Why I Oughta...

  I've used coleus in a few spots in the garden as bedding annuals.  And, over the years, I've planted coleus as part of a mixed container.  But, this year, I'm trying something new (to me):  Using Coleus as a monoculture in a container on our back stoop.   I found this Flame Thrower Habanero Coleus at Menards and bought two quart-sized containers.   I've grown to really like the Inferno Coleus and have used it for a few years in a row.  This Flame Thrower Habanero coleus has a different leaf-shape, but is close in color.  From Ball Seed : Compact-to-medium coleus is perfect for quarts and mixed containers. Bold foliage colors in a compact habit make this striking coleus ideal for small pots and mixed containers. Its uniquely colored and shaped leaves add texture in the garden and containers. Features fiery orange leaves with a touch of purple at the center and edges. Container is where these are headed.  Below is a look at the...

I've gone back-and-forth with our backyard patio containers over the years.  From moncultures to mixed containers.  From big-box store common plants to nursery-born more unique flowers.    One of my 2025 to-do list items this year is to 'do better containers on the patio' .   I've used Wave Petunias in some containers in the past, but have never used Superbells.  That was, until I came across this small quart container.  Here it is planted in one of our patio containers as a monoculture: Those yellow centers on a peach (or coral-colored) flower jumped off the nursery table. I bought only one of them, and I already regret it. Here's the container below: From Proven Winners listing for Superbells Coral Sun , they list these characteristics: Abundant, small petunia-like flowers all season on cascading growth, no deadheading necessary. Award Winner Continuous Bloom or Rebloomer Long Blooming Fall Interest Heat Tolerant Deadheading Not Necessary What'...

The pair of square beds that sit on either side of our back concrete stoop have changed over the years.  Starting with a pair of Rhododendrons, I replaced them with Spring Grove Ginkgo trees (dwarf trees) in Spring 2023 .   I also added some (volunteer) Angelina Sedum to both sides that has had ups-and-downs. After doing a clean-up in this bed, here below are what the two square beds look like currently.  The trees have been attacked by (Dang!) rabbits.  And the sedum has seen better days.  I'm hoping that the weather will warm up and these sedums will spring to life.   First is the south bed - close to our grill: And, here below is the south bed.  In between the stoop and the screened porch door:

Another sign of Spring:  one of (at least one of) the Brookside Geraniums has emerged from the mulch in the square bed next to our backdoor stoop.  These are growing in the shadow of the Spring Grove Ginkgos.  Planted in 2023 from the Morton Arboretum Plant Sale , this will be their third full growing season.  They're the only Geraniums that we have growing, but that might be something I'll add this year via the same Morton Arboretum sale. Below is the green foliage emerging in late March 2025:  

Yesterday was the first day of Spring.  And, we woke up to a view in our garden to a decidely-not-spring-like situation.  Everything was covered in a layer of snow and sleet.   And, it could not have been more beautiful.   The pair of Greenspire Linden espalier trees had that snow cling to every branch and REALLY HIGHLIGHTED the structure and the four horizontal cordon layers.  Even the boxwoods got in on the "winter interest" action.  Towering over those Lindens is a row of Green Giant Thujas that are planted by my neighbor on the other side of our fence.  This 'borrowed view' sure is handsome - as those evergreen trees show off their snow-covered tips: And, here below, is the view from our back stoop.  Everything is white - and the limbs are striking in their contrast.   Spring is here.  Let's roll. 

Once I posted the structure of the front-yard Spring Grove Ginkgo tree , I figured I should include the back stoop versions (there is one on each side) in the [garden diary], too.   Both of these have a one-year head start, but are showing a bunch more height than the front-yard tree.

Walking out the backdoor, I found a bunch of these fan-shaped Ginkgo leaves laying on the stoop.  They're from the pair of Spring Grove Ginkgo trees (dwarf, Witches broom trees) that sit on either side of our back stoop and flank the entrance.  I originally had a pair of Rhododendrons in these spots - planted in 2018 .  But, moved them out in 2023 doing a 'garden edit '.   I caught this post on Instagram from Erin - the Impatient Gardener - where she posted some photos of her own dwarf Ginkgo - a Gnome Ginkgo - and included some info that...I sort of 'observed', but didn't know what was going on with Ginkgos. Her post, embedded below, includes this line :  "Ginkgo trees develop these scars on all their leaves simultaneously, causing them to drop all at once when triggered by a hard frost." View this post on Instagram A post shared by Erin Schanen 🌿 The Impatient Gardener (@impatientgardener) "Blink and you'll miss it...

