Why I Oughta...

A week ago, I finally had enough with a 'tough-to-grow-grass spot' in our front yard .  It a little section sandwiched on the ' in between two driveways ' island and right up against the sidewalk.  My thought was that part of the reason that the turf goes dormant here every Summer is because the heat radiates off the concrete on two sides and just dries the area out.  And, that's certainly part of it.  Not to mention that I don't water it enough.  But, last week, when I cut this new little bed in , I also discovered that there isn't much soil here.  Just a little bit of top soil - like an inch or two - followed by mostly gravel.   After I cut out the edge of this little bed and removed the turf, I ended up dumping a few bags of compost in the area to thicken up the area and provide a bit more organic material to allow for things to root in and (hopefully) grow.   I then looked around to see if I had any plant material on hand that I could transplant into thi

I was walking around the front beds and - once again - I'm struck by how I've had not a lot of luck with anything I've planted underneath our large Norway Maple tree that sits right outside of our front porch.  This large tree is in decline - likely due to the construction we had when we built our house in 2016 and 2017.  I've tried to attack *that* problem by having the arborists from Davey apply a growth regulator and a liquid fertilizer last year.  And, I'm hoping that the tree is on a path towards survival.  They'll come back this year to apply a second year of fertilizer - that I'm pretty sure (based on these photos) is working .   This year though, I lost a mature hydrangea - a Vanilla Strawberry (one of four out front) and my Lime Light Hydrangeas suffered some this year - and dropped a lot of their leaves in the middle of the Summer .  Here, below, is a top-down photo showing the dead hydrangea (very bottom, middle) and the proximity to the Norway Ma

Right at the end of August, I shared a photo of some of the bare root hostas - Bressingham Blue hostas - that I planted this year in a new bed.  Seven of the eight made it and have emerged this year.  Right around the same time, I planted nine Frances Williams hostas in a different (new) bed.  Frances Williams are variegated and have a yellow margin - so I put the bare root plantings in the bed with my other variegated hostas .  I planted these before anything else emerged.  And, I'll say that *these* were VERY.SLOW to emerge from the ground.  Here's the place they went in the ground in April .  So, how are we looking on those nine plants now? Here, below, is a look at the plantings from two different angles: And, here, below, is an annotated version of one of the photos showing - by my count- eight of the nine have worked out. Now...it MIGHT be nine for nine.   And that's because the plant in the circle farthest to the top/right has what is actually three little hostas e

I've posted dozens of times about peonies.  Nat's favorite flower.  By a bunch.  We had a series of lovely and productive (flowering) peonies in Elmhurst, but in the past four growing seasons here in Downers Grove, we have yet to have ONE peony flower.  I think it has to do with all the shade we have and where the peonies are planted.  To try to solve that, I transplanted some of the peonies closer to the house in an attempt to get them some Sun.   But, for Mother's Day, we also bought Nat a new peony.  It is this "Duchesse De Nemours White Peony" that you can see on the tag below: This particular cultivar is white (which, we normally don't have) and comes with some credentials.  From White Flower Farm comes this description : A century-and-a-half after its introduction, the fragrant double 'Duchesse de Nemours' remains a standard by which all other white Peonies are judged. Strong stems give the blossoms an aristocratic bearing; a touch of yellow at t

We lived on Indiana Street in Elmhurst for almost ten years.  In two houses.  One of our own .  And one of Equation Boy/Man and my Sister Vic's .  Our last few years there, we lived next to a couple named Wes and Susie (hmmm...maybe Suzy?  Or Suzie? Who knows...I never asked how to spell it) who were good neighbors.  They had a hot tub and some nice Japanese Maple trees.  Wes was an artist who loved dogs and liked our little puppy (at the time) Lizzie.   One of them spent time in the garden.  (see Japanese Maples) And they had a front parking spot (not quite a driveway because they used the alley behind the house and had a garage back there) that was lined with Bearded Irises.  They always put on a nice show.   Fast forward to this Spring and Wes and Susie have moved out and someone is tearing down the house to build something new.  My Sister Vic was able to grab some of those Bearded Irises from the front and save them before the bulldozers arrived.  The Japanese Maples didn't

