Why I Oughta...

Another entry into the recent [Winter Interest] category of the garden diary shows off a feature in our backyard garden:  a handsome pair of Greenspire Linden Trees that are trained into a four-tier horizontal cordon espalier.  There are eleven (11) Green Velvet Boxwoods planted the base of the two trees .   The photo below shows the current state of the dormant Linden trees and the boxwoods showing-up against the white Winter snow.  This is a vignette in our garden that is close to our house and patio and one that we can take-in during the months where we rarely venture outside in the back. A few things to note: 1.  The Lindens need a haircut.  The top-growth on the uppermost tier of the espalier has gone ham.   2.  Last Spring (March 2025), I took a photo showing this same shot but covered in a thin layer of snow .  Not sure it ever looked better.   3.  The boxwoods have grown.  They were planted as tiny 1-gal...

One of the very best things I did in our garden this year was planting an Arctic Jade Korean Maple in our backyard .  It was/is our second Korean Maple with the first one being a Northern Glow Korean Maple that I planted out front in 2024 .  I posted photos of this small tree when the foliage was green .  And when the foliage was yellow .  And when the foliage was turning red .  Here, below, is a look at the tree when the foliage is, well...gone.  The tree is dormant and has dropped all of its leaves.  Last week, when I posted this peek at some of the Hakonechloa All Golds in the snow , you could see the side-profile of this Arctic Jade.   With it being 'naked' during the Winter, it gives me a chance to observe the structure.  Now....one of my "Great Garden Rules" is #8:  Don't prune anything for a while.  That means there's no touching this tree for a couple of seasons.  But, I can already see something that I'd prune of...

Yesterday, I s howed one of two small Canadian Hemlock trees in our backyard and talked about how one of them was being eaten-up by some (dang) rabbits this Winter .   Here, below, is a look at the other one of these conifer trees that was planted at the same time.  This one is MUCH-MORE full.  But, about the same height (five-ish feet tall).    Similarly tucked into the 'understory garden', this Canadian Hemlock is one of just two remaining of the six that we originally planted.  I mentioned yesterday that I need to include the Canadian Hemlock on my list of trees/shrubs/flowers that work in our garden and think about adding more.   I think the Stumpery is a prime location as well as the unplanted bed that sits in front of the fire pit garden.   Speaking of the stumpery ...I should revisit it this week to show the 'winter interest'.  

All the way back in Summer of 2019, I bought and planted a number of VERY SMALL Canadian Hemlock trees from an online nursery .   Three of them were planted along the north side fence line .  Today, two of those three are still standing .  Seven years ago, these trees weren't even a foot-tall in height.   Today?  This one is probably five-feet tall.  But, sparsely branched.  And, the caliper of the trunk is probably up to almost an inch.  Below is a look at this Canadian Hemlock tucked into the 'understory garden'.   Would I plant this tree back here, close to these other trunks - if I was to do it all over?  No.  Would I plant this small of a tree - if I was to do it all over?  No. But, here we are.  Seven years later and the tree is in this spot. The growth of the tree isn't really the point of this post in my garden diary.  I was out taking some kitchen scraps to the compost bin and took a number of ...

Planted back in the Fall of 2021 , we have a (still) small Mugo Pine in the backyard northside bed about 3/4's of the way back.  It is planted pretty close to the Harry Lauder Walking Stick Tree that I posted about yesterday .  It was a #1 gallon conifer when it went in and cost just $5.00.   I posted about it one-year after planting as it was establishing itself (but not putting on any growth at that time).   Then, in Fall of 2022, I noted that the (dang!) rabbits were feasting on this small shrub .   By Fall of 2024 it had grown a little bit , but it still was small.   Today? Like the Harry Lauder Contorted Walking Stick Tree ...this one has been 'slow-growing'.  Here, below, is the Mugo Pine peeking up out of the snow: I included the idea of ' conifers should come first ' in my v1 draft of Jake's Great Garden Rules   and this Mugo Pine is an example of a conifer that I planted earlier than most.  Was it likely too ...

