Why I Oughta...

In 2021, I planted two 1# small Hicks (upright) yews in the backyard - sort of near the understory garden on the north side.  I planted them somewhat close together with eyes on (eventually) shaping them up into a 'Block I' Illinois topiary .  Earlier that year, I posted about this University of Auburn topiary frame and dreamed of a 'Block I' .  The two Hicks yews were probably 12" tall in Fall of 2021 .  They've now had three (2022, 2023 and 2024) growing seasons and have put on some size.   Here are the two Hicks Yews - below - after those three growing seasons.  They've grown up (a little bit) are are still mostly columnar. It isn't easy to determine their height, so here below, is a shovel stuck in the ground to provide a height comparison.   I CLEARLY still have time to create the 'Block I' frame out of Chicken Wire, so I'm not concerned about that.  I am, however, concerned about the 'fullness' of these.  Are they going to get

In the Fall of 2021, I made a big decision (or...what seemed like a BIG decision at the time) in our garden.  I opted to dig up some of our Oakleaf Hydrangeas and move them *out* from the fence .  They were planted to allow for their mature size, but tucked in closer to the fence.  After reading and observing our garden - and others online - I decided to invest in putting evergreen shrubs *behind* deciduous, flowering shrubs.  Here's the post from October 2021 where I talk about 'layering' and how most designs call for evergreens *in front of* shrubs like hydrangeas .  That's how it looks in our front yard.  But....this idea turns that concept on its ear - by putting the evergreens BEHIND the shrubs that lose their leaves in Winter.  To do that, I needed to move out the Oakleaf Hydrangeas.  And plant some evergreens.  I opted for Hicks Yews - since this is a pretty much full-shade area.  I planted a five-dollar, one-gallon Hicks Yew in October 2021 .   Today, after thre

I don't seem to have documented the planting of these two, small Hicks upright Yews, but I wanted to document their current, Summer 2023 status in the [garden diary].  They are planted between the firepit and the side fence.  With the three Peachberry Ice Heucheras planted in front of them. These were planted as 1-gallon evergreen shrubs.  And while they haven't put on a ton of size, they're certainly grown.  See below for a photo showing the two, upright Yews spread apart. With some time, they'll fill in and fill-up to create an evergreen vertical screen.  I don't expect them to grow together, but I will add something-else evergreen in between them down the road. How about the color change on those Heucheras, huh?   

Adding evergreens was #1 on my 2023 list and I've put in a series of Boxwoods in the front and back.  And those were added to the existing stands of Boxwoods around the garden.  Most of them are small, but a few of them have grown in size and have a number of seasons growing.  I also had a run with Hicks Yews the past few seasons, where I added quite a few of them around the backyard - starting all the way back in 2019 .   I've TOTALLY left them unpruned to date.  Why?  Pruning evergreen shrubs and boxwoods in particular is an art.  Something that I have little experience with as a gardener.  I've *mostly* left my Boxwoods grow wild and shaggy - allowing them to put on some size.   But...  pruning shrubs as a 'seasonal project' on my 2023 to-do list .  So, it was time to take a look at some of the evergreen shrubs. #22 on my 2022 to-do list was to 'upgrade my garden tools '.  I did that a little bit by adding a Dutch push/pull hoe .  I also did that by gett

Late last season, I planted six small upright Hicks Yews in a little row about half-way back in the southside bed of the backyard .  My thought was that I was going to to try to bring a little bit of repetition to the landscape by trying to mirror or repeat the Hicks Yew hedge that I've been growing along the back of our property.   They all seemed to have done just fine this season, but earlier this Spring, I undertook a shrub project that involved relocating the four Lilacs from this area and replacing them with three Green Giant Thujas.  If you look at this post showing the planting of the Thujas , you can see the six small Hicks Yews.  In that post, I talked about how I needed to relocate some of these Yews and with the temperatures dropping, I was finally able to get around to starting that relocation.  Below, you can see one of the Green Giant Thujas and a hole in the mulch directly in front of it where I dug the Yew out of as it was a pretty tight fit. I decided to keep it

Last year, I bought and planted a small, native Pagoda Dogwood tree in our backyard close-to/near our firepit area.   It was tucked in right on the curve that transitions from our Hicks Yew hedge (in formation) and the firepit border and I thought (at the time) that it would provide a nice little focal point there - and grow up/over the Hicks Yew hedge to both provide screening and a little sense of placemaking by the firepit.    The small tree managed through the Winter (I protected it from the dang rabbits with a Chicken Wire hoop) and leaf'd out this year.  The leaves are quite nice and interesting .   It has put on growth - a little up, but plenty out.  That means that - for now - it is crowding out the Hicks Yews and the hosta that are planted close to it.   Here, below, is a look at the situation.  Pagoda Dogwood in the middle.  Hosta of some unknown variety on the left.  Small (but growing) Hicks upright Yews on the right.  As the Dogwood has spread out, it starts to 'c

