Why I Oughta...

In the pizza oven bed, I have a lone, solitary Alchemilla Mollis 'Thriller' (Lady's Mantle) that I planted near the corner of the timbers of the retaining wall.  You can see it in the photos of this post about adding a new (to me) allium variety to that same bed .    I also bought a different variety (Auslese) a few years back and planted it in a spot that is buried in Ostrich Ferns.  I should go see if I can move that thing..... The reason I bring it up is that I was...well...influenced.   I saw this post from Erin the Impatient Gardener where she fawns over Alchemilla Mollis (Lady's Mantle) in her garden: View this post on Instagram A post shared by Erin Schanen 🌿 The Impatient Gardener (@impatientgardener) One of my garden rules is to never buy one of anything.  So, I needed to remedy that issue.   Also, #3 and #4 on my 2026 to-do list are these: For #3 (Finish up the edit with grasses), I have made progress....

Earlier this month, I posted the latest update on the progress of finishing our backyard wood-fired pizza oven where I showed the continued application of brick veneer to the exterior to clad the enclosure in a finished material.  At that time, I had most of the back and some parts of one side/the front complete.   Fast forward a little bit and now the brick veneer is fully-applied.  I ended up using two types of bricks (a cost-cutting choice) that I sort-of have come to regret.  But, that's only after I began to grout the bricks.  I used a more expensive brick on the front that came with L-Shaped 'corners' to help provide the illusion of full-dimensional bricks being used.  I'm glad I did that.  But, I also used a far-cheaper brick veneer product for the back and parts of the sides of the oven.   I thought that they would be hidden (in the case of the back and most of the sides), so it wouldn't matter if the 'cheaper' brick was back th...

Dahlia season started early in 2026.  With a single, pink bloom of a Wizard of Oz dahlia.  This post is going up two weeks after I snipped this bloom.  So, dahlia season started in June 2026. Last year, my earliest blooming dahlia was Wizard of Oz with a bloom exactly one-year-ago today .  It was productive all the way until (at least) mid-October.   This year, I planted two Wizard of Oz tubers.  #20 and #40 on my full list .  One of them - in the Pizza Oven West bed has bloomed .  Sort-of in the 'crotch' of some of the stems.   The blooms on Wizard of Oz Pompon dahlia are pale pink with yellow centers.  This is such a welcome site as we enter the heat of the Summer: Wizard of Oz Dahlia - pale pink bloom with yellow centers. When I say that this first bloom grew in the 'crotch' of a couple of stems, the two photos below shows what I mean.  The first photo is from a couple of days before I put it.  While the second pho...

I planted a very small, native Pagoda Dogwood tree in our backyard in the Summer of 2021.  Five years ago .  It was from a municipal native tree sale and was just a foot tall. Over the five years, it has grown up and out.  But, where it is planted is a little bit out-of-the-way.  Well...it is out-of-the-way now because the Weeping Redbud (Lavender Twist) bounced back after what I thought was it dying out.  That weeping Redbud has come back as a multi-trunk tree and has put on a bunch of size.  That means that this Pagoda Dogwood tree is now tucked in *behind* the redbud's foliage.  That doesn't diminish the Pagoda Dogwood, though.  Just makes it a little bit harder to see. I most recently covered this tree this past Winter when I posted a photo of the structure .  Each of the last three growing seasons, I've pruned this tree after it was done flowering.  2023 pruning , 2024 pruning and last year, 2025 pruning .   In each case...

The Dark Side of the Moon Astilbes that are planted in a row in the 'nook' garden behind the Weeping Nootka Cypress tree are blooming.  Well...*some* of them are blooming.  These are sort of just THERE.  Not thriving, not declining.  They're dark foliage plants, so I'm sure rooting for them.   Below is a photo showing the main group of these (there are a couple others that are split by the contorted Harry Lauder Walking Stick tree that is planted in this bed) with one tall, pink bloom and the other bloom (to the left) about to open up: This post is going up in mid-July, but this photo is from late June.  Just like last year, when I posted about these in July, but as a 'later-post' from June .   These were planted in 2023 from the Morton Arboretum annual Arbor Day Plant Sale .   This border needs some additional plant material in front of these.  There is some ajuga, but it sure seems like it could use more.  