Last month, I posted some photos showing off the new shape of our backyard beds - in a curvilinear form - and talked about how these were the 'final form' of the beds.  The idea that this was the final shape/form of the beds lasted about three weeks.  We decided we need to add another area and cut out even more turf.  Before we talk about what we're doing, let's first understand the backstory, current state and a little bit of inspiration that Nat found that we're trying to bring to life. We've had a sort-of DIY firepit area in the far backyard that was made up of wood chips that I picked up from the Village Mulch Pit and bricks that we scavenged from our neighbor's house when they tore it down.  You can kind of see that area in this post about some hostas and this post where I showed off the latest firewood rack back there .   That is in one back corner.  And the kids' trampoline is in the other back corner.  We also have a gate in one corner that the

I added three new All Gold Japanese Forest Grasses to this little curve in our backyard bringing the border total to six with three more in the back.  Back on May 9th, I posted a photo showing how I moved three of these to the edge of the new bed .  These three new ones are from the Arbor Day Plant Sale from the Morton Arboretum.   Here's what the sign looked like at this most recent sale - where they were asking $18.95 each. I bought eleven (11) of these last Fall at the Morton Arboretum Fall Plant sale for $16 each .  That means that I now have nine of these back in this spot and five up front - in between two driveways.  I have these planted by themselves in a border, but seeing them now I think I should move the back three a little closer to these front three to make more of a drift.  This pdf describes a drift as 'a colony' and I kind of like that description.   Here's what I'm thinking in terms of some transplanting in this area with last year's grasses i

 In the order of operations for this Spring, I continue down my transplanting plan.  First were the Fanal Astilbes that I moved out to the edge of the bed.  Then, I divided and transplanted 15 hostas in a border .  Today, posting a photo showing three newly transplanted All Gold Japanese Forest Grasses.  I planted six of them back here in the Fall and they all came back this Spring.  With this new bed created (and extended), I took three that were in the back and moved them up to the front edge of the bed - that you can see in the photo below: If I come across more of these grasses this year, I'm thinking I can use a couple of them on either side of these three to create a nice grass border.  I planted them far enough back to account for a full-size adult grass to live within the bed.  Posting this in early May, but I did this work on April 24, 2021.

Yesterday, I posted a photo showing the new location of the dozen Fanal Astilbes that I transplanted out to the edge of their new bed and commented that that was the FIRST of a few posts showing the transplanting that I have been doing this Spring.   Today, the photo below shows the new location of 15 teardown hostas that I planted on the southside of the yard in the curved border of this new bed.  You can see the first three on the left taking the 'second row' spot and if you look closely, there are two more in the 'second row' under the Oak tree at the top of the photo: Here's an annotated version of that photo showing the 15 hostas: A few important notes: 1. These hostas are (I'm pretty sure) Lanifolia Hostas .  Based on this "What hosta do I have?" page , I found this Lancifolia page in the Hosta Library.  Things check out.  I inherited them when we moved in.  They're plain green with glossy leaves.  2.  They get to a nice size - if left alone

Now that we've set the final edges of our backyard beds using the notion of curvilinear design/layout , I'm able to begin to transplant some of the items that I have on hand to put them in their final spots - closer to the edges of these new final beds.  The first set that I took on were the dozen Fanal Astilbe plants that I planted last year.  I was happy to see that all twelve came back this Spring and below you can see the twelve holes where I transplanted them further out.  You can see in the photo below the pole of the bird feeder and some of the pink circles.  So, these are moving up about 24" but also not TOO CLOSE to the edge of the bed to be sure they have some room to spread out. This is the first of a bunch of transplants - including hostas, ferns and grasses that I'll be making in the next week or two ahead of mulch.  As a reminder (to myself) that I laid out an 'order of operations' with my beds this year - that starts with removing the Automowe

