Why I Oughta...

Yesterday, I posted a few photos of a pyramidal boxwood - Green Mountain - that I planted in a backyard bed and talked about how it was tucked in by the Belgian Fence and some ornamental grasses.  If you looked closely at one of the photos yesterday, you might have noticed a few other shrubs in their nursery containers in the background.  Today, I'm sharing the details in the [ garden diary ] of those other two shrubs hiding back by the fence. As part of our plan, the designer called for a series of Chicago Lustre Arrowwood Viburnum shrubs in a few different spots around the yard.  Below, you can see two areas that call these particular shrubs out. Part of the area you see in the plan above was/is called out as " Priority Area #2 " in this year's list of Priority areas.  You can see that it calls for four Viburnum in this section.  But...when you're dealing with some end-of-season shrub sales, you don't always get the quantity that you want.  I couldn't f

Last Summer, I planted a series of seven Alice Oakleaf Hydrangeas .  Two dwarf versions and five normal ones.  These were contemplated as part of our existing landscape plan and I planted them along the fence on the southside in the bed closest to the kitchen nook window.   Alice Oakleaf Hydrangeas are officially named Hydrangea quercifolia 'Alice' (thanks Roy Diblik) is described by NC State Extension office as a shrub that puts on a white flower show that fade to pink.  From their post : Oakleaf Hydrangea 'Alice' is an erect rounded decidous shrub with showy white flowers that appear in early to mid-summer. As the flowers age they fade to pink. This shrub will reach a height of 5 to 8 feet tall and wide at maturity. Plant 'Alice' in the full sun to partial shade in moist well-drained soil. Mulch this plant in the summer to conserve soil moisture.   Like all hydrangeas, it needs to be pruned immediately after flowering as flower buds are produced on sec

I'm on a little bit of a roll with Japanese Painted Ferns and other related cultivars in the garden this growing season.  I've had one in our side yard for a couple of years - next to the screened porch .  Planted in 2018, it has established itself and is now being crowded out by some Bressingham Blue Hostas that I'm going to try to divide this Fall.   Earlier this year, I planted four Ghost Ferns in the bed along the northside of the backyard - right at the base of the Weeping Nookta Falsecypress tree that I (also) planted this Spring.  The Ghost Fern is a Lady and Japanese Painted Fern hybrid - with the color of a Painted Fern and the habit of the Lady Fern.   And, just last week, I posted a photo of my second traditional Painted Fern - a Pictum - planted in the border around our new fire pit area in the far back.  It is at the base of our new Emperor I Japanese Maple tree (you can see the fern in the photo in this Maple Tree planting post ) and are the first couple o

Yesterday, I posted a 2021 update on the Japanese Painted Fern 'Pictum' that I planted in 2018 on the side of the screened porch and mentioned that I had another one that I planted this season.  I'm posting this in July, but I planted this (second) Pictum fern back in May.  And took the photo at the bottom - of the fern in the ground - in mid-June. This is the second Pictum, but (now) the sixth Japanese Painted Fern with the addition of four Ghost Ferns earlier this Spring .  I bought this one (below) when I saw it on sale at a big box store and brought it home.  My thought was to plant a series of them in Priority Area #1 this year , but when Nat came up with the fire pit area plan, I decided to skip planting in Area #1 (for now).   Here, below, is the tag from this fern that came in a 1# nursery pot.  It shows 8-12" height and 15-18" spacing.  As I mentioned above, I planted this in May, but posting in July.  The in-between photo you see below of the fern now

The photo you see above shows a trio of Brunnera Queen of Hearts planted in the north side rear bed surrounded by some transplanted hostas in a sort of 'ring' or 'hoop' shape.  How these Brunnera got to my yard is a story about YouTube gardening and the influence of creators like Laura @ Garden Answer.   A few weeks ago, I watched this video where she talked about 15 perennials that every garden should have that included a mention of Brunnera .  So, it was suddenly on my radar.  And, when I found myself at Home Depot on a recent visit where I came across this Queen of Hearts cultivar, I grabbed three of them and knew where I'd plant them - despite them NOT being in our plan.  Here, below, is a look at the tag from the Proven Winners version and what it looked like in the nursery container: As I mentioned above, the plan doesn't CALL for these, but this area is what I called Priority Area #2 from this year - the woodland area.  These are now to the east of the n

