Why I Oughta...

About a month ago, I posted about how I planted a small four-pack of Nicotiana Saratoga in the front of the sideyard cut flower bed.  They were plugs.  Tiny.  Look back here to see them barely visible in the photos .   The plugs went in the ground in mid-May.  Now, two months later, they're thick, full and loaded with blooms.  See below for an updated photo of these four small annuals: #10 on my 2026 to-do list was to 'keep going with annuals' . These are a big "garden win" for me in 2026. Something I should look to replicate in future seasons.  Instead of just four, I could have planted 16 of these in front of the dahlias all along this bed.   Here, below, is a before/after animation: Note to future Jake:  Plant these in more spots next year.  They are staying short and compact.  

I planted a four-pack of Nicotiana (Saratoga Mix) annuals over on the southside of the house in the cut flower garden bed.  Actually... these are in the 'newly expanded' bed that I completed earlier this Spring (March) with my typical 'lazy method' of smothering the turf and amending the top with a mix of Composted Manure and Municipal Biosolids.  I've grown Nicotiana over the years - including the Jasmine variety - in this same sideyard bed .  In 2024, I direct sow'd them.  In 2019, Nat's Mom gave us a couple of plants .   This year, I bought a small four-pack of Saratoga Mix - which appears to be a combination of flower colors: I picked a front-of-the-border spot and staggered the four small plants about a foot-apart.   They're now mixed in amongst the Disneyland Roses and all of the various dahlias that I planted over there.  These are filling in a spot close to the front of the border: This post is going up in mid-June, but these were pl...

Dahlia season has begun here.  With the initial planting of seventeen dahlias.  That was day one of planting the tubers that I started out in the garden.  I made this annotated map to show (mostly myself) where everything is planted because I'm growing many new (to me) varieties for the first time and have a much more diverse lineup than in previous seasons.  Note:  this post is going live in early June, but I planted these on May 20th.  Last year, I planted them in the first week of June , so this is almost three weeks earlier.  Here, below is that map.  So far, I've put six in the "Pizza Oven West" bed, seven along the side of the house in the "South Sun Wall" bed and four "Under the Elm".  You can see them numbered in red: Pizza Oven East 1.  Crichton Honey 2.  Cafe Au Lait 3.  Creme de Cognac 4.  Blue Wish 5.  Milena Fleur 6.  Jowie Winnie Here (below) is a photo below of these plantings.  Note that I pu...

Transplanted from my sister's neighbor Wes on Indiana Street in 2021 , this purple iris has grown quite a bit over the years.  This is planted on the southside of our front porch in a low area that gets some good water (when it rains).  They bloom every May it seems as this post from 2025 shows a similar bloom-season.   Below is a look at the current state of this perennial.  I think this might be something I can consider dividing this season.  A quick Google search indicates that post-bloom time later this Summer is the right time to divide them.  Early enough to give them time to get established before dormancy.  

Last Spring, I planted two new Disneyland Roses, bringing the total number of these Floribunda roses in the sideyard to five .    The two new ones outperformed the established ones and were highly productive all the way up to Thanksgiving last Fall.   One of the decisions I made last Fall was to take a relaxed approach to overwintering these roses - which is different than what I've done in the past.  In some years, I've created rings of Chicken Wire and stuffed them with leaf litter to create an insulation layer on top of the canes.  Other years, I've used municipal biosolids + leaf litter to mound up around the crowns.   This year, I let nature take its course and have whatever leaf litter that collected around the canes to provide that insulation layer.   And....either due to a not-so-bad Winter...or....the reality that these appear to living in a small microclimate on the southside of our house, tucked in against the foundation...ha...

