Why I Oughta...

The pair of Sugar Tyme Crabapple trees are currently loaded with green leaves.  But, that won't last long as they drop their leaves and reveal their structure and (hopefully) some berries that have appeared this Fall. Below are two photos showing both of them.  First, the one closer to the front of the house followed by the one located further back.   Of note, late Winter pruning and support with stakes is something I should put on my list of tasks.  The tips of the limbs are arching down due to the weight of the crabapples and foliage.  Still...these look really good and are providing a great view against the large expanse of white Hardieboard siding.

Yesterday, I posted an update on the Flame Thrower coleus that is in a container (not-mixed) on our back stoop and provided a peek at something else planted (similarly in a container) next to it.  The red foliage of the coleus contrasted with the bright green of the neighbor.  The bright green (and yellow and orange - if you look closely) are from a Firesticks Cactus.  My Firesticks Cactus is now in "Year Seven".  Below, is a photo that shows the new growth that it has put on this Summer next to the Flame Thrower Coleus: Here's what it looked like when I first planted it in 2018 .  Tiny, and just green.   I moved this Firesticks outside more than a month ago.  It has spent the past 8 months in our basement, on a ledge near one of the windows.  When I introduced it outside, I started it in the full shade, underneath our raised planter box.  And, after a couple of weeks, moved it to part-sun.  Then, most-recently to the full sun loca...

I saw this sign at Roy Diblik's Northwind Perennial Farm on the benches for a Lavender that is named Lavandula x Intermedia 'Phenomenal'.  Or...Phenomenal Lavender.  The description says:  "This is what all of us have been waiting for.  This lavendar will live through our heat and humidity, our cold winters.  It can grow everywhere."  Sounded like it was worth a shot, right?  Lavender is hard-to-grow and (from what I've read) likes to grow in hard-to-grow conditions.  Full Sun.  Low organic material.  Good drainage.   I have just the place.  My 'hard to grow' area down by the sidewalk.  It gets full sun and has some gravel in the soil.  And, is right next to the sidewalk, so it gets hot.   I bought a quart that had a small Lavender plant in it and got busy planting it down IB2DWs, down by the sidewalk:

Despite posting this in mid-June, these photos of what I call the "Indiana Street Iris" or "Wes' Iris" that came via our (temporary) neighbor in Elmhurst are from mid-May.  This was in bloom all the way back on May 17th. Here's a post from May 16, 2024 (a year ago) that shows the same timing as this year .   Below are a couple of photos showing this purple-blooming perennial that seems to tolerate the more-wet conditions on this side of the house.    Based on the first photo, I think we can say that this is a "bearded iris", can't we?  This is a 'later-blog-post' - with photos about a month behind the publication date.  

A few days ago, I posted the details and photos of an Oklahoma Salmon Zinnia that I bought at The Growing Place .  I pinched it back pretty hard to try to get a bush-ier plant and then put it in the ground down near the sidewalk IB2DWs.  I came across an article about zinnias (not sure exactly which article it was...there are lots of them) that talk about how Zinnias do well with air-flow and you can avoid some things like Powedery Mildew if you avoid watering the foliage and give them some space to breath. The Zinnia in question is four plants that are tightly spaced.  I put the whole 'clump' in one hole initially.  After thinking about it, I decided to dig it up, divide it into four pieces and re-plant those four Zinnia plants in separate holes.   Below is a look at the four spaced out down near the sidewalk.

Last year, I planted three Inferno coleus in the island bed in our front yard after seeing them on a garden tour video and I wasn't disappointed.  By October of last year, I wrote a post praising sun-tolerant coleus as bedding plants and pledged to plant more this year.  I even included 'planting coleus as bedding plants' as one of my 2025 to-do items .   With the larger-scale planting of Crimson Gold Coleus in the (newly expanded) Island Bed in front, I decided to not walk-away-from Inferno coleus.  I bought three quart-sized pots of the red/brown annual and planned to put them into the expanded back patio corner bed.    Last Fall, I used the 'lazy bed extension' method to expand the corner bed adjacent to our back patio .  That created some new planting space that I can fill this season.   That spot gets decent sun - for our backyard at least.  It gets the MOST sun, I suppose, of anywhere in our backyard.  Thus, it seemed l...

