Why I Oughta...

Last year, the Bird planted a single Carex Albicans in her little 'garden' that is a in the shady understory section of our backyard.  I didn't think much of it at the time, nor paid much attention to it.  But it appears to have been buried under some leaves this Winter.  And, when I was nosing around that section, I noticed them.  It is green and sitting next to some Wild Onions.  See below: Interesting to note how Carex Albicans have done over the Winter - I have others planted back by the firepit - which look the same.  Also a big note:  the rabbits don't pay any attention to these at all. 

 This is the second new (to us) perennial that we recently planted that came from Roy Diblik's Northwind Perennial Farm.  I'll admit that I made one of the core gardening mistakes ( don't buy just one of anything ) with both of these recent additions, but these were picked out from the shade section by my middle child.  This post is about Alchemilla mollis 'Auslese' - or Ladys Mantle.  The sign at Northwind is below and points out that this works in part shade, has yellow flowers and spreads out to about 20".  It also calls out the scalloped, grey-green foliage. And, here below, is our pint-sized plant.  Of note, after just a few days home, I've come to realize that this thing needs to be watered regularly.   So, what, exactly is this?  Is it like a Heuchera?  Is it ground cover?  (If so, it would count towards my 2022 to-do list goal around groundcover, right?) The University of Wisconsin Horticulture Extension has a page up about Lady's Mantle where

On a trip up to Wisconsin recently, we brought home a couple of part shade perennials from Northwind that were destined to go into the Bird's little backyard garden that sits along the northside fence.  Both of these were new (to us) and will work in the understory section of the beds.  The first one is commonly known as Serbian Bellflower, but is listed at Northwind as Campanula Poscharskyana - Blue Waterfall.  See below for a look at the 1# plant that we brought home....and was PROMPTLY eaten by the dang rabbits.  Below is the sign from Northwind Perennial Farm where they describe the plant as 'vigorous'. What it doesn't, explicitly say is the word 'groundcover'.  But, that's what Bluestone Perennials call it: a short, mounding groundcover .   #5 on my 2022 to-do list was to 'fall in love with groundcover' and this is another data point towards that goal.  As of late last month, I had planted 20 ground cover plants this season including a variety

We have a couple of clusters of Brunnera in our garden - a trio of Jack of Diamonds on the southside .  And a trio of Queen of Hearts on the northside .  Both of those sets have done well and are quite striking in their silver-tinged foliage.  They work well in shady spots and have seemingly established themselves over the past growing season (plus).  Last week, I showed a photo of one of the new perennials that the Bird bought up at Northwind Perennial Farm in Wisconsin (White Wanda Speedwell - maybe White Wands Speedwell... ) and mentioned that she bought a few other things.   This post is about a pair of Brunnera Macrophylla - Hearth-leaved Brunnera - that she bought and planted in her little garden in the backyard.   Below is the sign from Roy Diblik's nursery in Wisconsin: And, here (below) shows the location of the pair of these Brunneras in her garden.  They're planted in front of the Chicago Lustre Arrowwood Viburnum (you can see one of them at the top of the photo.  Al

My middle child is my gardening partner.  She has created a little garden of her own in the backyard and each time I take her to the nursery, she's picking up a plant or two to add to her little patch.  She's 'getting to know' some of these plants.  Some work, some won't.  The last time we went to Northwind Perennial Farm up in Wisconsin, she came home with this cool Lamb's ear .  This trip, she bought a few different things including this Spike Speedwell below.  The sign - you can see it in the photo below- calls this Veronica 'White Wanda' Spike Speedwell.  But....I can't find anything called White Wanda out there on the Web.  Plenty of 'White Wands' like this one at Walter's Garden .  But...maybe this is a Northwind creation - they named themselves?  ( Being a Marvel family, I'm not going to lie:  the name White Wanda kinda was a draw here... ) The sign above talks about this being a 'perfect height' for behind low-growing

Up at Northwind Perennial Farm, my middle child picked out this Lamb's Ear from the bench and said that she thought we could use it in the garden.  Like everyone else, we're drawn to the feel of Lamb's ear, but haven't planted any in the garden to date.  That changed with this variety - Helene Von Stein.  See below for the sign from Northwind: The sign calls out the size of the foliage.  And so do every listing on the Web.  This one from Bluestone Perennials calls it 'the biggest leaved Lamb's Ear around' .   Because of the uncertainty around *where* this should go (note:  it is NOT in our plan), I made one of the biggest gardening mistakes:  buying just one .    We ended up planting this in a little section of the garden that the middle child is (now) calling her own.  It is on the northside, in between some of the Viburnum.  See below for our (for now) solo Helene Von Stein Lamb's ear: I'll watch this one for a bit, but I'm already thinking tha