One of my 2026 to-do items is to 'expand the beds in Fall'.  I say 'Fall' because of how I utilize what I call the "lazy method" of smothering out the turf with cardboard.  That means that in addition to materials like cardboard and municipal biosolids, I need time.  Time for the grass to die.  Time for the cardboard to breakdown.  And time for the biosolids to MELLOW OUT.   Last year, I missed the Fall window to do some bed extensions, so I started to do them this Spring.  The first one was a few weeks ago with the Island Bed taking on new edges .  I used cardboard, municipal biosolids and composted manure to create a blend that I'll plant up (and mulch) later this Spring.  In the sideyard, I want to do the same thing:  expand the beds along the foundation to be more proud of the house.  Last year, I planted out the Dahlias in late May/early June.  I like to have about six weeks of time between laying down these bed exten...

Last week, I posted about how there were a few Disneyland Roses that were still popping-off outside .  A couple days ago, I decided to cut them off and bring them inside to stick in a vase.  Who doesn't want Disneyland Roses for Thanksgiving, right?  I don't totally understand how (or why?) these are blooming, but I'm happy to take the flowers.  At the same time, I fear that these tender parts won't harden-off before *REAL* winter arrives.  But, in the end...does that really matter?  In the past, I've cut the canes down to under a foot in the Spring and the new growth comes out of those canes.   Here, below, are a couple photos of the Thanksgiving Disneyland Roses.  These are dark pink.  Darker than they are most of the growing season.   Here, below, is a look at some of the posts I've written about my experience with Disneyland Roses via this Google Search widget:

Something strange has happened on a one of our large Disneyland Rose bushes on the side of our house:  they are blooming.  At least...a couple of blooms.  And this is after some hard frosts.  This 'large' one is one of the newly planted Disneyland Roses from earlier this Spring.  Here's a post from October that tries to show off the size of these .  They're MUCH bigger than the other ones I've had in the past.    The photos below show a couple of blooms and if you look *behind* the blooms, you'll see some additional Floribunda Rose buds that are hanging around.  What the heck??  I'm attributing this to the little microclimate that exists along the side of our house.  These are tucked in against the house, with southern exposure and about fifteen-feet-away is our neighbor's house.   Disneyland Rose in Bloom After A Frost I didn't cut these off and I stopped pruning back anything on these roses since mid-October.  (I w...

The pair of Sugar Tyme Crabapple trees are currently loaded with green leaves.  But, that won't last long as they drop their leaves and reveal their structure and (hopefully) some berries that have appeared this Fall. Below are two photos showing both of them.  First, the one closer to the front of the house followed by the one located further back.   Of note, late Winter pruning and support with stakes is something I should put on my list of tasks.  The tips of the limbs are arching down due to the weight of the crabapples and foliage.  Still...these look really good and are providing a great view against the large expanse of white Hardieboard siding.

Yesterday, I posted some photos of our Disneyland Roses in bloom and mentioned that one of the Floribunda roses had gotten very big.  Below is a photo showing the largest one.  It is newly planted earlier this year.  And, the tallest sections are at least four-feet tall.  And the whole thing is wider than four-feet wide across the center.  I've had knee-high Disneyland Roses in the past and the product listing from Jackson and Perkins describes these as 3-feet-tall plants.  So, either they're happy and well-fed.  Or, there's something else going on like the root-stock pushing the plant taller.   This size poses a over-wintering challenge.  I can't do what I've done previously and top this with leaf litter.  It is too big.  This one may just have to survive winter on its own.

The newly planted (this season) Disneyland Roses are really popping off these days, too.  Blooms on top of blooms.  I was pretty good about feeding these monthly and treating them with multiple ways for pests and fungus:  systemic as well as topical spraying.  I also was deliberate in deadheading them and removing the rose nips.  The result are the largest, most productive Disneyland Roses I've ever grown.  They also have the longest stems of any Floribunda Rose that I've ever grown.   Below are a few shots showing the current state of these roses.  I'm going to stop deadheading them and hope that there won't be much new growth being put on in the final weeks before frost.

Thanks to Google Photos, I was served this image of our sideyard from 2017.  This was the day were were installing our fence and shows the state of the sideyard before we moved in.  Grass all the way around the house, no trees or plants.  And, no walkway/boardwalk/path.  See below: Compare that with the photo from this post from this past month showing the same view towards the backyard (photo posted below): Quite the change.  Eight years apart.

On one of our Melina Fleur dahlias out in the sideyard, I noticed a portion of the plant was struggling.  I've observed over the past year-or-so that some of my dahlias have adapated to handling the heat of the day by wilting.  They spring back in the evening and look fine.  I initially...thought that was what was happening here.  Part of the plant was showing some new growth and perhaps it was just wilting to survive the heat.   This dahlia had been attacked by rabbits, so I figured the new growth was a reaction to that nibbling at the base.   I recently wrapped this dahlia in chicken wire to keep the rabbit pressure down.  Below is a photo showing the entire plant in the chicken wire.  At the left is the 'wilting' part.  Second photo shows a top-down view: Do you get those giant pumpkin growers on your TikTok FYP?  The guys who set up entire rigs for growing giant pumpkins including shade covers, zip-tie'ing blossoms closed t...

The hedge of Frans Fontaine Columnar Hornbeam trees that are planted along the side of our house have NOW been pruned.  Just a little bit.  These are now in their eighth (8th) growing season and up until now I have NOT touched one branch.  No pruning what-so-ever.  But, that ended because of the boardwalk along the side of our house.   I'm eager to keep the idea of miegakure - or "hide and reveal" with these trees and the boardwalk that provides the pathway. That 'hide-and-reveal' is for the full backyard. After a big rain, the branches are loaded with wet leaves and the lower ones on these Frans Fontaine European Hornbeams begin to droop.  And, lean against the screened porch.    This weekend, I grabbed my small hand pruners and began to cut back some of the lower branches.  I picked spots that had foliage back behind the cut, to ensure there would be continued leaf-out.   I didn't want to hack the whole thing back, but ra...

One of the thing that's been on my mind over the past few months is the concept of 'legibility' in the garden.  I wrote up a post about it - when I first came across the concept.  I also included it in my 2025 to-do list .  Part of legibility are 'entrances'.  Entrances to garden spaces.   One of the primary entrances to our garden is along the side of house via the boardwalk.  In my 2025 to-do list, I mentioned 'planting up the boardwalk' as something I wanted to get done.   Over the past few years, I've planted a few things there - but nothing has worked.  Ferns.  Hostas.  I think it is too dry and too dark.   But, I'm trying again.  This time...with an Ajuga.  Bronze Beauty Ajuga.  Here's the six-pack of groundcover that I bought: Along the screened porch, there's a long, thin bed.  Below is the before/after of planting these six plugs: I watered them in and they looked flat that first day....

Despite posting this in mid-June, these photos of what I call the "Indiana Street Iris" or "Wes' Iris" that came via our (temporary) neighbor in Elmhurst are from mid-May.  This was in bloom all the way back on May 17th. Here's a post from May 16, 2024 (a year ago) that shows the same timing as this year .   Below are a couple of photos showing this purple-blooming perennial that seems to tolerate the more-wet conditions on this side of the house.    Based on the first photo, I think we can say that this is a "bearded iris", can't we?  This is a 'later-blog-post' - with photos about a month behind the publication date.  

Recently, we had a crew come in and clean up the garden, edge out the beds and lay down a layer of mulch.  Was it leaf mulch?  No.  And, I'm ok with that.  It was hardwood fines and it sure looks good.  I channeled my inner Stu Finer and made the most of the installation.  Mulch and those edges play a role in what is called 'garden legibility'.  That was #10 on my 2025 to-do-list:  work on legibility in the garden .   This mulch - with its dark brown color - sure *does* make the garden more legible.   Below are a few photos showing the mulch in the beds.  Starting with the front yard - where the recently expanded front porch bed is now showing how much space there is for annuals.   The island bed in front is now larger, connected to the driveway and has a better, more organic shape to it.  This was #3 on my 2025 to-do list  (part of it, at least).  Below are a couple of photos showing the island b...