Why I Oughta...

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

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

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

We have boxwoods planted in both the front and the back of our house.  The ones in front were planted by the landscaper who installed our initial plantings and beds.  The ones in back were planted the following growing season and are near our kitchen window.  The first look I can find of them here on the blog was in April of 2019 when I pruned them up a little bit to be more ball-like .  By last Fall, these same Boxwoods (Green Velvet) had grown up and out and were starting to come together .   One of the things that I've missed out on (consistently) is working in evergreen trees into the landscape that I've been planting out back.  I added the Weeping Nootka Cypress this year to help, but I know that I can do more.  In terms of evergreen shrubs, we have a mixed report.  Both in terms of species but also in terms of making progress with evergreens.  In terms of inventory of evergreen shrubs....We have the aforementioned boxwoods.  We also have the pair of rhododendrons next to

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

Last month, I created a new bed , down by the sidewalk that has historically been turf that has ALWAYS gone dormant in a big way during the Summer.  Currently, it is small - like about 24" wide and spans the space between our driveway and the large Hackberry tree in the corner of our property.  I knew that I had to think about some drought-resistant plantings down there due to the history of the site and upon excavation, I now know why:  there was a half-inch or so of topsoil standing on top of gravel.   My plan started by transplanting some of the Lemon Coral Sedum that we had in our front porch bed down there in late September .  Doing so, checked a big part of the box for #3 on my 2021 to-do list to work the 'in between two driveways' section.   I also wanted to add something else to the bed before things went dormant for the year, so on one of my trips to the Home Depot, I came across an ornamental grass that sounded interesting.  At 50% off, this Panicum Shenandoah R

A week ago, I finally had enough with a 'tough-to-grow-grass spot' in our front yard .  It a little section sandwiched on the ' in between two driveways ' island and right up against the sidewalk.  My thought was that part of the reason that the turf goes dormant here every Summer is because the heat radiates off the concrete on two sides and just dries the area out.  And, that's certainly part of it.  Not to mention that I don't water it enough.  But, last week, when I cut this new little bed in , I also discovered that there isn't much soil here.  Just a little bit of top soil - like an inch or two - followed by mostly gravel.   After I cut out the edge of this little bed and removed the turf, I ended up dumping a few bags of compost in the area to thicken up the area and provide a bit more organic material to allow for things to root in and (hopefully) grow.   I then looked around to see if I had any plant material on hand that I could transplant into thi

I was walking around the front beds and - once again - I'm struck by how I've had not a lot of luck with anything I've planted underneath our large Norway Maple tree that sits right outside of our front porch.  This large tree is in decline - likely due to the construction we had when we built our house in 2016 and 2017.  I've tried to attack *that* problem by having the arborists from Davey apply a growth regulator and a liquid fertilizer last year.  And, I'm hoping that the tree is on a path towards survival.  They'll come back this year to apply a second year of fertilizer - that I'm pretty sure (based on these photos) is working .   This year though, I lost a mature hydrangea - a Vanilla Strawberry (one of four out front) and my Lime Light Hydrangeas suffered some this year - and dropped a lot of their leaves in the middle of the Summer .  Here, below, is a top-down photo showing the dead hydrangea (very bottom, middle) and the proximity to the Norway Ma

In what feels like a totally different gardening season - but was just late April - I planted nine Frances Williams bare root hostas in our yard.  They were part of a bundle of bare root perennials that Nat picked up from Costco that included some Bressingham Blue Hostas and some purple Astilbes .  I'm posting this in early July, but the photos from this post are from mid-June (hence the blog post title being June 2021). In terms of success, I saw (and posted about) many of the Bressingham Blue hostas that came up (not total 100% success) and how most of the Gloria Purpurea Astilbes not only emerged from the ground, but also flowered in June .   But, up until the middle of June, all but ONE of the Frances Williams hostas were nowhere to be seen.  Close to the trunk of the Northern Red Oak (tree swing), I had one of these variegated hostas emerge and put out a nice little package of foliage.  Here's what that first one looks like: But, when I took a closer look, I see a bunc

We had 15 steaming yards of mulch delivered in May - and at the time - I knew I needed more, but the truck only held 15 yards.  Here, below, is a photo showing off the next eight yards delivered on the driveway.  Taking me to 23 total yards for the front and backyard.  This was delivered in the beginning of June, but I'm posting this at the end of June.  Turns out, I'm a few yards short of what I really needed and should have bought ten to twelve yards instead of eight.  I laid it on VERY thick in many spots - in an attempt to make up for some of the deficiency last year. 23 total yards - for this year - wasn't enough. 

Last year, I bought a single Waterslide hosta at the Morton Arboretum Fall Plant sale and immediately had regrets of not buying more.  It is a pretty green/silver color and has strong ruffled leaves. I planted it around the flowering Cherry tree last Fall and it came back this Spring .   When I went to the Spring plant sale, it was sold out, but that just meant that I had to hunt for it.  On a trip to Home Depot one night, I found two of them and put them in my cart quickly. Here, below, are the pair of ruffled, Waterslide hostas laid out where I planned on planting them - in a sort of linear drift adjacent to the sedges.   Once planted, you can see the difference in the size of the one from last year vs. this year's version with the oldest one on the top right: And, here's another look - below - showing the three Waterslide hostas.

