Why I Oughta...

Yesterday, I continued my "planting out plugs" series with eight Lisianthus Celeb Metallic Blue plugs from Garden Club that went in the front yard Saratoga Ginkgo bed.  That brought my total up to 20 new (to me) accent and cut flower plugs that have been planted out (8 Didiscus + 6 Silver Shield + 8 Lisianthus = 20) Today, I am showing just three more that went into the Island bed in front: 3 Gomphrena Audray White plugs from Garden Club .  I have more of these to plant out, but I'm limited by space and chicken wire.   I put two together and one under a Dollar Tree wire garbage can.  You can see them below: That brings my total to 23.  8 Didiscus + 6 Silver Shield + 8 Lisianthus + 3 Gomphrena Audray White = 23 new (to me) accent and cut flower plugs.  All eight of these didn't survive (I think one died) the two month LIMINAL SPACE they lived in between when they arrived and when I planted them out.  These went out on May 22nd.  And they're ...

Day three of accent plant plug being planted-out in the garden. First day was the eight Didiscus Lacy Blue in the Island bed.  Yesterday, I showed a photo of the six Silver Shields going in the corner bed by the back patio .   That brings my accent plant total to 14 (so far).  Today, we continue with eight more cut flowers that are new (to me).   Lisianthus Celeb Metallic Blue .  Lisianthus has taken on sort-of a mythical state amongst the cut-flower-farming-tok world that I've fallen into.  It is (by reputation) very slow growing, so no idea how these will do out in my garden.  To help them, I planted all eight in the newly expanded Saratoga Ginkgo bed out front .  This gets good sun and because of the annual Vinca in the adjacent bed, I'll water the heck out of them.   Below is a photo showing the eight Lisianthus Celeb Metallic Blue in rabbit protection cages.  I'm hoping that like everything else, as these put on some ...

Earlier this year, I bought a bunch of cut flower plugs from Garden Club and they arrived earlier than I really needed them .  Lesson learned for next year:  Have them delivered later in the Spring.  Of that set of plugs, eight of them are a new (to me) flower:  Didiscus Lacy Blue .  Of the plugs that arrived, these seemed to do the best with my "up-potting" as all eight have navigated the past two months and have put on some new foliage.   After managing them for weeks, I finally got around to planting them after all the threat of frost was gone.  In the second-to-last-week of May (the same day I put in a bunch of Dahlias), I planted these eight small plants.  They went in the south part of the Island Bed.   I spaced them about a foot apart and protected them with a ring of chicken wire to keep the rabbits away from them - until they can put on some mass.  I planted them in a mix of compost, garden soil and municipal biosolid...

Over the past month, I've posted a number of posts about adding groundcover plugs to the garden.  The latest was a post about six Ajuga 'Chocolate Chip' plugs that I put into the front yard Island Bed at the very edge of the sidewalk.  Those joined three existing ones from 2025.  They weren't the most healthy plugs, but they went in anyway.  That brought my groundcover planting total to 24 total planted for the year.  Today, I added six more Ajuga 'Chocolate Chip' plugs to that same Island bed.  Five along the final edge in the front and one 'up the driveway'. This brings the total to thirty groundcover plants added (to date).  #20 on my to-do list is to "Keep Going on Groundcover" .  Thirty in the Spring is a good number.  My previous annual high-planting mark for Groundcover plants was that epic Fall 2023 season when I added 36 .  I'm right there and it is just Spring.   Adding this 'living mulch' down in the Island bed serv...

Dahlia season has begun here.  With the initial planting of seventeen dahlias.  That was day one of planting the tubers that I started out in the garden.  I made this annotated map to show (mostly myself) where everything is planted because I'm growing many new (to me) varieties for the first time and have a much more diverse lineup than in previous seasons.  Note:  this post is going live in early June, but I planted these on May 20th.  Last year, I planted them in the first week of June , so this is almost three weeks earlier.  Here, below is that map.  So far, I've put six in the "Pizza Oven West" bed, seven along the side of the house in the "South Sun Wall" bed and four "Under the Elm".  You can see them numbered in red: Pizza Oven East 1.  Crichton Honey 2.  Cafe Au Lait 3.  Creme de Cognac 4.  Blue Wish 5.  Milena Fleur 6.  Jowie Winnie Here (below) is a photo below of these plantings.  Note that I pu...

Yesterday, I showed photos of the 76 Titan Blue Lavender Halo Vinca annuals that I added to our front porch bed where I hope they'll grow into a carpet of color.  In service of the notion of 'repetition', I opted to plant the same annuals down in the island bed to try to carry that same color further forward and bring those two plantings together visually.   I went with 36 vinca down there.  Below are a few photos showing how the 36 Titan Blue Lavender Vinca are planted in between the Red Wizard Sun Coleus and the existing Ajuga groundcover that abuts the sidewalk.  First up are side-views: And, here below is the curb-view: Last year, I didn't have luck with the flowering annuals in this bed, so I'm hoping that these Titan Vinca will fare better.  

