Why I Oughta...

Mid-December, the first of our two Amaryllis bulbs - the Flamed Amadeus - was sending up its first flower buds .  Now, three-ish weeks later, the flower petals are opening up and starting to put on a wintertime flower show on our counter.   Below are a couple of photos showing the first two flowers to begin to open with a third on this stem following right behind.    These are billed as being some of the 'largest Amaryllis blooms', so my expectations are high.  The stem isn't too tall, so there's no toppling-over (yet).   This stage of these 'double amaryllis' (when the petals are still unfurling) is interesting as it appears crumpled in the center, but standing proud on the perimeter.  You sort-of get that double opening experience in one bloom.   We're well past Christmas now and that means the decorations are coming down and the wintertime-induced seasonal depression begins to creep in.  This pop of countertop color is a goo...

Last week I posted a list of 'potential' sites to expand (and amend the soil) of various bed sites around the garden.  Some of these were/are small extensions (adding inches to the width/depth of the beds) and others are much larger (adding feet of width/depth).  I wrote up the list and posted it in January not JUST because of the Wintertime-induced garden-related cabin fever, but also because a key element of my 1 'lazy bed extension' method involves TIME.  Time to supress and kill the turf.  That's because my 'lazy bed extension' method doesn't require the removal of turf, instead I just smother it with cardboard and then top the cardboard with various materials (biosolids + compost + leaf litter + mulch). On that list were a few front yard locations including expanding the Magnolia bed (which is a tight circle currently), connecting the Oregon Green bed to the front porch bed (about four-feet of distance) and expanding the small (12" deep) bed ...

Over the years, I've written and linked to various 'garden rules' and 'garden mistakes' lists.  And, I've made a bunch of those mistakes. And, learned from the 'rules'.  But, over the holidays, I was talking to my oldest sister and my brother-in-law about gardening.  They're taking on a new, exciting project and are in the midst of planning a clean-sheet garden at their lake house in Michigan.  The conversation drifted towards them asking for advice on where to start.  And, that made me think about what I would tell other gardeners.  I went home and ended up writing a Google Doc that included some advice, links and thoughts.  After editing a little bit, it ended up taking the shape of being a list of rules (or advice) that I've seemingly adopted for my own garden.  I thought it was worth sharing as (in this case, like many others here on the blog), I've adopted Paul Graham's advice and wrote things out.  The act of *writing this list* ta...

Yesterday, I posted a 'garden dreaming' post about building a new, raised bed section in our backyard to grow even more vegetables and flowers.   And, right before the new year, I posted by 2025 to-do list scorecard .  I bring both of those posts up because they are both involved in this post about lazy beds.   First, the scorecard .  I graded myself 18/25, but one of the seven incompletes was #23 - "More Lazy Bed Extensions" and I mentioned in the post that I have reserved the right to update my scorecard total if I get these bed extensions done before the end of January.   Time is important on these lazy bed extensions as we need time to suppress the turf that exists, 'melt away' the cardboard and allow the biosolids to mellow out a little bit.  I've done them in the Fall and the beds were ready come Spring.  And, I've done some on a quicker turnaround.   If I get these done in January, I'll have 120ish days of cure time....

The hits-and-misses that I've had with cut flowers and vegetables this past year has me (already) thinking about next year.  I wanted to make 2025 the year of 'even more cut flowers' and with all of the dahlias that I planted, we made that happen.  But, the constraints of our property mean that I'm close to the limit on what I can do going forward.  We have a ton of garden space in the backyard.  But, MOST OF IT is in shade.  That means that if I want to grow more things like dahlias and other cut flowers that need sun, I have to rethink things.   I could plant up more of the front yard or...I could do something bigger.   That something BIGGER is a cut flower garden.  In a part of the backyard that *is* in sun for a good part of the day.   And, a cut flower garden that uses raised beds.  We had raised beds in Elmhurst that lived inside of a fenced-in enclosure.  That garden produced a BOUNTY every season.  Vegeta...

