Why I Oughta...

 The timing of dormancy in the garden continues to be a real source of learning for me in our garden - with different plants moving at different pacing that varies from year-to-year.  One of the plants that I caught in the garden going through a transition this week was the trio of Twinkle Toes Lungwort (Pulmonaria) that is showing a mix of foliage that appears to be green and some that is showing pure garden death.   See below for a photo showing the three Pulmonaria in early January: This Fall, I moved these these three out further to the edge of the bed, so there is likely a bit of transplant shock , but based on what I've seen over the years, these are right on track.    Here's a post with photos from early March 2021 that shows a similar mix of dead foliage with the new growth.

I've told this story before:  All the way back in 2018, we had some Lemon Coral Sedum in one of our patio containers .  One way or another, it managed to migrate from the container to the little, square bed next to our back stoop.   And, in a surprise to me, it managed to overwinter in that spot underneath a bed of snow.  I've since left it there and it has spread out each subsequent year.  I had not - up until that point - really thought much about groundcover.  But, then I saw this bed planted out front of the entrance of the Morton Arboretum in 2020 .  That inspired me to plant a mass of Lemon Coral Sedum up front in our front porch beds in 2021 .  It turned out really nice and created a carpet. With the success of the volunteer sedum in our backyard, I thought that I could replicate that growth and split up the front porch sedum and transplanted it in various spots - including IB2Dws and behind the large, Norway Maple in front.  All the while, the volunteer kept just sti

 This is the second new (to us) perennial that we recently planted that came from Roy Diblik's Northwind Perennial Farm.  I'll admit that I made one of the core gardening mistakes ( don't buy just one of anything ) with both of these recent additions, but these were picked out from the shade section by my middle child.  This post is about Alchemilla mollis 'Auslese' - or Ladys Mantle.  The sign at Northwind is below and points out that this works in part shade, has yellow flowers and spreads out to about 20".  It also calls out the scalloped, grey-green foliage. And, here below, is our pint-sized plant.  Of note, after just a few days home, I've come to realize that this thing needs to be watered regularly.   So, what, exactly is this?  Is it like a Heuchera?  Is it ground cover?  (If so, it would count towards my 2022 to-do list goal around groundcover, right?) The University of Wisconsin Horticulture Extension has a page up about Lady's Mantle where

On a trip up to Wisconsin recently, we brought home a couple of part shade perennials from Northwind that were destined to go into the Bird's little backyard garden that sits along the northside fence.  Both of these were new (to us) and will work in the understory section of the beds.  The first one is commonly known as Serbian Bellflower, but is listed at Northwind as Campanula Poscharskyana - Blue Waterfall.  See below for a look at the 1# plant that we brought home....and was PROMPTLY eaten by the dang rabbits.  Below is the sign from Northwind Perennial Farm where they describe the plant as 'vigorous'. What it doesn't, explicitly say is the word 'groundcover'.  But, that's what Bluestone Perennials call it: a short, mounding groundcover .   #5 on my 2022 to-do list was to 'fall in love with groundcover' and this is another data point towards that goal.  As of late last month, I had planted 20 ground cover plants this season including a variety

A few days ago, I showed how the Bird added a single Carex Albicans to her little backyard garden and mentioned that I had bought a few more of these plugs.  I intended to plant all four back by the fire pit border, but she wanted one, so it went in her garden.  As I talked about in that post, these sedges are plugs from Northwind Perennial Farm in Wisconsin, where gardener Roy Diblik evangelizes for Carex as the cure for garden groundcover.  Below is the sign from his nursery: These Albicans are darker green than the Bromoides that I planted yesterday under the Hornbeams .  Below, you can see some of them before planting: Here, below, is the layout of these three.  They're close to the fire pit gravel border and will (hopefully) fill in and cover up some of that mulch. I could plant four dozen of these and that wouldn't be enough, so three barely makes a dent.  But, every garden has to start somewhere, right?   These three additional Carex Albicans now add to the total of care

Just yesterday, I posted a photo showing off the Carex Albicans that The Bird planted as ground cover in her little backyard garden and talked about how that marked the 12th sedge that we've planted in the backyard.   I had posted about planting a little cluster of four Carex Bromoides earlier this Summer and included a video from Roy Diblik where he talks about his favorite Carex and how he combines them.  In that video, he talked about Bromoides, muehlenbergii & muskingumensis (Little Midge).  And how to combine them together with a dominant species and 'islands' of other species in various percentages.   That video pushed me to think about how I can use some of these in our landscape and how to create a unique pattern that is unique to our garden and isn't a 'monoculture'.   When we were up at Northwind in Wisconsin, I came home with some of the Carexes that Roy talked about:  Eight Carex Bromoides.  And Two Carex muskingumensis Little Midge.  When p

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...not yet.  But, this passage makes me w

