Why I Oughta...

In October of 2022, I planted a Brown's Yew back by the firepit, in the deep shade of our rear yard .   I bought it at an end-of-the-season sale because it was over-sized for the nursery pot and price.  I've mostly forgotten about it, have failed to deliberately water it and it has hung on through two full growing seasons.   Below is a look at this multi-stemmed evergreen shrub (Brown's Yew) as it stands in our garden in mid-November 2024: Like the Hicks Yews from yesterday, this one has put on some growth over the years - slowly.  Something to think about for 2025 planning - is it time to prune this/shape this a little bit? 

After the mass boxwood planting under the Linden trees earlier this Summer , I ended up with two very small (1#) Green Mountain Boxwoods that were leftover from the project.  When I started with that mass planting, I was using a mix of Green Mountain and Green Velvet.  After some hemming-and-hawing, I ended up planting only Green Velvet - mostly due to their smaller mature size. So, these two Green Mountain boxwoods have been siting around and I was able to get to planting them in the border around the fire pit in back.  See below for their location. A few notes on these - in relation to my task list for the growing season: 1.  #1 on my 2023 to-do list was to focus on evergreens .  Add two more to the planting list.  I planted five new evergreens in front .   A columnar Scotch Pine in back .  And now 13 more ( 11 + 2) Boxwoods.  That's 18 evergreen shrubs and one tree - 19 in total.  Pretty good. 2.  #15 on my 2023 to-do list...

Yesterday, I posted some photos and details of the first of three Japanese Maples that I bought from Mr. Maple - Acer palmatum 'Firefly' .    This post is about the second of three Japanese Maples from Mr. Maple - another Acer palmatum.  This one is part of the 'ghost series' - First Ghost.  This JM is larger than the Firefly tree - although both are in one-gallon containers.   Below are a few photos showing the First Ghost Japanese Maple one-gallon trees: Mr. Maple's description of First Ghost includes these details : 'First Ghost' is the first and one of the best of the Ghost series of Japanese maples. 'First Ghost' leafs out in the early spring with bright white to cream sharply divided leaves which are accented by deep green veining to the leaf on the inside while the outside of the leaf is edged in a red purple. Mid-summer this reticulated variegation on 'First Ghost' may fade to a dark green veining on a lighter green background. For be...

A few towns over, we have a landscape supply place that is open-to-the-public and offers some of their bulk items like mulch and stone on a 'you fill' basis.  That means that you bring your own buckets and shovel and they sell it to you by the gallon.  NOT by the weight.  Well...I sort of guess that they've priced it 'by weight', but they sell it by the gallon.  They want you to bring in five-gallon buckets as that's the easiest way to go.   We have a short sideyard path and our firepit ring filled with Bluestone Chips that we installed in Summer 2021 that have worked out well for us in both spots.  But, when I installed them, I used whatever Bluestone chips that we had on hand - I made one order.  So, I spread them a little thin because I wanted to fill in both spots (path + firepit) to make both viable.   Part of my 2023 to-to list was to keep upgrading the firepit area and in that post, I mentioned adding some new Bluestone chips t...

One of the plants that I picked up at this past year's Morton Arboretum Plant Sale - BUT failed to post about when I planted - was this decidious shrub called a Spice Bush (Lindera benzoin).  I tucked it in back by the fire pit and mostly forgot about it.  Below is a snapshot of the sign from the sale that I took back in April and you can see that it has a Forsythia with yellow Spring flowers.   Below is the plant tag showing that it will grow up to be 6-12 feet tall and 6-12 feet wide.  And will handle partial shade: Below is a photo showing what it looked like when we brought it home with green leaves on woody stems.  It was about 15" tall from the soil-level. This was, clearly, not on the plan.  But, we still bought it, on a whim. The REAL reason that we bought it was that the lady at the sale told us about the Spice Bush Swallowtail, a butterfly, that relies on this plant during the caterpillar stage .  What's not to like about that, right?...

Last week, I posted some photos and details of the Karl Foerster Feather Reed Grasses that I divided last Fall and transplanted around the yard with (so far...) success.  At that time, I mentioned that I had a few more grasses that I left in place as a sort-of hedge against the division killing all of the grasses.  This past weekend, I got around to digging up the remaining grasses and dividing them into new clumps ready for transplant.  Starting with the little bed outside our kitchen window, we had (as of this Spring) three large clumps.  Now, we're back to five smaller grasses - three in the back, two in the front.  See that below: The other grass that was ready to divide was one outside our screened porch.  I dug it up and divided it and put one of the divisions back in place - you can see it below.  The newly divided grass is on the right along with three other grasses that were planted in subsequent years.  Now there are four grasses in thi...

Today marks the fourth in the running series of exploration posts around how I am thinking and planning for shrubs this season.  Getting going on shrubs - both deciduous and evergreen - is my #1 priority for this growing season and I've taken the past few posts to talk thru - on the blog - my thoughts. The three previous beds that I walked thru are: 1. A 20' area where I need to replace some lilacs with an evergreen layer and three Tardiva Hydrangeas . 2. An adjacent spot that calls for a similar (but different) evergreen layer fronted by three dwarf Little Lime Hydrangeas that are planted in a way to NOT foreclose a potential path. 3. The area that lays at the feet of the pair of Greenspire Linden trees along our fence line close to our patio that calls for some formal evergreens. Today I wanted to talk about the fence-side of our fire pit.  Here's what the area looks like currently below.  The annotated photo shows what is currently in place:  Red = existin...

