Why I Oughta...

One of my 2026 to-do items is to 'expand the beds in Fall'.  I say 'Fall' because of how I utilize what I call the "lazy method" of smothering out the turf with cardboard.  That means that in addition to materials like cardboard and municipal biosolids, I need time.  Time for the grass to die.  Time for the cardboard to breakdown.  And time for the biosolids to MELLOW OUT.   Last year, I missed the Fall window to do some bed extensions, so I started to do them this Spring.  The first one was a few weeks ago with the Island Bed taking on new edges .  I used cardboard, municipal biosolids and composted manure to create a blend that I'll plant up (and mulch) later this Spring.  In the sideyard, I want to do the same thing:  expand the beds along the foundation to be more proud of the house.  Last year, I planted out the Dahlias in late May/early June.  I like to have about six weeks of time between laying down these bed exten...

Yesterday I posted my annual to-do list of 25 items I'm aiming to tackle this growing season .  I'm starting off with an early win by taking-on Priority item #2 on the list one-day-in.  I've talked about how I've adopted what I call the 'lazy bed extension method' of using three factors:  1.  Cardboard to smother the existing turf grass. 2.  A mix of (municipal) biosolids, leaf litter and composted manure + topsoil. 3.  Time. That 3rd factor (time) is why I'm going at this garden upgrade in March.   Here's what I wrote for #2: 2. Priority Project 2:  Expand and fix the edges of the front yard island bed .  But, use a ‘fewer curves’ approach to making a curvilinear shape . Last year, I planted Coleus (which was great) and Supertunias (which weren’t), so strike the right balance between colorful annuals (maybe mirror what I put in the front porch bed) along with some coleus for foliage. I also included further down the list at #12 a "Fall ...

Yesterday, I shared the overview of my third priority for 2025 - expanding the front yard island bed .  These first three ( Pizza Oven MVP , Renovation of the bluestone chips gravel path and this island bed) were pulled from my initial 'early look' list .   We caught a little bit of a run of decent weather this past weekend, so I opted to start the island bed expansion/extension.   Remember....I talked about one of the most critical components to this project:  time.  I need time to smother out the turf grass.  And time for the biosolids to 'mellow' out a little bit.   This bed started back in Summer last year when I dug up and created a kidney-bean-shaped island bed with a Korean Maple tree (Northern Glow) and a dwarf (Spring Grove) Ginkgo tree .   In the post yesterday, I showed the size (12x12) of the extensions and looked at some potential plantings.  This bed, when complete (at more than 150ish square feet) will be ...

A couple weeks ago, I posted a Fall project that I called "Lazy Garden Bed Extensions" where I first used my mower to scalp some turf followed by laying down cardboard to extend the front border of the front porch bed out a little bit.  On top of that cardboard went biosolids and compost followed by some wood mulch (from a big box store) that I had on hand.  I didn't do the full front porch bed border (then), but recently....I was able to get around and finish the entire border. I ended up extending the front porch border out by 18-inches or so out from where the French Marigolds were planted this season.  You can see the in the photo below the new edge of the bed is now stretching out a bit into the grass.  If you look closely, you can see the Marigolds (in decline) and the lone Dusty Miller (this is year 3 for that "annual"), so that gives you a sense of the new extension. I also found a couple of other spots where the bed was 'too small' for the plan...

Over the years, I've created and expanded garden beds using various methods including digging out all the turf, flipping the turf and (more recently) doing some combination of digging/flipping the turf and layering on cardboard to supress the grass.  That cardboard smothering method seems to work pretty well and it is well...easy.  At least it is FAR easier than digging out the turf.  But, the cardboard method has a big drawback - the grass is *STILL THERE*.  So, that means it is tricky to plant in the bed immediately. If you plant in the cardboard zone, you have be careful to remove the turf around any 'holes' in the cardboard that you want to plant in - otherwise you'll end up with grass peeking through around the stems/trunks of whatever you plant.  Trust me...I know.   My problem is that I don't plan ahead enough and get the beds ready BEFORE I want to plant them.  So, why shouldn't I use some of this "Fall Planting" time to build out new/exte...

Fall Planting 2024 continues with a second front-yard conifer tree: the Skylands Oriental Spruce. Picea orientalis ‘Skylands’.  This is the second, small conifer tree that I put in our front yard in the past week - with the first one being the Oregon Green Austrian Pine .   At the end of September, I wrote about the Skylands Spruce and detailed the golden needles - among other features .  I've been thinking about a Skylands Spruce in our yard for years and now...thanks to Nat's Mom...we have a small one.   I extended (back towards the house) the island bed that features the Northern Glow Korean Maple and the Spring Grove Ginkgo.  Now, there's a Skylands Spruce.   I had a lot of luck with Fall Planting (#FallPlanting) conifers last year, so *fingers crossed* that trend continues with these two new conifers this Fall. Below are a few photos showing the tree and the island bed: Below is a look at the island bed from the sidewalk - the Skylands ...

Just yesterday, I shared the details (and description) of a new (to me) tree:  the Austrian Pine 'Oregon Green'.  This is an upright, narrow and semi-dwarf conifer tree (grows to 10' tall and 6-8' wide at 10 years) that lends a touch of Japanese Gardening to the landscape.    I mentioned at the end of that post that I found a small (young) ball-and-burlap specimen at the end-of-the-year sale at the orange big box nursery.   Ever since I read the statement:  " Conifers Should Come First ", I've been aware of the need to plant (even) more of them - specifically in the front yard.  In January, I mused about adding more conifers to our front yard and highlighted some inspiration photos .  I also posted (earlier this year) about using a hide-and-reveal technique with a front-yard path .  In both of those situations, the ideas call for upright conifers in various spots.   One last data point - back in 2019, I created a post that deta...