Why I Oughta...

Fall Planting 2024 keeps rolling right along with the planting of a six-pack of groundcover plugs.  These are something I've used WIDELY in my garden: Ajuga 'Chocolate Chip'.  #3 on my 2024 to-do list was to keep going on groundcover (or...as I want to call it "living mulch"), so these six help that cause .  I've had some 'hits and misses' with Ajuga , but have learned a little bit about it over the years.   I opted to put all six in the newly 'extended' Island bed in the front yard.  I decided to plant the Skylands Spruce tree in the back of that bed, so I had to add a good amount of mulch to extend it back.  I figured that was a good spot to put down some groundcover.   Below you can see four of the Ajuga Chocolate Chip planted on the northside of the bed - but right at the feet of the new Skylands Spruce.   I put the other two in a little bit more of a 'protected' area - under the canopy of the Northern Glow Korean Maple.  I...

The groundcover that I've fallen for in the past few seasons has been Ajuga 'Chocolate Chip'.  I've planted it in a few spots in the front and back.  But, the first planting was in Fall 2022 when I put a couple of plugs from the big box Fall closeout sale in the island bed between our front stairs and driveway.    This post from August of 2023 shows both the as-planted size and what they looked like nine months later - in August of 2023 .  I had three plants then.  Last Fall, I added a few more - the ones along the driveway seem to have made it, but the two tucked in behind the Karl Foerster grasses died back this Spring .   To date, I haven't divided these, but rather have just let them spread out and naturalize the area.   Here, below is what it looks like today - with the carpet bugleweed growing out into a dense weed-suppressing mat.  I've started to call this "living mulch". Here are a few close-up photos below showing the gro...

Yesterday, I posted a look at the view of our front porch beds.  This post takes a look at a small section right *behind* that view.  In my fit of planting Ajuga 'Chocolate Chip' during the 2023 growing season, I seem to have put down three small plugs in the front porch bed - along the front/southside border.  These are set back a little from where the annuals go and are in front of the last/one Green Velvet Boxwood that is staggered behind the others that went in last year.  I don't seem to have documented them when they were planted, but I know they came from a 12-pack of plugs, so they were small.  What do they look like today?  Three clumps that have spread out and started to cover some of the bare dirt - aka "living mulch".   Below is a photo showing the Ajuga as well as a peek at the annual marigolds in front: More of these should be on my Fall Planting 2024 list.  There are literally DOZENS of places that can use 'living mulch'. ...

In the middle of May, I moved ahead with a garden edit in our backyard that involved removing/transplanting hostas (hosta replacement project) and adding a few things from the Morton Plant Sale.  Here's the post showing the original look and what this new mixed perennial shade bed looked like a month ago .  Now, four-or-so weeks later, the area has filled in a little bit.  Below is a photo showing the current state: The Ajuga 'Chocolate Chip' at the front of the border has filled in, the Dark Side of the Moon Astilbes have put on some size, as have the Summer Beauty Alliums.  Mixed in there are three Soft Touch Japanese Hollies and three Autumn Moor Grasses that I've moved around a few times.   At the back of this little garden pocket - brightening up the space - are the Sun King Aralias.   This is working - for me.    As I think about finishing up a few other spots of edits in the backyard, I'll revisit this combination - in particular ...

The past few years have been a love story between me, the gardener and Ajuga 'Chocolate Chips', the groundcover.  I've bought it a few different sizes (quarts and plugs) and have scattered them around the front and back of our yard.  Some have really thrived.  Some have died totally.  And others...well...they're still TBD.  This time in early Spring is when these Ajugas take on a different form - with curled-up, darker foliage that make them standout a bit.  Soon...they'll be filled with blue/purple flowers.   Here's a look at some of those - starting with some less-than-one-year-old plugs.  These went in the bed in late May in our backyard, sort-of in-front-of the Fanal Astilbes .  The six plugs are not stretching out into six plants.  Soon...maybe this year, they'll connect to each other: Next up, is a pair of plugs that went in the backyard in late Fall.  These are planted in front of the Baby Blue Spruce Tree.  They, w...

A couple of days ago, I posted in my [compost bins] diary a look at the current state of my bins now that I've topped them off with a lot of ornamental grass material - reeds, canes and blades.  I tried to chop the material down into smaller segments in an attempt to break it up a bit and speed decomposition.    While I was cleaning up the grasses, I also went into the front porch bed and clipped off and cleaned up the front of the bed.  That included a number of Dusty Millers and all of the Seslaria Autumnalis (Autumn Moor Grass) .    Here, below, is a look at this bed after I trimmed up the Moor Grasses - but left behind some of the Fall leaf litter that has accumulated over Winter:  I also have three large Karl Foerster Feather Reed Grasses in the island bed between our driveway and front walk.  I pruned all of those ornamental grasses and cut them off an inch-or-two above their crown.  That island bed after the ornamental grasses have be...

