Why I Oughta...

Last May, I planted a pair of Brookside Geraniums in the square beds on either side of our backstoop along with a pair of Spring Grove Ginkgos .  These geraniums were from the Morton Sale and I tucked them into the back of the little beds.  A month-after-planting, I looked-back-in on the planting and they were doing well - and in bloom by the end of June .   That meant that this past Winter was their FIRST Winter - and I didn't have any data on their reemergence.  We can now add these to the [garden diary] showing the Brookside Geranium foliage comes up in a small, dark-green clump in mid-March.    You can see the current state of this Brookside Geranium below: Last year, these sort-of 'spilled' out one side of the bed and didn't spread very much.  Perhaps this will be the year that these will fill-out a little more.  

Back in mid-May, I replanted our two small, square beds on either side of our back stoop .  I dug out the RJM Rhododendrons that were there since our first Summer and replaced them with a pairing of Brookside Geraniums and a witches broom, dwarf Ginkgo named Spring Grove .  #13 on my 2023 to-do list was to 'fix the back stoop beds' and this swapping out was a big part of that need.   I also took a few plugs of Angelina Sedum from the north bed and transplanted it to the south bed, so they would be mirror-images of each other.   When I planted the Spring Grove Ginkgos, they has leaf'd out, but had suffered a litttle bit of late-frost damage to the tender leaves.  The geraniums were small and just emerging, too.   A little bit over one month later, what do they look like?  The geraniums have grown quite a bit.  And, so too, have the Ginkgos.  See below for (first) the north bed.  And then, below that, the south bed. Spring Grove Ginkgo tree - dwarf Ginkgo in Northern Illinoi

Yesterday, I posted about the removal and transplant process for a pair of mature(ish) PJM Rhododendrons from the two small beds on either side of our back stoop to the far reaches of our yard.  Back in late April, I posted about this new (to me) Witches' Broom dwarf Ginkgo tree called Spring Grove Ginkgo .  Spring Grove is a small, upright that has those fan-shaped Ginkgo leaves that turn bright yellow before they fall in Autumn.   They something that I haven't seen before, so I thought they'd be a great fit for the back stoop beds - as Rhododendron replacements.  The new Ginkgo's are NOT evergreens, but the uniqueness of them feels like a good trade-off.   I bought a pair of Spring Grove Ginkgos that were in 10# nursery containers and planted one in each of the stoop beds.  Below is the north bed - a few things to note:  The Spring Grove Ginkgo is much smaller than the Rhododendron that was there.  Second, the Angelina Sedum has continued to grow.  (Which...I finall