This photo is from Tuesday, April 20th.  When, we had snow.  And two straight nights of below freezing temperatures in Northern Illinois.  I was totally unprepared for these temperatures, but thanks to Nat's quick thinking, we grabbed a couple of sheets of floating row cover from Amazon that had 'Same Day' delivery.  I unrolled them, covered a bunch of things that I've recently moved (the Fanal Astilbes, a bunch of random Peonies, some new ferns and hostas and an impulse-bought Japanese Maple.   You can see the snow coming down in the photo below: I went out the following morning (when the temperature was still below 30 degrees) and found my tulip blooms looking not so happy: I'm guessing that we'll have a much shorter season of tulip flowers this season, but by the afternoon - when the temperatures had risen to the upper 40's, they mostly seemed to bounce back.  Some of the flower petals had dropped, but nothing like what happened with the Saucer Magnolia o

Last Summer, we bought and planted a dozen Fanal Astilbe #1 containers in the south bed of our backyard .  They immediately struggled as we went up to Wisconsin and they dried out.   When we got back, I baby'd them with a brand new soaker hose and hoped for the best that they'd all come back.  Well, this Spring, I'm seeing some good news:  All twelve are back.  Some are more vigorous than others.  But, they're all showing some purple/maroon little growth coming from the mulch. I've mentioned this before, but one of the projects that I have slated for this Spring is to set the final edges of our backyard beds in a curvilinear layout .  A month or so ago, I laid out what I called the "Order of Operations" with the backyard that details the steps that I intend to take: remove the wire (done), extend beds, transplant, clean up, plant new stuff, mulch, and lay down the wire again. As part of the 'extend the beds' project, I wanted to be sure that the c

Yesterday, I shared a post talking about the concept of creating curvilinear flower beds in landscape design and how one of my initial backyard projects is to move towards a final shape with our beds.  That requires us to carve up a bunch of the current lawn and creating new beds that jut out into the grass.  But, before I can even begin to think about how to make those swoop'ing, curved beds, there is some thinking that I have to do in in order to get both ready for the days of sod removal AND what has to happen AFTER the creation of the new beds to get them ready and dressed for the season.   To arrange my thinking - and to pressure test on what I want to do - I thought I'd create an individual (for me) order of operations document that details the steps in the order I need to take in order to make this all work.  So, let's go. 1.  Remove our Automower wire.   Around the entire perimeter of our backyard, we have a low-voltage green wire buried about 3" or so from th

All the way back in the late Summer of 2017, Nat's Mom sent us a Disneyland Rose as an anniversary present.  It was our first rose and I planted it in a bed that had basically nothing in it - right outside of our kitchen windows.  But, it was quickly clear that this was in the wrong spot.   The following Fall ( 2018 ), we acquired two more Disneyland Roses , but this time, I planted them in on the southside of our house, along the foundation.  And, they've fared pretty well.  But the initial one, planted in the wrong spot wasn't doing as well.  By last Summer, the Disneyland Rose was being crowded out by grasses, hostas and well, weeds .   So, this year, a portion of #6 on my 2021 to-do list was to transplant the rose to be over by the other ones.   I did a little bit of research on the timing and prep for transplanting a floribunda rose and figured out a couple of things:   1.  Do it in late winter/early spring.  When the ground is soft enough to work the hole. 2.  Pre-d

 Along with the fern and wire vine, we had a dwarf umbrella plant (schefflera) that had been languishing upstairs in our guest bedroom for the better part of the past six months.  It was stuck and growing at an odd angle, was very top-heavy and had a very tall, thin and bare trunk.  We have another one of these plants that I've been tending to over the past year or so with top-cuts to encourage it to grow out more bush-y.  It has responded to each of those pruning exercises.   So, I thought that if I repotted the troubled plant to straighten it out and give it a little top-prune, we might have something.  And, so far - about a week in - it seems to be ok.   Here's how it looks now - on our mantle: It is now standing up straight (instead of off at an odd angle) and I cut the leader/apical meristem off about half-an-inch from where the die-back settles.  I'm hoping that we'll see even more growth coming out of this thing starting with the current crown and down the trunk.