I have been eying the addition of some Japanese Painted Ferns to our backyard all this growing season.  I have one that I planted on the north side of the screened porch in 2018 .  It is a Athyrium nipponicum 'Pictum' and it has done really well on it's own over there mostly being left alone.  Here's what it looked like last Fall/late Summer in August of 2020 .  And in Priority Area #1 from this year , I was thinking of using Japanese Painted ferns instead of the (currently) spec'd Ostrich Ferns.   When I was at the Morton Arboretum Spring Sale, I came across these painted ferns and I ended up buying four of them to add to the backyard.   Here's the tag (below), which shows these aren't the same "Pictum" ferns that I had already, rather they are called Ghost Japanese-Lady Ferns.  Athyrium 'Ghost' and they're described as a 'hybrid with the best qualities of Japanese Painted and Lady Fern'.  Kinda great, right?  I have one Lady F

The area that (earlier this Spring), I labeled " Priority Area #2 " has begun to be addressed this Spring ahead of the mulch being applied.  Last year, I planted three Guacamole Hostas in this area that calls for nine total Guacamole Hostas and after I increased the bed size, it was time to add even more to get this area filled out.  Of the three that I planted last year, one of them has been having some trouble (with the cold weather + drought), so I decided to plant seven new ones - to bring the total to ten.  Nine + one troubled one.  Here (below) is the layout of these new Guacamole hostas in their nursery containers.  Four one gallon pots and three quart pots with smaller ones. And, here below, is an annotated version of that same photo.   Red circle = 2020 planted hostas. Green circle = new 2021 Guacamole hostas.  The four larger ones came from Hinsdale Nursery.  The smaller ones from Johannsen Farms in Bolingbrook. Purple circle = one of the Praying Hands hosta. Blue

Yesterday, I shared a post talking about the concept of creating curvilinear flower beds in landscape design and how one of my initial backyard projects is to move towards a final shape with our beds.  That requires us to carve up a bunch of the current lawn and creating new beds that jut out into the grass.  But, before I can even begin to think about how to make those swoop'ing, curved beds, there is some thinking that I have to do in in order to get both ready for the days of sod removal AND what has to happen AFTER the creation of the new beds to get them ready and dressed for the season.   To arrange my thinking - and to pressure test on what I want to do - I thought I'd create an individual (for me) order of operations document that details the steps in the order I need to take in order to make this all work.  So, let's go. 1.  Remove our Automower wire.   Around the entire perimeter of our backyard, we have a low-voltage green wire buried about 3" or so from th

Back at the end of February, I published my 25 point "to do" list for the yard and garden for 2021 .  In that list, I included what I called two "priority areas" as #1 and #2.  The item in spot #3 was to work the area between the two driveways. The first two priority areas are in the backyard, but this one is in the front yard and I didn't label it as a priority area before I published the list, so I'm not sure I can now.  Instead, let's just call this"Between Two Driveways".    I mentioned it yesterday as a potential location for some transplanted peonies. This is a long, narrow strip that was - up until last fall - just turf with a very small Bald Cypress and a troubled Chanticleer Pear tree .  Our neighbors directly to the north of us have recently built their new house and moved in this past Fall.  As part of their new construction, they added a new driveway that runs parallel to ours - thus creating this long strip of land.  The Bald Cypr

This is the third in a series of four posts based on the garden things that Nat brought home from Costco recently. The first one was a set of Frances Williams hosts for the backyard .  The second was two packs of Bressingham Blue hostas that are destined, too, for the backyard.   3rd post.  first two hostas.  Today is another shade-loving perennial that pairs well with hostas that we got started with last season.     And that would be astilbes.  Here's the bag of six Gloria Purpurea Astilbes (below): And, here's the back of the package showing a 20" spacing requirement and saying they get about 24" tall.   As I mentioned earlier, we started with Astilbes last year - buying 12 of them and planting them in June .  Timing was off and some of them suffered some transplant and drought stress, so I'm not certain how many made it, but it isn't all twelve. The area where we planted them - on the southside in front of some new Oak Leaf Hydrangeas - calls for 15 of t

I mentioned in yesterday's post about the new set of two-toned Frances Williams hostas that Nat also brought home some other shade-loving plants from her trip to Costco.  The next set are also hostas, but this time there are two bags of them and they're blue.  Officially: 18 Bressingham Blue hostas. Here, below, is a look at the back of one of the bags that details 40" spacing and hardiness (down to Zone 3). It turns out, I've bought these before and have some of them in the yard.  But, I'm not sure, exactly.  In 2018, I bought a (then) 10 pack of them and stuck them in the ground somewhere and didn't document the locations.  Having good photos of mature Bressingham Blues now (thanks to this bag), I'll have a look around late Spring and see if I can pick any out.  I'm thinking that they went in on the north side of the house, but will effort to identify them. Back to what these are.... The Chicago Botanical Garden has a page up about Bressingham Blue

