Why I Oughta...

Last week, I talked about being a "Fall Gardener" and shared a photo of the Butterscotch Amsonia that was/is popping off in our backyard right now.  The front yard has a different early November - Fall Show - star:  this combination of Saratoga Ginkgo and Little Henry Sweetspire.  You can see them contrasting each other below - with the Little Henry popping off in Fall red and the Saratoga Ginkgo's strap-y leaves turning a bright yellow.  The Saratoga Ginkgo is sort-of 'tucked in' amongst the Little Henry, but it is starting to put on some height (finally) after being planted in May of 2022 .  This is the 3rd full growing season for this tree and it (now) requires to be formally staked - something I should do this Winter.   I posted a similar photo exactly one-year-ago showing this combo .  The leader growth on the Saratoga Ginkgo is noticeable when you look back.  The Little Henry Sweetspire is FAR MORE red this year, too.   In fro...

I've long proclaimed myself to be a foliage gardener.  That's partially because I'm a shade gardener and partially because flowering plants have always been a little bit outside of my comfort zone.  But, I'm starting to think that I'm also *another* kind of gardener:  a Fall Gardener.  Or at least a late Summer + Fall Gardener.   The September and October Dahlia blooms this year have taught me to love that part of the growing season.  And now....as things are going dormant in our yard and garden, I'm struck by some things that are happening in Fall.   What are those things?  Here's one - below.  The EYE-SEARING gold that is coming from our Butterscotch Amsonias in our backyard that are contrasted by the dark green foliage of some Alice Oakleaf Hydrangeas.  This color is borderline shocking.  It is a little hard to see, but if you look closely, there are a couple of other things worth noting in this photo.  First....th...

The star of our garden are the All Gold Hakonechloa Japanese Forest Grasses .  I have two colonies of them - one in front and one in back.  I have a dozen places where I could use more, but they are always very expensive and rarely go on sale.  So...I thought they might be a good candidate for Fall Division.   I selected one to test this Fall - in the front IB2DWs bed.  And only chose one because I haven't divided these before.  They've been really hard to get established, so I didn't want to put too many of them at risk.  But...if this works this year, I'll divide a few in the Spring and then even more come Fall 2024. Here's the before - I was targeting the largest one in the back. And, here's the after -below.  My process for this was to first tie-up the grass blades, so I could get a good shot at digging out the clump.  Below is the grass all tied-up. I opted to divide it FIRST into half.  Then, I took one of the halves and divid...