Why I Oughta...

Last year, I planted a fountain grass in the big cast iron urn.  It was a Pennisetum - but named 'Fireworks '.  This year, I brought home another purple fountain grass and put it in a container.  Just...it was a different grass AND a different container.  The grass is Pennisetum setaceum 'Rubrum'.  See below for the nursery container.  And...importantly, you'll see that when it comes to hardiness, it goes down to *just* 30 degrees.  That means...for me (Zone 5b), this is an annual.   I decided to put this in - by itself - a white container that lives on our back stoop.  A full sun spot.  I planted it about three weeks ago. How is it doing?  Seems to be happy.  See below for a look at the first flower plume that has emerged from the crown.  Nice, gently arching stem that I hope more will follow.  

Last Fall, I went around and started to divide up a bunch of Karl Foerster Feather Reed Grasses that were either suffering from some 'center rot' or simply just large enough clumps to warrant division.  There were two sets: one in between our driveway and front stoop that had three and another set out of our kitchen window that had five. As I look around the yard today, I have good news:  All of the divisions were successful and the grasses have come back for Spring.  For now.  First, let's start with the kitchen window grasses.  I hedged a little bit and decided to dig up and divide just TWO of the five.  I left the back three in place.  Below, you can see those three remaining and in front of them a couple of divots where the other two came out. Where did I put them?  I divided both of them into three new grass clumps.  I put the first three on the corner of our patio - you can see below.  These three are happy and green. The other one that was divided up into thirds was

Putting this photo in the [ garden diary ] here to show what the trio of Karl Foerster Feather Reed Grasses look like in late September, 2021.  The formal name for this sport is: C alamagrostis x acutiflora 'Karl Foerster' , so I should start calling them that in these posts, right? Photo below shows all three of them putting on a lovely, golden show with their reeds standing tall and the grass blades turning a bit rusty, but still providing a lot of interest.  These grasses are sandwiched between our driveway, our front way, our front stoop and the front porch. I showed these same grasses in July of this year when they have a lightweight almost-purple look to them  and now have them planted in four spots (two in back, two in front).  Compare that photo above with the photo in this post (that I'll paste below) from early October 2019 - just about 2 years ago.  Source - Same Karl Foerster Feather Reed Grasses from early October 2019 . They look about the same, right?  Tha

 I planted this grass in our front bed earlier this Spring after bringing it home from the Morton Arboretum Spring sale.  It is called the Totem Pole Switchgrass.  Named: Panicum virgatum Prairie Winds.  And, I broke the rule of buying just one of anything , but since this thing was billed to be SO BIG (6' tall) and I wasn't sure where it was going to go, I brought home just one.  I ended up sticking it behind the Norway Maple in our front bed.  And, that tree has been killing EVERYTHING in sight, so I wasn't sure how this particular grass would do in this spot.  I've lost hostas, ligularias and even a hydrangea in this area.  So, my fingers were crossed that this would provide a little bit of vertical interest and survive the shallow roots from the tree that seem to out-compete everything else around the tree.  Here, below, is a look at this grass after being in the ground all Summer.  It is about three-and-a-half-feet tall and doing decently well.  It has put up the

 We have 14 Karl Foerster Feather Reed Grasses planted in various places around our yard - five outside our kitchen window , four outside our screened porch, three in a little island between our driveway and front porch stairs and a pair planted 'in between two driveways" (IB2Ds).  I've posted photos of these various grasses on the blog over the years, but I wanted to drop a series of photos of these in the [garden diary] so I can track their progress. First up, four grasses planted outside of our screened porch.  I planted one back in 2018 because I had one too many.  But, last Fall, I added three more to make this a four-pack below:  Next up, three large grasses that were planted in 2017 before we moved in and our house was finished.  These are good-sized, but are experiencing (I think) a little bit of center-rot where the center part of these grasses is dying - and the recommended course of action is to dig up and divide.  Here's a look at these grasses in 2018 ,

I bought a large cast iron urn planter off of Craigslist a few years back and have planted it with a combination of annuals and perennials the past few seasons.  I kept it right next to the driveway in front, but at least once a season, Nat would comment about how she thought it wasn't the right spot for the large, black urn.   For history, here are a few posts showing off the various different plantings that I've made in this urn. 2018:  I don't think I captured the planting. 2019:  A dark coral bell, a begonia and some tropical flair . 2020:  A foxtail fern, Blue Salvia and red petunias .   This year, I decided to move it to the backyard - in a bed - and to plant a monoculture.  For the planting, I went with (wait for it....) a couple of fountain grasses.  These are reddish in color and called Fireworks Fountain Grasses - Pennisetum alopecuroides.  These were $9.98 at Home Depot and I bought two of them. And, here's what they look like in the urn: I put the urn on to

Spring and early Summer has treated our Karl Foerster Feather Reed Grasses that are sandwiched between our front walk and driveway really well.  There are three of them planted in this little bed that I mulched earlier this Summer with some cocoa bean shell mulch.  They're all happy and putting on a little lacy show right now.  I've posted photos of these grasses over the years.  They were planted when we moved in back in Summer of 2017.  And here's a look at them their FIRST year back - in early June of 2018 .   By August of 2018, they had finished growing and were transitioned to golden tops/tips .  The last time, I posted a photo of these were last October (2019) when they were on their way to dormancy for the year.  In the photo at the top of this post, you can see them right now - happy and green.  With a lot of top growth that is lightweight and moves with the wind.  Here - below - is a close-up view of those tips.  They are really striking RIGHT now. 