This isn't part of *my* Christmas Haul (like the padded espalier training wire from last week), but I still wanted to post a photo of this gift that was received in our house by the Bird.  One of the things that we've done over the past year-plus is to watch ALL of the Marvel MCU movies as a family.  As part of that experience, some of the characters in the MCU have become family favorites. One of those is Groot from Guardians of the Galaxy.  The Bird (now) has some Groot shirts and even a little magnet shoulder-sitting Groot that she'll wear around .   But, when I think about all of the kids, the one that has the MOST interest in nature and plants and gardening (with me) is the Bird.  So, I'm thinking that is part of the draw to Groot:  he's organic and is plant-based.    For Christmas, we came across this set of Groot planters on Etsy and knew that she'd love them.  There are four in the total set, but you can buy just one. Note: there are A LOT of 3D-printe

We have this tiny, plastic replica of a Jungle Cruise boat that a special Dole Whip was served to us in on a trip to Disneyland in our living room.  And, I didn't want to get too far away from Christmas before I forget to post a photo of what Nat did to convert it to a Jingle Cruise boat.  She applied a little sign that is perfect for us (name blurred out) and is a nice touch for Christmastime.  IYKYK.  I suppose this is a bigtime #DisneyAdult post.  I'm embracing it. 

Earlier this week, I posted photos of the three tags of the Amaryllis bulbs that we selected for Christmas 2021 .  We went with a few smaller, more common Red Lions and two larger (more expensive) flowers - one red/white (Sunshine Nymph) and the other one greenish (Lemon Star).  That means that this year we have five total bulbs planted up.  Below, is a look at all of them after a couple of days in the soil. The trio of Red Lions (on the right) are in a low, wide pot.  We topped that one with a little moss and a couple of rocks.  The Lemon Star is in the slightly smaller pot on the back left.  That, one too, has moss.  The largest bulb (Sunshine Nymph) is in the larger pot with no moss. Below is a look at the Lemon Star.  This is the one that The Bird picked out and is the only one of the five that hasn't gotten started just yet.  Still dormant.   Below is a closer look at the trio of Red Lions.  All three of these have small green shoots that have emerged from the bulb. And, final

One of the first 'moments' that kicks off the holiday season each year for me is the annual purchase and planting of Amaryllis bulbs (or what my kids call: "Christmas Flowers").  Normally, I buy a couple of varieties - some from big box stores and some from Wannamaker's.  This past weekend, I was at Home Depot and found what you normally find at big box stores:  Amaryllis kits.  That's a bulb, a little pot and a disc of 'soil' that expands when you add water.  I don't love those - especially since it seemed that when I opened the boxes for the kits, I noticed that the stalks had already emerged from the bulb, but due to being in the dark they were white(ish).  But, right next to the kits was a bin of bare bulbs - both Paper-whites and Amaryllis.  The Amaryllis bulbs were $7.99 - about half of what I normally pay for a high quality bulb.  I grabbed three of them.  And a low, wide clay container to plant all three.  Those three are all the same vari

Since my trip to the Tokyo Disney Resort, I've posted a bunch of times showing some of the  highlights and items that I brought back home including this pin marking the 35th Anniversary Celebration of the resort and the latest versions of the two park maps  and the resort-specific bandaids - which I love.  But none of the things that I brought home top this:  the fleece Winnie the Pooh Bear blanket or cape or shawl with a hood.  My middle child has a snuggle pal of Pooh Bear that she adores and after seeing this, I couldn't come home without it.    I mean...come on, right?  Just 'adorbies', as she says.  Nat took this photo and I couldn't help but share it here on the blog. I found this product photo on this ebay listing that shows how it lays out: Those dots are snaps that bring it together in the front.  I think they technically list it as a 'wearable blanket', but I'd rather call it a cape.  They had a bunch of characters like Mickey/M

