Why I Oughta...

A couple days ago, I posted the details of some of my 2025 priority projects in the garden including my initial (#1) project:  renovating the gravel path on the side of our house .  In that post , I walked through my learning journey about geotextiles and their differences - non-woven vs. woven.  And, how they have different drainage and separation impacts.  After poking around, I ended up landing on the use of a nonwoven geotextile under the gravel will stop the 'sinking gravel' that has occurred over the years.   I found this roll of nonwoven geotextile that is four-feet-wide by 100-feet long.  It is listed as "8 ounce" weight and in-hand it feels substantial.   The gravel path on the side of our house is laid down with bluestone chips, so this project isn't straight-forward.  If this was a net-new path, the job would be easier:  lay down the fabric then pour on the bluestone chips.  But in this case, I had to find a way to s...

In December of 2023, I started to notice that the bluestone chip garden path that runs from our driveway back to the boardwalk on the north side of our house was starting to 'sink '.  The gravel started as a thick, full layer started to sink into the ground and mud was starting to peek through.  In 2024, I added even more Bluestone chips to the path, but it still didn't stop the sinking.   Last March, I decided to act and began to 'pull back' some of the bluestone chips and lay down some larger gravel .  Then, I pulled the chips back over the top.  But, that hasn't stopped the sinking.  I've long resisted using any sort of landscape fabric.  On any project.  There's TONS of research showing that it doesn't work to supress weeds and it doesn't allow the soil to breath and regenerate with organic material.  Why?  Because, it creates a barrier.   A barrier.  Wouldn't that help with the gravel sinking?  Yes, it turn...

2024 was the year of cut flowers, but it also was the year of some ' garden personality '.  I included the notion of adding even more 'garden personality' as number 22 on my 2024 to-do list .  To that end, I feel like I added a bit - including the 'feed me' compost bin sign .  I also added - and mostly neglected - a small Stumpery in the back late in 2023 .   There's another bit of 'garden personality' that I added earlier this year that I failed to post about here on the blog.  That "bit" is my first attempt at a more-permanent Fairy Garden using a piece of Norway Maple trunk and a couple pieces of Norway Maple bark to create a little roof.  I sunk the bottom-half of the trunk into the ground to give it some stability and attached the roof with a couple of decking screws.   I added a little branch 'perch' where the door will go about half-way-up the trunk.  See below for the first Fairy House built in my new(ish) (more permanent) F...

This past Winter, I identified that we were experiencing some 'sinking' in the gravel walkway on the side of our house .  I put it together using Bluestone Chips and some metal edging, but starting last year, I noticed that the 'level' of gravel seemed to be going DOWN with time.  Looking back, when I installed the path in 2021, I went pretty 'thin' with the Bluestone chips on the path - because I used MOST of them back by the firepit.   Last Summer, I made a couple of trips to the landscape supply yard and brought home 50 gallons of stone that I applied to the firepit area and the side path.  I thought that'd be enough to raise the level of the stone.  But, alas...it still felt like it was sinking. So, fixing this 'sinking' gravel on the path is something I want to take-on in 2024.  I even included it in my 'early look' at 2024 projects .    There are a number of (potential) methods that one could use to try to keep the gravel from sinking ...

Over the past few years, I've been adding Bluestone Chips to a path on the north side of our house that takes you from our driveway to the back/side boardwalk.   One of the items on my 2024 to-do list is to sort out what is going on over there.  Is the gravel sinking in?  What do I do to remedy the situation?  Larger gravel?  Some sort of grid?    Next Summer, before I add more Bluestone Chips, I need to diagnose the failure and implement a remedy.

A few towns over, we have a landscape supply place that is open-to-the-public and offers some of their bulk items like mulch and stone on a 'you fill' basis.  That means that you bring your own buckets and shovel and they sell it to you by the gallon.  NOT by the weight.  Well...I sort of guess that they've priced it 'by weight', but they sell it by the gallon.  They want you to bring in five-gallon buckets as that's the easiest way to go.   We have a short sideyard path and our firepit ring filled with Bluestone Chips that we installed in Summer 2021 that have worked out well for us in both spots.  But, when I installed them, I used whatever Bluestone chips that we had on hand - I made one order.  So, I spread them a little thin because I wanted to fill in both spots (path + firepit) to make both viable.   Part of my 2023 to-to list was to keep upgrading the firepit area and in that post, I mentioned adding some new Bluestone chips t...

