Why I Oughta...

In October, I turned my compost over.   That meant pulling out the 'black gold' in the tumbler (that's where I finish the compost each year) and then re-filling the tumbler with more-finished (than the rest) of the compost from the right bin.  Then using a compost fork to pull out and move the stuff from the 'middle bin' to the 'right bin' - where it was properly mixed.  And finally...taking the storage bin - the 'left bin' which is mostly leaves and kitchen scraps and mixing it in the middle bin.  That left the 'storage bin' on the left empty. For like 10 days.   Here's what it looks like today - below.  The left bin (with the 'feed me' sign) is filling up with leaves that have come off our lawn and out of our gardens: There is A LOT of air in this bin, so these leaves will compact/compress to about 1/2 of the bin height.  I'm going to give it a pause for a week-or-so, then come back and fill it back up with even more leaves

Today, September 23rd is the first, official day of Fall.  And I'm also seeing the first signs of foliage turning seasonal red with the clump of three Little Henry Sweetspires out front showing red at the tips.  See below for a photo showing this set of shrubs (it really is one shrub at this point, right?)  Supplementing this shrub - with groundcover and/or layered plantings should be something I consider for 2024 as this area has been left as-is since the day we moved in.

Most everything has let go of their leaves for the season.  Our Hornbeams are holding some of their leaves and the Chanticlear Pear flowering trees have many of theirs, too.  But, there are a few shrubs that are playing the marcescence game, too.   The deciduous shrubs that I recently noticed are holding their leaves are a few varieties of Oakleaf Hydrangeas.  This is, I think, the latest they've head their leaves into Winter, but this is ALSO the first year that I've protected them with chicken wire cages from the dang rabbits.  So...is it just a unique situation where they're holding their leaves longer than normal?  Or, is the nibbling from the rabbits what has - in past years - caused the leaves to drop?  Either way, I'm happy to see these leaves stick around. First...the Alice Oakleaf Hydrangeas that are closer to the house.  These are holding deep purple leaves on all of them.  See below: Also, a little further down that same bed are three Little Honey Oakleaf H

That appears to be a wrap on composting this growing season.  I have all three spots filled - the tumbler (with partially-processed mixed compost from the bottom of the mixed bin), the mixed bin on the right below (with a blended batch of greens/browns and *some* passive aeration pipes installed) and a (mostly) carbon storage bin on the left.   You can see the two bins in the photo below and how they're filled right up to the top of the railing with the belief that we'll see a little settling and compaction this Winter: The last time I checked in on these bins was in early November when I had rounded up a bunch of leaves and filled both of these bins in a 'heaping' fashion .  In the month since, I've seen a bunch of settling in the left bin and was able to re-fill it up.  And some compaction from the bin on the right with the large mound in the middle compressing down.  I used my mower to collect the leaves in the carbon storage bin this year and as such, I also col

Yesterday, I posted a photo of this strange feather grass that is still green and alive in a large container on my patio and mentioned that everything else has gone dormant and has suffered from the series of frost-filled overnights that we had last week.  Almost all of the various shrubs have dropped their leaves and most of the low-and-mid-height perennials have let their leaves and flowers shed.  But, there are a few things of note in the garden that I thought I'd document for the diary here. First, the Alice Oakleaf Hydrangeas.  They're still holding their leaves.  And those leaves are a dark, dark red/maroon.  A few green ones, too.  See below for a peek at one of these in our backyard: Also, below, you can see the three Twinkle Toes Pulmonaria that are wilting from the frost.

It was just last week when I posted a couple of photos showing the full, orange and brown Oak tree canopy in our backyard .  Our two largest trees were holding ALL of their leaves until early November of this year.   Then, we had a HUGE storm.  I'm talking heavy winds.  If you watched the Illini vs. Michigan State football game and saw the punts (into the wind), you know what storm I'm talking about.  What happened to our trees and their marcescence?  Most all of the leaves were stripped from the trees.  What does the backyard look like right now - in mid-November?  See below for a photo showing the very few leaves still on the tree-swing Oak tree and nothing else anywhere. 

This post is going up on November 15th, but the photos are from earlier this month - on November 3rd.  Thus...for YoY garden diary record keeping, let's call this 'early November'.   Here's a peek at the large red oaks in our backyard - just about a year ago .  They were holding ALL of their leaves and looking good.  By early December, they had dropped *most*, but were still holding some .  Come Spring, they were still bare in early April .   What do they look like this year - in early November 2022?  See below for the photo showing the brown and orange leaves all over our tree canopy. Here's the same tree two years ago .   We had a VERY big wind storm this past week, so the trees look VERY different today.  I'll post an updated photo - showing mid-November - in the coming days.  

