Why I Oughta...

The Wild Onion continues to be a problem.  The clumps of these bulbs are in our lawn and in our beds.  I've worked at them for years - including cultural and herbicide treatments over the years.  I've removed them, sprayed them and attempted to treat the soil to make them less happy.  This Spring, I've lime'd the backyard , sprayed the tips with Tenacity and pulled them out by hand.  This past week, I went into the understory garden bed and used my Hori Hori to pull up a bunch of these jerks.  Below is the orange trug filled up with the bulbs.  What's different in the beds vs the lawn is that it is a bit easier to get the bulbs out without taking more dirt/soil/earth.  I pry up the bulbs, cut the clump and pull from the bottom.   If you have Wild Onions like we do, be SURE TO NOT COMPOST THEM.  These go right in the trash - not the compost pile.   Here's a couple of other Spring 2023 posts on these awful things. 

One of the things that I've had on my last few annual 'to do lists' in the garden is to keep up with various seasonal tasks like feeding, treating, pruning, etc.  Basically....good garden and tree maintenance.  This year, it came in at #16 on the list and included items like feeding the roses ( which I did last week for the first time this season ) and dividing perennials, protecting everything from winter and rabbits and... treating trees.  For the past few years, I've had the fine folks at Davey do an annual deep-root feeding treatment of everything in the yard (in the fall) and I've complemented that application with one of my own on a few select trees.   Start back in 2020, I noticed that our Greenspire Lindens were being covered in Yellow Jackets and upon inspection, it appeared that the trees were inhabited by aphids - which in turn created honeydew - which was what the Yellow Jackets were after.  In order to get rid of the Yellow Jackets, I had to get rid

They say that roses are 'heavy eaters'.  That means that - if you have them in your garden - you should feed them every 30 days or so.  And that's what I've attempted to do over the past few growing seasons.  #16 on my 2023 to-do list is to continue with the seasonal projects - including feeding.   I'm trying to get to know these floribunda roses a bit more this season; starting with a hard prune a few weeks back .  I had a little bit of leftover Rose Food from last year, so I split the bag three-ways and sprinkled the granules at the base of the three roses on the side of the house.   If you look closely at the photo below, you can also see (in addition to the rose fertilizer granules) some signs of new, green(ish-red) growth from the canes of the floribunda rose. Here, below, is the brand (Vigoro) that I had on hand.   If the garden diary is any guide, it seems that I have seen a flush of blooms about 30 days after feeding.  With this being the first stage, I'

With the days getting longer and me itching to get outside and work in the yard and garden - but recognizing that it is *still* too early to cleanup, I've been finding tasks that I *can* do.  Now.  Like...pruning shrubs.  I posted about the hydrangeas up front that received a haircut .  Today, I'm showing the before/after of the three Disneyland Roses on the southside of our house.  First...(of course) is the 'before'.  A series of three photos are below that run from west-to-east.  The first is the smallest Disneyland Rose that is closest to our gate.  The last one is the one closest to the front yard (the one by the gas meter).  They all look the same.  Naked and alone.   In past years, I've done a light pruning of these floribunda roses.  This year?  I followed what I did with the Hydrangeas.  And went ham.  A few things to note in the photos below:  First...the leaf litter.  That's from their Winter protection.  Second...there is *some* green.  Third:  I'

With the flip last week on Daylight Savings Time, it means that I now get a little bit of post-work garden time.  It isn't dark when I close my laptop, so that's kinda nice.  With the calendar being mid-March, I'm now trying to find garden tasks that I can take on while balancing the guidance of *not doing too much cleanup* too early.  One of the tasks that I decided to do this past week was a look at some cleanup in the front yard - including pruning some of my hydrangeas.   In past years, I have done what I'll call a 'light' pruning - lop'ing off the thin branching, but mostly leaving about 2/3rds of the shrub intact.  After watching some YouTube videos and working up the courage to go at them pretty hard, I decided to give theses a harder prune this late Winter. First up, the pair of (larger) Limelight Hydrangeas on the side of our front porch.  Here's what they look like right before pruning - all of the flower heads still attached (photo below) with