2025 will continue to be a season of cut flowers (hopefully) with the dahlia tubers that I bought and were gifted to me.  Those dahlias are what carried me through all of 2024, but I also had some setbacks with my other 'cut flowers':  the Disneyland Roses.  I lost two that I planted in 2023 and the three that I've had historically suffered from various stresses.   But, I'm getting back into the game with two more - from the same elf that has gifted us all the previous five:  Nat's Mom. Here, below, is the order form showing two more will be shipped in Spring.  These arrive as bareroot plants, so I'll get them in the ground as soon as they arrive to give them the best shot in 2025.  Planning out the planting location(s) of all the tubers and these two new Roses will be a fun project this Winter - filed under 2025 to-do/2025 planning.  

#8 on my 2024 to-do list was to plant more annuals - including coleus - as bedding plants.   I posted a link to a garden tour video earlier this year where I fell in love with Inferno Coleus and talked about how that felt like an entry-point for me.    While I probably should have BOUGHT MORE, I ended up with three.  Decent start, right?  Below, is a look at the three Inferno Coleus planted in full sun - in my new Island Bed in the front yard.   These three are planted in between the Korean Maple (Northern Glow) and the Spring Grove (dwarf) Ginkgo tree in our front yard .   My immediate reaction is that three is NOT enough.  But, I'll watch these grow this season and then come up with a plan for 2025. As it relates to the 2024 to-do list, I think these three Inferno Coleus check that box.

#2 on my priority list for 2024 is to 'keep going with flowers' .  That means...pushing through my discomfort around blooming perennials and annuals and planting things that I haven't in the past.  This year, that means that I am expanding a little bit out from what I *do* know and what I *do* like.    Last year, I had a small patio container that mixed some salmon-colored zinnias and Euphorbia .  It was great and I was able to cut from the Zinnias all through the late Summer/early Fall.   This Spring, I cut out a new bed on the southside and planned to spread some Zinnia seeds around (more on this soon) to serve as a sort-of cut flower garden bed.   But, I also went further with flowers this year by planting some dahlia tubers.  So far, I've planted six Melina Fleur Dahlia tubers (that I started indoors) .  Three in the sideyard, three in the front porch bed (where the Disneyland Roses were last year).  And, I put in three O...

I'm moving onto the 'in ground' phase of my 2024 dahlia journey.    Three weeks ago, I potted-up my six Melina Fleur dahlia tubers into one-gallon nursery pots and started them indoors .  After they sprouted, I began to move them outside and did a little bit of hardening-off by putting them out in the shade for a few hours during the days and bringing them in at night.  Eventually....I just started leaving them outside overnight and they all seemed to be fine.  Here, below, is what they look like now:  about six-inches of foliage on each one: I put three of them on the southside of the house - where I get full sun.  Tucked in/out of the Disneyland Roses along the foundation bed.    Below is one in front of the gas meter, one in front of the power meter and one tucked close to the gate, between a Karl Foerster Grass and the last Disneyland Rose.   Speaking of Disneyland Roses...I now can (sadly) say that the three from 2023 all died....

The southside sideyard of our property is like most suburban sideyards.  Long and narrow.  It is also one of the very few areas outside of our front yard where we get A LOT of sun.  Over the years, I've planted some things over there including three Disneyland Roses , a pair of espaliered Sugar Tyme Crabapple trees , some Summer Beauty Allium, Karl Foerster Grasses, a few various allium bulbs, our Indiana Street Iris  and last Fall I added a small Blue Star Juniper .  Closer to the front of the house, we have a pair of Limelight Hydrangeas that are adjacent to the porch. The bed along this side of the house has been the same size since we moved in:  long and thin and hugging the foundation.  Something about 18" wide.  Below is a photo showing the bed as it looked before I started this new bed project.  One other note (to future Jake) - the orange spray paint shows where the cable line is buried.   I've been talking about growing flo...

We have a purple bearded Iris planted on the southside of our house, behind the Limelight Hydrangeas and right off the side porch.  I call these our "Indiana Street Iris" because they came from my sister - who lives on Indiana Street.  These Irises are from her neighbor Wes, who moved out and had his hosue torn down.  These were 'rescue irises'.  I planted a small clump in June 2021 - here's a photo that shows how small they were (all foliage) .    They put out a small bloom a few weeks later .   Last year, this bloomed in June and had put on some good size in the two years it has been here .  Below, is the Indiana Street Iris that has a number of shoots pointing upwards that will bloom in the coming weeks.   I haven't divided these, but perhaps this is the year - after they bloom.   These also have me thinking more about Irises - and in particular - an Iris that I came across at the Morton Arboretum Arbor Day Plant Sale c...