More groundcover (or living mulch) is something I've been working-on for a couple of growing seasons.  This month, I put in six Ajuga 'Chocolate Chip' plugs in the [kitchen curved] bed in the backyard and six Ajuga 'Burgundy Glow' in the backyard near the colony of Hellebores on the northside .  This week, I put in six more Ajuga 'Chocolate Chip' plugs in the front of the Island Bed in our front yard down along the sidewalk.  This brings my 2026 groundcover planting total to 24. Here, below, is a look at the six new plugs that are to the left of the three existing ones that went in last year in August .   Here are the three existing groudcover plants last Fall .  One of the challenges down by the sidewalk is retaining the mulch, so I'm hoping these plugs will grow-in and provide a 'living mulch' mat that stretches the front of the bed along the sidewalk.  You can see the six new ones in this photo of the red coleus annuals: These weren't the...

One of the [garden wins] that I hung on the scoreboard last year was planting coleus as a bedding plant in the garden.  Both in the front yard (island bed) and in the back ( corner patio bed ).  Last year, I planted twelve Versa Gold Coleus as bedding annuals up front in the Island bed and they filled-in and put on a great foliage show all season.  I was pretty good about dead-heading them and pinching off the flowers to keep the growth focused on the foliage.  I put on my 2026 to-do list to use more annuals (again) including coleus and talked about repetition via annuals.  More on that soon.   But, for the Island bed, I picked up sixteen (16) small Wizard Red Velvet Red Coleus plants: Wizard Red Sun Coleus is described by Ball Seed as : Compact, mid-sized foliage plant with upright habit is ideal for mixed containers, planters, baskets and landscapes. Easy-care plants are late flowering, extending their landscape value. These are likely to be a bit ...

In the Fall of 2023, I (also) planted a pair of small Baby Blue Spruce trees in the (then) newly expanded IB2DWs bed.  They were both in five-gallon containers and were small trees that were 50%-off at the end-of-year sale.    $50 for the pair .  Looking back, that's pretty good.   When I planted these, I talked about how they are dwarf trees - hence the name 'Baby Blue'.  That means they are very slow-growing and add just a few inches per year.   This will be the third full growing season (Planted in Fall 2023, so 2024, 2025 and now 2026), but I'd certainly declare these as 'slow-to-grow'.   Below are a couple of photos showing the current state of these two trees.   First up, is the tree planted further West (closer to the house).  This one is less-perfectly-pyramidal in shape.  It almost looks like it is leaning over to the right.  And...that might be the case, because of the growing canopy of the growin...

I planted a small, ball-and-burlap Oregon Green Austrian Pine tree in our front yard in the Fall of 2024 .  This came one year after my big "Fall Planting" sprint in Fall of 2023 when I had so much success with evergreens/conifers.    I wrote a 'Getting to Know' post about this tree and talked about how it will reach a 10' height in ten years and has an open-branching look.  But, it also has some of the best 'candles' of all the conifers.   Last May, I posted some photos showing off the candles emerging for the first Spring in our garden .  In that post, I talked about how some folks choose to prune those candles to keep the tree more compact.   Here below are a few photos showing the current state of this tree and the current set of candles.   Spring Candles on Oregon Green Austrian Pine Candle'ing - the pruning of these candles - typically focuses on removing or shortening the 'dominant candle'.  Others, like the folks at th...

Another day, another Spring growth on evergreen post in the garden diary.  This time, it is a similar trio of Green Velvet Boxwoods, but these are planted a year earlier, in June 2022 .  These shrubs started as TINY (TINY!) evergreen shrubs planted in a cluster IB2DWs, under the flowering pear tree along the north property line.    Take a quick look here to see how small they were when they went in the ground . Now in their fifth growing season ('22, '23, '24, '25 and now '26), they've taken a more globe-shape and have nicely rounded crowns.   See below for the current view of these three: Back when I put them in, I mentioned wanting 'structure' and 'Winter interest' in this bed.  We're starting to see those dynamics come to life.  

Yesterday, I posted a couple of photos showing the purple (or are they red?) cones on our Weeping Norway Spruce trees that are planted in the IB2DWs bed in our front yard.  Those trees went in the ground in Fall of 2023.  But, so did a few other conifers in that same "Fall Planting" cycle.  One of those conifer trees that also went in the ground in October 2023 was a small, ball-and-burlap Montrose Charm White Spruce tree .  It was a pretty small tree in Fall of 2023.  And, a little mal-shaped.  Today, in its third full growing season, it has taken on a more traditional profile and shape as an upright, narrow conifer tree.   It has also put on some mass and height.   Below is a look at the current view of the tree - showing the full conifer from ground to tip: But, something else is happening this Spring.  Something that didn't happen in previous years.  That's the green cones have burst from the tips of this tree and are putt...