My number one priority for this gardening season has been to focus on adding shrubs to the garden.  That means both evergreen shrubs as well as deciduous ones that lose their leaves come Fall.   To date, I've planted 15 shrubs in the garden with the last ones being the set of three Little Lime Hydrangeas in the backyard .   When I was at the orange Big Box nursery recently, I found a table of very small (1# nursery pots) Hicks upright Yews.  I've used these all over the place in our garden, so I figured I could pick up another set of these to plant.  I mean...they were $5 each, so what's not to like, right? The question was where to put them.  There are a bunch of places, but one that I've been thinking about is how we add a little bit of structure to the (current) entrance to our fire pit area.  We have this little mulch border that we've placed a couple of small pieces of flagstone that you can use to traverse from the lawn to the fire pit gravel area.  An evergr

In the photo above, you can peep a bunch of things;  a few of the Everillo Sedges on the bottom right.  A couple of small Hicks upright Yew in the middle left.  The Chocoholic Snakeroot in the top right.   But, the focus of the photo here in the [garden diary] is the three ruffled hostas planted on a diagonal.  They are Waterslide hostas and they're looking really great.  I first planted one in fall of 2020 that I bought at the Morton Arboretum Fall Plant Sale .  I (now) know that buying one of anything is a mistake.  So, in Spring of 2021, I remedied that mistake and brought home Waterslide Hostas that I found at Home Depot .   The one closest to the back (by the fence) is the oldest and the two one-year-old versions are closer to the front of the bed.   They're a cool blue/green color and the ruffled foliage provides a nice contrast to this area that features the sedges and yews.   I mentioned then - and it still holds true - that I'm drawn to ruffled foliage on these hos

Last Spring, I planted a bunch of bare root hostas in a few spots around our backyard that Nat brought home from Costco.  I'll get to the Frances Williams Hostas in another post, but this one is about the Bressingham Blue bare root hostas from Longfield Gardens .   I planted eight in what - at that time - I called the 'focal curve' .  And six back by the Yew Hedge . Two by the downspout around the Screened Porch .   That's only 16, so I'm not sure if I planted 18 of them (sometimes...these bare root hostas are so tiny that I plant two in one spot).   I covered some of these last year showing their first year growth.  By June, I was seeing some of them emerge from the mulch .  And by August, it looked like seven of the eight in the focal curve had made it .  I don't seem to have documented in the [garden diary] the ones back by the Yews, nor the ones by the downspout.   So...one year after planting bare root hostas, how are we doing?  First, it seems the two by t

Having locked-in my 2022 priorities for the yard and garden last week , I have begun to think about the practical implementation of the first item on the list:  Shrubs.  A discussion of some of the shrub needs were walked thru earlier in March in this post that laid out a list of needs and included a reference to adding three Tardiva Hydrangeas.  Back in 2017, I included a look at that part of the beds that called for these Tardiva Hydrangeas here .   With all that background out of the way, I think it is useful to look at the current conditions of this portion of the bed AND my current thinking in terms of deciduous shrubs based on some pointers from others.   To be sure, this is NOT a 'clean slate' situation.  I've planted things there that NEED to be relocated. First, I have four Lilac shrubs planted along the fenceline.  Two common Lilacs ( planted in 2018 ) and two Nocture Lilacs ( planted in 2019 ).  NONE of these have worked here.  They haven't died.  But, they

As part of my (normal) early-season puttering around the yard and garden, I've been trying to take in all the signs of new growth and early-season life (new shoots, tips) as well as trying to have a look at all the damage that took place over the Winter.  I've posted about all the gnawing that the rabbits (jerks) have done on things like our sedges and Oakleaf Hydrangeas .  But, the cold weather has also done some damage to a few things including part of our Upright Hicks Yew hedge (in training) in the far back of our yard.  Below is a photo showing the fourth-and-fifth Hicks Yew (when facing them from the house, counting from the left).  You can see the orange parts of the larger one that has suffered some cold, Winter damage.  This is a bummer as this was one of the tallest Hicks Yews that we've had grow back there.   There's still plenty of green growth on this one, but I'm troubled by the orange parts.  This is the ONLY one of the 15 back there (planted in 2020)

