Why I Oughta...

I really do NOT like the dang rabbits that live in and around our yard and garden.  I've done my best to protect against their damage, but I didn't do enough this Winter.  With the snow melting, I took one VERY small walk through part of the garden to see how things have fared in the past month-or-so.  I don't want to walk on the wet ground and didn't walk in any of the beds to avoid compaction.   But...from the edge of the beds, I was able to see some serious rabbit damage on a number of my Oakleaf Hydrangeas.  Even on one that I wrapped in Chicken wire.  What the heck!?! Here's a few photos showing the rabbit pressure - and gnawing of the tips - on my SnowQueen and Alice Oakleaf Hydrangeas.    The problem is that these flowering shrubs bloom on old wood.  That means...2024 will be a year of limited flowers.  Bummer.   Weather-permitting, I'll go out and grab more photos.  Coming up with a real plan on rabbits feels ...

In the Spring of 2022 (17 months ago), I undertook what I called (at that time) the Lilac Replacement Project where I dug up and transplanted a number of Lilacs.  And replaced them with some upright evergreens.  Those upright evergreens were three Green Giant Thujas that I bought at the orange big box store .  I planted three in this spot and three on the other side.  Two of those died, leaving me with four of the six originally planted remaining.   When I look back at the photos of those Green Giant Thujas right after they were planted (April 2022) , it appears that the top-tip (apical meristem) of them is right around the top of the fence.   Today - they're at least a foot over the top of the fence height.  See below for the current view - with the Green Giant Thujas in the back against the fence.   That's (obviously) not the only thing happening in this photo, so I'll document some of the other changes in this post - for the gar...

Back along the fence, behind the large colony of Summer Beauty Ornamental Onion is one of my first flowering shrubs - that has NEVER flowered :  Tuff Stuff Red Hydrangea .  Part of our plan is extending the current row of Oakleaf Hydrangeas with another few flowering shrubs that sit in front of - and in between - the Green Giant Thujas .   In order to plant the new flowering shrubs (I ended up finding another Oakleaf Hydrangea variety), I needed to move the Tuff Stuff Hydrangea.  It never has grown much in size (nor...flowered), so I knew I could tuck it into some smaller spots.  I opted for moving it right next to the other non-blooming hydrangea - the Everlasting Revolution - closer to the border of that same bed.  See below for a photo showing the location of the newly transplanted (and slightly larger) Tuff Stuff Red Hydrangea: With that out of the way, I can move on to planting the pair of Snowqueen Oakleaf Hydrangeas.