This is just over the one-year mark for a trio of grasses that I planted in our backyard late last growing season .  They've been in the ground for 13 months now and are showing their annual seed heads.  These three Miscanthus sinensis 'Adagio' Maiden Grasses are tucked in behind the All Gold Japanese Forest Grasses and in front of the Little Lime Hydrangeas .   Have a look at the photo below to see the three grasses and their first-growing-season seed heads. This being the first full growing season, I'm thinking that these put down roots this year and will begin to fill-in next year with more foliage.  I put these in this spot to help create a bit of a 'layering' affect with the layers of grasses, shrubs and the Apple tree Belgian Fence in the far back.  Like I do with all of my ornamental grasses, I'll leave these Adagio Maiden Grasses up all Winter - for 'winter interest' and will chop them down early in the Spring/late Winter for the new years

Almost everything but our large, mature Northern Red Oak trees have dropped their leaves this season and have begun their long Winter's nap.  I say *almost* because there's one big outlier:  Our Frans Fontaine European Hornbeam trees.  Not only are they still holding their leaves....they're still green.  See below for a photo of the current state - during the first week of November - of what these trees look like.  You'll see some yellow here and there, but there's a remarkable amount of green foliage:  The most recent check-in on these trees (with photos) was during their peak in early Summer - July of 2022 - when they were alive and lush .   I documented these trees on December 1st of 2021 when they were still clinging to *some* of their leaves, but they were all dry, desiccated and brown .  Will these stay green until December?  Not a chance, right?  But, the trees (this year) are MATERIALLY DIFFERENT than what they showed in 2020.  Here's a photo from Novemb

Just a couple of days ago, I posted the first photo of my compost bins with an initial pile of leaves from our yard in the storage bin .  The leaves just don't stop.  At least, until the trees drop them all.  So, my approach is to try to stay on top of them with repeated cleanups in the backyard instead of waiting until the end when there's one big cleanup.  I've tried that....and found that the job is TOO MUCH if I wait. So, I sent about collecting (and mulching) even more leaves and storing them in the compost bins.   Here, below, is what the bins look like just a few days later: The bin on the left - the carbon storage bin - is now heaping.  And the bin on the right - which is properly mixed - has settled to just below the frame.  So, I put a bit of leaves on TOP of that pile, too.  If you look at the foreground, you'll see that there is a layer of mulched-up leaves scattered in FRONT of the bins, too.   The carbon storage bin will continue to settle and I'll be

The last time I checked in on our compost bins, I was looking after some of the settling that was taking place post a full turn in both bins and our tumbler.  This was in late September when the bin on the right was still 'over full' and the bin on the left was about 1/8th full .  Below, is a photo showing the current state of the same two bins.   The one on the right has settled even further.  The bin on the left has just started to be put to work with the initial pile of leaf mulch piled in that side. The pile on the left will continue to be filled and settled.  I also am planning on insulating the Disneyland Roses with leaf mulch again, so those chicken-wire rings will be full of material this Fall.  Once I get the bins mostly stuffed full, I'll then just simply switch to mulching-in-place the leaves on the lawn.  That's the process I used last year and the material was broken down by the time Spring arrived. I haven't gotten around to adding a third bin, but ma

On the southside of our house, we have three different Disneyland Rose bushes.  They're floribunda roses and the two that are to the furthest East were planted directly into their spots and on the closest to our backyard was transplanted last Spring.  That transplanted one seemed to recover once Spring arrived and leaf'd out .   During the past two winters, I've built a little ring around these Disneyland roses with a net of garden/chicken wire and then filled it with mulched leaves in an attempt to protect them from the dangerous Winter temperatures.  However, I don't really know the efficacy of the protection since in the 2020/2021 Winter, I protected all of them.  So, this past Fall, I decided to leave one of them out - without any protection other than being tucked in against the house on the southside.  You can see the photo below showing the transplanted Disneyland Rose on the left - without protection - and one of the other, larger ones - on the right in the mulc

Yesterday, I posted some photos of our Frans Fontaine Hornbeam hedge (eight trees) that are still clinging to their leaves as we head into December.  One of the known features of those trees is that they hold their leaves longer than most trees - something called foliar marcescence.  Oak trees do something similar - in that if you look around right now and see large, mature trees with leaves on them, they're very often Oak trees.   Last year, I posted a photo in mid-November showing the pair of mature Oak trees in our backyard that had - by then - dropped all of their leaves .  This was unique as I remember the Oaks holding their leaves deep into Winter.  I wanted to document what these two trees looked like this year - in early December. Here, below, is a look at both of the trees (and other parts of our backyard canopy).  The large Northern Red Oak on the right (the tree swing) has leaves up and down the main trunk and branches.  The other mature Oak (on the top left) has none. 

