Why I Oughta...

Yesterday, I posted details of how I had to move a small Tuff Stuff Red Mountain Hydrangea to make room for some new Oakleaf Hydrangeas.   I had been holding a few spots for some shade-tolerant Hydrangeas (per our plan) that extend the row of Alice Oakleaf Hydrangeas from our kitchen window bed all the way back to the south Oak tree.   The plan calls for a mix of Oakleaf and Tardiva Hydrangeas - both shade-tolerant flowering shrubs - to fill in the remaining space.   I was on a trip to Menards and came across a pair of Oakleaf Hydrangeas that weren't on my radar:  Snowqueen Oakleaf Hydrangeas.  Here's the tag on the shrub: And, here below is the full tag: That idea of Winter protection for the first year is new (to me).  Maybe I can do leaf mulch with these, too? The Missouri Botanical Garden has this page up with this description that had me at the word 'upright': SNOW QUEEN has an upright broad, rounded habit and typically grows 4-6' tall. Features elongated, c

This post is laden with caveats.  Potential, Early, Initial.  I'm thinking of this as a sort of mental workshop via blog post writing and publishing.  What better way to force ones self to begin to identify, list and rank priorities than to run through some of the potential options.   Priorities?  Yeah...I've done this a few years now - in an attempt to reign myself in when it comes to buying and placing plants.  Starting back in Winter of 2020, I started to write about some 'priority areas' that I knew I wanted to address and those 'areas' ended up being one of the KEY INPUTS (and often the first few items) on my annual Yard and Garden To-Do list.   Having recently published my 2022 'scorecard' , I want to think about where we go in 2023.  Again...I'm going to re-caveat this whole thing:  this is a workshop post.  Just spit-ballin' things here.  It will be messy, but I think it will be helpful.  What this isn't is a full exploration into e

On Friday, I posted a look at my initial attempts to divide some of our existing Summer Beauty Allium clumps in our backyard to create more new, 'free' plants.  As of that post, I was up to 27 'free plants' created through division.  Pretty good.  But, I had time and knew I had a few more viable Summer Beauty Ornamental Onion plants that were large enough to divide.  I also knew that I had a spot around the front of the Tree Swing Oak tree that is currently planted with hostas, but gets more shade than hostas typically like.  So, I dug those out and relocated them back into the understory garden bed. And, I dug up some Summer Beauty Allium from the southside beds , divided them and relocated some smaller plants to around the Tree Swing Oak tree.  Here, below, is the 'before' look - before I started to divide these.  My shovel is right in front of one of the clumps I divided. I added some of these divisions right next to the existing colony.  See below for a pee

I brought home three Ivory Prince Hellebores from the Morton Arboretum Plant Sale and was able to get them into the ground in the border that held our lone ( previously purchased ) Hellebore.  You can see them in the photo below:   the three Ivory Prince Lenten Roses / Hellebores are now planted in a triangular shape *around* the existing Sally's Shell (now planted in the middle).  This area is bordered by a large/mature Catalpa tree (you can see a peek at the trunk on the far left of this photo below). In the coming days/weeks, I'll mulch these in and have the edge of the bed cleaned up.  With four (now) in this spot, I'm hoping for some self-sowing (according to the Web...that's a thing.  But, it hasn't happened for me just yet) and spreading.  This area calls for ten total Hellebores , so we're getting close to half-way there.  

Day three of running through what I brought home from the annual Morton Arboretum Arbor Day Plant Sale last weekend.  Started with talking about how I prioritized shrubs and came home (first) with three Little Honey Oakleaf Hydrangeas and two Ruby Slippers Oakleaf Hydrangeas . #2 on my 2022 to-do list was to try to add perennials that had four-season appeal and I mentioned, specifically that I needed to buy more Hellebores .  Thanks to drafting a plan and bringing it to the sale, I'm really glad that I was able to prioritize both flowering shrubs and....able to fit in three Hellebores into the budget.   Our plan calls for twenty (20) Hellebores (Lenten Roses) in two different colonies .  Listen...I really LOVE Hellebores.  But, they're ALWAYS so expensive.  I'm talking $20+ for each one.  And, the big box nurseries never carry them.  But, I needed to - as I said - 'bite the bullet' and buy some.   We have just ONE Hellebores - Sally's Shell - that we bought in

This past weekend was the annual Morton Arboretum Arbor Day Plant Sale.  I've gone the past couple of years and always have such a nice time and bring home really interesting plants that you just can't find at big box nurseries.  And, their prices are pretty fair.   Over the years, I've bought grasses ( All Gold Japanese Forest Grasses , Karl Foerster Grasses, Totem Pole grass ), trees ( a cool red Katsura and an Emperor 1 Japanese Maple ), ferns ( Ghost Ferns and others), sedges and both Epimedium and Pulmonaria.   Last year, I went in with a 'loose plan' and came home with a variety of plants that I really liked that work in our (mostly-shade) garden.   If you've never been, I'll tell you:  it is REALLY HARD to focus and prioritize.  Every table has something that is interesting and unique.  And, it is REALLY EASY to just start putting stuff in your box to bring home.  Soon, the total adds up and you're buying stuff that you are drawn to but...mayb

