Why I Oughta...

I took this photo of a volunteer Crocus that has appeared in the middle of our backyard lawn a few weeks back.  This was from late March.  And, it is such a delight to see.  This lone Crocus is a volunteer as I've never planted a single Crocus bulb (or...corm if you'd prefer) in the garden.  See below for the short, purple flower: Just because I haven't planted a single Crocus, doesn't mean that I haven't thought about it.  And, for me....that's a real sign of growth as a gardener.  There was a time when I fell into the 'lawn care' world.  I was treating feeding my lawn, treating it with iron, cutting it in a specific way and I even had a "Domination Line" up front.  But, my feelings on turf grass have evolved over time and I'm even actively removing more of it from our front yard with bed extensions this Spring.   On my recently published 2026 to-do list, I included as #13:  Plant Fall Bulbs .  In the past, that has mostly bee...

A fall-planted Allium bulb that is a stand-out in our garden is the Allium Christophii that we have in various spots around the front and backyard gardens.  Below is a pair of the star-shaped foliage that emerges in early Spring from these alliums.  This is in the original IB2DWs bed - and you can tell that based on the bronze Bald Cypress needles that these are growing-in: When I think about Fall bulb planting, I'd add more of these alliums to the list of 'wants'. 

I have planted zero Crocus bulbs.  Yet, I have a couple of Crocus flowers that have shot up this Spring.  See below for one of them.  I've begun to think about a 'bulb lawn' - vs....where I used to be:  a perfect lawn.  This naturalized Crocus might have pushed me over the edge in that direction.

The larger, more-showy Alliums are long gone.  Bloomed, were show-offs, and now all that is left behind are husks of their former glory.  But, not Drumstick Alliums.  I planted 50 Drumstick Allium bulbs back in the Fall of 2021 .  And didn't think much about it.  In fact, I'm not sure they were planted in the right spots.  But today?  I'm finding them to add a nice little pop of color to our garden and think I should plant even more this Fall.   I have them IB2DWs, in back and on the side of our house.  They are blooming right now - mid/late June and they work well (for me) when they're interplanted amongst other things so the little purple flower head sort-of peeks out.   My Fall 2024 bulb planting should include more of these.  I could see a big MASS planting and/or interplanted in lots of places.  

Right around this time every (early) March, the green tips of a set of daffodil bulbs emerge from the mulch in the bed behind the secondary Northern Red Oak tree.  These were inherited - and I didn't plant them.  I've observed them over the years - as far back as our first Spring here (2018) -  and here's last year's post .  They have flowered exactly ONCE.  Just once - in 2021 .   Will they bloom this year?  I doubt it.

We've had a VERY mild Winter.  There was a span of about three weeks when it was brutally cold and it seemed like it snowed every.single.day.  But, overall...it was mild.  And that's likely turned a number of gardening variables on their ears.  Emergence.  Bloom time.  Exposure to late Frosts.  And, more, I'm sure. One of the 'mild Winter' related change that I saw VERY early in January was that the tulip bulbs that I had planted around the parkway tree had ALREADY come up, out of the mulch.  By January 5th.   J A N U A R Y. That seems VERY early.  It was BEFORE that three-week spell of 'brutally cold' weather that I mentioned above.  But, tulips being tulips, the foliage didn't mind the weather.  (or...the snow blanket was sufficient insulation.) I'm *very* aware of mulch volcanoes around trees and worry that every year - when we add another layer of mulch - that I'm burying things and creating problems.  Everyone sa...

Back in Fall of 2021, I planted some new (to me) Allium bulbs around the beds including 15 Bulgaricum bulbs .   They were bought on a whim - I didn't know much about them - but their photos were quite dramatic.  So, in my online shopping cart they went.  (That's one of the fun things about Fall bulbs, I guess:  you order them in the Summer and then kind of forget about them until they ship in the Fall.) Last year was their first year to bloom and I don't remember them very much.  They might have bloomed, but I think it was limited.  This year, though....they're putting on a little show.  See below for the Allium Bulgaricum chandeliers of flowers (I'm calling them 'chandeliers'.)   I don't count 15 of these in the garden, but I do see a handful of them popping up in different spots.    Would I put them in the same spots today as they are located now?  I'm not sure.   White Flower Farm has a product listing up for ...