Planted in the Summer of 2020, this Harry Lauder Walking Stick Tree sits in the back part of the garden in a tucked-away spot, but when you see it when it is bare and dormant, it provides A LOT of winter interest.   It is described as 'contorted' and that's certainly the case with this small tree that I spotted on my way back to the compost pile this weekend.  When I snapped this photo (below), I muttered to myself:  "this tree has hardly grown.  How long has it been here?" [Sidenote:  I wrote about Contorted Trees at Disneyland Paris here that's worth checking out .  That was the inspiration for buying and planting this tree in our garden.] The answer to the second part is:  This year will mark its seventh (7th) growing season ('20, '21, '22, '23, '24, '25, '26).  That's far longer than I thought.   As for the second part;  has it grown?  Let's look.  Here, below, is what it looks like currently: Looking back at th...

While the (dang) rabbits were able to get to *some* of my Japanese Forest Grasses (when they were green), on-balance most of them are showing off a little bit of their 'winter interest'.  Are these the largest masses of grasses?  No.  But, they're SOMETHING - in terms of sizes.  I transplanted these over in 2024, so they have had two growing seasons on this border .  Here's a post showing them re-emerging for year two in April 2025 .   Here's the grasses right now, under a light blanket of snow: Here's hoping that they'll FILL OUT and get 'fat and sassy' in 2026.  

One of my ' early early' potential projects was to add a garden arch to the backyard.  That's because I was gifted a garden arch for Christmas.  It is still in the box, so I'm not totally sure what it looks like, but believe it to be a square one (non-arch) and it is made of wood.  Where could it go?  The first spot is obviously the fire pit entrance.  To help frame/create that as the 'entrance' to the fire pit .  Like this: But, I could also put it closer to the house.  Either off the boardwalk.  Or, as part of a 'hide-and-reveal' entrance off the patio?  If I did that....what would we do back by the firepit?   The answer is, of course easy:  Revisit the idea of building a moongate back there .   I suppose the installation of the arch certainly isn't permanent.  So, if I end up starting with it back there, it doesn't mean we can't build the moongate, right? 

Here, below is a look at an unfinished part of a 2024 'garden edit'.  There are just three Hakonechloa Macra (straight green) grasses planted.  I think there's room for four or five more.   The other side of this bed (the pizza oven bed) is on my early, early priority list for adding the same grasses.  I'm thinking we need to do both ends:

A couple of my backyard 'garden edits' involved what I termed the "Hosta Replacement Project" - where I yanked out some hostas and replaced them with something else that persisted in the winter (grasses, astilbes, etc).   I moved a bunch of them out, but there are many more left in place.  Perhaps, another section of the great 'hosta replacement project' could be one of my potential "2026 priority projects"?  I'm not convinced.  But, like Paul Graham has said :  writing helps you understand what you actually think.  As he put it , "Writing about something, even something you know well, usually shows you that you didn't know it as well as you thought." Below is a photo showing the northside bed that is about half-way back (behind the picnic table).  The thing you see standing tall and proud are those white stalks.  Those are hosta flower stalks that are hanging around after the foliage disappeared when the perennial went dormant.   ...

This Summer will mark seven (7) years since I planted and installed twelve (12) small Hicks Yews in the far back reach of our yard in a straight row spanning the width of our grass/yard.  Here's the post showing them in the ground for the first time when the needles were barely above the mulch .  That was mid-Summer 2019.   Seven years and this will be the eight growing season. Back then, I had a swoop-ing, undulating, but formally pruned hedge in mind .  That closely-clipped hedge was a product of YEARS of growth.   I watered them in the first year, but have mostly left them alone.  *Knock on Wood*.  I haven't lost one.  Yet.  Here they are in August of 2020 - one year after planting . Here the hedge is in November 2021 - four years ago . Here are some photos from December of 2022 showing the growth . And.. the Hicks Yews snuck into this post from Summer 2023 where I was talking about some ferns . Here's a post showing the gr...

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...

I've mentioned that Winter snow came early this year and that cut-short some of my typical garden cleanup. It also dropped most of the leaves on the Frans Fontaine Hornbeams that normally hang around all Winter.   And, those two things - snow packing down and leaves falling - has created a full bed of leaf litter at the feet of the Hornbeams.  Below is a photo showing the fallen leaves that have been matted-down by the heavy snow (that has since melted).   Just in FRONT of these trees is the newly-expanded Pizza Oven bed.  That bed is full of clay soil. One of the things I've been talking about doing this Winter is amending the clay soil to make it a little bit more hospitable to gardening next year - especially with more dahlias on their way.   My first thought was to utilize municipal biosolids and just pile it ON TOP OF THE CURRENT MULCH.  But, now, seeing this leave litter, I'm thinking that I should try to rake it up on top of the clay b...

