Why I Oughta...

#21 on my 2026 to-do list was to 'add another ornamental maple' to the garden.  So far, this season, I've planted a pair of them:  a North Wind Korean Maple (to replace the Arctic Jade) and an Alpenglow Korean Maple under the large tree swing.  Both from Iseli Nursery. Over the years, I've moved towards those Korean Maples. Acer pseudosieboldaianum. They have performed well (aside from the Arctic Jade).  They're more cold-hardy than Acer palmatums or Acer shirasawanum or Acer japonicum. But, the pull of the traditional Japanese Maples is still strong.  When I came across an Orange Dream Japanese Maple that was priced...ummm....right, I brought it home.   Also note... I still think about the full-moon maples like this one , too.  Below are a few photos showing the foliage, the tree form and where I planted it (in the back edge of the "Kitchen Curved" bed). The leaves in Summer are green with red(ish) stems: The tree has a low-graft and is about ...

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...

I had plans to replace my Oakleaf Hydrangeas because the (dang) rabbits have been eating them down to nubs in the Winter.  So, imagine my surprise when I came across these hydrangea flowers emerging on the tips of the shrubs that have appeared over the top of some of our amsonia foliage in the [kitchen curved] bed.  See below for a couple of photos showing these flowers: I looked for some treeform Viburnum (Doublefile) earlier this Spring, but didn't see any, so I never replaced these Oakleaf Hydrangeas. #1 on my 2026 to-do list was to replace those very shrubs, so this is going to be a fail. Unless....I go about dealing with the rabbits in a different way: keeping them OUT of the garden with a fence. I've posted about these blooms coming-and-going over the years.  Here is a post in 2023 when I was surprised (like this year) when they arrived .  And, here is a post from 2021 when they bloomed and I fell in love with them .  They also turn a deep red in the F...

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...

I found this dwarf blue spruce on a high graft - or 'on standard' a week back and I went back for it the next day and brought it home.  Named Picea pungens 'Glauca Globosa'.  You can see the bright spring growth on the tips of this thing in the first photo below.  Is this a tree?  I don't think so.  Let's call this an evergreen shrub, so it won't go on my [trees planted] list.  But, being up 'on standard' almost makes me call it a tree.   Here, below is the front/back of the plant tag showing the blue color. I have three other blue spruces - two in front IB2DWs and one in the back.  The two up front are doing good (one better than the other) , but the one in back is in severe decline.   Blue spruces add an interesting color and texture to the garden, so my brain made the connection between the 'blank spot' I had been staring at for a few weeks in the [kitchen curved] bed and this dwarf conifer.  When I brought it home, I plop'...

After a few years of lackluster peony growth, last Spring I finally saw some positive improvement in the flower output of the two colonies that are dotted around our garden.  I've moved the peonies into those two colonies based on sun conditions.  The first one is in the IB2DWs bed where I have a couple of plants.  And the second is in the "kitchen curved bed" in the back where I have three more.   Below are some photos showing the red tips emerging from the mulch.  These photos are from April 6th.   I've done similar "Peonies are Back" posts over the years.  Here is that post from April 2025 - one year ago .   Last year, I cut and preserved the blooms at the "marshmallow stage" and had peony flowers for Nat's birthday in July .  I'll do that again this year.  

 More Spring is emerging in the backyard, in particular the Kitchen Curved bed.  The colony (or drift) of Summer Beauty Alliums that have been planted in our garden since the very first year are emerging from the leaf litter and showing green tips in their usual clusters.  Below are a few photos showing these early-season foliage stars in between the Thujas and a little cluster of boxwoods in the Kitchen Curved bed.  These are planted a bit further back from the Amsonia that is mid-bed.   The leaf litter is going to be cleaned-up in the next few weeks - between a combination of efforts (I hope):  some by me, some by professionals.  

The signs of Spring are everywhere right now.  Including the green and purple-tipped foliage of Allium bulbs that have broken through the leaf litter layer that is currently *still* covering our garden beds. Below is a look that these crown-like tips bursting proud of their mulch layer.     Leave the leaves, indeed.  Probably too many this year.  But, the time to clean-up is fast arriving and these leaves will be a distant memory soon.  Hopefully...they'll stick around, but as tiny fragments of organic material.  Not these giant leaf-shaped forms of Oak leaves.  

Yesterday, I posted a couple of photos showing the front porch Ajuga 'Chocolate Chip' groundcover and talked about how they all had some Winter die-back/decline despite a somewhat mild Winter.  Most of the colonies are back this year up front, but reduced in size. Today, I'm showing part of the front-of-the-border band of Ajuga 'Chocolate Chip' that runs in the "Kitchen Curved" bed.  This is the oldest bed and the first one that has fully filled-out with Oakleaf Hydrangeas, Amsonia, various Astilbes, some Japanese Anemone, a Fernleaf Spirea (Matcha Ball) and dotted with a tiny Emperor 1 Japanese Maple tree.   The Ajuga here was first planted in Spring of 2023 .  Here's what they looked like 90 days later - after the heat of August .  They were putting on size with some larger than a grapefruit.   By last Spring, I wrote this 'hits/misses' post showing how some of the Ajuga was working , while other colonies didn't.   Last Fall, as the l...

A couple weeks ago, I read this post on Martha Stewart's blog titled: Staking the Herbaceous Peonies - and realized that we're coming up quickly on peony season in our garden.  Martha uses (of course she does) stakes that she designed herself and has a huge number of peonies on her property.  We, well...don't.   Over the years, we've ended up with five peony plants.  Two in front (IB2DWs) and three in the back (Kitchen curved bed).  After the first five-or-six years in our new garden, we finally had our first *real* peony season back in 2023 .  Why did we finally get blooms?  Because I moved the peony plants we had on-hand from the back of the yard to closer to the sun/patio.  And, I moved a couple up to the front yard where they get full sun.  Last year (2024), we had even more peonies.  Here's a post showing a full vase of Sarah Bernhardt pink peonies that I cut from one of the plants .   However, due to their small-siz...