In late September, I brought home a trio of Abiqua Drinking Gourd Hostas and planted them near our new (this year) firepit area.  After seeing them on the racks for a couple of seasons, I finally 'got to know' them and learned that they're some of the largest hosta varieties .  Placing this photo below into the garden diary as way to show them right as they head into dormancy.  A note:  they're haven't been eaten one bit by the rabbits while other varieties have been mowed off at the ground.  These also are doing better after the first couple of frosts than other varieties.   I'm looking forward to these coming back next Spring and filling in the spaces in between each other during the growing season.  

Last week, I picked up these three Abiqua Drinking Gourd Hostas that I resisted in buying for a number of years due to not being knowledgable about the attributes of this big, beautiful hosta.  I decided to stick them into the border bed near the firepit out back - right in between the bluestone chips gravel and the tiny Northern Red Oak tree that I planted last year.  You can see the three hostas below and the Red Oak tree on the far left, the fence near the top and the firepit edging on the right. I kept them off the fence a bit - thinking I will extend the Yew hedge around (at least part) of the firepit.  Will check on these come Spring and hope they emerge from Winter after I tuck them in with a little bit of new mulch.

Nine months ago, when our yard and garden had gone dormant, I posted a 'plant dreaming' post about Toad Lilies that Erin, the Impatient Gardener had introduced me to via her Instagram handle.  "You should know Toad Lilies" she wrote.    I included a mention of Toad Lilies in my 2021 to-do list (#18) and came across them earlier this Spring at Hinsdale Nursery.   In early June, I had three of them on hand and planted them in the far back - behind the new fire pit area .  I've watered them in a little bit, but I'll say that they seem to be doing just fine without being baby'd.  Here, below, are a couple of photos of the trio.  First, you can see the variegated edge on all of them is really bright and clear.  Love that.  What's interesting is that the photo at Hinsdale Nursery shows a white edge , whereas ours are much more lime green.   I spaced these three out in a little cluster as I understand they'll sort of naturally colon...

I'm on a little bit of a roll with Japanese Painted Ferns and other related cultivars in the garden this growing season.  I've had one in our side yard for a couple of years - next to the screened porch .  Planted in 2018, it has established itself and is now being crowded out by some Bressingham Blue Hostas that I'm going to try to divide this Fall.   Earlier this year, I planted four Ghost Ferns in the bed along the northside of the backyard - right at the base of the Weeping Nookta Falsecypress tree that I (also) planted this Spring.  The Ghost Fern is a Lady and Japanese Painted Fern hybrid - with the color of a Painted Fern and the habit of the Lady Fern.   And, just last week, I posted a photo of my second traditional Painted Fern - a Pictum - planted in the border around our new fire pit area in the far back.  It is at the base of our new Emperor I Japanese Maple tree (you can see the fern in the photo in this Maple Tree planting post )...

Yesterday, I posted a 2021 update on the Japanese Painted Fern 'Pictum' that I planted in 2018 on the side of the screened porch and mentioned that I had another one that I planted this season.  I'm posting this in July, but I planted this (second) Pictum fern back in May.  And took the photo at the bottom - of the fern in the ground - in mid-June. This is the second Pictum, but (now) the sixth Japanese Painted Fern with the addition of four Ghost Ferns earlier this Spring .  I bought this one (below) when I saw it on sale at a big box store and brought it home.  My thought was to plant a series of them in Priority Area #1 this year , but when Nat came up with the fire pit area plan, I decided to skip planting in Area #1 (for now).   Here, below, is the tag from this fern that came in a 1# nursery pot.  It shows 8-12" height and 15-18" spacing.  As I mentioned above, I planted this in May, but posting in July.  The in-between photo you see ...

Last November, I posted a 'plant dreaming' post about Japanese Toad Lilies that I came across for the first time (i.e. new to me) via Erin the Impatient Gardener's Instagram handle.  Here's that post where she talked about growing Toad Lilies and said: "You should know and grow Toad Lilies. "  Ever since that post, these have been on my radar.  In fact, I mentioned them as part of #18 on this year's to-do list when I talked about the continued expansion of Japanese-inspired gardening .  So, when I saw them being sold at Hinsdale Nursery this Spring, I knew I had to buy some of them for our yard.   Here, below, is the listing at Hinsdale Nursery - for 'Gilt Edge' Japanese Toad Lily - Tricyrtis fomosana 'Gilt Edge': They're 'shade-loving' and will 'naturalize'.  Love both of those things. Here, below, are the three 1# nursery pots as they began to break dormancy recently: ...And here's a look at the plant tag that came...

Back about a week ago, I posted a preview of where we were going to put our firepit area in the backyard with a little gravel area surrounded by some beds and (eventually) linked with a little path from behind the Northern Red Oak tree.  One of the new things that I'm planting in the border bed between the lawn and the firepit is a new tree.  And it isn't just *any* tree.  It is a tree that I've been thinking about for a while - based on my musings about how I should add a couple of Japanese Maple trees to our yard .  In that post , I included both the traditional (and widely available) Bloodgood Japanese Maple and mentioned that there had been a tweak to that cultivar to make it even more Cold-weather-hardy (for our Zone 5b) with something called the Emperor I Japanese Maple tree.  Ever since then, I've been looking for an Emperor I tree.  I've come across a few - in various sizes and costs, but they were all too expensive for me.   As is the wa...