Why I Oughta...

Over on the side of the garage - in the long, linear bed that is sandwiched between the house and the gravel path, there are a few different plants that I've tucked in here and mostly left alone.   I talked about this area earlier this Spring when I talked about (potentially) planting some trees that I can espalier against the house to kind-of 'break up' the large mass of wall .  When I posted that photo in mid-April, none of the perennials had emerged just yet, but with Spring turning to Summer around here, this spot has started to come alive.  And, what's showing up strong?  Ostrich Ferns.  See below for a photo showing some of the Ostrich Ferns that have spread and naturalized in this area: Here, below, is an annotated photo showing the location of eight Ostrich Ferns - some tiny and some more mature.  Based in the location, the larger stand of fern fronds that are just above the large rock were the ones that I originally planted and the rest have s...

I brought home three Ivory Prince Hellebores from the Morton Arboretum Plant Sale and was able to get them into the ground in the border that held our lone ( previously purchased ) Hellebore.  You can see them in the photo below:   the three Ivory Prince Lenten Roses / Hellebores are now planted in a triangular shape *around* the existing Sally's Shell (now planted in the middle).  This area is bordered by a large/mature Catalpa tree (you can see a peek at the trunk on the far left of this photo below). In the coming days/weeks, I'll mulch these in and have the edge of the bed cleaned up.  With four (now) in this spot, I'm hoping for some self-sowing (according to the Web...that's a thing.  But, it hasn't happened for me just yet) and spreading.  This area calls for ten total Hellebores , so we're getting close to half-way there.  

Last year, I bought three Japanese Forest Grasses - Hakonechloa Macra Hakone Grass - from Northwind up in Wisconsin and planted them right at the base of the big Northern Red Oak tree - the tree swing tree amongst some hostas.  These grasses are similar to the All Gold variety that I have in a few places, but these aren't as 'lime green' color, but rather a darker green.  They're also (per the signage) more vigorous.   This is their first Spring and all three of them have emerged from the mulch.  You can see them (below) tucked into the border with some hostas (Frances Williams and others) above them.   My plan is to let all of these things come up and then decide if I need to transplant a few things around.   The bare root hostas are starting to get to a more-mature size and as they fill in, I think there might be a few more than necessary here.  

Yesterday, I posted a couple of photos showing the location of the Little Honey Oakleaf Hydrangeas that we bought at the Morton Arboretum and planted in the backyard (southside bed, understory of the secondary Northern Red Oak tree).   I also bought two MORE Oakleaf Hydrangeas from the sale - Ruby Slippers Oakleaf Hydrangeas - that are also planted (now) in our backyard.  This time, however, they are in the northside bed.  These Ruby Slippers Oakleaf Hydrangas  (Hydrangea Quercifolia) are MUCH darker green than the Little Honey variety, but like the Little Honey, these maintain a compact form of under five feet tall .   Last year, when I moved the Alice Oakleaf Hydrangeas out from the fence, I moved ONE of them over to the south bed - in between the Harry Lauder Walking Stick tree and the Weeping Nootka Falsecypress tree .   The plan calls for three flowering shrubs planted in a cluster here and that's why I brought home two Ruby Slippers ...

A week ago, I started posting a series of photos of the plant material that we brought home from the annual Morton Arboretum Arbor Day Plant Sale.  The first of those posts were these three Little Honey Oakleaf Hydrangeas that are bright chartreuse in color and are dwarf (under 5' tall) in stature.  The plan called for three Little Lime Hydrangeas, but because this spot is deeper into the shade than it used to be (when the plan was built/drafted), I decided to call the audible and move to an Oakleaf variety.   I tucked these three into the area just to the West of where I dug out the Lilacs.  They get four feet tall and four feet wide, so when mature, they'll (hopefully) fill in the current spacing.  You can see the three Little Honey Oakleaf Hydrangeas standing OUT in the landscape below: Here, below, is an annotated version of that same photo showing where these are located - understory of the flowering Kwanzan Cherry tree and bordered by the Everillo S...