Last year, I had 12 yards of mulch delivered on the driveway.  And it wasn't enough.  This year, I expanded the beds in the back and knew I needed more than 12 yards.  I was planning on ordering 20 yards, but the delivery truck can only hold 15 yards.  So, that's what I ordered - thinking that I'd start with 15 and order 5-10 more after I spread it to see what was needed.   This is what 15 yards of hardwood mulch looks like below:  And here's a video of the delivery being dumped on the driveway: I've done these videos a few times.  Here's a video from 2020  showing 12 yards.  Here's a video from 2011 showing 10 yards .   I had a couple of my nephews come over to help me haul the mulch to the backyard in an attempt to save my back from the pain I had in 2020.  We were able to get all 15 yards put out in the backyard in just one day and there is quite a bit of more bed coverage needed, so I'm going to try to measure the space left and calculate how much mu

This post is another in the series of documenting the Spring re-emergence of the various plants that I bought at last Fall's Morton Arboretum Plant Sale.  I first shared photos of the trio of Twinkle Toes Lungwort that emerged first in mid-March.  Yesterday, I posted some photos of the Chocoholic Black Snakeroot that has some lovely lacy leaves that are standing on top of purple stems in this first Spring.   Today, I'm posting a photo (below) about the All Gold Japanese Forest Grasses that I planted in the backyard around the Tree Swing Oak tree.  Formally named Hakonechloa macra "All Gold", there are six of these planted (mostly) in a drift between the tree and the fenceline interplanted with some hostas. Here's one of them peeking thru the mulch (and the wood chips that I added in late Fall): In the photo below, you can see where these six are planted - currently mixed in with some of the tulip bulbs that I planted last Fall. It is hard to tell (exactly) wher

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

Yesterday, I posted a photo and talked about this 'unknown Juniper' that is in a large container on our patio.  In that post, I mentioned the other two Junipers that I have in the ground - Youngstown and Chinese.  I bought them as small $5 nursery stock from Home Depot and at kept them around the patio all season while I tried (it was hard) to NOT prune them too much.  My goal is to work them into tree-form as I learn (just a little bit) about bonsai.   I've documented my "bonsai journey" over the past few years on the blog and you can find those posts here .  I've learned (and killed) from one tree and have tried to be patient.   At the end of the season, I read that it is smart to dig them into the ground to overwinter them in their containers (people do this with all sorts of bonsai pots).  So, that's what I did:  dug up a couple of holes, stuck the junipers - pots and all - directly in the ground, covered them and tried to mulch them in with leaves.

Back in April, I posted about how I had started to go over to the Downers "mulch pit" with some buckets and my pitchfork and bringing home about 1/3rd of a yard of arborist wood chips a couple of times per week.  At that time, I was mostly stuck at home due to COVID, so I had the time.  And, I had a huge part of our far backyard that I had never mulched.  These wood chips seemed like a good idea to cover some of that soil, provide a little bit of mulch and potentially create a base upon which I could cover with higher quality mulch.   I ended up doing a big section across the back of my yard, but after getting that *mostly* done, Spring had arrived and I switched my attention to other parts of the yard.  I also had 12 yards of hardwood fines premium mulch delivered that covered the rest of my yard.  (Note to self:  12 yards wasn't enough for my yard.) Well...guess what?  COVID is still here. And I'm still *mostly* stuck around the house with time.  For me, A

The last time that I posted a photo of this three-trunked tree was back in the month of May of 2018 when I included it (for the first time) in the tree inventory of our backyard.  It was Springtime, so the tree looked sparse at the time .  I'm sharing this photo in the [ tree inventory ] tag here on the blog to show how the limbs have leaf'd out and is providing some new lower-hanging screening and some branching that is starting to extend out over the lawn. The other thing to note is the big change the area around the tree has experienced over the past two seasons - back in 2018, this tree was surrounded by turf.   Today, it is tucked into a mulch bed with a series of Ostrich Ferns at the tree's feet. This is one of two multi-trunked trees in our yard - the other one being up in the front yard with our Saucer Magnolia . I'm going to grab the calipers of these three trunks this Fall when I do the balance of the trees in our backyard. The other things to note

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

On Friday, I posted some photos of how I removed and divided a very large Hosta from around our rear hose bib.  In that post, I mentioned that I wanted to dig up another of the hostas and move it East a couple of feet to make the spread of these a little bit more even.  And, that's what I did in the photo above.  There were four Hostas in this row.  I removed #3 (from the left) and relocated it .  I then dug up #2 (from the left) and moved it over to the right so the three remaining hostas are a little bit more evenly spread.   I'll water this in pretty hard to get it set up to succeed this Summer.  But, hoping that by next year, it will have totally recovered and we'll have a nice set of three spaced out here.

A couple of days ago, I posted a before/after photo of our Magnolia tree and the cocoa bean shell mulch that I added and mentioned that I had brought home just 10 bags of cocoa bean hull mulch from Lake Geneva.  Today, you can see our front bed with the balance of the bags laid down.  I was able to add mulch from the front of the bed to around and *just* behind the boxwoods.  We have three Vanilla Strawberry Hydrangeas behind the boxwoods that I didn't have enough mulch in the bags to cover at this point. From this point of view - and down lower near the sidewalk, you can't see *behind* the boxwoods, so it kind of looks finished despite about 50% of the bed not being freshly mulched. When we go back up to Wisconsin in the coming weeks/months when we drive two cars, I'll head over to the Hull Farm and pick up ten more bags of the stuff to finish off the bed. On the far left of the photo, you can see one of the limestone blocks that I installed to create that '