Why I Oughta...

Last year, I discovered that our Serendipity Alliums were out-performing our Summer Beauty Alliums in terms of bloom time and WHEN they bloomed ( Serendipity bloomed later ).   I've added a number of Summer Beauty via divisions over the years, but I had - until last Fall - not divided the pair of Serendipity Alliums that were IB2DWs.   I originally planted three of them the middle of the Summer 2021, but only two survived.  (Should have known planting a new perennial in the heat of Summer was unwise.) Last Fall, I took the two existing clumps and divided them up into five plants.  From two-to-five = net of three new plants .  This Spring, all five have come back - for now.  Below is a look at the three in the original IB2DWs bed - close to the driveway: And below is a look at the other two - in the new conifer garden - they can be seen on the left side of the photo.   I'm thinking that I'll see how these do and perhaps in next year, we'l...

As I've done a few times, I wanted to document a few looks at the snow bank that has been created IB2DWs.  This is an area where both me AND my neighbor pile driveway snow, so it gets higher/taller than the rest of our front yard.   Here's a look at the snow level in 2021 .  And here's a look at the snow level in 2022 .  Looking at the photos below, there are of course some changes.  The conifers added this past Fall give a different look at the depth.  But, the Red Fox Katsura and Bald Cypress are there all the way back in 2021.  Naturally...the trees have grown, so it isn't super easy to compare.  Based on the branching on the Katsura, I'm thinking that 2023/2024 snow pile is in between the two other recorded.  2022 was deeper.  2021 was less snow.  Just an eyeball guess. Below is an early morning look:

Four years.  That's how long it took for our Bald Cypress tree to go from a thin, wispy nursery pot tree to a mature-enough tree to bear fruit.  I bought this small tree at the orange Big Box Nursery back in September of 2018 .  I planted it in the IB2DWs section and followed Ralph Snodsmith's advice by giving it a " Five Dollar Hole " and hoped for the best.  By Fall of 2020 (two years after planting), we were seeing plenty of needle growth .  Same with a year later (September 2021) when the tree seemed to have 'leaped' up .   Just earlier this month, I captured the caliper dimension (6" from root flare) at 3.47" .  Up from 1.21" in February of 2020 .   This tree is CLEARLY at the head of the class in terms of all of the plantings we've made of small trees.  It is growing tall and wide .  And is likely getting ready for the first real limb'ing up of the tree as it begins to encroach on driveways.  (remember...it is locat...

Yesterday, I posted some photos showing the series of Karl Foerster Feather Reed Grasses around the garden .  I also acknowledged that some folks consider them VERY basic.  But, I guess they're a guilty pleasure for this gardener.  In that post, I mentioned that I was planning on doing a follow-up on the IB2DWs bed that featured some of these same ornamental grasses.  Here, below, is a view of the IB2DWs bed.  Consider this the early Summer "State of the IB2DWs Bed". And, here below, is an annotated version of that photo.  Orange = five Karl Foerster Feather Reed Grasses White = Bald Cypress tree Red = two Serendipity Alliums  Blue = Prairie Dropseed Green = Peony Purple = two of the three Green Velvet Boxwoods that I planted a few weeks back Yellow = the trio of Blue Fescue grasses and Cat's Pajamas Nepeta from this season The bed is starting to fill-in this season, but it still needs some work to add some layers.  I'd like to try to plant some a...

Yesterday, I showed the backyard location of one of our two Prairie Dropseed native grasses that we bought at the Morton Arboretum Annual Plant Sale.  Today, (below) is a photo of the location of the other one:  IB2DWs.  Prairie Dropseed - Sporobolus heterolepis - is a 'tough' native grass and ground cover.  That means that this planting works two-ways on my 2022 to-do list .  #4 on the list was to 'enhance the IB2DWs strip' and #5 was to 'fall in love with ground cover'.   This grass (planted as a single grass for now) is close to the driveway and the bluestone chip gravel path: A few things to note about the photo:  first...the seeds from trees (those yellow things) are flush this season.  Also, if you look closely at the area where the Prairie Dropseed was planted, you'll see A LOT of clay soil.  Related to that clay, if you look at the top left of the photo, you'll see the Chanticleer Pear tree that was replaced and is living in a...