We brought home four treeform DoubleFile Viburum a couple of weeks ago and once the Green Giant Thuja planting project (and Lilac transplanting), I got busy digging these Virurnum in the ground. Two went in along the north side fence, one went in back the fire pit and one is going in (not yet) in the front yard bed in front of our porch.  Last Fall, I planted two Arrowwood Viburnum along the fenceline after finding them on an end-of-season close-out .  The plan calls for a number of them, but four in a line where I've planted two (meaning...two more) and a few more along the back - some of which I've sub'd out (for now) for Lilacs.    Starting out with the two additional ones along the north side fence ( see this post showing the location ), I needed to put in a pair between the two existing and the spot where the Canadian Hemlocks (which....are TINY, still) will grow.  Like in the Lilac transplant landing zone, there was a scrub shrub standing which needed t...

Earlier this month, as part of a series of garden bed 'slices', I did some shrub exploration posts including the 'Lilac Replacement' section and the ' Northside Mixed Bed ' that kind of worked together.  They both required some upright evergreens, but the Lilacs needed to be transplanted from one section to the other.  Earlier this week, I got started by planting the upright evergreens - three Green Giant Thujas - in each section.  From there, I dug up and transplanted the four Lilac shrubs (2 Nocture, 2 Common) in the Northside bed. Before I did the planting, I removed some of the lower, but still large limbs on the Hackberry tree to make sure these were getting the most sun they could get in this spot.  Below is a look at the couple of cuts I made with my extension saw: Here's what the newly planted area looks like with three evergreens, four flowering shrubs, an existing scrub shrub and a small London Planetree (below): And, here's an annotated versi...

Having locked-in my 2022 priorities for the yard and garden last week , I have begun to think about the practical implementation of the first item on the list:  Shrubs.  A discussion of some of the shrub needs were walked thru earlier in March in this post that laid out a list of needs and included a reference to adding three Tardiva Hydrangeas.  Back in 2017, I included a look at that part of the beds that called for these Tardiva Hydrangeas here .   With all that background out of the way, I think it is useful to look at the current conditions of this portion of the bed AND my current thinking in terms of deciduous shrubs based on some pointers from others.   To be sure, this is NOT a 'clean slate' situation.  I've planted things there that NEED to be relocated. First, I have four Lilac shrubs planted along the fenceline.  Two common Lilacs ( planted in 2018 ) and two Nocture Lilacs ( planted in 2019 ).  NONE of these have worked here...

As the calendar is showing late March, we're now STARING down the real beginning of gardening and yard care season here in USDA Growing Zone 5b.  And, like a lot of amateur gardeners and landscape caretakers, I often find myself adrift - drawn to things in garden centers that I don't have in my plans, pulled to focus on projects that steal time and end up planting things in places that don't make sense for the long haul.  However, I *do* have a landscape plan that was drawn by a professional.  I have of gardening rules don't buy just ONE of anything  and dig a $5 hole for a 50 cent plant .  (That makes me think that I *should* write a post that outlines my adopted gardening rules that I've collected over tim).  And, I have list of projects that I'd like to tackle.   Using those tools and direction SHOULD make the growing season go smoothly.  But, everybody - including me - needs to be held accountable.   That's why, over the pa...

Posting a couple of photos in the [ garden diary ] to start the new year to mark where I've spread out some of our hardwood ash in the beds in the backyard.  The two photos below in this post show the thin layer that I've scattered on top of the snow in the south bed in the backyard from the Oakleaf Hydrangeas to the newly planted Hicks Yews .  I've done this in the past (bringing out the wood ash from our fireplaces) and scattered it around the yard.  In 2019, I applied a thin layer to the base of our Frans Fontaine Columnar Hormbeam trees . This year, I had a bucket-and-a-half and chose the south beds to amend the soil over there.  Currently, it looks a little strange.  Grey patches on top of pure white snow.  But, once we get a melt/thaw then freeze cycle - or...another snowfall, I'm thinking this stuff will disappear from view. The word on the Web is mixed in regards to adding ash to the garden, yard and compost bins.  It seems that in a limited wa...