Back in June of this year, I planted two different fingerling varieties of potatoes in containers and placed those out back in an area of full sun.  They bloomed with flowers later in the Summer and most recently I noticed that all of the growth had died back.  That meant it was time to harvest.  I pulled the five big containers all the way to the back of our yard (where we keep most of our garden waste) and with the help of the Bird we sifted through the dirt and came away with a bagful of spuds in varying shapes and sizes.  I've harvested potatoes over the years and posted the pics on the blog.  Here's a 'partial' harvest from 2016 of fingerling potatoes .  And here's a huge harvest of potatoes back in 2013 .  We brought this year's haul inside the house, put them in a paper bag and didn't bother cleaning them.  Everything we read on the Web says to not wash the potatoes until right before we're set to use them, so they're a little dirty,

On a recent Saturday, we took the three kids down a couple of blocks to Fairmount Avenue to the annual neighborhood Block Party and Soapbox Derby. 1    This is the second year in a row that we've participated and you can see a video and my post from the 2017 edition here on the blog . As I wrote last year, this is a really fun family event.  The families that put this on go out of their way to make their block party a really special experience and they draw in families from not just their block, but from people like us - who live a few blocks away.  Once again, they had a DJ tent set up, a really well-put-together starting gate/ramp, a big food spread including hot dogs, a frosty keg and lemonade/water setups for all the kids (and shandy setup by combining the keg and lemonade setups for me!), a snow cone station, a number of sawhorses set up by the garage to tune up your car and every tool and wrench and impact driver you could ever need.  Oh, and they invited Guac and Ta

Marking the seasonal shift through the introduction of Halloween stuff at our local Menards.  And documenting it with a photo of the kids.  Here's all three of them:  The Babe, the Bird and the King of the Ball Tossers.  Halloween @ Menards photo of two of the kids - 2017 version . Halloween @ Menards photo of two of hte kids - 2016 version . Halloween @ Menards photo of just the Babe - 2015 version . Halloween @ Menards photo of the two girls - 2012 version . Halloween @ Menards photo of just the Babe  - 2011 version . *Blink* They've grown up so fast. 

One evening recently when I came home, the kids excitedly came up to me and couldn't contain their excitement about finding something in the backyard.  It was this bird's nest.  They found it in the middle of the grass, so it seems like it fell out of a tree.  There weren't any signs of this being inhabited - no shells or parts of shells - so I'm not sure if it is from this season or just a remnant of another season that was used by a bird family.  I scooped it up with a shovel and put it on this little side table.  The Bird - our middle child - was the most interested in it and we talked about building a nesting box/platform out of wood that we can hang in the yard.  Maybe we can place this on there and see if someone would use it?  Or maybe just encourage another family to inhabit it next season?  Based on a quick Google search, we're assuming that this is a Robin's nest .  And this page makes it seem like 're-use' of a nest happens, so if we put

Look at me.  All over the #PurpleWall at the Magic Kingdom .  Just give me a pair of Rose Gold ears and I'd be a hit, right?  Also, note that this was taken *right before* t hey updated/changed the #purplewall in Tomorrowland to be a bit more interesting.  Old school is the way I roll when it comes to Walt Disney World famous selfie spots.  

On a recent trip to the V acation Kingdom , the Bird traded for this pretty great Pooh Bear pin.  It is a good-sized circle with just the silhouette of Pooh on it.  I've posted this other 'safety-pin' Winnie the Pooh pin before on the blog .  The Bird has quite a good Pooh Bear collection on her board that this one will go. 

Google released this " appsperiment " called Storyboard  that takes your videos and makes these cute comic book-style images.  There isn't much more to do than that and sometimes you get something garbled and sometimes you get some cute stuff like this one with the Babe, the Bird and the King of the Ball Tossers with the Big Guy.   It is Android only, so all you iphone suckers are out of luck.  

I almost got to half a million.  Pretty sure that's the most points I've ever scored on the ride.  That puts me at Level 5: Ranger First Class .  But that's not the best part.  The Bird broke 10K for the first time.  She's getting better aiming and scoring points on Space Ranger Spin.   To infinity...and beyond!

Last week, I posted a photo of part of the Menards Halloween section , but it didn't include the kids.  Here's a post with a photo to correct that omission. That's The Bird's "scared face" she says.   And yes, that is a 10' tall pumpkin inflatable in the cart.  You have a good eye! Here's kids at Menards Halloween 2016 . Here they are in 2012 .