Why I Oughta...

I added seven Montana Sedge plugs along the flagstone path in our backyard that connects the rear yard with the sideyard on the southside of our house.  There were already a handful of Montana Sedges there, so these seven were adding to the existing colony.  I posted a photo of them a month later (in August of 2026) and they all seemed to have handled their transplanting.   Now, 100 days later, in early October, they're doing their Montana Sedge thing:  Glossy green sprays of groundcover.  Here, below, are a couple of photos showing the old and new sedges.  The mature (larger) ones are from previous seasons, but the smaller ones are catching up quickly: You know what this makes me think? More along this very path.  But, also...just more in general?   The first place that comes to mind is the backyard stoops.  Under the Spring Grove Ginko trees.  Also, the island bed.  And, along the boardwalk.  

Two days ago, I posted photos and details of the six Ajuga 'Chocolate Chip' plugs I planted in the sideyard along our property line in an attempt to help with some erosion control that is needed due to a couple of downspout pop-ups that bring a lot of surface water to this area.   When I bought Chocolate Chip, I also bought a six-pack of Ajuga Burgundy Glow.  I've planted this Ajuga before ( here this year in May ) and it is larger-leaf'd than Chocolate Chip and brighter in color.  The tray was full of healthy plants.  Here's a couple of photos showing the six-pack and the root system that has been created this growing season: These being bigger than the Chocolate Chip and having this large, seemingly healthy root system means that I can put them a little bit more 'upstream' where the water seems to be running stronger.  This area below shows the location:  right in front of the grown-from-cutting Limelight Hydrangea.  (we should talk about that,...

I found a six-pack of Ajuga 'Chocolate Chip' plugs at Home Depot in their 50% off Fall sale and grabbed the best-looking one of the bunch.  I've had mixed results with some of these six-packs.  Most of the time, they're great and the plants get established and take-off.  Other times, I've bought some other packs that didn't work at all.   I've planted Ajuga in the Fall before and have also had mixed results.  Some of them get established enough and come back in Spring.  Others don't.  Farmer's Almanac has October 11th as our first frost , so we're just a couple weeks away.  Eeeeek.  Time to get these into the ground. Here's the pack below.  Looks healthy: Over on the side of our house, we have an erosion problem.  Between a couple of downspout pop-ups, this area sees a lot of water movement.  I've been using this cobbled-together mix of bricks, stones and other blocks to try to slow things down.  Right behind it is wh...

The Anemone Lucky Charm (from Northwind Perennial Farm) are just beginning to pop-off with their bloom cycle.  These are, I suppose "Late Bloomers".  This post from 2023 includes the description of this 'Lucky Charm' variety .  It also shows a similar late-August bloom time.  Here's a post from 2022 that includes the nursery sign when we bought them .  I've used these as filler/accent flowers in arrangements the past few seasons and I'll likely do the same this year.  Here, below, is the first cut of the year.  I like the closed-up buds better than I like the actual flowers in arrangements. Here below, is how they look on the plant: And, here below, is how the plants have filled-in and recovered from the planting of that Blue Spruce (on Standard).   They've filled-in the entire space and have created a living mulch of sorts with their spreading habit: I took a couple of divisions from this plant and put them near the pizza oven.  They're...

A little over a month ago, I planted seven Montana Sedge plugs in and around the little path on the southside of our backyard that takes you from the yard to the cut flower sideyard garden.  There are some flagstone steppers that define the path and there were some existing Carex Montana in this area from a few years ago.  I tucked the seven new plugs in along the path in June .   Today, they've grown and put out their full flush of blades (is that what sedges have?  blades?  like grass?)  Below are a few photos showing the blend of old and new groundcover along the path.   I put one on the 'other side' of the path, but it lives under some hosta foliage.  It is persisting, but not thriving here.   And, below, you can see a couple of the existing sedges.  These are further back from the yard, but since they've been around for a while, they're bigger. As we get past the heat of August and I start thinking about some 'fall p...

A week ago, I posted a 'getting to know' post about Little Lamb Lamb's ear and talked up some of its features as a groundcover.   So, it wasn't hard to 'add to cart' with a couple of small quart-sized plugs when I saw them at a 50% off sale at the Big Box store.  As for finding a home for them, I opted to fill-in a gap at the very front of the Island bed down by the sidewalk that I had previously tried to fill with some Chocolate Chip Ajuga plugs .  Some of those planted earlier this year have made it (so far) and some of them didn't.   The two Little Lamb Lamb's Ears filled the gap.  See below for them on the very front of this bed: I'll see how these do in the early days and then decide if I should bring home a few more to fill in some space and create even more 'living mulch'. I had previously planted 43 groundcover plants for the season (7 sedges, 36 ajuga plugs), so these two get me up to 45 for the season.  