Back in December, I ordered some Dahlia Tubers from Longfield Gardens and planned to try to both grow them this year AND (importantly) treat them as something that I'll pull out of the ground before the season ends and attempt to over-Winter in my garage.  I bought two varieties - Melina Fleur and Cornel Bronze Dahlias .  They recently arrived and I decided to start some of them indoors.  The Melina Fleur tubers come two-to-a-pack, so I grabbed six one-gallon nursery containers that I had laying around and filled them with a sandy homebrewed potting mix.  It is a mix of sand + potting mix that I normally use for succulents.  Here, below, is a photo of the Longfield Gardens dahlia tuber packaging that lists some specs (18" apart, 32" tall). After potting them up, I brought them down to the basement in the window well.  This is south-facing and while it *is* the basement, they get good light down there.  I put them on some trays that I had laying around ...

Fall Planting 2023 will go down as a big moment in our garden.  That is...as long as everything that I'm putting in makes it through the Winter.  I'm getting to this stuff pretty late in the growing season, so I a little bit of hesitancy in proclaiming that all of these will make it.  Last year, with the huge mass of Autumn Ferns that I planted late and didn't come back have scarred me a bit .  That fear didn't stop me from adding three more new (to me) plants on the same trip to The Growing Place.  I was wandering around the grass area and came across these small quart-sized grasses you see above.  Short in nature.  Nice seed heads.  I pulled out the plant tag and see this below from Hocus Pocus Groundcovers:  Sesleria 'Greenlee Hybrid' - Greenlee's Moor Grass. Thanks to the Front Porch bed exploration from earlier this year , I was somewhat familar with some Seslerias and ended up buying and planting a number of Seslaria Autumnalis from No...

Our Disneyland Roses (at least the ones that have been planted with southern exposure a few seasons back) get their first flush of flower blooms in early June.  They bloomed in early/mid June in 2022 and in early/mid (10th of the month) June in 2021, too .  This year is no different as the first sets of blooms have hit our Floribunda roses.  Below are some photos - first showing some of the flowers that I clipped off and have put in a vase in our kitchen. The Disneyland Rose - in Zone 5b - get at least three full flushes of blooms.  June (now) is the first.  And the last one is in October.   There is another one in-between in August or so.  At least...that's what I think happens.  Perhaps they get four flushes?  I'll have to observe more closely this year.  While the bloom schedule is right on track, I'm seeing something that is new to me:  leaves being eaten up and destroyed by SOMETHING.  See below for a look at the tat...

Over the years, I've dug-up, transplanted and even divided a series of hostas of various varieties along the foundation and around the corner of our kitchen windows from the back of the fence to the Karl Foerster Grasses that are planted right below the windows .  This post from June 2020 shows how a series of hostas that were from teardowns had grown and thrived in this spot.  I ended up digging a bunch of these up, moving some and dividing others.  Leaving us with a row of three Lancifolia Hostas from the fence gate to the corner of the house.   They seemed fine.  Until this year.  Have a look at the photo below.  These are, I'm pretty sure... sun burned hostas .  Or...as some people call it:  hosta scorch .   Could I be giving these hostas more water?  Sure.  But, I'm not sure that's really the problem.  This seems like a situation where these aren't a fit.  They'll need to be moved and replaced with so...

Yesterday, I shared some looks at the island beds (of annuals) that you can see in Luxembourg Gardens in Paris this year .  I've used them as inspiration in the past for some containers, but this year, I thought we'd try to use them as inspiration for our front yard in-ground bed.  I decided to use a combination of 36 (small) Dusty Millers and some other colorful annuals (that I haven't bought yet).  I don't love pinks, so maybe reds is where I'll land.  While the alternating color isn't locked in, the Dusty Millers are, indeed, 'locked-in'.  Here you can see them below:  six six-packs bought and brought home. In 2020, I planted 24 impatiens .  Last year, we planted 20 sedum and 24 begonias .  For historicals: Our first full year - in 2018 - we planted some Ranunculuses - about eight of them. In 2019, we planted 16 orange marigolds. +8 plants yoy. In 2020, we planted 24 Impatiens . +8 plants yoy. In 2021, we planted 20 Lemon Coral Sedum and 24...