I planted a pair Spring Grove Ginkgo trees (dwarf trees) on either side of my back stoop last Summer - in May 2023 .   All Summer-long, I protected them from the sun with a shade cloth as they were drooping everytime we'd have a run of hot days.  They seemed to make it thru the season just fine and by September of 2023, they were showing some new, tender growth .   Both of the trees came back this Spring and I don't seem to have documented their growth in 2024.  This year, I did NOT put up any shade cloth and only watered them when I was watering my annuals.  It appears that they're *mostly* established by this point and are filling out. Below are their current looks.  On the left (below) is the tree on the southside.  On the right (below), is the one on the north - in between the stoop and the screened porch door. At this point, I've done ZERO pruning on them and I don't intend to touch them - until they start to creep in/onto the stoop or d...

#7 on my 2024 to-do list was to 'do better containers' this year .  That meant doing DIFFERENT containers than I've done in the past.  This goes back to that whole 'get out of your comfort zone' thing that I confronted with flowers in the beds last Fall.  I told myself to resist early Spring and resist the Big Box store.  But, also...lean-in to what I liked about last year.  That 'what I liked' in our containers last year started and stopped with Euphorbia.   Last year, I bought one Euphorbia plant and tucked it in with some Zinnias from Northwind Perennial Farm .  Loved it.  I also saw that the Morton Arboretum used Euphoriba in one of their beds in the Fragrance Garden.  Lovely .  (That's also where I spotted Cardoon, too.) We have two large rectangular containers - one on back patio, one in the shade on our front porch.  Then, we have a large round planter on the patio and a couple smaller companion planters that sit on the ...

Last May, I planted a pair of Brookside Geraniums in the square beds on either side of our backstoop along with a pair of Spring Grove Ginkgos .  These geraniums were from the Morton Sale and I tucked them into the back of the little beds.  A month-after-planting, I looked-back-in on the planting and they were doing well - and in bloom by the end of June .   That meant that this past Winter was their FIRST Winter - and I didn't have any data on their reemergence.  We can now add these to the [garden diary] showing the Brookside Geranium foliage comes up in a small, dark-green clump in mid-March.    You can see the current state of this Brookside Geranium below: Last year, these sort-of 'spilled' out one side of the bed and didn't spread very much.  Perhaps this will be the year that these will fill-out a little more.  

The varmint (or varmints) that live under our back stoop have come back (or...more accurately) have come OUT of hibernation for the Winter from under our back stoop.  How do I know?  There's telltale signs - including a couple of entry/exit holes along with piled-up gravel and half-eaten walnuts and black walnut shells.  See below for a top-down view of the dang(!) chipmunk hole right next to our stoop: I wasn't sure if he was eaten by a predator last Fall, but turns out he was just hibernating.  From Nat Geo kids : Chipmunks hibernate in cold weather, which means they spend most of the winter sleeping in their dens. One chipmunk can gather up to 165 acorns in a day. In just two days, a chipmunk can collect enough food to last an entire winter, although chipmunks typically hoard much more food than necessary. Now...I have to figure out what to do about him.  I REALLY don't want to have to deal with him, but need him to move along.  Before he starts a family...

I have a couple of colonies of Angelina Sedum planted in the small, rectangular beds on either-side-of our back stoop that started as a volunteer and have survived over a number of years.  Last Spring, I planted a pair of Spring Grove Ginkgos in the beds and transplanted the sedum from one side to the other .   This particular Sedum has been pretty tough.  Tolerant of our (previously Zone 5b) now 6a Winters.  And some foot-traffic.  This year, the timing of the VERY cold weather was paired with a few-days-prior arrival of a few inches of snow.  That meant that there was a natural snow blanket for insulation when the temps dropped below zero.  Look back at these photos from a few weeks ago showing the Spring Grove Ginkgo silhouette .  Plenty of insulation.  How did this Angelina Sedum do with winter?  Below are a couple of photos showing the post-snow (still some to melt) condition: And...while there is still *plenty* of Winter remai...