I've mentioned that Winter snow came early this year and that cut-short some of my typical garden cleanup. It also dropped most of the leaves on the Frans Fontaine Hornbeams that normally hang around all Winter.   And, those two things - snow packing down and leaves falling - has created a full bed of leaf litter at the feet of the Hornbeams.  Below is a photo showing the fallen leaves that have been matted-down by the heavy snow (that has since melted).   Just in FRONT of these trees is the newly-expanded Pizza Oven bed.  That bed is full of clay soil. One of the things I've been talking about doing this Winter is amending the clay soil to make it a little bit more hospitable to gardening next year - especially with more dahlias on their way.   My first thought was to utilize municipal biosolids and just pile it ON TOP OF THE CURRENT MULCH.  But, now, seeing this leave litter, I'm thinking that I should try to rake it up on top of the clay b...

In May, I added three upright Wichita Blue Junipers to the (newly expanded) pizza oven bed .  They were small - in two-gallon nursery containers and from the big box nursery.  But, they were priced right and I've been eyeing them for a while , so I took the chance.  I planted them in a staggered pattern forming a triangle. Four months later (early September), I p osted an update with new photos and talked about how they seemed to have handled the heat of Summer with minor browning-out.   Now, as we head into our first Winter, below is a photo showing them as of late December.   Here is the original inspiration photo showing Wichita Blue Junipers with some Stachys Hummelo planted in mass .    I didn't get around to planting anything around these, but that will be on my 2026 to-do list.  But, if I'm grading myself as a gardener, I'd say that I lived up to the statement that:  " Conifers Should Come First ".   Have these gro...

The season is over.  The post-Christmas darkness is here.  So, let's do a full recap of the gardening year that was 2025.   I initially posted my 2025 to-do list in early April this year with 25 items .  In Mid-August, I did a check-in post that showed: 11 Done 7 In Process 7 Incomplete Let's do the final report. Here is the 2024 final report where I went 18/25 .   1. Gravel Path Improvement. Done.  I did the biggest part of this, but still have the 'gate-back' portion left to do.  But, I'm calling this done.  2. Make the Pizza Oven operational.  Done.    I closed in the enclosure, put the roof layer on and no longer have to deal with a tarp.  We also had a soapstone landing installed out front and started on the veneer - the very first "finishes".   3. Expand and plant the Island bed in front.  Done.   I've done A LOT up here, but haven't planted everything I was planning-to.  I'd li...

Earlier this year, I posted a couple of pieces on the notion of 'legibility' in the garden .  It was new (to me) and as part of learning about it, I wrote out my thoughts, researched what other people were saying and then followed-up with a post that outlined what Dr. Jared Barnes has created in his list of 'elements' that create garden legibility . Here are the seven elements (or components) of Garden Legibility ( via Dr. Jared Barnes ): 1. Clean edges 2. Desire lines and paths 3. Primary and secondary axes 4. Sightlines 5. Focal points 6. Entrances 7. Seeing over plantings Clean edges includes cut-edging, but also installed edges.  I've written about garden edges a number of times over the years.  Here , here , here and here .  Most recently, I was drawn to this timber-edging from a YouTube gardener and thought about using it as a retaining-wall(ish) under the Greenspire Lindens .  I still think that's a good idea (note for 2026 projects), but I was pointed...

They are back.  The (dang) rabbits.  And, they're eating the tips of our Oakleaf Hydrangeas.  This photo below has all the tells of them being around - and I'm NOT TALKING ABOUT THE GNAWED-OFF TIPS.  I'm talking about the rabbit turds.  EVERYWHERE.   That means that this will be the second year-in-a-row where we won't have Oakleaf Hydrangea blooms. I need to spend some time researching shade shrubs that flower and are rabbit-proof.