I planted a (new-to-me) variety of Allium last Summer with Serendipity Allium in the IB2DWs bed - in a little colony of three plants .   I've had a lot of luck with Allium Summer Beauty and these are similar, but are a little bit more 'strap-y' in their foliage, so when I found them, I knew I could put them to work in the garden.  When I was out looking for tulip tips coming out of the mulch, I came across some green shoots - from these Allium.  See below, a photo showing the little green foliage that has emerged for the first Spring on these in this bed next to our driveway . This past weekend, we had what is known (around here) as False Spring.  Where we get temperatures up in the seventies.  That makes gardeners like me what to get out and start Spring clean-up.  But, I also know that we'll get more snow (and we did...on Monday).  So, you have to resist the temptation to pull any of last year's dead material away from these tender, green shoots...

I posted about this same situation last year (a little later into February) where I talked about how, due to the somewhat narrow strip of land between driveways, the snow tends to pile up pretty deep .  First up is the Red Fox Katsura tree that you can barely make out.  It is a narrow, thin trunk.  I planted this when I thought that our flowering pear tree was failing.  Now, they're close together and we're going to have to make a choice.  I know (already) which way I'm leaning. Next up is the Bald Cypress tree that experienced a ton of growth this past year.   This tree was once as skinny and thin as the Katsura, but has bulked up and now is clear to make out in the photo.   The snow for the Bald Cypress is about four inches or so BELOW the bottom branches.  Looks similar to last year .  These big piles of snow certainly help provide a D E E P watering once we start to see melting.  That will be a good thing.  I also have to...

Last week, I posted a couple of photos of a tiny Ginko Biloba tree that I received in the mail that had suffered some shipping damage and had a bent-over trunk.  I ended up planting that damaged Ginko tree in the backyard - uncertain if it will survive .   When I sent in some photos of the damage that the Ginko biloba tree, they shipped me out a replacement tree.  This second one arrived undamaged and in slightly better condition.   Ginko trees are known to be pretty slow-growing, so I needed to stick this tree in a spot that I can largely ignore for a number of years.  Knowing I had one (already) in the backyard, I figured I should look at my front-yard tree planting wish list and pick out a spot that made sense.  My history of small trees is mixed, but one of the (more recent) success stories was the Bald Cypress that I planted a few Falls ago .  That tree started VERY small - about the size and caliper of this Ginko.  But, it has th...

Most every Fall, I've planted bulbs of some variety.  The last few seasons, it has been tulip bulbs in the front and back beds.  But, I've also planted Alliums over the years including these Purple Sensation bulbs in 2017 and 2018.  This year, I'm going to be digging in a little bit of both - including some Tulips that Nat bought at Costco and some Alliums that both she bought (at Costco) and some others that I ordered online.  I'll post about the tulips in the coming days, but first up are these Pinball Wizard Allium bulbs that came home from Costco.   This is a pack of five - and because I bought other types online, we stopped with just these five, despite knowing that you're *supposed* to plant bulbs in big masses.  The package (below) shows a little child's head next to some MASSIVE purple Allium flower heads.  The listing at Longfield Gardens shows them as a pack of two , but, they're the *full* bulbs, while the ones at Costco come as a pac...

Last month, I created a new bed , down by the sidewalk that has historically been turf that has ALWAYS gone dormant in a big way during the Summer.  Currently, it is small - like about 24" wide and spans the space between our driveway and the large Hackberry tree in the corner of our property.  I knew that I had to think about some drought-resistant plantings down there due to the history of the site and upon excavation, I now know why:  there was a half-inch or so of topsoil standing on top of gravel.   My plan started by transplanting some of the Lemon Coral Sedum that we had in our front porch bed down there in late September .  Doing so, checked a big part of the box for #3 on my 2021 to-do list to work the 'in between two driveways' section.   I also wanted to add something else to the bed before things went dormant for the year, so on one of my trips to the Home Depot, I came across an ornamental grass that sounded interesting.  At 50%...

Six weeks ago, I posted a photo of part of our garden path on the northside of our house that we installed this Summer that featured a metal edge and a thick layer of Bluestone chips for the gravel.  In that post (from early August), I showed a view from a concrete landing forward to the gate on our fence .  The Bluestone garden path extends PAST the gate and (now) connects our driveway with our backyard.  Or....mostly does.  There's still another section to do that I think we're going to have to do in pavers with a retaining wall.   But, I wanted to capture in the [ garden diary ] how the path works with the driveway.  You can see below how I flared the edging out to make a wider birth and tapered it back to a 48" wide path as it makes the curve around that Vanilla Strawberry Hydrangea.  As I said back in August, this project wasn't on my 2021 to-do list , but it should have been.  It was something that we NEEDED to get done and now gives me...