The biggest 'project' item on my 2022 to-do list was to begin the side-yard retaining wall/walkway project in some way.  I called it #3 on the list and said that I should start with the 'upper' wall and planting box .  This was based on a late-March post showing how I could tackle the project by building an upper and lower retaining wall and 'placing' the walkway on 'top and in-between' those two walls.  When I did my check-in on the list in early September, I was pretty confident that I wasn't going to get to this item .  Today - in mid-November - I now can say:  I didn't get to it.  As I went into project-planning mode, I went and looked around the Web for ideas.  I also looked at our lived environment for ideas, too.  And, that's where I came across a recently-installed landscape timber retaining wall project a couple of blocks away from our house.  We were out on a walk and saw this fresh, treated lumber wall that looked nicely done: Thi...

It seems that I've stumbled across a groundcover that works for me in areas of deep shade and places that I'll neglect.  That's the situation on the north side of our house - along the gravel path.  I have never watered this area.  But, I stuck a Creeping Jenny Moneywort out there after I dug it out of our Front Porch Container and it has...ummm...taken. Last October, I showed a photo of this ground cover and it was just getting started here .  What's it look like today?  See below for how it has spread out and is thriving: I like how it is spilling out onto the path.  And how it has filled in a huge section of this long, linear bed.     With this kind of growth, you have to wonder if this is an invasive, right?  University of Wisconsin says that it isn't .  But...I'm not sure.  Despite adding some ground cover being one of my 2022 to-do items, I'm not going to fly out and buy a bunch of plugs of this stuff.  At least...no...

Back in 2019, I transplanted a dark read Coral Bell perennial that I had in our urn container into the bed on the side of the garage and didn't think much about it.  It survived that first Winter and grew to a nice size.  Last Spring, I decided to divide it up into three plants.  This is an area of deep shade, so after dividing them, I didn't water them too much.  But, by Fall all three of them had survived .  Fast forward to this Spring and all three are showing new, dark red (maroon) foliage in the long, linear bed along the garage.  You can see them below: This photo - while posted in early June - was actually take in early May before I mulched the beds.  One of my 2022 to-do items (#16) was to design with dark foliage .  These certainly count as dark foliage.  Another item (#12) continue to divide plants.  These are too small (right now) to think about dividing them, but I'm thinking they'll go on a two or three-year schedule. ...

Yesterday, I showed a photo of a series of Ostrich Ferns that have worked a little and naturalized along the long, linear mulch bed that runs between our garage and the Bluestone chip gravel path that leads to our backyard.  After planting one (or maybe two) transplants, we now have eight Ostrich ferns of different sizes that have begun to fill the area in.  In that post, I mentioned that I also planted some bare root Ostrich Ferns a little further back along the garage (behind the fence gate) .  Here's what those ferns now look like clustered close to the little stoop outside our sidedoor.  Below you can see the ferns that have unfurled in this little, narrow bed: In this post in 2018, I said that I planted three bare root Ostrich Ferns here , but thanks to them spreading a little bit, we now have nine ferns of varying maturity.  See below for an annotated version of the same photo/area showing the nine now in orange circles: There's also some Creeping Jenny M...

Over on the side of the garage - in the long, linear bed that is sandwiched between the house and the gravel path, there are a few different plants that I've tucked in here and mostly left alone.   I talked about this area earlier this Spring when I talked about (potentially) planting some trees that I can espalier against the house to kind-of 'break up' the large mass of wall .  When I posted that photo in mid-April, none of the perennials had emerged just yet, but with Spring turning to Summer around here, this spot has started to come alive.  And, what's showing up strong?  Ostrich Ferns.  See below for a photo showing some of the Ostrich Ferns that have spread and naturalized in this area: Here, below, is an annotated photo showing the location of eight Ostrich Ferns - some tiny and some more mature.  Based in the location, the larger stand of fern fronds that are just above the large rock were the ones that I originally planted and the rest have s...

Back a couple of weeks ago, I scrambled a bit to buy and plant some shrubs ahead of a professional cleanup and mulch job that we had going on in our yard and garden.  As I've said a few times in the past few months, shrubs are where my focus has been this planting and growing season.  In this post back in early March, I outlined a series of garden 'slices' and how I needed to prioritize the planting of shrubs to both provide the necessary structure and (in some cases) four-season interest.  To that end, #1 on my 2022 to-do list was to "Focus on Shrubs" .  And, over the past few weeks, I've tried to pay that goal off.   The most recent shrub-related post was about the pair of Ruby Slippers Oakleaf Hydrangeas that I planted from the Morton Arboretum Spring sale .  In that post, I ran through a mini-inventory of what I've added including 9 new flowering shrubs and six upright evergreens.  Full list: Six upright evergreens - Green Giant Thujas. Tech...