Why I Oughta...

I can't come across a silver foliage plant and not fall in love.  That's what happened at the orange Big Box store recently when I saw a rack of these things on the table: They look like a silver-colored rosemary plant.  But, when I looked at the label....it sure isn't rosemary.  Rather, it is something called an Icicles accent plant from Proven Winners - where they label it as a "licorice" plant .   I only bought one, but I should have bought even more.  So, this first one (for now), is headed into the large patio container along with the CrazyTunia.  See below for the early start to the container: I can see these as a bedding plant - in a lot of places.    Ground cover via annuals.

I wrote about purple flowers this week.  Like I said then, I'm drawn to dark-color blooms.  The darker, the better.   When I saw this Petunia - Crazytunia Cosmic Violet - I immediately said to myself:  'add to cart'.   Here, below, is the sign at The Growing Place.  It says "Blooms deep plum purple feathering into pale lavender edges.  Crazytunias are bread for tolerance to extreme weather including heat, rain and wind.   Here's how White Flower Farm describes them : Petunia Crazytunia® Cosmic Violet is a prolific bloomer but maintains a tidy habit and won’t overwhelm its neighbors. We like the saturated purple tones of the flowers, as do pollinators. Here are a couple of photos showing the plants: I have gone back-and-forth on our smaller patio containers.  Mixed plantings vs. monocultures.   For this Crazytunia, I'm going sort-of 'in-between'.  I planted it to the side of one of our smaller containers and left ...

Last year, I planted three Inferno coleus in the island bed in our front yard after seeing them on a garden tour video and I wasn't disappointed.  By October of last year, I wrote a post praising sun-tolerant coleus as bedding plants and pledged to plant more this year.  I even included 'planting coleus as bedding plants' as one of my 2025 to-do items .   With the larger-scale planting of Crimson Gold Coleus in the (newly expanded) Island Bed in front, I decided to not walk-away-from Inferno coleus.  I bought three quart-sized pots of the red/brown annual and planned to put them into the expanded back patio corner bed.    Last Fall, I used the 'lazy bed extension' method to expand the corner bed adjacent to our back patio .  That created some new planting space that I can fill this season.   That spot gets decent sun - for our backyard at least.  It gets the MOST sun, I suppose, of anywhere in our backyard.  Thus, it seemed l...

The last post I shared about the pizza oven was back in late March when I shared a photo showing the first four timbers being brought on-site and talked about I was in-the-middle of the excavation.  In that post , I laid out the next few steps (pasted below).  Since that post in late March, I've progressed through the first seven steps and the first part (the hard part) of Step 8.  1. Clear back/sides down grade. 2. Dig out under timbers to drywell stone. 3. Lay out Fabric. 4. Lay down gravel + paver base to create level base for bottom timbers. 5. Start with the timber at the base of the slab, level it out and anchor in the ground with rebar. 6. Work around the timbers - anchoring them with rebar. 7. Stack additional timbers - attach with timberloks. 8. Backfill with gravel, drape the fabric over. 9. Back fill with earth. 10. Fill center with base + gravel. As a reminder, we have a large, deep drywell under this part of the yard.  When I dug the slab foun...

Yesterday, I posted the first step in the build-out of our pizza oven patio area with the elevation change calculation that I was able to complete using a length of string and a couple of stakes.  I observed a 26" elevation difference between the grade of our 'upper' patio and the top grade of the pizza oven slab .   Back in January, I laid out what I think are the 'order of operations' of the build and included a number of 'to be solved' steps - including that above mentioned elevation change.  Here's the rest of that 'to be solved' list: 1. Figure out utilities. Primarily electric. where they go, how they get there. in 2. Figure out 'level' for the floor and base of retaining wall. That requires decision on material. 2 depths - sunken prep area. 26" delta. 3. Wall and floor details: placement, material, size, height, length, stairs, drainage and even stairs. This determines the floorplan. 4. Lay out floorplan. Size o...

A couple days ago, I posted a photo of how Disney used the "European Fan" pattern with cobblestones to make a hard surface/walkway at Disney Springs and mused about how that might be a really nice way to bring a unique floor surface to our pizza oven patio.   That surface material (in this case cobblestones) is a key decision that I have to begin to work towards as the calendar begins to soon turn to March. I laid out what I thought (at the time) was my path towards progress with our pizza oven patio in this post back in early January .    The list that I put together included a number of 'to be figured out' items that would help me sort the rest of the decisions - including utilities, size of patio and the change in elevation between the current patio and the pizza oven foundation.  That delta in height is important because it tells me how high the retaining wall needs to be - which in turns tells us what materials/engineering is required to make the wall *wor...