I planted a small one-gallon Green Mountain Boxwood shrub in October of 2021 in the bed behind the Tree Swing Oak Tree.  Two Winters later (2023), I posted this photo about how this shrub had totally bronzed-out .  When I planted it, I noted that this is pyramidal in form and that's what I was drawn-to when buying it.  Now, four years later, we're starting to see that upright, pyramidal shape.   Below is a photo showing the current shape of this Green Mountain Boxwood: Thinking about this being in the ground for four-full-growing-seasons, it sure feels like this has been slow-growing.  Looking back at the original post with the description , that checks out.  I planted two more Green Mountain Boxwoods in 2023 back by the Firepit , but like this one (above), they have been pretty slow-growing, too.   The bed where this solo Green Mountain Boxwood is set for changes this coming year.  It sits in the back of the (new) Pizza Oven bed, while...

Just about a month after planting three Blossom Peacock Amaryllis bulbs in a container, we have a number of blooms that have arrived and opened up.  With my middle child, we put this together for my Mom and brought it over to her house.   Here's the post from mid-November showing the three (then dormant) bulbs with moss covering the soil.  And then two weeks ago, I posted a photo showing how they had progressed with some flower stalks shooting upwards with bulging buds , but no flowers.  Once the foliage and flower buds emerged from the bulb, my Mom moved the container closer to the window to give it some bright light.   After the stalks shot up, she moved it back away from the window and has watched the flowers open up.  Below is a photo showing the current state of these three bulbs - one of which appears further ahead than the others (but you can see some soon-to-open buds in the photo): Blossom Peacock Amaryllis in Bloom Back in my original ...

Yesterday, I posted a photo of the large Flamed Amadeus Amaryllis bulb and talked about how it was moving faster than the second Christmas bulb we planted in November.  Below, you can see a photo of the current state of the "other one" - named Shine Dream Amaryllis .  The container for this one has moss covering the soil which makes this a little bit more festive/decorated.  They were both bought and planted in early/mid-November , so they're at about five weeks since planted.  Shine Dream *also* has large blooms with the description saying that they can be up-to-eight-inches and take eight-to-ten weeks to 'unfurl'.   This Shine Dream is a little bit behind the Flamed Amaryllis , but the tip of the flower bud has begun to emerge from the bulb, too.  Each stem will get multiple flowers, so here's hoping we get 3-4 stems and the first few flowers in time for Christmas in a week.  

Five weeks ago, we planted a pair of large, single amaryllis bulbs in small clay containers.  I covered both of them again two weeks ago  when they were showing their first signs of growth.  The first one was a Flamed Amadeus and the other one is named Shine Dream Amadeus .  I have watered both of them a few times since (soaking them, but with the loose soil, they drain very rapidly) and put them in a bright, warm spot (on a stone table that has a heat register underneath it).   Of the two, the Flamed Amadeus is moving more quickly.  Below is a photo showing the current state with an elongated flower bud tip (strangely) hasn't fully-emerged from the bulb.  It seems like the bud is super long: Looking back at the original post when we bought these bulbs , I just re-read the description of the Flamed Amadeus which reminded me why this flower bud is strangely large and long:  Flamed Amadeus "produces some of the largest blossoms in the Amaryll...

When I made the evergreen wreath for our front door this weekend, I ended up with a few extra 'piles' or 'bunches' of material that I didn't need to complete the circle.  I layered (from the back) Cypress, Fraser Fir, Magnolia, Boxwood and Eucalyptus in each stack.  A number of them went unused in the wreath, so to start...one of those stacks (or piles or bunches) went into a small-mouthed vase on our counter. You can see it below in the photo.  I cut all the stems for the wreath short, so displaying this in a traditional vase is hard because there's not much base to stick into the water.   Nevertheless, I jammed them in there.  The magnolia leaf is standing upright and proud, but otherwise, it seems to work visually.  Not to mention...the smell...which works just fine.  Here's the most-recent arrangement (Number 5 for 2025).    I have a few more in me before the season ends, I think.  