In early December, I p icked up a 6" Winter Rose Poinsettia for $9 at the orange big box store and brought it home for the season .  We have - typically - bought a Christmas poinsettia, but when we came across the Winter Rose, I did a quick Web search to learn a little bit about this specific variety. By now - late January - our typical Christmas Poinsettia is usually looking pretty ratty.  Leaf-drop, leggy stems, etc.    The Winter Rose promised a longer shelf life and that's turned out to be true for us - in a big way.  See below for the Winter Rose Poinsettia that is sitting on our kitchen table today: I'd call this plant being in 'full bloom' - but I know it isn't blooming.  Those are leaves, not flower petals. But...still....look at it.  It is thriving.   What's not to love about this pop of color well-past Christmas?  January and February are hard, hard months for growing, so seeing this thing do so well has really affirmed - for me - that the choice

Starting in the Fall of 2021, I started to collect almost a full five-gallon bucket full of Black Walnuts that were falling from our Black Walnut trees in the backyard.  The goal - with that collection - was to try to make some home-brewed Black Walnut stain.  I ended up making a batch and gave it away for Christmas in 2021 .  I wanted to try the process again this past Fall, so I was out there - in the backyard - picking up the Black Walnuts all Fall.  And started to fill the same five-gallon bucket.   That was a once-or-so-per week activity of pickup up a couple handful of green balls and dropping them in a bucket.  I topped the bucket with another bucket with holes - so it would breath.  And left it out in the landscape.   Then, winter came.  And I never did anything with the walnuts.  No stain-making.   I was out back splitting some Norway Maple firewood and noticed the bucket.  I lifted the lid to see that it is loaded with walnuts.  Rotting walnuts.  Or, at least...rotting husks.

The last of the new Amaryllis bulbs is in full bloom this season.  A week ago, I showed the Flamenco Queen flowers on a very tall, slight stalk .  Today I'm posting a photo of the red and white striped Sunshine Nymph in full double bloom.  This is the second-straight season that we've grown the Sunshine Nymph and in both situations it bloomed after Christmas.  Here's last year's post from early January (just about a year ago today) when that version of the Sunshine Nymph was in bloom .    I attempted to keep and force last year's Sunshine Nymph this year , but so far, no stalks or buds.  

We didn't get Christmas blooms out of this Flamenco Queen Amaryllis bulb, but the wait was worth it.  I last posted a photo of this plant at the very end of 2022 and showed the stalk had shot up with a bud at the tip .  Today?  It is wide-open.  And has two of the most-striking flower blooms on opposite sides of the stalk that we've ever grown.  See below for a look at the Flamenco Queen with red and white-striped petals and a lime-green center. Below is a photo showing that 'opposite' set of blooms.  And the two more that are on their way: This is also - by far - the tallest, lanky-est Amaryllis we've ever grown.  Even after we 'poisoned it' with an alcohol mix in December.  How tall? It is showing blooms that are 25.5" above the top of the bulb.  See below for the measurement:  It has started to lean, so I stuck in a plant support that you can see below.  The hard part with these Amaryllis bulbs and plant supports is that the width of the bulb forces

We're growing Paperwhite bulbs for the first time this holiday season.  In early November, we bought an inexpensive package of Ziva Paperwhite bulbs at the orange big box store and planted them in a glass jar with some gravel at the bottom .  A couple weeks later - and one month ago today - we decided to add a little bit of rubbing alcohol to the mix in an attempt to stunt their overall growth .  (Everything you read on the Web will tell you that Paperwhites are prone to flopping over, so the alcohol keeps them compact in size.) With two weeks to go until Christmas, how are the Paperwhites doing?  Here, below are a few photos: They've grown up and most of the bulbs have multiple stems (and or leaves) that have emerged.  They're not yet to the top of the jar, but a couple of them are getting close (see the last photo that shows the tips compared to the rim of the jar).   A couple things of note here in the Paperwhite Diary.  First... is that *some* of the tips are brown.  My