I've talked about how our yard, beds and even view of our house from the street has changed since we moved in back in 2017.  At that time, we had a house next door (to the north) that was sitting closer (than our house setback-wise) to the street and had a driveway that wasn't right on the property line.  With our new neighbors building and moving in a couple of years back, that changed.  They upgraded the property and house in a MASSIVE way.  And...they're just good neighbors and nice people.  But, they did upgrade the property in so many ways.  In doing so, they built their new house a bit further back from where the old, smaller house was situated.   As a result, that 'view from the street' that I mentioned changed a little bit.  It changed when you are coming south on our street/sidewalk and 'see' our house.  What used to be hidden (mostly) due to landscaping and the old house was the side of our garage.  It is a big, mass of wall with no windows.   Here

Earlier this month, as part of a series of garden bed 'slices', I did some shrub exploration posts including the 'Lilac Replacement' section and the ' Northside Mixed Bed ' that kind of worked together.  They both required some upright evergreens, but the Lilacs needed to be transplanted from one section to the other.  Earlier this week, I got started by planting the upright evergreens - three Green Giant Thujas - in each section.  From there, I dug up and transplanted the four Lilac shrubs (2 Nocture, 2 Common) in the Northside bed. Before I did the planting, I removed some of the lower, but still large limbs on the Hackberry tree to make sure these were getting the most sun they could get in this spot.  Below is a look at the couple of cuts I made with my extension saw: Here's what the newly planted area looks like with three evergreens, four flowering shrubs, an existing scrub shrub and a small London Planetree (below): And, here's an annotated versi

Welp, I did it:  I pulled the trigger and bought some Green Giant Arborvitae - Thuja standishii x plicata and brought them home.  I mentioned these a few times in the past month or so - including how I found these at one of the local Big Box nurseries near me - and how there were a few sizes (large and smaller).   In my summary list, I ended up thinking that I need nine upright evergreens - a combination of Thujas and Yews - with the first three of those nine going into the "Lilac Replacement" project .   I wanted to buy six right away - before they sell out - so I opted for the smaller (less expensive ones).  But, they're NOT *that* small -about four feet tall.  I put the nursery containers out in that " Lilac replacement " area and you can see them in the photo below: That's the approximate space that I'm intending to plant them.  First thing, though....dig up and transplant the four lilacs that are in that spot along the fence.   Also, a few of the H

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

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

On Monday, I shared some photos of a trio of Green Gem dwarf boxwoods that I planted in the backyard after finding them on a late-season sale.  At that same time, I grabbed another small (1# nursery stock container) boxwood of a different variety - Green Mountain - and planned on putting it into the garden to provide a little evergreen structure on the other side of the yard.  Below, you can see the small  Buxus sempervirens ' Green Mountain'. Here's a closer look (below) at the container with the shrub specs:  The Missouri Botanic Garden has a listing page up for Green Mountain Boxwood ( Buxus sempervirens 'Green Mountain) where they describe it as: 'Green Mountain' is a dense, upright, evergreen boxwood that typically grows to 2-3' tall over the first 10 years. This is a slow-growing hybrid shrub that may eventually mature to as much as 5-7' tall. Kelly Nursery calls out that Green Mountain is typically grown into a pyramidal form .   'Green Mount

Six weeks ago, Nat came home from Costco with some bareroot plants including 18 Bressingham Blue Hostas that I intended to put into the yard as soon as I could this Spring.  Bareroot season comes at you fast and I wanted to get them in right away.  But, the order of operations got in the way.  And, I had to wait to plant these until after the final edges of the beds were set.   I've planted these very same Bressingham Blue Hostas in 2018 .  I actually don't know where those ten went nor how many of them have made it.  I'm assuming that some of them are along the north side of the house, but I'll take a closer look this Summer when they all come up. As for these 18, I planted two of them already outside the screened porch .  Leaving 16.  In the post where I talked about buying these, I mentioned a bunch of spots where these COULD go.  I ended up convincing myself that the three places to start with these were: 1.  Priority Area #2 for 2021.  Calls for 8. 2.  Hicks Yew

Last Summer, we bought and planted a dozen Fanal Astilbe #1 containers in the south bed of our backyard .  They immediately struggled as we went up to Wisconsin and they dried out.   When we got back, I baby'd them with a brand new soaker hose and hoped for the best that they'd all come back.  Well, this Spring, I'm seeing some good news:  All twelve are back.  Some are more vigorous than others.  But, they're all showing some purple/maroon little growth coming from the mulch. I've mentioned this before, but one of the projects that I have slated for this Spring is to set the final edges of our backyard beds in a curvilinear layout .  A month or so ago, I laid out what I called the "Order of Operations" with the backyard that details the steps that I intend to take: remove the wire (done), extend beds, transplant, clean up, plant new stuff, mulch, and lay down the wire again. As part of the 'extend the beds' project, I wanted to be sure that the c

I've talked and talked and talked about our backyard landscape plan on the blog over the years and I've made a lot of progress towards realizing the vision laid out there.  But, because I'm doing things myself, my best laid plans don't always work out.  And, one of the ways where I've been having trouble is in laying out the beds in the back.  You look at these ideal woodland gardens and any backyard garden of note, one of the things that you often see are beautiful, graceful, swooping curves that mark the edges of the beds .   In poking around the Web, I found this post from Sue at Not Another Gardening Blog that was part of her " Good Lines Mean Good Designs " series titled: Curves Wonderful Curves .  Those posts are almost ten years old, but they're just as valid as today.  And, for a beginner gardener like me?  They are *just* what I needed for where I am on my gardening journey right NOW. In the  post , Sue introduces (to me) Curviliear Form for