Yesterday, I posted some photos and details of the very early 'chop-and-drop' that I did with a couple of the Autumn Moor Grasses in the new front porch bed extension.  I found a little bit of time in the early evenings this week to try a little bit of clean-up.  I wanted to get it started now because I wanted the time for that newly, mulched material to begin to decompose.   While I didn't finish the ornamental grasses in front (yet), I also moved on to a different spot:  the raised vegetable bed on our back patio.  Just like the grasses, this bed had some stems and seed heads that I left behind from last season's plants.  Tomato bushes.  Herb stems.   I took my pruners to those and cut them up into small segments.  And left them on the top of the bed.  You can see the 'chopped' mulch in the two photos below.  I typically top this bed with a couple of bags of compost and/or mushroom compost, so this plant litter will get...

I've done this sort of 'notebook' posts in the past and it has been helpful in organizing my thoughts when it comes to project planning.  Here's an 'order of operations' post on a big, 'new bed' backyard overhaul from 2021 that - just by writing - helped me get my head wrapped-around what I needed to do.   I've done similar 'notebook' or 'musing' posts on retaining walls and our boardwalk on the side of our house .  I've referenced Paul Graham's post about WRITING previously - but the gist his POV is: Writing doesn't just communicate ideas; it generates them.  The act of writing about something (in this case...the process around my pizza oven project) shows me that I'm in the MIDST of my learning journey on said process.    Hopefully...by the end of this, I'll have a v1 of what I need to do. I've recently updated a few posts with oven construction, but haven't shown the completed project - just yet.  The...

A couple weeks ago, I posted a Fall project that I called "Lazy Garden Bed Extensions" where I first used my mower to scalp some turf followed by laying down cardboard to extend the front border of the front porch bed out a little bit.  On top of that cardboard went biosolids and compost followed by some wood mulch (from a big box store) that I had on hand.  I didn't do the full front porch bed border (then), but recently....I was able to get around and finish the entire border. I ended up extending the front porch border out by 18-inches or so out from where the French Marigolds were planted this season.  You can see the in the photo below the new edge of the bed is now stretching out a bit into the grass.  If you look closely, you can see the Marigolds (in decline) and the lone Dusty Miller (this is year 3 for that "annual"), so that gives you a sense of the new extension. I also found a couple of other spots where the bed was 'too small' for the plan...

This Summer, I planted three small Inferno Coleus plants in the (then brand new) Island Bed in our front yard as bedding plants .  These were (for me) the first Coleus that I'd planted directly in the ground versus using them in containers.   My journey to that moment started in Spring when I was watching a garden tour on YouTube from Justin at S&K Greenhouse .  Over the years, Justin ( who's channel is great and you should subscribe ) has visited the garden of Bruce Duncan .  Justin and Bruce have a history together (I think Bruce spent some time at the Nursery/Greenhouse), but they also have great on-screen chemistry.  Bruce also has a spectacular garden .   In that video, Bruce shows off a few different coleus that he has planted in colonies.  I went and learned a little bit about veined vs edged-leaf coleus and which one can tolerate full sun vs which ones prefer shade. I also included planting coleus as a bedding plant (among other a...

Earlier this Summer, I moved my Firesticks cactus outdoors onto the back patio to take in the full sun and heat of the summer.  I've done this every season since it was planted in Spring of 2018 .   I showed this succulent just a few days less than a year ago (early August 2023), when it was putting on new growth last season .   When I first moved this out, I kept it in the shade for a while, but now it is taking in the full sun and seeming to respond to being outdoors with new orange-tipped growth (hence the name Firesticks) emerging on all of the tips.  See below for the current state of this succulent: Does this need to get repotted?  Probably.  But, at the same time, it seems to be doing just fine in this small container.  Why change something that is working, right? 

Last month, I posted details of my 3rd Ajuga variety:  Burgundy Glow.  I found one at Lowe's and tucked it into the IB2DWs bed near the driveway .  In that post , I looked at the tri-color foliage and how it is a little bit slower-grower than 'Chocolate Chip'.  Well...it tuns out that I'm (now) planting a second one.  That was a gift of sorts. Back earlier this Summer, the kids made Fairy Gardens.  One of the plants that one of the girls bought - but LEFT IN THE CONTAINER - is an Ajuga Burgundy Glow.  Here below are a few photos - including how this thing had roots coming out the bottom big-time: I carefully peeled the container away and decided to stick it into the backyard - right off the patio, by the screened porch door - hoping it will fill in the space and hug the patio.  See below for the size: More groundcover.  More, indeed.   I'm posting this in November 2023, but I did this dividing and transplanting in mid-October 2023.