A couple of weeks ago, I was able to create the chicken wire ring to help protect one of our Disneyland Rose bushes (They are a Floribunda Rose) on the southside of our house.  I picked - at that time - the middle one of the three to protect.  I've done this a number of years now and I'm NOT certain that it does anything really.  But...it doesn't take much effort and I'd hate to lose these flowers, so I decided to do all three this year.   That's what you see below:  all three Disneyland Rose bushes now protected by a ring of 2' tall, 1" chicken wire.  Then, filled with leaf litter to help create (hopefully) an insulation blanket for Winter.    I still have a tiny bit of leaf collection/pickup/mulching to do, but I'm hoping these 'settle' a bit so I can put more leaves in the bins. 

I've gone about splitting, stacking and seasoning firewood in different bursts (of activity) over the past few years.  Usually, I process, split, stack the wood during the winter months in preparation for Fall/next Winter burning.  Here's a look at some January 2021 winter-time splitting .  I've done this with a splitting axe.  But, the Norway Maple rounds that I recently put on the new rack in the backyard are different than what I've dealt with previously.  Some of these rounds are *so* big and *so* heavy that I can't really move them, let alone put them up on a block to begin splitting.  So, the axe has worked, but it has mostly - what I call - 'nibbled' around the edge.  You can see those results here from the end of October where there are a lot of thin slices.   My Dad recommended that I try a splitting wedge on the very big, borderline immovable rounds.  The theory is that the wedge can split them in-place and by removing 1/2 to 3/4 of the wood in se

The guys who planted our new Triumph Elm tree in our front yard told me three things when they were leaving it:  1.  Put the tree away wet.  2.  Wrap the trunk this winter to protect against sun scald and cracking.  3.  Don't touch the tree for years.    Of that advice, I *sort of* understood the first and third one.  Watering in a new tree for a couple of weeks is very important.  But, having the tree installed so late in the season meant that I could 'put it away wet'.  As for #3 - pruning - I've learned my lesson and don't touch trees for a number of years.  But, #2...wrapping the tree.  That was new to me. So, what is sun scald?  From the University of Arkansas Extension office comes this explainer : Sunscald is a fairly common physiological problem found most commonly on young, thin-barked ornamental and fruit trees. Research suggests that during the winter, frozen tissue on the south or southwest side of the trunk which is also being heated by the sun, thaws

I took a walk around the garden this weekend thinking about what I needed to do to button the yard and beds up for the Winter and came across a bunch of rabbit-caused problems.  The dang rabbits are giving me a lot of worries about this Winter.  I posted about some of the problems they've caused over the years including how they went whole hog on our small Oakleaf Hydrangeas last year .  We didn't get ANY blooms because of their chomping.  They ate off ALL the most recent growth - and Oakleaf Hydrangeas bloom on 'old wood' (aka...last season's growth) .   Those dang! rabbits have destroyed all of my Toad Lillies , killed a Canadian Hemlock tree , stunted some of sedges and chewed off a bunch of branches on our Hicks Yews.   Knowing my enemy, I've started to protect things with cages of chicken wire - including these Arrowwood (Chicago Lustre) Viburnum  and some of our Hemlocks .  And...(this year)... ALL of our Oakleaf Hydrangeas .   However...it is clear that

Just a week later and this is what our set of Paperwhite bulbs look like in their glass jar:  roots have gone wild and the tips of the stalks have all emerged and are starting to shoot upwards.  This happened REALLY fast (at least in my view) and I've tried to follow the recommendations so far - including keeping them out of a bright room while the roots establish.  Below is photo showing the current state of these Ziva Paperwhite bulbs : I went back and bought a 2nd bag of stones to help bury the bulbs up about half-way to help get them more solid ahead of the potential 'tipping' that happens with Paperwhites.   This am, I also began the poisoning of these bulbs in an attempt to keep them compact.  Below is the bottle of rubbing alcohol (91%) that I added in a small amount to the gravel.  It is about 5:1 water:alcohol added.  This will, hopefully, stunt these enough to keep them from 'flopping over'. I've used a similar alcohol treatment to Amaryllis bulbs in