In the Fall of 2023, I planted a pair of fern-like shrubs called Matcha Ball Ash Leaf Spirea.  One in the front porch bed and one in the backyard - in the kitchen-curved bed .    The one if front appears to have been lost, but the one in back has ALREADY leaf'd out.  In a funny way.  The tips are full of leaves.  And the base is full of leaves.  But, the stems are a little bare.  See below for the current shape of this small shrub: This shrub behaved oddly last year - with a bud-burst in November .  Yes...November.  Late in the year, when the temps were dropping.   And, I documented some (dang!) rabbit damage on this thing this past Winter.   I'm pretty sure *that* is the reason for the odd growth pattern this year. 

The (dang) rabbits are indiscriminate with their gnawing this Winter.  Beyond girdling my Belgian Fence trees , they're also eating away at the green tips of my other shrubs, including this Matcha Ball Ash Leaf Spirea.  I planted this one in Fall of 2023 and really liked the fern-like, almost Japanese-Maple-like foliage .   Below is a picture showing the newly exposed centers of some of the branches on this shrub after they've been clipped right off by these furry pests. This shrub came back just fine last Spring and leaf'd out .  But, then something weird happened and it struggled with (I think) drought stress.  It dropped many of its leaves.  Then...in November...it set buds that STARTED TO OPEN (eek!) just as Winter was setting in .  Drought stress. Confused bud burst. Now, rabbit pressure.  This is one to watch this Spring. 

The Alice Oakleaf Hydrangeas on the southside of our backyard in the 'kitchen curved bed' are holding on to their greenish/purple-ish leaves this late into the year.  Below in the photo you can see a number of them lined up along the back/middle-back of the border that are droop'ing, but...holding their large leaves: Also note...the leaf litter in the photo all across the beds.  I've cleaned these out a handful of times, each time trying to cut up the leaves with my mower and blowing the scraps back onto the beds.  

Just when everything was going dormant, dropping their foliage and going to bed for the season, I'm seeing a couple of anomalies.  First, was that Vanilla Strawberry Hydrangea bloom last week .  Everything else is in decline...but one stem and small pink bloom.  Today, I'm posting a photo of something else:  the Matcha Ball Ash Leaf Spirea in our backyard.  This is planted in the 'kitchen curved' bed on the southside, right near the Butterscotch Amsonia.   This is one of two of these shrubs that have a Japanese-garden-inspired look to their fern-like foliage.  The other one is in the front porch bed.  These never did SUPER great this year after being planted in November of 2023 .    I noticed that these had set some buds this Fall and assumed they went dormant.   But...we haven't had a hard frost...yet.  Normally it arrives in/around mid-October.  But, this year...everything is winding down very slowly. The Match...

Three weeks ago, I noted that the Anemone 'Lucky Charm' flower show was just getting started with the emergence of those purple, sphere-shaped buds that stand at the top of thin, upright stems .  Today, that show is happening in full-force.  If history is any guide, these will bloom all Fall.  But right now, they're showing-off with a light-purple petal show in the 'kitchen curved' bed in our backyard.   See below of the current state of this little colony of Fall color.  Something to think about is using these in other spots in the garden.  They get 'part sun', but are really the ONLY blooms left to pop-off in our foliage-heavy garden.  I could use these elsewhere to provide some late-season action.  NOTE to future Jake:  Divide these in Fall. 

The small colony of Lucky Charm Japanese Anemone is now a, well....bigger colony.  They've filled in the space in all directions.  And, we're just at the start of the late Summer bloom season that seems to last all the way until Fall.  Here's a look at what the three plants looked like last August - one year ago .  Barely touching each other and lots of mulch showing around them.  Today - see below: They've formed a mass or drift instead of three individual plants.   And, you can see the first few blooms opening up.  

In late Spring/early Summer 2023, I planted a small (1.5 gallon) Emperor 1 Japanese Maple - Acer palmatum in what I call the 'kitchen curved bed' .  Right behind/amongst some Fanal Astilbes.  By last Fall, it was showing a little bit of new growth and put on new foliage .  A good sign.  This Spring, it was one of a few trees that I wrapped in tulle - to protect from cicadas.  Doing that, wasn't great for the tree and damaged some of the tips of the tree along the way.  No big deal because the trade-off of a few broken small branches vs. the tree getting killed by the cicadas seemed worth taking. This was also a spot where I did a 'garden edit'.  Moving a border of Ajuga Chocolate Chip in and widening out the front of the bed this Spring.   I removed the netting more than a month ago and today, the tree is rebounding a little bit.  Below is a look at the current state of our second Emperor 1 Japanese Maple: Looking forward to this one fil...

As part of a larger " Garden Edit " to the "kitchen curved bed" in the backyard, I needed to move a few things OUT to make room for what I'd like to install.  Hence the notion of an 'edit'.    One of those edits is a Cat's Pajamas Nepeta that needs to get out of there.  I moved it here last Fall when I noticed it wasn't thriving in the shade .  Little did I know that I'd move it twice in six months.   The good news is that the Nepeta 'came back' this Spring.  Here, below is what the young plant looked like before I dug it up: Below is a little bit more context - showing the Nepeta vs some of the peonies: A few years ago, I posted about how Nepeta is listed as one of the Disneyland Rose 'companion plants', so it was a natural move to trasnplant it right in that long, foundation bed.  Below, you can see the tiny plant tucked in next to a Summer Beauty Allium: