Why I Oughta...

There is too much going on in the garden to break everything down into an individual post in the [garden diary].  Some of the more meaningful things that I'd like to track get their own posts, but other things that I just want to note are going to be included here in this round-up.  Calling it "A Look Around the Garden Beds".   Start with the Garden Edit under the tree swing tree.  The Summer Beauty Alium are in bloom, but starting to fade.  They're doing great here.  Makes me remember why I liked them out of the gate. One of the climbing hydrangeas that I planted on that same tree swing tree is growing.  See the vine climbing up the trunk: A little bit behind these Allium is a layered look of ornamental grasses and Little Lime Hydrangeas. And Three Miscanthus sinensis 'Adagio' Maiden Grasses. The grasses are "dwarf" grasses, so they're staying shorter than most grasses, allowing the blooms of the (also dwarf) Hydrangea show through. I've ...

In the pizza oven bed, I have a lone, solitary Alchemilla Mollis 'Thriller' (Lady's Mantle) that I planted near the corner of the timbers of the retaining wall.  You can see it in the photos of this post about adding a new (to me) allium variety to that same bed .    I also bought a different variety (Auslese) a few years back and planted it in a spot that is buried in Ostrich Ferns.  I should go see if I can move that thing..... The reason I bring it up is that I was...well...influenced.   I saw this post from Erin the Impatient Gardener where she fawns over Alchemilla Mollis (Lady's Mantle) in her garden: View this post on Instagram A post shared by Erin Schanen 🌿 The Impatient Gardener (@impatientgardener) One of my garden rules is to never buy one of anything.  So, I needed to remedy that issue.   Also, #3 and #4 on my 2026 to-do list are these: For #3 (Finish up the edit with grasses), I have made progress....

The Dark Side of the Moon Astilbes that are planted in a row in the 'nook' garden behind the Weeping Nootka Cypress tree are blooming.  Well...*some* of them are blooming.  These are sort of just THERE.  Not thriving, not declining.  They're dark foliage plants, so I'm sure rooting for them.   Below is a photo showing the main group of these (there are a couple others that are split by the contorted Harry Lauder Walking Stick tree that is planted in this bed) with one tall, pink bloom and the other bloom (to the left) about to open up: This post is going up in mid-July, but this photo is from late June.  Just like last year, when I posted about these in July, but as a 'later-post' from June .   These were planted in 2023 from the Morton Arboretum annual Arbor Day Plant Sale .   This border needs some additional plant material in front of these.  There is some ajuga, but it sure seems like it could use more.  

This post is going up in early July, but I seem to have forgotten to post about this planting earlier this growing season.  I actually planted these in late May, so this is six weeks late.  Better late than never (for the Garden Diary), right? I planted up the front border of the Pizza Oven bed that was marked as one of my "Garden Edits" from a few seasons back and was the basis of my #3 Priority Project post earlier this year .  At that time, I called for twelve (12) Hakonechloa Macra grasses to fill the front border and filling in spaces in front of and behind the tree swing tree.   Over Memorial Day weekend, I bought ten one-gallon containers of the straight variety Macra grasses from Roy Diblik's Northwind Perennial Farm.  And, I lined them up along the front edge from the one legacy grass stretching (almost) all the way to the front corner of the pizza oven. See below for a couple photos of the grasses spaced out in their nursery pots: Here, below, is ...

Last year, I planted three Nepetas that were new (to me) named Chartreuse on the Loose down near the pizza oven in our backyard.  By Summertime, they had grown-in and were re-blooming .  In that post from July 2025, I wrote: I've mentioned that I need to continue to remind myself to add more of WHAT IS WORKING instead of adding net-new stuff. But, these are both a reminder that sometimes new things can be great. But, now that I see them working, I have put them in the category of 'more of this plant because it is working'.... Repetition comes into play here, too. A few pops of this - along with my other 'backbone plants' (Hakonechloa, Alliums, Astilbes and Stachys) create that idea of 'repetition' - leading to...you guessed it: increased legibility. I also wrote (earlier this year) in my 2026 to-do list a few items worth referencing right now: #4 - Plant up the Pizza Oven Bed and #15 - Stay focused by using the concept of Repetition vs. new.   With t...

We're moving on to my #3 Priority project for 2026.   First one was to stop fighting nature (nature finds a way) with Oakleaf Hydrangeas . Second was to re-cut the edges of the front yard island bed .   Today, I'm posting the details of #3:  finishing a project that I started two years ago:  A Garden edit.   I wrote about this earlier this year and talked about how I relocated a colony of All Gold Hakonechloa Japanese Forest Grasses from around the tree swing tree and moved them to the other side of the yard.  I moved them right before I began excavation for the backyard pizza oven.  Now that the oven foundation is built out, I had the bed extended around it last year, creating a long empty border.   My plan has been to fill that border with a series of Hakonechloa Macra (straight variety) grasses .  Both from the Oak tree 'backwards' and 'forward'.   Here below is the area that needs to be populated: And here, b...

Here, below is a look at an unfinished part of a 2024 'garden edit'.  There are just three Hakonechloa Macra (straight green) grasses planted.  I think there's room for four or five more.   The other side of this bed (the pizza oven bed) is on my early, early priority list for adding the same grasses.  I'm thinking we need to do both ends:

In the Spring of 2024, I did work on a number of what I was calling then "garden edits".   One of them was focused on the plantings around the base of the tree swing tree.  I moved out all of the All Gold Hakonechloa Macra grasses and relocated the band of Summer Beauty Alliums back closer to the trunk.  I was set to add a full border of the straight species Hakonechloa Macra grasses , but haven't gotten around to it it.   But...the alliums?  They look good.  Better than good.  Here, below is a photo showing the alliums ringing the Red Oak tree: See that lone Japanese Forest Grass?  Imagine a mass planting of them in-front of the Alliums.  That's what's remaining here.  

Last year, as part of a 'garden edit', I moved some of the Bresshingham Blue hostas back off the front of the border to the back of the bed near the fence.  When I moved them , they were average-sized.  But today?  They're much, much larger.  One year difference and...what a difference.  Below is a photo showing three of them - they're a nice blue-tone color with large, almost corrugated foliage.   Bressingham Blue Hostas In the bottom left of the photo, there's a smaller hosta present.  That sort-of shows us the comparison in size.  Guess these just needed to be deeper in the bed to be happy.  

Last year, I put in six Sun King Golden Japanese Aralia plants in a 'garden edit' in what I call the 'nook' behind our Weeping Nootka Cypress tree in the backyard .  They're really bright pops of semi-tropical-looking plants that thrive in shade.  And...since we have plenty of shade, these feel like a made-for-us kind of variety.  I bought those original six at the Morton Arboretum plant sale and they did just OK for their first year.  They went dormant early, so I wasn't sure if they'd come back. I saw some new growth in early April, but still wasn't sure .  By early May, I saw all six were back , so that means...(at least to me) that these *work* in our backyard.   #15 on my 2025 to-do list is to 'lean into what is working' - so adding more of these checks that box. #20 on that same list is to focus on 'repetition' vs adding net-new.  So, check number two.  And, finally...#10 is to work on 'legibility'.  These bright chartreuse...

There aren't a ton of planting posts that I can publish that check the box on three ' to-do items ', but the three ornamental grasses that I planted in the backyard recently get that accomplished. Those three grasses are All Gold Hakonechloa macra grasses that I bought at the recent Morton Arboretum plant sale. The three relevant items are: 4. Finishing the garden edits, 10. Work on garden 'legibility' and 20. Stay focused on repetition vs. new. When I bought these three bright grasses, I wasn't sure where I was going to put them. Somewhere in the backyard or perhaps along the boardwalk. After thinking about it for weeks, I opted to place them at the end of the border that houses the rest of these All Gold Grasses. Extend the row closer to the house. At the end of April, I posted a photo showing the nine grasses in this border . With these three new ones, we're now at twelve All Golds in back. Here are the three new ones staged for planting: All Gold Hak...

Back three weeks ago, I posted a photo and wondered if the Sun King Aralias that I planted last year were "back" for their second growing season .  I was concerned because I didn't baby these last year - and neglected them a little bit when it came to watering/irrigation and weeding.  I was so focused on the pizza oven that I fell-down a little bit in terms of garden maintenance.   I posted six (not five like I said in April) Golden Japanese Spikenard 'Sun Kings' in the back yard as part of a [garden edit].  I was seeing *some* growth by the stalks of last year's growth in late April, but today....I'm seeing foliage across all six plants. Here, below, is a photo from this week showing the six chartreuse-colored perennials that are putting on foliage and growing in early May: My plan this year is to pay close attention to these this season - in terms of watering and weeding.  I had them mulched in (professionally), so I'm hoping that will help ease the...

Last May, I undertook a [garden edit] in the backyard that was aimed at accomplishing a few things at once:  First, it was part of my "hosta replacement project" - where I was moving some hostas (that don't provide four-season interest) further back in the garden.  Second, I was looking to improve the stumpery with some ferns and other shade-tolerant perennials.  And, finally....I had an established cluster of All Gold Hakonechloa Macra Japanese Forest Grasses that sat in the bed under our Tree Swing tree that I wanted to move.  Why move them?  Because that's where I put the pizza oven. Here's the post showing this garden edit and transplant of the All Gold grasses .  Pre-transplant, I had eight grasses in the garden .   I did some dividing (I think), because in this post , I count nine grasses in the garden edit.   As I've mentioned previously, last growing season got away from me thanks to the pizza oven build.  Weeding and wateri...