In May, I added three upright Wichita Blue Junipers to the (newly expanded) pizza oven bed .  They were small - in two-gallon nursery containers and from the big box nursery.  But, they were priced right and I've been eyeing them for a while , so I took the chance.  I planted them in a staggered pattern forming a triangle. Four months later (early September), I p osted an update with new photos and talked about how they seemed to have handled the heat of Summer with minor browning-out.   Now, as we head into our first Winter, below is a photo showing them as of late December.   Here is the original inspiration photo showing Wichita Blue Junipers with some Stachys Hummelo planted in mass .    I didn't get around to planting anything around these, but that will be on my 2026 to-do list.  But, if I'm grading myself as a gardener, I'd say that I lived up to the statement that:  " Conifers Should Come First ".   Have these gro...

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...

Ten days ago, I posted a pizza oven construction update where I talked about the framing that I attached (with concrete anchors) to the block stand and poured hearth .  I used treated lumber to create a ledge and added tile-backer board to support the countertop.  That was in-preparation of the counter being installed.  Recently, the new soapstone counter (or landing) was installed.  A few photos showing the finished stone slab are below.  The soapstone extends beyond the edge of the oven enclosure and will still be 'proud' when the brick is attached. 

It seems like we're getting BOTH a slightly delayed Fall color cycle and it is also amp'd-up on some things a bit more this season, too.  One of them that's 'amp'd-up' is the tree swing tree:  A mature Northern Red Oak tree.  This large tree has historically behaved in different ways each season.  Some years, it holds its leaves through the Winter, while other years it drops everything quickly.  But, most seasons we get a very limited 'fall show' with muted browns. This year, things are a little different.  The tree is bright like a flame with orange leaves blazing against the blue sky.  See the photo below: A few things to note in this photo: 1. There are still a bunch of green trees around. 2. There are also some yellow trees (The Black Walnut trees). 3. The other large mature Red Oak tree is way more green than this one. Compare the state of this tree (orange leaves) to the same tree on November 9th, 2021 (4 years ago) when it was full of GREEN l...

Red centers with orange tips on the deeply cut leaves on our Arctic Jade Korean Maple tree continue to be the star of the "Fall Show" in our backyard.  I posted a photo of this tree showing its colors a few days ago and the tree continues to color-up.  Here, below, is a look at some of the colors on the leaves right now: Previously, I posted about this tree and included a description that compared the Arctic Jade Korean Maple to the Full Moon Autumn Maple - which is a Japanese Maple.  Acer shirasawnum.  One that I've long admired and a big part of why I bought the Arctic Jade.  Not to mention the fact that it is a Korean Maple that is a more cold tolerant than the Acer shirasawnum .   I planted this tree in the front of a curved bed in our backyard as a (sort-of) replacement for the Flowering Japanese Cherry Tree that died last year.  It went in the ground in June , so this is our first Fall with the tree.   Previously, I planted a sm...

Earlier this Summer, I planted our second Korean Maple tree - an Arctic Jade - in our backyard.  I wrote a little bit about this tree in June and talked about the fall colors.  In that post , I included this (partial) description: " In autumn, the foliage is an impressive canvas for the dazzling fusion of orange and red tones. "  So, with Autumn here, how is the tree shaping up?  Here, below is a photo showing the current state of this dwarf tree: I spy orange, red, yellow and greens.  Dazzling?  I'd say so.  Look at those red centers with orange edges on the foliage.  Also...a note about the Hakonechloa Forest Grasses on the right side of his photo above.  I'd say they look pretty, pretty, pretty good together, don't they?  

The last time that I checked in on the backyard pizza oven build, I showed off the full enclosure and roof and talked about how I had some success with a lower-temperature bake .  This was in late September and the oven - at that time - looked like this below.   From the front, you can see the block base and how I had made a temporary hearth landing out of a 2x6 that is supported by some firebrick cut-offs.   That was (obviously) temporary, but it has taken me a while to figure out what I wanted to do there. We seem to have landed on installing a hearth/landing ledge of Soapstone that will stick out from the front of the oven about 10-12 inches.  That will give me a little ledge/counter to work on before/after sliding the pies in/out of the oven.   But, in order to install that ledge, some permanent support needed to be installed.  Based on how I poured the hearth and placed the oven, I left myself four-or-five inches of space to build on top...