 Last month, I posted a couple of photos of doing some of the brick veneer on the pizza oven .  #5 on my 2026 to-do list is to 'finish up the oven' - which means finishing up the...well....finishes.  The exterior.  On the enclosure, that means brick veneer.   I started the veneer late last year before the temperatures dropped .  Didn't get far.  But, due to the temperature tolerances of the veneer mortar, I had to wait out the Spring .   With this being the first-time doing this type of work, I'm learning as I go.  I started on the back of the oven and moved around to the front.  Veneer isn't cheap, but there are higher-quality bricks and lower-quality ones.  My thought is that I could use the more-expensive veneer on the sides of the oven that people will see.  And, the cheaper stuff on the back.  Against the fence.   I ordered a bunch of boxes of the 'cheaper' veneer and over the past few weeks got to...

#21 on my 2026 to-do list was to 'add another ornamental maple' to the garden.  So far, this season, I've planted a pair of them:  a North Wind Korean Maple (to replace the Arctic Jade) and an Alpenglow Korean Maple under the large tree swing.  Both from Iseli Nursery. Over the years, I've moved towards those Korean Maples. Acer pseudosieboldaianum. They have performed well (aside from the Arctic Jade).  They're more cold-hardy than Acer palmatums or Acer shirasawanum or Acer japonicum. But, the pull of the traditional Japanese Maples is still strong.  When I came across an Orange Dream Japanese Maple that was priced...ummm....right, I brought it home.   Also note... I still think about the full-moon maples like this one , too.  Below are a few photos showing the foliage, the tree form and where I planted it (in the back edge of the "Kitchen Curved" bed). The leaves in Summer are green with red(ish) stems: The tree has a low-graft and is about ...

I've written about my list of 'favorite plants'.  I started as a shade gardener on our current property which meant foliage gardening.  I've evolved in my tastes over the years and have come to appreciate a list of plants that work in our garden.   My list (right now) looks something like this:  Ferns (Autumn, Ghost, Japanese Painted, Godzilla, etc), Flowering Perennials (Nepeta Cat's Pajamas and Chartreuse on the Loose), Foliage Perennials  ( Alchemilla Lady's Mantle , Shredded Umbrella Plant), Groundcover (Ajuga and Carex) and Grasses (Hakonechloa, Seslaria Autumnalis, Karl Foerster Feather Reed Grasses).   That last one - Karl Foerster Grasses - were some of my very first grasses planted here in Downers.  And, over the years, I've divided them and spread them around.   They put on a really lovely show and are in particularly fine form in mid/late June.  I've written about "peak form" on Karl Foerster Grasses in June 2022 her...

In Summer 2023, I planted a low-grafted small Waterfall Japanese Maple about half-way back in our yard on the southside.  It was (at that time) my first green-leaf Japanese Maple and I planted it close to the front of the bed since it was small and growing close to the ground.   A year later, a large tree limb fell from one of the mature trees in the yard, crushing this small ornament Japanese Maple .  Basically taking ALL of the limbs off this poor tree.  The canopy was cut off by 75% in an instant.  Not good. I did the only thing I could:  leave the tree alone.   By last Summer, the tree seemed to begin to recover and put on some new growth . Looking at it today, I'm again seeing some new foliage growth and canopy expansion for the season. Below are a couple of photos showing the current state of this small Japanese Maple (weeping) tucked in amongst some hostas and the stalks of a couple of Fall-planted Allium bulbs: It is going to take a ...

#19 on my 2026 annual to-do list in the garden is to "upgrade the stumpery" in the backyard .  Those 'upgrades' are both in terms of plantings, but also what I'll (loosely) call 'place-making'.   I first came across the idea of a stumpery in late 2023 when I discovered that King Charles has a world-class stumpery .  I started building my stumpery in the backyard by throwing a few stumps that I had on-hand in the area underneath the secondary Northern Red Oak tree in the backyard along the southside. Last year, I planted a pair of Autumn Ferns and three Godzilla Ferns in the Stumpery and called it a day back there.     This year, I have opted to upgrade the Stumpery via some plantings including (at first) seven Autumn Ferns (quart-sized) that I planted behind the All Gold grasses .  I also planted six Ajuga 'Chocolate Chip' plugs to the front of that same bed .  And, just this past week I posted about eight more Autumn Ferns that I planted ...