My Mom recently brought to my attention how I don't have any perennial geraniums in our garden.  That's actually not true as I have one under the dwarf Ginkgo tree by our back stoop.  Brookside Geranium .   But, why my Mom brought it up was when we were talking about groundcover.  And..."living mulch".   Or, more...my desire to buy LESS MULCH each year by filling in the spots in the garden with easy-to-maintain perennials. I was at the Big Box store recently and saw these small geranium plugs for $6.98 and 50% off.  They're New Hampshire Purple Geranium.  And, they're certainly small.  But, for $3.50, I figured I'd give it a shot.   Proven Winners has a listing page up for New Hampshire Purple Geranium .  Hardy Geranium, Bloody Cranesbill.  They say: A profusion of magenta-purple flowers atop compact, spreading mounds of leaves makes this one of the best low-growing cranesbills. Low-growing.  Like that. ...

I brought home some small quarts from Roy Diblik's Northwind Perennial Farm earlier this month with designs on adding them to some blank spots in the garden.  I was able to successfully stick to my plan of buying things that I already have on-hand and know they work well (in terms of growing conditions) in our garden.  I ended up with ten quarts, five of two different plants.  Today, I'll post the details of one of them:  Autumn Moor Grass.  Seslelaria Autumnalis.   Here are the five quart nursery pots from Northwind Perennial Farm: I started my Autumn Moor Grass journey in the Fall of 2023 when I planted a bunch of them in our front porch bed .  I divided a few of them over the years - something I should do again this Fall. These five are going into the very front of the IB2DWs bed.  Down by the sidewalk.  This is a 'hard to grow' area, but I've been amending the soil with biosolids and have mulched it heavy the past few growing seasons...

For years, there's been a plant that I spot in other gardens that I always admire, but don't have planted in my own garden.  It is (dare I say?) common.   It has a lot of features that I'm drawn to:  fuzzy and (occasionally) white/grey foliage.   I'm talking about Lamb's Ear.   You see it everywhere, too. Everywhere, but my garden. However, I recently came across something new (to me):  A cultivar named "Little Lamb".  Here are the small containers of Little Lamb on the nursery table: Little Lamb Lamb's Ear - Stachys Byzantina - on the nursery table. Proven Winners describes it : Velvety-soft, greenish-silver leafy plant stays compact and is great for edging, border gardens and containers. "Stays compact".   That part, I like.  The small container lists it as a 'groundcover'.  See below: High Country Gardens says : "Fuzzy, silver leaves make a splendid groundcover and weed smother." But, they go on to brag on it even...

You've heard of Chocolate Chip.  And Burgundy Glow.  But...I came across something new (to me) at the big box store:  Princess Leia Ajuga.  It is green and white and has foliage that appears to be in-between sizing (in-between the smaller Chocolate Chip foliage and the broader Burgundy Glow foliage).  Below are the quart-sized plants for $7: Here's what Wayside Gardens says about Princess Leia : Ajuga Princess Leia is an evergreen perennial offering year-round interest. A highly popular plant, Princess Leia quickly creates a striking and colorful carpet of uniquely patterned, variegated green and white leaves that's blanketed in whorls of deep purple flowers in spring. Nectar-rich, the flower spikes are extremely attractive to bees. Star Wars in the garden?  What's not to like about that? I can think of two dozen spots for this groundcover in our garden.  

This is a [garden diary] update on the kitchen curved bed - in particular the Anemone Lucky Charm that has been growing the past few years in between the peonies and the Astilbes/Matcha Ball Fern Leaf Spirea.   Back in May, I planted a dwarf Blue Spruce Globosa (On Standard) in the bed and I've REALLY LOVED how that has turned out.  It has added color, texture and some shape and really pops in the spot it was planted.  It is early in the season, but if I was declaring winners/losers for the year, this would be one of my biggest "Garden Wins" of 2026.   But, this post isn't about the conifer.  It is about the groundcover flowering perennial that was disturbed when I planted the tree/shrub.   Below are a couple of photos:  First is the current state of the Lucky Charm Anemone followed by the previously-posted 'at the time of planting' comparison collage.  The Anemone has grown in quite a bit, but is currently NOT growing inside the p...