I planted a pair of small Weeping Norway Spruce trees IB2DWs in the Fall of 2023 and that experience has changed how I think about Fall Planting in general.  I've planted a ton of trees on our property, but these late-season conifers have been some of the most enjoyable to watch grow.  Not just because the Fall Planting allowed them to get established, but because of how they provide structure and four-season interest in a long, linear bed that sits between two driveways (hence the IB2DWs name).   That means that this is their third (full) growing season (2024, 2025 and now 2026).  In each of the first two Springs, we saw some red cones emerge on the trees and that has been a real treat. Here is a post from Spring 2024 showing the red (or purple?) cones .  And, here is a post from early May 2025 (a little under a year ago from today) showing those same red/purple cones.   Back in February, when there was snow-cover on the ground, I posted a phot...

The groundcover that caused me to 'fall' for groundcover was Ajuga 'Chocolate Chip'.  Over the years, I've planted small plugs in various spots all around our garden.  But, the very first place I planted it is the island bed that lies between our driveway and our front stoop.  I've added additional plugs in that bed in subsequent years including last year when I split a six-pack between this bed and the front (sidewalk) island bed.  Some Winters are tougher than others on this groundcover, but it seems that this year we have some good news:  I'm seeing new, curly growth on the Ajuga in the driveway island bed.  below are a couple of photos showing the current state of this bed: And, the other three (of the six-pack I mentioned above) are planted down along the sidewalk in *that* island bed.  These went in the ground in mid-August and that appears to have done the trick in terms of giving them enough time to establish themselves before dormancy. ...

This post is going up in mid-April, but I laid down this bed extension at the end of March.   This is the third bed that I've put down extensions this Spring - the most-recent one is the small Saratoga Ginkgo bed by the driveway .   Over the years, I've extended this bed out from right in front of the boxwoods to where it stands now.  In Fall of 2024, I added to the edge the first time using this same (lazy) method .  Last year, I planted 64 annual vinca as bedding plants and I'll do much the same this year .  But, with this newly extended area, that total will have to go up. Below is a photo showing the new extensions on each edge of the bed.  The southside bump-out is the largest part, where I added about a foot.  In the middle, I didn't add anything.  But, on the northside, down near the front steps, I've now connected this bed to the Saratoga Ginkgo bed.   Here are some in-process photos where I used a mix of cardboards and...

Two days ago, I posted the first part of a bed extension (lazy method) project in the front yard around the tiny Saratoga Ginkgo tree that is in an island between our driveway and front walk.  I started with the rough shape I wanted and mentioned that I usually expand these beds over multiple days due to having just enough material (Cardboard + municipal biosolids + composted manure) on hand to do a section-at-a-time.   Today, I'm sharing a few more updated photos showing the final shape of this newly, expanded bed.  With proper curves.  I wanted to add some true 'swooping' curves (curvilinear shape) and expanded out the bed by twelve inches in most of the bed and closer to two-feet at the main curve.   Note:  This post is going up in early April, but I laid these out on March 20th.  So, when it comes to that crucial component (time!), these will have 10 days in March, all of April and if I get to the first week of May (prior to planting), t...

Lazy bed extensions were listed as a "Fall Project" in my 2026 to-do list .  And, I need to do that.  But, I also wanted to use the time I had this Spring by knocking some of the bed extensions off my list while I could in March and April.  I've posted a few times already when I first extended and reshaped the front yard island bed .  Then, I did an initial expansion on the southside of the house in the cut flower foundation beds .   Today, I'm doing an initial expansion of the small corner bed that I call the "Saratoga Bed" because it features the tiny Saratoga Ginkgo tree along with some Little Henry Sweetspire Spirea shrubs .   By now, I've laid out the elements of my lazy bed extensions: 1.  Cardboard to smother the existing turf grass. 2.  A mix of (municipal) biosolids, leaf litter and composted manure + topsoil. 3.  Time. Here, below, is the 'before' photo.  The bed needs more breathing room by extending things outward....

Yesterday I posted my annual to-do list of 25 items I'm aiming to tackle this growing season .  I'm starting off with an early win by taking-on Priority item #2 on the list one-day-in.  I've talked about how I've adopted what I call the 'lazy bed extension method' of using three factors:  1.  Cardboard to smother the existing turf grass. 2.  A mix of (municipal) biosolids, leaf litter and composted manure + topsoil. 3.  Time. That 3rd factor (time) is why I'm going at this garden upgrade in March.   Here's what I wrote for #2: 2. Priority Project 2:  Expand and fix the edges of the front yard island bed .  But, use a ‘fewer curves’ approach to making a curvilinear shape . Last year, I planted Coleus (which was great) and Supertunias (which weren’t), so strike the right balance between colorful annuals (maybe mirror what I put in the front porch bed) along with some coleus for foliage. I also included further down the list at #12 a "Fall ...