Why I Oughta...

Here comes planting season. The first of the new perennials has just gone in:  the three primrose that we bought at Wannemaker's early season sale .  These are Primula belarina 'Blue Champion' and I interplanted them with the Twinkle Toes Lungwort that I transplanted late last growing season (I moved them closer to the front of the border in order to allow space for other things in the middle of the bed that are taller .) and they have reemerged this Spring.   This area is more Sunny this time of year, but becomes more shade as the trees take on their seasonal leaves.   My hope is they'll be watered in (enough) to get established this year and as the Lungwort grows up, it will protect these Primrose a little bit.  

There's a flowering perennial that I've been thinking about and chasing ever since we moved out of our house in Elmhurst.  Actually, there are a bunch of them.  But, one that I think about often:  Anemones.  Nat had them in her wedding day bouquet and her Mom bought us a plant back in 2010 and I just stuck it in the front yard garden.  It bloomed and grew .  And then we moved out. I've admired an Anemone in one of our neighborhood gardens and always thought that I needed to plant some in our backyard garden.  The moment finally arrived when I was looking at the nursery tables at North Wind Perennial Farm up in Wisconsin recently.  That's when I came across the sign you see above.  For Anemone 'Lucky Charm'. The description reads - in part:  "Here's an anemone that welcomes the beginning of Spring with beautiful, dark purple foliage and ends the season with engaging dark pink flowers, touched with gold.  And, during the middle of Summer, your garden is

Yesterday, I posted some photos of our new Japanese Maple tree and included in those photos was a brief look at three of these Dolce Apple Twist Heucheras that I bought at the same time.  Again...not planned - which may have been a mistake - but also, I bought three (not one!).  Here's a look at the 1# nursery pots that they came in: And here's a look at the back of the plant tag showing the height (10") and spacing (20") and a description of the colors (changes with the seasons).  It was their color (chartreuse) that drew me to them thinking that they'll be a nice contrast against some other items in this section. I planted these three in a row on the new border - just outside of the Japanese Tamukeyama Maple and surrounded by some transplanted hostas.  These (below) are the first four of the (ultimate) 15 hostas that I transplanted and posted about last week.  Also, on the left are a few ferns - some of the items listed as companion plants on the tag.  More on t

Yesterday, I shared the planting of eight bareroot Bressingham Blue Hostas in a new bed in the backyard.  I had previously planted two others by the screened porch .  That's 10 of 18.  Going down my list, the next spot for the balance of these looks like back by the Yew Hedge.  From my planning post: 1.  Priority Area #2 for 2021 .  Calls for 8.  Done.  Posted yesterday . 2.  Hicks Yew Hedge corner.  Calls for 6. 3.   Screened porch corner.  Calls for 2.    This one is done already . That area calls for six Hadspens, too.  Here is showing these six (in blue) in relation to the previous eight (in green) per the plan: And, here's where they're going in - spreading to the north of the northern-most Hicks Yew. These are deep shade but likely have the BEST soil on the property.  I used wood chips last season to mulch in the yews and create the fire pit area, but this year they'll get a proper hardwood fine mulching.  Same thing, though:  Think I can beat 50% success rate on

My top backyard priority was to get the southern fenceline planted with a series of new perennials.  Back in February, I called it "Priority Area #1" and showed a schematic of what would go where.  You can go back to that post and see a photo with a sketch on top of it showing a "head-on" look at the area.  Below, you can see a portion of the landscape plan that was developed that shows the plantings here.  You'll note that it calls for bookend'd Summer Beauty Alliums, a series of Alice Oakleaf Hydrangeas and a strip of Fanal Astilbe up front.  On the far right, you'll also see the esaplier'd Lindens and they show something as "Existing", but I don't know what that is because there really wasn't anything in that spot when we built the house. That part of the plan calls for: 15 Fanal Astilbe 12 Summer Beauty Allium 7 Oakleaf Hydrangea I also posted about how I wanted to add a larger Canadian Hemlock tree or another co

Back in March of this year, I posted a photo of a couple of Milkweed seed packets that we received from the Save our Monarchs Foundation that are appropriate for our 5B zone here out in the Chicago Suburbs.  I also had t his older packet of Milkweed seed that we received at a parade in 2016 that I never planted.  With Spring here and the back of our yard still a mess, I just decided to sow them directly in the ground and cross my fingers that we'll see some action on them as the weather warms up.  I put them in a staggered row with the two Foundation packets on the right and the parade packet on the left. I put the empty packet envelopes down in the soil and took this photo so I can go back there later this Summer, see if anything is happening with them and then know which type is which.  I'm hoping that a few of seedlings will emerge and we'll get a nice first year plant that can help the Monarchs this season.  I took the Bird and the KotBT out there and they helped