Over the past few years, I've always worked to identify some 'priority areas' in the garden/yard that I posted about - ahead of my annual to-do lists - that was a sort-of forcing-function to get me to focus on specific plants and planting projects.  Last year, I identified three areas of focus:  behind the oak on the southside , understory on the northside and the IB2DW area in front .   The results?  Mixed bag.   That doesn't mean I'm going to abandon the prioritization process here in my planning portion of my [ garden diary ].  But, I'm thinking of things a little differently this year and plan on trying to consolidate my thoughts in a few posts that will outline some PLANTING priorities and AREA priorities.   For this first one, I'm calling it a Planting Priority - because it isn't just in one specific area, rather across a variety of spots. And that planting priority?  Shrubs.   I suppose I'll start with a list of needs with shrubs: 5 Oakleaf H

Posting a couple of photos in the [ garden diary ] to start the new year to mark where I've spread out some of our hardwood ash in the beds in the backyard.  The two photos below in this post show the thin layer that I've scattered on top of the snow in the south bed in the backyard from the Oakleaf Hydrangeas to the newly planted Hicks Yews .  I've done this in the past (bringing out the wood ash from our fireplaces) and scattered it around the yard.  In 2019, I applied a thin layer to the base of our Frans Fontaine Columnar Hormbeam trees . This year, I had a bucket-and-a-half and chose the south beds to amend the soil over there.  Currently, it looks a little strange.  Grey patches on top of pure white snow.  But, once we get a melt/thaw then freeze cycle - or...another snowfall, I'm thinking this stuff will disappear from view. The word on the Web is mixed in regards to adding ash to the garden, yard and compost bins.  It seems that in a limited way, there's no

I planted a Hicks upright Yew hedge in the far back of our yard in the middle of the Summer 2019.   At that time, I planted 15 #1 shrubs about 30" spaced on center.  Here's how they looked when I first started showing the gaps between each Yew .  And, I documented what the hedge looked like in October of 2020 here with growth going up and out for each Hicks upright Yew.  Below, you can see what the hedge looks like RIGHT NOW.  This is now after two full (2020 and 2021) growing seasons and half (2019).   Here's a top/bottom look from 2020 to 2021 - one year of growth:  I'll be honest....I *know* that they grew, but the photos stacked as they are below aren't conclusive to me. I recently planted a bunch of other #1 Hicks Yews around the yard in hopes of bringing this look to other parts of the garden for cohesion.   My plan is to help protect as many of these Yews as I can from the rabbits this Winter, but I know I'll see some damage in the garden. 

Fall shrub planting has included 8 Hicks upright Yews - in 2 locations so far.  First the pair for the (eventual) Block I topiary .  And then, last week a very SMALL hedge (in planning stage) of six more Yews along the south border in the backyard.   And a trio of dwarf Green Gem boxwoods .  Today's post is almost a year in coming but features two more upright Yews - planted close to the fence in one of our shade beds.   You can see one of the two #1 Yews that I planted in the ground in the photo below: I say that these Yews have been in the works for close to a year because it has taken me that long to complete the various steps that I needed to do in order to get these Yews in the ground. First, I suppose I should explain the WHY behind these yews, their location and what I'm trying to accomplish with this planting. I've posted before about learning from and gaining inspiration from Amy Fedele at Pretty Purple Door including her shared love of narrow, columnar trees .

I recently came across some #1 Hicks Yews on a massive sale (these were sub $5 each), so I grabbed seven of them (and some other items) you can see below.  These seven join the other ones that I already have in as a hedge across the back and the recently planted pair that I'm trying to grow into a topiary .  I've had good luck with all of the previously planted Hicks upright yews not having too much trouble with drought, but they've had a little bit of rabbit damage over the years. I took six of these upright yews and put them into a hedge that will span the back of this bed to the front and - when it grows - will be shaped into that 'swooping' profile that I'm chasing .  My thought is that this new section of swooping hedge will evoke the same feeling as the one in back and work to tie the garden together by repeating the look with upright yews.  Here, below, you can see some of the yews set up for placement below: For record-keeping purposes, here (below) is t

Earlier this year, I posted some thoughts about how I could create a Block I - University of Illinois - topiary in our backyard and how I was inspired by an Etsy listing.   In that post, I did some of the layout and decided on a 4' wide and 6' tall Block I that would be about 18" thick when mature.  I've been thinking about something like this topiary for a number of years after seeing a bunch of them at a nursery on Route 12 that were (mostly) created from Arborvitae .  But, knowing we have mostly shade out back, I went through the mental gymnastics to convince myself that if I bought an 'upright' Yew, I could make the Block I topiary a go.  So, imagine my delight when I came across some $5 Fall sale Hicks upright Yews at Home Depot over the weekend.  I stuck a couple in my cart and brought them home. I put them out in a few spots and thought about placement.  I kept moving them, walking away and viewing the pots.  I want to see it from near the patio, but al