This dwarf Alice Oakleaf Hydrangea - planted in our backyard - is putting on quite a Fall show.  Deep red, almost purple leaves covering the whole shrub.  Interestingly...it is doing this show by itself - meaning the matching pair is still green.  One of the larger ones - behind this one - is partially red (you can see part of it at the top of the photo below), but otherwise, the balance of the Alice Oakleaf Hydrangea quercifolias aren't/haven't gone red just yet.  These are planted in a bed that we can see from our kitchen windows - so for that reason (being able to enjoy this Fall show), I'm really happy with this late-season delight.   Also...of note....I recently covered these hydrangeas when I talked about having to move them to make room for an upright Hicks Yew behind them . 

Fall shrub planting has included 8 Hicks upright Yews - in 2 locations so far.  First the pair for the (eventual) Block I topiary .  And then, last week a very SMALL hedge (in planning stage) of six more Yews along the south border in the backyard.   And a trio of dwarf Green Gem boxwoods .  Today's post is almost a year in coming but features two more upright Yews - planted close to the fence in one of our shade beds.   You can see one of the two #1 Yews that I planted in the ground in the photo below: I say that these Yews have been in the works for close to a year because it has taken me that long to complete the various steps that I needed to do in order to get these Yews in the ground. First, I suppose I should explain the WHY behind these yews, their location and what I'm trying to accomplish with this planting. I've posted before about learning from and gaining inspiration from Amy Fedele at Pretty Purple Door including her shared love of na...

We have boxwoods planted in both the front and the back of our house.  The ones in front were planted by the landscaper who installed our initial plantings and beds.  The ones in back were planted the following growing season and are near our kitchen window.  The first look I can find of them here on the blog was in April of 2019 when I pruned them up a little bit to be more ball-like .  By last Fall, these same Boxwoods (Green Velvet) had grown up and out and were starting to come together .   One of the things that I've missed out on (consistently) is working in evergreen trees into the landscape that I've been planting out back.  I added the Weeping Nootka Cypress this year to help, but I know that I can do more.  In terms of evergreen shrubs, we have a mixed report.  Both in terms of species but also in terms of making progress with evergreens.  In terms of inventory of evergreen shrubs....We have the aforementioned boxwoods.  ...

A week ago, I finally had enough with a 'tough-to-grow-grass spot' in our front yard .  It a little section sandwiched on the ' in between two driveways ' island and right up against the sidewalk.  My thought was that part of the reason that the turf goes dormant here every Summer is because the heat radiates off the concrete on two sides and just dries the area out.  And, that's certainly part of it.  Not to mention that I don't water it enough.  But, last week, when I cut this new little bed in , I also discovered that there isn't much soil here.  Just a little bit of top soil - like an inch or two - followed by mostly gravel.   After I cut out the edge of this little bed and removed the turf, I ended up dumping a few bags of compost in the area to thicken up the area and provide a bit more organic material to allow for things to root in and (hopefully) grow.   I then looked around to see if I had any plant material on hand that I coul...

A few days ago, I posted (once again) about the 'in between two driveways' part of our yard and talked about how the hot, Summer sun beats down part of the area so much so that I've had the grass go dormant every year.  In that post, I talked about taking on just a PART of the area - down by the sidewalk - which is the worst-hit portion of the turf each year.  My thinking was to convert this section to a bed and plant it with something a bit more drought-tolerant.    My longer-term thinking is to convert much of this section 'in between two driveways' to a long, linear bed with just a little bit of turf .  But, that's a big project requiring quite a bit of turf removal AND a lot of planting.   That means I'm going to start with a smaller section right now - and I started to carve out the bed last night.  Just to get the contours of the area that I want to transform, I removed the edge and will follow with removing the (now dormant) turf in the c...

When I put together my 2021 to-do list , I included as #3 the idea of working the 'in between two driveways' area.  I mentioned that I needed to add a layer of mulch and think about doing even more.  I did some of that - mulched AND added a trio of Serendipity Allium to the bed .  And, the Chanticleer Pear Tree (after some hard pruning) seems to be on track.  (I'm not sure that's a good thing...but that's for another day.) But that's the extent of the work over there so far. Revisiting what I wrote back in late February about this area, I mentioned doing more: Later on (after I published my list), I wrote a post expounding on this area and even had some thinking about the area and converting it from turf grass .  But, I never got around to doing that very thing. Why post about it now?  Because, after a hard Summer of sun beating down on it, I am reminded why this area is so problematic.  See below for what it looks like right now:  Hard, dry, brit...