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...

Last year, I planted a couple of drifts of Allium angulosum 'Summer Beauty' and I've been really happy with them in our backyard.  I posted recently a look at both sets here .  Over the course of the past few months, I've been looking at them and reading about various hybrids including Millenium.  I think it was on YouTube where someone introduced me to Allium 'Serendipity' and called it "strap-y".  That descriptor stuck with me, so when I came across a trio of these on a big discount this Summer, I plop'd them in my cart and brought them home.  3 for $9.99 for 1# perennials is my love language. I put the three in different, various spots in the backyard and left them there to consider.  Each place I wasn't happy.  They'd work there.  But they weren't right.  I tried maybe four of five spots to place this cluster of three.  The tag lists this as 'FULL Sun/part Shade', so it gave me more options than I normally have with our bac...

Our little Bald Cypress tree - that is planted 'in between two driveways' is beginning to shine.  It was so small when we planted it and all of last growing season, it was sandwiched up against a chain link construction fence, so I'm not sure we enjoyed it all.  But this year?  It is putting on a thick new coat of needles and as a lot of growth at the tips of the existing limbs.  Here, below, is a look at how the tips are growing thick and lush: I need to get around to doing a caliper measurement on this tree (and all of the trees), but I can tell that this is the 'leap' year in the sleep/creep/leap cycle.  Planted in the Fall of 2018 , we're in the third growing season, so that tracks, right?  Last Summer, it had a nice run that included some growth all the way up until September and was mulched properly this Spring.   We call this tree the "Dinosaur Tree" in our house because of the heritage of the tree going back to the time when dinosaurs roa...

 We have 14 Karl Foerster Feather Reed Grasses planted in various places around our yard - five outside our kitchen window , four outside our screened porch, three in a little island between our driveway and front porch stairs and a pair planted 'in between two driveways" (IB2Ds).  I've posted photos of these various grasses on the blog over the years, but I wanted to drop a series of photos of these in the [garden diary] so I can track their progress. First up, four grasses planted outside of our screened porch.  I planted one back in 2018 because I had one too many.  But, last Fall, I added three more to make this a four-pack below:  Next up, three large grasses that were planted in 2017 before we moved in and our house was finished.  These are good-sized, but are experiencing (I think) a little bit of center-rot where the center part of these grasses is dying - and the recommended course of action is to dig up and divide.  Here's a look at these g...

Back in 2017, we had a large (3" plus caliper) Chanticleer Pear tree planted in our front yard - adjacent to our garage and driveway.  That tree died in year one and was replaced.  The replacement tree suffered the same way, but it took me close to a year to figure out that the problem was water - but not drought.  It was OVERwatering and the tree was drowning.   I worked the hole and tried to break through the clay bowl, but the tree has never been right. In 2018, it flowered in November .  Weird, right?    I last covered this tree in April of last year when it was showing just a couple of flower buds .  It leaf'd out just a little bit last year and I assumed that it was a goner this Spring. So much so, that I planted another , second tree in the shadow of this one with the thinking that I'd get a half-year head start with the new tree when the time came to chop down this pear.  That tree was this very thin Red Fox Katsura tree that I ...

Back at the end of February, I published my 25 point "to do" list for the yard and garden for 2021 .  In that list, I included what I called two "priority areas" as #1 and #2.  The item in spot #3 was to work the area between the two driveways. The first two priority areas are in the backyard, but this one is in the front yard and I didn't label it as a priority area before I published the list, so I'm not sure I can now.  Instead, let's just call this"Between Two Driveways".    I mentioned it yesterday as a potential location for some transplanted peonies. This is a long, narrow strip that was - up until last fall - just turf with a very small Bald Cypress and a troubled Chanticleer Pear tree .  Our neighbors directly to the north of us have recently built their new house and moved in this past Fall.  As part of their new construction, they added a new driveway that runs parallel to ours - thus creating this long strip of land.  The Bald Cypr...