 It seems that I *may* have made a mistake with the fern that I tried to rescue by transplanting it into a different container and giving it a haircut.  Back a couple of weeks ago, I posted a photo of this small (miniature?) fern that I had brought inside before the frost and neglected all Fal l.  It was dry, brittle and showing a lot of stress.  I decided to try to bring it back by feeding it with some composted manure and trimming off all the dead fronds.  I then put it out on the screened porch where the humidity level is a bit higher than in the house.   Unfortunately, it seems like we've seen no positive growth since the transplant and haircut.   There are still come greyish-green fronds hanging around that aren't totally brittle, but no new growth.  This is what it looks like 15 days post haircut.  Not promising.   I brought all three of the containers that were on the screened porch INSIDE the house late last week since the forecast was calling for negative temperatures

One of the girls bought a small/miniature fern for their fairy garden in the Summer of 2019 and I somehow was able to yank it out of the garden, pot it and keep it alive all last Winter into this past Spring.  When the warm weather arrived, I put the pot out on the back stoop and the fern seemed to be happy.  I brought it in this fall and promptly neglected it.  I came across it and noticed that it was dried out, brittle and rootbound.  I repotted it and moved it to something larger, fed it with some composted manure and put it out on the screened porch.  It looked like this after repotting: It isn't happy looking.  That's (I think) a combination of neglect and the stress of coming inside to deal with the dry, indoor air and what I'm guessing is some level of dormancy-induced decline due to Winter.  All of the leaves are dry and a lot of the fronds are brittle.  If you pinch them and slide up/down, you can peel off the leaves on about 1/3rd of the fronds.   I decided to do

I have been busy digging up, moving, dividing and transplanting hostas around the backyard.  Started with the Teardown Hostas around the hose bib in back .  Then moved a series of variegated hostas around the Oak tree.  And transplanted three back by the other Oak tree .  Here, in the photo above, you can see two more.  These are two parts of a divided hosta that are now planted at the base of the espalier'd Greenspire Lindens on the southside of our backyard.    These two - the larger one is on the left ) are currently located in between the two trunks - and to the East of the first set of Summer Beauty Allium that I planted this year .  The hostas don't look like much right now, but history tells me that if I keep them happy and wet this year, they'll come back in a more traditional form next year when they emerge from the mulch.   

I've posted a number of times - across houses, towns, years - about Ostrich ferns .  We had them back in Elmhurst at our old house .  And when we moved, we transplanted a few clumps of them over at Nat's Mom's house in Naperville .  When we bought our lot in Downers Grove, we inherited some of what I've been calling " Survivor Ferns " that lived through the construction and re-grading of our lot. As part of my 2020 to-do landscape list, I identified area #2 that includes the planting of a series of Ostrich Ferns - along with other items.  One of those 'other items' is the planting of hostas around a large Oak tree - in an area adjacent to where these Ostrich Ferns are supposed to be planted.  I posted about those variegated hostas yesterday .  The plan calls for Hadspens, but I decided to go with Variegated hostas because I had quite a few of them on hand. In that Priority Area #2 post, I mentioned that the plan called for 12 Ostrich Ferns in t

My #2 priority area in our backyard for this gardening season is around the large Oak tree that is home to our tree swing.  That part of the plan called for adding a series of hostas, ferns and connecting the beds between the Hornbeams and this nascent bed.  The plan called for the addition of 10 or so Hadspen blue hostas, but there were two factors that made me go a different direction. First, I planted three hostas in this area already.  First, there are two, existing variegated ones present:  Christmas Tree and Fantabulous from 2018 .  Second, there was a third, variegated hosta that I tucked behind the tree - the miniature variety that I really like .  And finally....I had a mixed variety of Hostas that I've tucked underneath the Hornbeams over the years - including mixed variegated ones with more blue ones.  So, I decided to get the variegated ones out from below the Hornbeams.  And move them to where you can see in the photo at the top. Below, you can see all the new