Today is the first day of December and I wanted to mark this entry in the [ garden diary ] and the [ tree diary ] to show that current state of our Frans Fontaine European Hornbeam trees.  It seems that each Fall/Winter, the trees have behaved differently in terms of going dormant and experiencing (or showing) foliar marcescence. Here, below are a couple of photos showing the current state of all eight of these Frans Fontaine Hornbeam trees.  First, the five that are the furthest to the West.  On the edge of this Hornbeam Hedge is a Chanticleer Flowering Pear tree.  That, too, is still clinging to its leaves with foliar marcescence.   And, here below, is a look at the other three (plus a partial view on the left of the fifth one from the photo above) showing the same thing:  they're holding their leaves on December 1st this year.  Also, capping the far end of the Hornbeam Hedge is ANOTHER Chanticleer Flowering Pear that is also holding on to its leaves:  Below is a photo of a clos

These are the days for filling up our compost bins.  Each Fall, the leaves in our yard drop all of their annual leaves and I use the mower to mulch them up and pick A LOT of them up off the grass .  My process is actually a little nuanced in terms of mulching vs. bagging.  I use my Ego leaf blower to clean out the beds and push all the leaves to the middle of the yard on the grass.  From there, I use my mower - with the bag attached - set to the lowest level to begin to mulch-up and vacuum all the leaves.   However, I don't immediately clear the mower bag once it is full.  If you've done this (like I do), you know when the bag is full because you start to see dust and little leaf parts flying around because there's no place for them to get ejected into the bag, so they kind of fly out the sides.  I'm doing that on purpose - so I leave a little bit of leaf litter (mulched up, mind you) behind on the lawn to feed the soil. But, after doing that for a couple of passes, I e

Just yesterday, I posted a photo of our barren Oak trees in our backyard .  These two mature Oaks have historically kept many of their leaves well into Winter thanks to the phenomenon called foliar marcescence.  In that post , I mentioned that we were seeing something similar on other trees that normally behaved the same was as the Oaks.   Today, you can see the photo at the top of this post showing all eight Frans Fontaine Columnar Fastigiate Hornbeam trees that have lost all of their leaves by mid-November.   Just two weeks ago, I posted about how one of these trees shed its leaves , but the rest were keeping them.  This tree (#4 from the left) has done this same thing before in 2018 .   But now, ALL OF THEM have dropped their leaves.   And that is, umm, alarming. Here's what these same trees looked like one year ago - on November 19th, of 2019 .  FULL OF LEAVES.  Dry leaves.  BUT FULL.  Have a look at this post showing these columnar Hornbeam trees in January of this year .  The

Yesterday, I posted a photo in the garden diary of the recently set buds on our very small caliper Northern Red Oak tree that was planted just this year.  In that post, I mentioned that both *that* young Oak tree AS WELL AS our two larger, more mature Oaks have lost all of their leaves.   Notable, I think - as we're seeing a very different timeline than last Fall/Winter.   I posted this photo of both of the mature Oak trees in our backyard on December 16th 2019 - a little bit under a year ago - showing that both of the trees had A LOT of their leaves clinging to the limbs.  At the time, I poked around a little bit into the concept of foliar marcescence and how it might be a behavior that is aimed at assisting the tree by retaining some of the leaves until Spring to be used as an organic material delivery system when the tree needs it.  Here's what those two same trees look like right now:  barren. Wonder what caused this change year-over-year.  It happened with another set o

By the time the middle of November comes around, I've been doing leaf clean-up in our yard for at least four weeks.  We get early drops (Walnut), constant drops (Catalpa, Maple, Kentucky Coffee Tree) and late drops (Oaks) and it lasts more than a month.  If I waited until they all came down, it would be a huge mess.  Not that it isn't a good idea.  It just isn't how I address the situation.  When I started this year, I spent time using the mower and bagged up all the leaves as they dropped - by mowing about once per week.  I filled our compost bins pretty quickly.   But, with our bins filled, what do I do with leaves still on the grass?  I decided to try something new this year:  I just mulched them in the lawn.   You can see it below - this is mostly a lot of oak leaves (which are hard to break down) that have been mulched up and left behind.   I don't love this look, but I wanted to try it.  Here - below - is a close-up look of the mulched in leaves.   And here's

  I haven't done this in year's past, but I thought it would be useful in terms of tracking the leaves and foliage to track an early November backyard tree canopy.  We have a couple of large Oak trees that have foliar marcescence - or the ability to keep some of their leaves late into the Winter.   You can see some of those trees in the image above.  Oak tree on the right and on the left.  Up high, on the right side, I'm documenting *some* larger Catalpa leaves are still on the limbs.  And the massive hackberry that straddles our fence line on the northside is still flush with dry, brittle leaves.