Hard to believe that it is mid-November and that we're still getting roses off of our Disneyland Roses.  Here, below, is a little set of flowers and buds that I cut off yesterday morning - right as the weather around here is beginning to turn towards Winter.   This past week, we've had temperatures in the 60's and 70's during the day, but now we're facing the harsh reality:  Winter is arriving.  This Disneyland Rose bush is putting on its final show:  This past week, I took a couple of chicken wire cages off of some hostas that have gone dormant and connected them together to make a Disneyland Rose winter protection cage.  The last time I showed these roses in our sideyard was in September when I talked about prepping for Winter .   This past Winter, I protected *some* of the roses and left others unprotected.  This year...I'm going to just try to do what I can do.  I started with one - the middle one.  You can see that cage below and how I've started to fil

For the past few Christmas seasons, we've grown Amaryllis flowers from bulbs with (mostly) good results and have learned a little bit about different bulbs and planting situations with those .  This year, I'm trying (for the first time) to reuse some of my Amaryllis bulbs from last year .  I grew them in containers and had them bloom in the dark of Winter.  Then, I put their pots out in the sun all Summer-long.  And, finally brought them in to try to force them by putting them in the basement and trimming all the foliage off.  They've been in my basement (currently) for ten weeks.  I'll get them out in mid-November.   Besides, Amaryllis bulbs, another winter-time gardening project that people take on is growing Paperwhites from bulbs.  I found an eight-pack of Ziva bulbs and decided to try these at home.  Here, below, is the packaging from the bulbs from the orange Big Box store: Interesting that these are 'grown in Israel', no?   First, though...what are Paperw

The last time I checked in on our compost bins, I was looking after some of the settling that was taking place post a full turn in both bins and our tumbler.  This was in late September when the bin on the right was still 'over full' and the bin on the left was about 1/8th full .  Below, is a photo showing the current state of the same two bins.   The one on the right has settled even further.  The bin on the left has just started to be put to work with the initial pile of leaf mulch piled in that side. The pile on the left will continue to be filled and settled.  I also am planning on insulating the Disneyland Roses with leaf mulch again, so those chicken-wire rings will be full of material this Fall.  Once I get the bins mostly stuffed full, I'll then just simply switch to mulching-in-place the leaves on the lawn.  That's the process I used last year and the material was broken down by the time Spring arrived. I haven't gotten around to adding a third bin, but ma

As I've posted about numerous times over the years, we have a couple of mature Oak trees in our backyard that we've worked at keeping alive - and happy - through treatments and fertilizer.  This is the third season that we've had a Two-Lined Chestnut application applied to them in the Fall as a preventive measure against a (potentially) invasive border . Here, below, is the Davey truck when it arrived to treat our Oaks: Here, below, is the paperwork from Davey: Here's a post from the City of Lake Forest up on the North Shore that talks about why they recommend treatment .  Knowing that one of our oaks has been troubled, it was recommended that we treat it to inoculate the tree against an infestation.   I have NO idea if this stuff works, but I think I'll keep applying it in the coming years. 

The time has come to bring the houseplants in from outside.  We haven't gotten a frost yet, but I know that the first frost isn't too far away.  I don't move too many plants outside, but there are a few including staghorn ferns, my firesticks cactus , Nat's big fern and my standing Mickey Mouse topiary.  This year, I kept the Creeping Fig Vine topiary on the front porch all Summer.  That meant that it received a tiny bit of morning sun, but was in the shade for the bulk of the day.  It was just six weeks ago that I last posted an update on my Mickey Mouse that showed off a good seasonal growth spurt.  If you go back and look at the photo in this post from early August , you'll note that his hands were (at that time) not covered and that there were a few 'shoots' poking out.   Today?  See the photo below for what Mickey looks like after a full season of outdoor growth: This is 18 months of growth and it is pretty well close to being totally full with the fra