Ajugas.  More Ajugas.  They're awesome plants.  So, why not fill in some spots, right? I've already posted about a pair of Burgundy Glow Ajugas (one IB2Dws and other by Screened porch) and eight Ajuga 'Chocolate Chip' - five in the Driveway Island bed and three on the south border of the front porch bed.  I bought another six-pack of Ajuga 'Chocolate Chip' and while I'm pretty sure I planted all six, I can only (now) count five.  Here are a few photos showing those five.  First, three in the front IB2DWs section - filling in the space by the 2-year-old GreenVelvet boxwoods.  Then, two more in back - fronting the new Baby Blue Spruce tree by the Linden espalier. I've had some luck with Fall Planting Ajuga, so here's hoping these five take.  And..who knows...maybe I'll discover the sixth this Winter - once I pick up all the leaves. I'm posting this in November 2023, but I did this dividing and transplanting in mid-October 2023.

Looking at my 2023 to-do list, there are a number of items that sort-of 'work together'.  Like...evergreens and under the lindens.  #3 (improve the front porch bed) and #17 (keep going with groundcover) are like that:  they work together. This post is the lastest in my 'Fall Planting' series and focuses on groundcover - specifically Ajuga Chocolate Chip .  The past week or so, I bought two small ones from Lowe's and a six-pack from the orange big box store.  Fall Planting in full swing. I tucked the two larger ones in the island bed on the stair-side of the Karl Foerster Grasses.  Below is how they look from the driveway: And below is the view from the stairs; the two groundcover plants are tucked in close and will (hopefully) fill in this area with a sort-of 'living mulch'. The six-pack is like the ones that I planted earlier this year: I put three of the six in that same island bed, but this time on the driveway side: And, I put the other three in a line ...

Back earlier this Summer, I bought and planted eight Autumn Moor Grasses - Sesleria Autumnalis - from Northwind Perennial Farm in Wisconsin .  They went in a staggered planting in our front porch beds to provide two things:  something interesting in front of the boxwoods that wasn't too tall AND something that would come up after the large Allium foliage begins to die back and would hid the dying leaves.   One of the things at all gardeners chase is the notion of a four-season garden.  You want things to be interesting and in-bloom in Spring, Summer and Fall.  And, ideally have a little winter show during dormancy.  That notion - of bloom time coupled with their short height - is what sold me on these Autumn Moor Grasses .  They show strong in the Fall.  Here we are on October 1st and what do they look like in their first year?  Like real stars: They're just what I wanted - with low, mounding foliage and see-thru seed heads that rise up ...

Last Fall, I divided two Shaggy Shield Ferns into four clumps and transplanted them to the edge of the border with the hopes that they'd take the spot of some (fallen-out-of-favor) Ostrich Ferns that I had in this bed.  I planted them in a row and then attempted to water them in all Fall.   Earlier this Spring, I stuck six (6) Ajuga 'Chocolate Chip' plugs in the same bed both in-front-of and behind the locations of the Shaggy Shield Ferns .  At that time....(Late May), I thought that I had lost ALL of the divided ferns as none of them had thrown up new growth.    They all appeared dead.  A setback when it comes to dividing ferns.   Fast forward to today.  I was puttering around and realized that SOME of those Fall 2022 Shaggy Shield Divided ferns had made it.  I had two ferns last Summer, divided to make four small ferns.  Today...I'm back up to three Shaggy Shield Ferns.  See below for a photo showing the Shaggy Shields ...

At the end of May - just about 90 days ago - I planted a series of Ajuga 'Chocolate Chip' plugs around the beds including a border of six right in front of some well-established Fanal Astilbes.  They went in small and have put on some size in the Summer as you'd imagine. I recently posted about a different set of Ajuga 'Chocolate Chip' in our front yard that had grown to fill in the bed .  Those, however, had a six-plus month headstart because they went in the Fall of 2022.  The six in the backyard can be see in the photo below.  They're not near touching each other, but they've put on that two-toned foliage and look good at the front of the border: Last Fall, I added a bunch of Autumn Ferns (only some of which made it over-winter ), but it sure feels like if I come across a good late-season deal on Ajuga 'Chocolate Chip', there's like...I don't know...a dozen places I could plant A LOT of them:  the front porch beds, sideyard(s), in the fr...