Yesterday, I published the first of my 2021 garden/yard priority areas .  Today, is my second one - with the hope that this exercise helps me contain my enthusiasm and force me to focus on adding things that matter.  Like a lot of you, I find myself in a daze when Spring comes and I add things to my cart that I don't really need just because they're, well, there.   Priority Area #1 for 2021 calls for 15 plants (8 Allium, 7 ferns), so that part ALONE is a substantial investment.  Priority Area #2 calls for even more.  41 plants.  Yeah...41.  This one might take two years to swing in terms of getting the plantings right.  But, lets start by looking at the area in question.  This is in between Priority Area #2 from last year AND the trio (at the time) of tiny Canadian Hemlock trees I planted along the north side of the fence line.  Here, below, is a look at this area: You can see that this area calls for: 10 Lenten Rose 9 Guacamole Hosta 7 Bottle Rocket Spiked Ligularia 8 Hadspe

Looking back on my 2020 gardening season, one of the things that was a success was determining some of the 'priority areas' in the yard that I wanted to address.  Last year, I picked three areas ( Area 1 , Area 2 , Area 3 ) and that forced me to be selective in the materials we bought and what I added around the yard.   In terms of success, I feel like I moved things forward in Area 1 and Area 2 quite a bit.  Area 3, not so much .  That seems like an area to revisit, but before I do that, I'm going to lay down a little marker on a 2021 Priority Area - let's call this one 2021 Area #1:  Behind The South White Oak Tree.  (That's the big dot on the far right of the plan you see below.) The planting area that is called for in the plan is quite simple.  Just 15 total plants of two varieties: 7 Ostrich Ferns 8 Summer Beauty Ornamental Onions (Alliums) We have a series of BOTH of those plants already in our yard currently, so adding these will be a natural extension of the

Back in the end of June, I planted eight additional Summer Beauty Ornament Onion (allium) on the south side of our property in the bed that runs from east to west.  We picked them up (or...had someone picked them up) from Hinsdale Nursery and I put seven of them in a staggered planting.  When they went in, they were just green foliage, but today - if you look at the photo at the top of this post - you'll notice that they're all flowering some lovely purple sphere-shaped flowers.  Each of them have multiple flowers, but ALL of them are leaning to the East.  Looking at this photo, one thing that I'm noticing is that the mulch that I put down (delivered in mid-April this year) has already broken down quite a bit.  This area - and these Allium could use a mulch refresh.  That leads me to ask a question:  do gardeners mulch twice a year?  This post recommends both a Spring and Fall mulch ?  You should add mulch whenever layers thin out for any reason. You’ll also want

I recently got around to sticking the new Lady Fern in the ground in our backyard.  That's it - in the photo above - with the most  vibrant green foliage on the middle/right.  The story of how I bought this thing on a whim at Home Depot is here on the blog from a couple of weeks ago.  I took the photo here for the [ garden diary ] showing the location of the planting in relation to the River Birch tree.  Another way to think about the location is to take a peek at the photo above and notice the location of the River Birch and the clump of fern stems that you see in the top right.  Then, go here , and have a look at the reverse side of this from the lawn.  That post showing the 10 transplanted ferns is talks about the area where this one is located.  The bulk of those transplanted ferns were planted to the East of the River Birch, so this Lady Fern is going to hang out to the West of the River Birch.  The plan called for "12 Ostrich Ferns" in this area.  I initially

I've posted a number of times - across houses, towns, years - about Ostrich ferns .  We had them back in Elmhurst at our old house .  And when we moved, we transplanted a few clumps of them over at Nat's Mom's house in Naperville .  When we bought our lot in Downers Grove, we inherited some of what I've been calling " Survivor Ferns " that lived through the construction and re-grading of our lot. As part of my 2020 to-do landscape list, I identified area #2 that includes the planting of a series of Ostrich Ferns - along with other items.  One of those 'other items' is the planting of hostas around a large Oak tree - in an area adjacent to where these Ostrich Ferns are supposed to be planted.  I posted about those variegated hostas yesterday .  The plan calls for Hadspens, but I decided to go with Variegated hostas because I had quite a few of them on hand. In that Priority Area #2 post, I mentioned that the plan called for 12 Ostrich Ferns in t