Back in the Summer of 2023, I began to discover (and plant) sedges.  One of them that has performed pretty well in the shade of our fence and Linden espalier has been Montana Sedge.  I planted three of them at first .  In the Fall of 2024, I divided some of them to add even more small groundcover plants along the fence .  On a recent trip to Northwind Perennial Farm, I came home with seven more plugs of Carex Montana: I planned on putting them in/around the existing colony of Carex Montana in the backyard. I previously planted 36 groundcover plants - all Ajuga.  These seven Montana Sedges gets me to 43 groundcover plants - a new high-planting mark.  Here, below, is a look at the area showing the small White Polka Dot annuals on the right.  In the middle, you can see the three existing Carex Montana right up against the flagstone path. These are small (right now), but they'll spread out a bit.  I opted to put one on the left side of the flagstone p...

Just yesterday, I posted details and photos of six Ajuga 'Chocolate Chip' groundcover plugs that I planted along the sidewalk out front and talked about how those got my total up to 30 for the year.  My previous high-planting mark was from that epic Fall planting spring in 2023.  Today, I'm showing photos of six more Ajuga plugs going in - bringing my total this year to 36.  Matching my high. I previously put in six in front of some of the Hakonechloa All Golds in the back. Today, I extended that row with six more.   Here, below is a photo showing the first six and then the empty space in front of the All Golds just beyond: Here, below is another look.  The previously planted six on the left.  The empty space calling out for groundcover to the right: This six pack of healthy plugs from the Good folks at Menards: They went in easy-peasy.  Below are two photos showing the results.  First is a look at the new six followed by a view of all twelve...

Over the past month, I've posted a number of posts about adding groundcover plugs to the garden.  The latest was a post about six Ajuga 'Chocolate Chip' plugs that I put into the front yard Island Bed at the very edge of the sidewalk.  Those joined three existing ones from 2025.  They weren't the most healthy plugs, but they went in anyway.  That brought my groundcover planting total to 24 total planted for the year.  Today, I added six more Ajuga 'Chocolate Chip' plugs to that same Island bed.  Five along the final edge in the front and one 'up the driveway'. This brings the total to thirty groundcover plants added (to date).  #20 on my to-do list is to "Keep Going on Groundcover" .  Thirty in the Spring is a good number.  My previous annual high-planting mark for Groundcover plants was that epic Fall 2023 season when I added 36 .  I'm right there and it is just Spring.   Adding this 'living mulch' down in the Island bed serv...

The little colony of Epimedium - which I have hoped would take off, but never have....is once again flowering with their little yellow "jester hat" flowers.  They are pretty neat.  They flowered like this in 2024 (and maybe last year?).   Below are a couple photos showing this groundcover in bloom in the shade.   I was hoping they'd fill-in some of this space, but they mostly just persist, in their existing footprint.  Maybe I haven't planted them close-enough together?  Nothing a little "stream" of sedges can't fix, right? 

Last week, I posted some photos of six Ajuga 'Chocolate Chip' groundcover plugs in the kitchen curved bed in our backyard.  Those were #7-12 of groundcover plugs put in this year with the first six being Ajuga 'Burgundy Glow' on the other side of the yard .  Today, I planted six more Chocolate Chip a little further back and right in front of some of the All Gold grasses.  Below are a few photos showing the process. In front of these grasses is a little bit more blank space than I'd prefer.  A perfect spot for a low, creeping living mulch. The pack of plugs is tidy and healthy in their little nursery carrying container: I've learned over the years that while Ajuga spreads out, it doesn't grow massive.  It is a 'good neighbor'.  That's why I planted the six pretty close together.   This puts me at 18 groundcover plugs planted for the year.  And, my second 'upgrade' to the Stumpery - with the first one being the addition of three All Golds ...

Yesterday, I posted a photo showing the six new Ajuga 'Burgundy Glow' plugs that I stuck in the front of the border by the little colony of Hellebores in our backyard.  I talked about how I wanted to 'keep going' on groundcover this year mostly with a mix of Ajuga and Carex.  Why?  Because those are the two groundcovers that I've had the most success with over the years.  I also should list sedum because a few of those have worked, too.  #1 on my 2026 to-do list was to 'stop fighting nature' and #15 was focus on repetition vs net-new things and #20 was to 'keep going' on groundcover.  When you combine all three of those things what do you get?  The answer:  more Ajuga 'Chocolate Chip'.   There's plenty of reasons to shop at your local nursery over a big box store parking lot temporary nursery, but the prices on their groundcover plugs is NOT one of them.  Thanks to the folks at the Home Depot, you can buy a tray of six Ajuga plugs...