Last Fall, I didn't plant as many Fall bulbs as I have planted in previous seasons.  But, I did plant some:  12 Gladiator Allium bulbs were added to the front porch bed.  Right in front of the existing boxwoods in the front porch bed .  In terms of layers, this means that we're looking at (from back to front currently):  porch, hydrangea, boxwood, mid-size allium bulbs. These get anywhere from 36" to 60" tall (depending on the info source).   I planted all twelve of these in mid-October.  And, just like some of the other Allium bulbs - including these Christophii which are showing early foliage emergence this year - these Gladiators are starting to peek through for the first time.   Looking back at this post showing where I planted the Gladiators , it appears that I dug six holes and tucked two bulbs in per hole.   Here are a few photos showing the tips peeking through the mulch this week (below):  Right now, I don't cou...

Last week, I posted about the two packs of Gladiator Allium bulbs that I picked up at Costco recently and mused about where I could plant them.  In front?  In back?  IB2DWs?  Front porch beds?  With the recent SIGNIFICANT moves in our front yard beds - more on this to come - I thought that I should find a way to put these mid-size bulbs in that bed.  They're what I would call medium-sized in height - so they can go in a lot of places in that front bed. I was - initially - thinking that I was going to plant them BEHIND the row of boxwoods and in front of the hydrangeas.  Why behind the boxwoods?  Because they're NOT (currently) that big.  Even after six growing seasons.  Why?  Because of the Norway Maple has been crowding them out.  Both in terms of the big, thick mat of roots.  But, also...(I believe) because of light.   But, if that Norway Maple isn't there any longer, won't that help the boxwoods grow up and o...

October is Fall bulb planting season.  Most years around here, that means tulips.  And last year, it meant planting some new (to me) Alliums like Christophii .  This year, I'm not doing tulips up front because we're doing some work with the large (but declining Norway Maple).   But, I did pick up two six-packs of Allium bulbs at Costco from Longfield Gardens. These are Gladiator Alliums.  And they're new (to me).   MichiganBulb has a product listing and provides some guidance on where to put these : Gladiator allium stand up to 60" tall in flower beds of all kinds, and are delightful when these ornamental garden onions are planted in the back of the border. Back of the border.  Got it.  There are more clues on the back of the packaging from Longfield Gardens.  They compare these Gladiator Allium to a few other ones - including some I have - like Christophii, Drumstick and Purple Sensation. When I bought these, I didn't have a plan f...

Last year, I planted a bunch of Drumstick Allium in different spots around the garden .  Some in front, some on the side, some in back.  Timing-wise, these are the *latest* blooming Allium that we have now.  All of other varieties have come and gone.  But these?  They're in bloom RIGHT NOW - mid-July.   I'm sure what I expected, but these are really lovely looking flowers.  Small.  MUCH smaller than a globemaster or Purple Sensation.  And, really tall.  Like, a lollipop.  I'm talking 30" super thin stems with a golf-ball-sized bloom on the tip.  That SUPER THIN stem plus the golf-ball-sized bloom means that these things are swooping.  They don't stand up straight.  They're swoopers.  I kinda like them that way and it is something that I can keep playing with planting-wise.  They're VERY informal, so not what I normally see when I see alliums popping up. Below, you can see a few of them 'swooping' across...

This Spring, we had the most tulips come up that we've ever had in our garden.  That's because that I've planted tulip bulbs every Fall for the past few years.  Adding colors and textures and growing the area where the bulbs are planted.  Last year, I was able to snap a few photos of the current state of tulips, so when I was planting the bulbs in the Fall, I had a sense of where they needed to be planted to fill in the area .  This post shows an updated look at a few areas to focus on planting bulbs that I'll need to reference come Fall. First, around the front of the Norway Maple, there's a bare spot between the two grasses you see where the rootflare enters the mulch.  As well as right in front of that grass in the center of the photo - to the left of the Boxwood.  I should plant bulbs in those two spots: As we go around the Norway Maple, there's more gaps to fill in: Between the front of the tree and the Lemon Coral Sedum on the left of the photo betwee...