I wanted to take and share some photos in the [ garden diary ] here so I can look at the development of the shrubs and perennials in our yard.  I've already posted images of a few things including our Saucer Magnolia , Dappled Willow (treeform) , front-yard Cleveland Pear , some of our lilac buds , how we've added some wood chips to the far back and biosolids in testing and most recently, posted both hostas and peonies coming thru the mulch .  Here's a few items that I've covered over the years.  This is what they're looking like in mid-April, 2020. Starting with the northside Rhododendron.  This was put in the bed in 2018 and didn't flower last year.  Buds game looks strong this year.  This is the one plant that I applied Wilt-Pruf this Winter .  In the bed outside the screened porch, I planted a solitary Karl Foerster Feather Reed Grass a couple of years back.  We should add more here, I think.  I trimmed last year's growth off in March and th

Next up in my entries documenting some of our front yard plants are these Karl Foerster Feather Reed Grasses.  Unlike the Little Henry that I posted a few days ago , these grasses *have* been documented in the garden diary.    I posted a photo last August showing all three of them here .    And here's what they look like earlier in the season - June 2018 - when they were just emerging.  You can tell that these have grown larger and more substantial.  They move with the breeze and provide a nice breaker in the little bed between our driveway and the front stairs towards the porch.  When I look at these, I see a little bit of what looks like Grass Rust on the blades, but it might be just seasonal aging?  I didn't treat these with any fungicide like I did in our front yard, but I'll keep an eye on them next season and maybe put a little preventive down before I mulch.  The feather reeds are beautiful this year and they provide quite a bit of "winter interest"

This gardening season, I planted a number of Karl Foerster Reed Fountain grasses in our backyard along the rear foundation outside both the kitchen and the screened porch.  The weren't the first set of these fountain grasses that we had planted, though.  As part of our 'move-in' landscaping that our builder and landscape team completed before we moved in was the installation of three Karl Foerster Reed Grasses in a small bed that sits between our front walk/stoop and driveway.  The bed is about ten or twelve feet long by about three feet wide.  You can see all three of them in the photo above with their feather reeds showing off for the world to see.  They really look great and seem to be healthy in this spot.  I first posted about these grasses a little bit over two months ago - June of this year - when I posted this photo of the grasses just getting started for the season.  Go check out this post to see how much smaller they were (and so green!).  I called them

These three Karl Forester Reed Grasses were planted by the landscaper by the builder before we moved in.  They're placed in a small bed that is sandwiched between the front stairs on our porch and front walk and our driveway.  I didn't document them last season here on the blog, but due to their location, they didn't have an easy time.  (I *did* document other things in the front like our Vanilla Strawberry Hydrangeas .)  Based on where our hose bib in front is located, our hose ended up living in this area a lot last year and as such these things were trampled/smashed pretty regularly.  That meant that come late Summer/early Fall, they were looking shabby.  I wasn't sure what the Winter would hold, but I crossed my fingers.  Earlier this Spring, I cut back all the winter show and now look at them!  They're doing quite well and have tons of growth.  The same can't be said about the grasses we bought from Costco last fall .  They didn't come back at all,

Over the weekend, I started to plant the first few pieces of our backyard landscape plan - starting with the rear foundation plantings.  I posted the landscape plan for this area back in October of last year that shows a series of hostas, grasses and boxwoods.  The central area - right underneath our bird feeders - called for five staggered grasses.  Karl Foerster Reed Grasses to be precise.  So, when I came across them at Home Depot, I grabbed up six of them.   Six.  Yeah...because I didn't have the plan in front of me and I thought it called for six.  Turns out, the plan calls for five of them here, but five more in a different spot.   Thus, I ended up planting just one of that other set of five, but will get the other four later this Spring.  The photo you see above shows where I put them in the bed.  That green wire laying around is for our Automower.  His dock is right in front of this bed and that is the excess boundary wire and the lead wire that terminate at the doc

Just a few days ago, I posted a photo of the three fountain grasses that Nat picked up in an early fall sale .  After a week or so of them sitting on our driveway, I finally found the time to dig up the holes and plant them in the #newoldbackyard.  I toyed around with planting them in different configurations, but after laying them out in various places, Nat encouraged me to put them in a line because the bed where these are located now, isn't quite defined yet.  And instead of putting them out further from the fence, I lined them up along the fence in a row.  That way, the kids would be a lot less likely to trample them when they come/go in the yard/neighbor's yard.  To give you a sense of the context of their location, I put them to the south of this Japanese Flowering Cherry tree that I planted at the very beginning of July of this year .  If you look at this photo , these are between the daylilies and the hostas.    I am going to try to baby these and give them a lot o