The pair of Spring Grove Ginkgo trees (dwarf Ginkgos) that I planted this past growing season on either side of our rear stoop are worth documenting in the garden diary.  Being winter, they're clearly dormant, but they're doing some interesting things:  They're clearly exhibiting some foliar marcescence with many of their leaves clinging to the limbs.   And, they're covered with buds.  That are stud'd everywhere.  On the limbs.  On the trunk.  At the tips of branches.  And all along them.  They're quite different and really nice to look at when contrasted with he white snow.  Here's a pair of photos showing the same one: the north-side Spring Grove Ginkgo .  The second one is planted by the Grill on the southside of the stoop, but I am not including photos here. The snow cover on the ground is a few inches thick and I'm hoping that it is providing a nice blanket of insulation on this young, one-year-in-the-ground dwarf ginkgo....

Earlier this year (May), I planted a pair of dwarf Ginkgo trees - Spring Grove Ginkgos - on either side of our back stoop .  I was planning on planting *something new* here, but I didn't plan on these - rather, I just came across them and decided to go this route.    I posted about them one-month-post-planting and they seemed to be doing well and getting established .  But...I knew the hard, hot, dry part of the Summer was coming and I wanted to be sure these dwarf trees were set up to succeed.  We were gone for a large part of the Summer, so I decided to set up a some timed irrigation and then covered these in shade cloth.  Yeah...I covered them for months at a time to keep them from drying out and burning.  I recently took the shade cloths off - thinking the heat of the Summer is behind us.  What happened under the shade cloth was quite A LOT of new growth.  But, that new growth was *very* tender because it was being protected from the sun...

Back in mid-May, I replanted our two small, square beds on either side of our back stoop .  I dug out the RJM Rhododendrons that were there since our first Summer and replaced them with a pairing of Brookside Geraniums and a witches broom, dwarf Ginkgo named Spring Grove .  #13 on my 2023 to-do list was to 'fix the back stoop beds' and this swapping out was a big part of that need.   I also took a few plugs of Angelina Sedum from the north bed and transplanted it to the south bed, so they would be mirror-images of each other.   When I planted the Spring Grove Ginkgos, they has leaf'd out, but had suffered a litttle bit of late-frost damage to the tender leaves.  The geraniums were small and just emerging, too.   A little bit over one month later, what do they look like?  The geraniums have grown quite a bit.  And, so too, have the Ginkgos.  See below for (first) the north bed.  And then, below that, the south bed. Spring ...

Yesterday, I posted about the removal and transplant process for a pair of mature(ish) PJM Rhododendrons from the two small beds on either side of our back stoop to the far reaches of our yard.  Back in late April, I posted about this new (to me) Witches' Broom dwarf Ginkgo tree called Spring Grove Ginkgo .  Spring Grove is a small, upright that has those fan-shaped Ginkgo leaves that turn bright yellow before they fall in Autumn.   They something that I haven't seen before, so I thought they'd be a great fit for the back stoop beds - as Rhododendron replacements.  The new Ginkgo's are NOT evergreens, but the uniqueness of them feels like a good trade-off.   I bought a pair of Spring Grove Ginkgos that were in 10# nursery containers and planted one in each of the stoop beds.  Below is the north bed - a few things to note:  The Spring Grove Ginkgo is much smaller than the Rhododendron that was there.  Second, the Angelina Sedum has cont...

Back in early 2018, one of the initial moves we made in developing our garden and landscape was to add a pair of rhododendrons on either side of our back stoop.  Why rhododendrons?  Because the plan called for them .  PJM Rhododendrons to be precise.  They were planted in summer.  They bloomed and looked great .  A tropical-looking evergreen that is cold hardy to Zone 5b?  What's not to like.   It was a couple of years that I mostly ignored them.  They were watered and fed.  But, that's it.  At some point, they started to turn.  And they started to deteriorate. By last summer, they looked shabby . What do the pair of Rhododendrons look like this Spring?  Not great.  See below for the evergreen shrub to the north of the stoop: And...here below is the other one - to the north.  This one looks *better*, but not awesome. We've had a chipmunk that lived in these beds over the years.  Or...maybe more than one...