Why I Oughta...

 Yesterday, I checked in some Bressingham Blue hostas that were planted in 2018 as bare root plants and had now grown to be fully established and thriving.  In that post, I mentioned that there was a Japanese Painted Fern planted in between some of the hostas.  I figured that fern deserved a proper [ garden diary ] update for Summer 2020.  You can see the fern below - it is happy and healthy, despite being crowded by the hostas.   If you go back to the post showing when I bought and planted this fern in 2018 (bought for just $2 at Menards), I included a photo of the tag.  And that means that I can confirm this is a Pictum Japanese Painted fern.  My plan (as of yesterday) is to try to split up/divide the hostas this Fall to provide this fern with a little bit of space.   As for growth history, here's what I have: 2018 - planted in Spring . Looks like it struggled due to Summer + transplant stress, but also likely because I ignored it, but it came back after a little bit of wateri

Yesterday, I posted a photo of a multi-trunk (3-trunk) River Birch tree that continues to grow up in our backyard and mentioned in that post that you could peek at a few of the Guacamole Hostas lined up alongside the bed the River Birch clump is located.  Today, are a couple of photos showing the rest of these large (and one small) Guacamole Hosta. We had six of them purchased for us at Hinsdale Nursery earlier this Summer - five really large ones and one smaller one.  I toyed with the idea of planting a few of them out front under the large Maple tree , but after seeing them there, I decided to plant them in the backyard.  And back in July, when I planted the contorted Harry Lauder Walkingstick tree, I took one of the larger ones and planted it in the bed next to the tree .  As for the other five, this post shows their current state and location.  At the top of the post, you can see three more - two large ones and the one small one - planted in a small cluster on the northsi

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

Last year, we filled our cast iron urn that is out front adjacent to our driveway with a variety of annuals and perennials including a purple Coral Bells or heuchera plant .   In our zone, Coral Bells - which prefers part shade - is typically a perennial, so when I was cleaning out the urn at the end of the gardening season (before we swapped it out for Mums), I stuck it in the bed next to our garage on the north side of our house.  This area is - almost entirely - shade, so I figured it might be something that could grow there. Fast forward to this Summer and have a look at the maroon/purple Coral Bells that you see in the photo at the top of this post.  It seems that the plant made it through the Winter and has come out the other side with some new growth and even some tiny flower stems that have shot out the top. I actually am NOT sure what the specific name is, but I bought it at a big box garden center - and I'm guessing it is this Purple Palace variety that Monrovia l

I've posted about this area of our landscape before - here - and discussed a potential solution to the sightlines that exist between my house and our neighbor to the north.  I'm posting this photo here because I'd like to reference it after we *solve* this area.  I'm actually not sure what the real solve is here - besides the creation of a brick paver walk down the middle.  That's just part of the solution, but doesn't solve any of the sightlights or help give this area a real sense of place.  It currently has just some grass and a few transplanted ferns tucked into the foundation bed.  That's it.  The stones you see under the gate are there to keep Lizzie from sneaking out.  You can go back and check out the post I made about Sky Pencil Holly that I could plant and use to screen to the north, but this post is here to help stimulate my thinking over the Fall on what to do in terms of screening.  You'll note that in that post, I shared the landsca