Why I Oughta...

Over the past week or so, I've been working on - and posting about - the front yard beds.  Mostly, I've been working on - and thinking about the soil conditions.  Since we moved in - Summer of 2017 - I haven't had much luck at all up there.  That's six growing seasons (well...five full ones at least) and I've lost things, have had other things not grow so well and removed the biggest plant in this bed last Fall:  the large Norway Maple tree.   I started last week doing some vertical boring of holes using my post hole digger .  Both, to get a real look at the soil conditions, understand how deep the clay lies under the topsoil and to (maybe?) help improve the conditions by cutting through some of that bathtub effect that takes place in clay soils.  After I dug a hole about 12" around and 24-or-so-inches deep, I proceeded to fill it up with some leaves and a big helping of biosolids to top it off.  My thought is that this 'vertical mulching' will improve

The planting bed that is out front of our porch has been something that has been on my mind for years.  Specifically...the growing conditions.  Between a few things going on out there, I think it might be time (this year) to take an even more aggressive stance at improving the soil across this foundation planting bed.  Last year (2022), one of the items on my annual to-do list was to think about how we improve the conditions up there and I suppose that I did that (a little) and gave myself a partial grade of complete.   The way I was thinking about this problem was across a couple of fronts:  hydrophobic mulch and the root mat from the Norway Maple .   Starting last Spring, I went about trying to fix the hydrophobic mulch issue - including the addition of some nitrogen in the form of alfalfa cubes and raked it in .  Then, in the Fall, I attempted to do even more.  First...with the removal and grinding of the Norway Maple tree, I'm hoping that the root mat issue continues to recede

This is the third in a series of posts related to the removal of our large, 70-year-old (but in decline) Norway Maple tree in our front yard.  First, I shared photos of the tree being removed .  Then yesterday, I showed photos and a video of the stump being ground out .  Today, I wanted to talk a little bit about what comes next.  After doing a little bit of digging on the Web about what to do after you grind a stump, I've come to the conclusion that I needed to think about both amending the soil with organic material AND....being deliberate about adding nitrogen.   The stump grinding left behind A LOT of small pieces of wood.  A mulch of sorts.  But, about two-feet-deep. I knew that we're going to plant a new three here, so I wanted to be proactive with the soil.  I also knew that I'm dealing with a LOT of hydrophobic mulch in this area, so anything I do here will likely help.  In fact...I'm pretty sure the act of grinding the stump - AND all the soil and mulch in th

Last week, I posted about the two packs of Gladiator Allium bulbs that I picked up at Costco recently and mused about where I could plant them.  In front?  In back?  IB2DWs?  Front porch beds?  With the recent SIGNIFICANT moves in our front yard beds - more on this to come - I thought that I should find a way to put these mid-size bulbs in that bed.  They're what I would call medium-sized in height - so they can go in a lot of places in that front bed. I was - initially - thinking that I was going to plant them BEHIND the row of boxwoods and in front of the hydrangeas.  Why behind the boxwoods?  Because they're NOT (currently) that big.  Even after six growing seasons.  Why?  Because of the Norway Maple has been crowding them out.  Both in terms of the big, thick mat of roots.  But, also...(I believe) because of light.   But, if that Norway Maple isn't there any longer, won't that help the boxwoods grow up and out?  That's the bet I'm making.   I decided to dig

On my 2022 to-do list were a few items related to compost that I've begun to address in the past week or so since the weather has started to cool down.  If you go back and look at this year's list , you'll see that #13 focused on MAKING compost and using what I have while #19 talked about improving the soil conditions in the front of our house.  This post is about how I've combined those two things by using the compost - or Black Gold - that is in our compost tumbler and applied it to our font porch beds.  First, have a look (below) at the makeup of the compost that is currently in our tumbler.  Do I turn this thing regularly?  No.  Is it in the sun?  No.  Do we still get a pot of black gold compost at the end of the Summer?  Yes.  Here's proof: I wanted to take it a little bit at a time (to start), so I began to fill a couple of five-gallon buckets with the compost.  See below: And, brought it up front to the beds where I'm dealing with a mix of hydrophobic mu

While I can't get started with Spring clean-up just yet, the warm(er) temperatures have me wanting to be outside in the garden working on things that I'd like to get done this season.  One of the projects that has been on my mind since last Summer is thinking about a plan to address the hydrophobic mulch that is present in a few spots - but specifically under the Norway Maple outside of our Front Porch.   I don't think (I can't find) that I've posted specifically about hydrophobic mulch.  And the problem that it creates.  It is something that I'm dealing with in a couple of spots, but as I've gotten to learn more about it, I'm still trying to figure out both what CAUSED it and how to address it.   One of the VERY COMMON reasons for hydrophobic mulch is that it was applied too thickly.  That's true for me.  Especially under the Norway Maple.  I've had a lot of trouble growing under that tree - h ere's a whole post on the topic - so I'm no

Yesterday I posted a photo of a new bed on the corner of our back patio that is now home to three transplanted Karl Foerster Feather Reed Grasses .  These were divided from another grass, so....they're the best kind of plants:  free plants.  Today, I'm posting a photo of some other free plants:  another trio of Karl Foerster grasses.   This is the third in the series of dividing these grasses with the first being back i in September.  In that post , I showed how I added just ONE grass underneath our Norway Maple tree in front.   This time, I took another of the driveway grasses (the middle one) and divided it into four pieces.  This one was suffering from Center Rot , so it was due to be divided.  I left the largest piece in place (you can see it in the photo below) and took the other three over by the Maple. I took the other three divisions and planted them in an array in front of the Norway Maple - along with the first one I put there last week.  Now, there's four of the