  They've had 2.5 growing seasons - all of 2023 and 2024 and half of 2022 - the year they went in.   My thought at the time was that these will create a little 'framed' entrance to the firepit from the yard, but they would need TIME to put on the necessary size. They were probably 12" tall when planted.  Barely visible in the landscape. Below, you can see the current size of this pair of Hicks Yews: These weren't watered that much this season, so they're clearly established.  You can see the little dark spot in the soil/mulch just to the right of the Yew in the foreground.  That's the mark of the soil-injected...

Spring Grove Ginkgo Tree - Leaf Drop and Gold Fall Show - November 2024

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Walking out the backdoor, I found a bunch of these fan-shaped Ginkgo leaves laying on the stoop.  They're from the pair of Spring Grove Ginkgo trees (dwarf, Witches broom trees) that sit on either side of our back stoop and flank the entrance.  I originally had a pair of Rhododendrons in these spots - planted in 2018 .  But, moved them out in 2023 doing a 'garden edit '.   I caught this post on Instagram from Erin - the Impatient Gardener - where she posted some photos of her own dwarf Ginkgo - a Gnome Ginkgo - and included some info that...I sort of 'observed', but didn't know what was going on with Ginkgos. Her post, embedded below, includes this line :  "Ginkgo trees develop these scars on all their leaves simultaneously, causing them to drop all at once when triggered by a hard frost." View this post on Instagram A post shared by Erin Schanen šŸŒæ The Impatient Gardener (@impatientgardener) "Blink and you'll miss it...

Hicks Yews for Metal Frame Topiary Shape - Growth Update - November 2024

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In 2021, I planted two 1# small Hicks (upright) yews in the backyard - sort of near the understory garden on the north side.  I planted them somewhat close together with eyes on (eventually) shaping them up into a 'Block I' Illinois topiary .  Earlier that year, I posted about this University of Auburn topiary frame and dreamed of a 'Block I' .  The two Hicks yews were probably 12" tall in Fall of 2021 .  They've now had three (2022, 2023 and 2024) growing seasons and have put on some size.   Here are the two Hicks Yews - below - after those three growing seasons.  They've grown up (a little bit) are are still mostly columnar. It isn't easy to determine their height, so here below, is a shovel stuck in the ground to provide a height comparison.   I CLEARLY still have time to create the 'Block I' frame out of Chicken Wire, so I'm not concerned about that.  I am, however, concerned about the 'fullness' of these.  Are they going to ge...