I've planted a few different sedges in our garden in the past few years as I've become more aware of them and how they can work in various spots in the garden.  I have a few Everillo Sedges planted in a little colony and some OG's of the Sedge world: C arex Pensylvanica planted as a test .  There doesn't seem to be a bigger booster of Sedges in the gardening world than Roy Diblik from Northwind Perennial Farm.  He's actually where I've 'gotten to know' anything about sedges.  From his YouTube videos.  He posted a short video where he named his '3 favorite Carex' (embeded below), where he detailed what he likes about all three - bromoides, muehlenbergii & muskingumensis. Well...that means I have to try ALL of them, right?  I'm starting with one of them:   .  Below is the sign from Roy's nursery. The description on the sign reads:  Too nice, a good looking soft foliage grass-like plant that adds contrast to all types of shade plantings

Yesterday, I showed the backyard location of one of our two Prairie Dropseed native grasses that we bought at the Morton Arboretum Annual Plant Sale.  Today, (below) is a photo of the location of the other one:  IB2DWs.  Prairie Dropseed - Sporobolus heterolepis - is a 'tough' native grass and ground cover.  That means that this planting works two-ways on my 2022 to-do list .  #4 on the list was to 'enhance the IB2DWs strip' and #5 was to 'fall in love with ground cover'.   This grass (planted as a single grass for now) is close to the driveway and the bluestone chip gravel path: A few things to note about the photo:  first...the seeds from trees (those yellow things) are flush this season.  Also, if you look closely at the area where the Prairie Dropseed was planted, you'll see A LOT of clay soil.  Related to that clay, if you look at the top left of the photo, you'll see the Chanticleer Pear tree that was replaced and is living in a clay bowl.  This

Back in late April, I brought home two Prairie Dropseeds - a native grass - from the Morton Arboretum Arbor Day Plant Sale.  I first 'got to know' Prairie Dropseed from Roy Diblik's YouTube videos where he calls it both by the trade name (Prairie Dropseed) but also the formal name of Sporobolus heterolepis.  I decided to NOT plant the two grasses together - despite knowing that's one of the 'gardening mistakes' that I've made over time.  I decided to stick one in the front yard (more on that later) and one in the backyard bed that you can see below.  I planted it between the border and the urn in a spot that is mostly bare right now. I'd like to plant MORE of these in a little colony here, but my thought is to try with one, see how it responds to this bed this Spring/early Summer and then buy more (hopefully...in plug form) up at Northwind this Summer.   I'm considering this as a version of groundcover, so that helps me continue to check the box on

When I did the series of posts showing off the various plant materials that I brought home from the annual Morton Arboretum Arbor Day Plant Sale, I forgot to include a couple of plants that I bought.  I showed the Little Honey Hydrangeas , Ruby Slippers Oakleaf Hydrangeas and the three Ivory Prince Hellebores .  But, I also brought home two grasses:  Prairie dropseed - Sporobolus heterolepis.  Here (below) is a look at the two grasses: And, here below, is the sign from the Morton Arboretum Plant Sale where they describe Prairie Dropseed - Sporobolus heterolepis as "Prairie native grasss that is extremely tough. Makes a great natural addition to the home landscape with beautiful, dense and arching clumps of fine textured leaves.  Flowers have a unique fragrance." The University of Wisconsin Horticulture Extension Office has a page on Prairie Dropseed that provides a few more details : It was was named a Plant of Merit by the Missouri Botanical Garden in 2005 and was selected

As the calendar is showing late March, we're now STARING down the real beginning of gardening and yard care season here in USDA Growing Zone 5b.  And, like a lot of amateur gardeners and landscape caretakers, I often find myself adrift - drawn to things in garden centers that I don't have in my plans, pulled to focus on projects that steal time and end up planting things in places that don't make sense for the long haul.  However, I *do* have a landscape plan that was drawn by a professional.  I have of gardening rules don't buy just ONE of anything  and dig a $5 hole for a 50 cent plant .  (That makes me think that I *should* write a post that outlines my adopted gardening rules that I've collected over tim).  And, I have list of projects that I'd like to tackle.   Using those tools and direction SHOULD make the growing season go smoothly.  But, everybody - including me - needs to be held accountable.   That's why, over the past three growing seasons, I'

The past few seasons, we've had some Sedum Volunteers (or....maybe a better way to describe them is as a 'Survivor' instead of a 'Volunteer' because it has overwintered in place) in one of the small beds to the north of our back stoop where our Rhododendrons are planted.    If you look at this post from 2020, you'll see the beginnings of these Volunteers (they migrated from a container to a bed) and I was surprised to see them come back last year (2021).  In fact, based on the experience, I decided to transplant a bunch of this stuff from our front porch beds to various places in the hopes that it would survive the Winter.   Most of that stuff seems to have died over Winter.  But....the original set in back?  It seems that it might have come through once again.   Here, below, is a photo showing how some of it is green and happy. I'll monitor this set of Lemon Coral Sedum over the Spring to see if it bounces back and continues to live here - as a groundcove