Why I Oughta...

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:

These #FallPlanting posts are getting further-and-further out from reality.  The photos below show lush, green garden.  I'm posting this at the end of November.  This was from way back in early October.  I had a Cat's Pajamas Nepeta planted in the backyard in pretty deep shade.  It wasn't doing well.  So, I dug it out and brought it over to the curved border outside the kitchen window.   The first photo below is the Nepeta peeking out from under a Guacamole Hosta leaf.  The second is the new home by the peonies and Lucky Charm Anemones: This doesn't count in my new/divided plants, right?  It is just a transplant.   I'm posting this in November 2023, but I did this transplanting in mid-October 2023.

I planted a trio of Cat's Pajamas Nepeta (along with some Blue Fescue) out front in the bed IB2DWs this Spring and it was the FIRST Nepeta that I've planted.  One of the features of Nepeta is that it can take a haircut after the first bloom - to both push a second flush of flowers but also to keep the plant neat and tidy.   In the online gardening world, you'll hear people talk about the ' Chelsea Chop ' - where you prune things back in late May to get that second flush.  More here on the Chelsea Chop .   I went ahead and pruned back these three Nepeta.  You can see that in the photo below showing the three pruned and cleaned up along with the pile of plant material that I pruned out laying in the middle of the photo - to show how much I took off these perennials.   From a purely technical perspective, you might be wondering:  Is this a " Chelsea Chop "?  The answer?  Maybe?  But, probably...Not really.  I think the ...

Yesterday, I posted some photos showing the series of Karl Foerster Feather Reed Grasses around the garden .  I also acknowledged that some folks consider them VERY basic.  But, I guess they're a guilty pleasure for this gardener.  In that post, I mentioned that I was planning on doing a follow-up on the IB2DWs bed that featured some of these same ornamental grasses.  Here, below, is a view of the IB2DWs bed.  Consider this the early Summer "State of the IB2DWs Bed". And, here below, is an annotated version of that photo.  Orange = five Karl Foerster Feather Reed Grasses White = Bald Cypress tree Red = two Serendipity Alliums  Blue = Prairie Dropseed Green = Peony Purple = two of the three Green Velvet Boxwoods that I planted a few weeks back Yellow = the trio of Blue Fescue grasses and Cat's Pajamas Nepeta from this season The bed is starting to fill-in this season, but it still needs some work to add some layers.  I'd like to try to plant some a...

The blooming of our floribunda roses (Disneyland Roses) has begun for the season with their first flush of pinkish-orangish blooms on all three plants that are in our sideyard.  These are in full sun, but have mostly been watered naturally (not irrigated) and have thrived in their current location. The last time I posted about these was when I applied a granular fertilizer in mid-May .  (note to self: it is time to apply again.) Below is a photo of the rear-most two Disneyland Roses with a pair of pre-espalier Sugar Tyme Crabapple trees planted between them.   And, here's the other one - located closer to the front porch - below.  I'm also including one of the divided Karl Foerster Feather Reed Grasses that I put over here last Fall in the photo (on the right).  This one is the largest one side-to-side.  Here's what they looked like last June .   If history is any guide, these will have multiple flushes of blooms all the way through the grow...

A week or so ago, right when they were putting on a bunch of their new growth, I applied the first treatment of fertilizer on our three Disneyland Roses that are planted on the south side of our house.  This is the second year that I've done a feeding program for them and something I mentioned I wanted to keep doing on my 2022 to-do list (#10) .   Last year, I used a granular product from Jobe's , but this year when I went to the orange Big Box Nursery, all I could find was this Vigoro granular.  I figured it was fine since the N-P-K were just about the same. I feed in early May, so this particular bag says that the next time I should feed them is two-to-three months from now, which would mean sometime in July.  And, then again sometime in September.   One of the other things that I need to remind myself is around companions for these Disneyland Roses.  I covered some ideas last year, when I mentioned Alliums and Nepeta as potential options ....

I've been giving the " in between two driveways " strip some thinking lately - how to edge it ( boulders ), how to extend the beds to have them make more sense, looking at what worked/didn't work there since last year and what a color palette for this area could/should be. Frankly....I don't have a TON of flowers in any of my beds - as I've been MOSTLY a foliage gardener up there up to this point.    It is #4 on my 2022 to-do list:  "Enhance the IB2DWs Strip" .    I already have some purples with the Serendipity Allium and the five BIG Pinball Wizard bulbs that I planted last year .  And, taking what I've learned from Amy at Pretty Purple Door about color combinations, one path forward is what she calls an 'analogous color scheme' - that includes three adjacent colors on the color wheel.  In this case, it would be using the three colors of:  purple, violet and blue in those front beds.  And, maybe beyond - like under the Norway Maple - ...

The journey this year with our three Disneyland Roses has been all about paying just.a.little.bit of attention to them.  Or at least MORE than I have ever done in years past.  It started with mulching them in to overwinter this past Winter.  Then, I transplanted the first one from the backyard to the southside bed before it broke dormancy .  I also decided to feed these roses - for the first time.  I used a bag of Jobe's Organics Knock-out Rose granular food and started the first feeding in late April ( posted in early May ).  Then, gave them a second feeding one month later - in late May ( posted here in late June, despite the feeding being in late May ).  Today, I'm posting in early July, but sharing a photo I took of the bag of rose fertilizer that I used in late June.   This was the third and final rose feeding of the season.  Late April, Late May, Late June.    When I was out there feeding the three roses - which have bl...