I put together my first (ever) evergreen wreath this weekend.  Using a mix of Fraser Fir limbs from our tree and some Cypress branches and boxwoods from our yard, I created a few dozen 'bunches' of materials.  I watched one wreath-making video (Thanks, Garden Answer) and sort-of figured out how to make the wreath using those 'piles' or 'bunches'.   Nat brought home Silver Dollar Eucalytus and Magnolia leaves from Trader Joes (one bunch of each) and I cut those up and stacked them on each pile.   From there, it was just winding floral wire around the grapevine frame to attach the pile/bunch to the frame.  I moved around the frame, eventually closing-in the whole thing.   Below is a photo of the (my first) wreath hanging on our front door. I'm already thinking about what to do next time and what I like about this first effort. I like the layering and the contrast from the cypress and fir and eucalyptus.  I also like the contrasting colors...

Last year, it seemed like I made way more winter, evergreen arrangements than I've done this year.  But, unlike this year, I didn't *count* them last year.  So, I'm just going off 'feel'.   This season, the arrangement-making started off strong, but I haven't had the occassion to make them (hostess gifts, mostly) yet, so it has tapered-off. I last posted #3 and #4 in November when we put together two small ones that went to Naperville and across town in Downers.   Today, I'm showing #5 in a vintage (Made in Japan) Christmas planter/mug with a wreath on the front of what looks like a 'faux chimney' along with a cute Santa Claus hanging out on the handle.  See below for a couple of photos showing this latest arrangement featuring evergreens (spruce, fir, juniper, boxwoods) and two kinds of eucalyptus and a pinecone-on-a-stick.  I filled this same container last year (post and photo) and I used more branching .  I think I like last year's bette...

The past few days, we've had some melting of the snow around here.  We've already experienced 17" of snowfall thus far and Winter hasn't even started.  The snow came fast and heavy.  That created a couple of issues for me:  the piles next to the driveway were getting pretty tall.  And...the plants were covered.   That's actually a good thing.  And, potentially a bad thing.  Snowcover is a good thing in terms of insulation.  We're headed into a period of very cold temperatures soon and having the snow down for insulation is a positive thing for plant health.   But, on the negative side, the heavy snow weighs down limbs.  And, for boxwoods, that's potentially a problem.  With enough weight, the evergreen shrubs will splay open.  And, if held there long enough, creates the potential for wreaking havoc on the shape of these shrub balls.   The two sets of boxwoods that are the most mature (ones out front of ...

A little bit over three weeks ago, we planted three Blossom Peacock Amaryllis bulbs in a single container proceeded to tuck them in with a little bit of moss to cover the soil.  These were slightly smaller bulbs than the ones we get at the local garden center and they weren't showing any signs of life, so I wasn't sure what we'd get from them.   After arranging them, we brought them over to my Mom's house where she proceeded to tend to them and put them in a bright spot.   Fast forward three weeks, and these have taken off: All three bulbs have straps of foliage that have arrived and two of the bulbs have a bud that is gaining height.   When they're this tall is when I typically shift to the 'poison phase' of watering.  Instead of pure tap water, these will now get about 10% alcohol mixed with the water.  To (hopefully) stunt the height a little bit (without burning the roots).  Here's a post about how I did this Paperwhite bulbs ....

We had our large front porch galvanized 'trough' container done by Churchill Garden Design of Downers Grove this week and Elise delivered a nature-inspired, festive arrangement that feels right for our house and our family.  If you look closely, you'll see a variety of evergreens, some dyed eculyptus, pinecones and branches in greens, browns, reds and even white.  What jumps out to me is not just the variety in terms of palate she chose (the analogous greens and browns), but more importantly:  the texture(s).  There's short, fine needles mixed with broader foliage.  Cascading habit/form mixed with upright, rigid shapes.  Arching tips and draping edges.  Harder shapes and structure backgrounded with softer, organic flows.  Have a look below: Here's a link to Churchill Garden Designs Instagram page where she features the porches she's been doing around the suburbs.   And,  here's her post (embedded below) showing our container: ...