Why I Oughta...

Back along the fence, behind the (now in-place) pizza oven is a Cascade Hops vine.  I planted this Hops vine in the Summer of 2021 and trellis'd it up a year later .   At that time, this was a pretty-much "full sun" spot, but the vine didn't fruit.  Then, last year, I put up the pizza oven and suddenly this vine is buried behind it.  Mostly in shade. Did that bother it?  It doesn't appear to have.  Why do I think that?  The vine has rambled up and around the oven.  Crawling up and around everything in its way.  And...when I was out in the garden this weekend, I noticed bright green fruits on the vine.  We.Have.Hops. They're amble'ing thru the grasses: I'm going to cut some of them off and see what kind of vase-life they have as I think they might be neat to see in arrangements.  

At the recent Morton Arboretum Arbor Day Plant sale, I bought a new Climbing Hydrangea for our backyard.  This one is in a one-gallon container and priced at just $28.  Here, below, is the sign from the sale that includes a couple of photos and a description showing it can reach thirty-feet tall and can tolerate part shade and/or full shade.  The scientific name is Hydrangea anomala subsp. petiolaris.   Here is the climbing hydrangea in the nursery pot with the small wooden trellis supporting the vine.  I'd say the vine is 18" tall from the soil-level: Climbing Hydrangea Below is the plant tag from the pot that says:  "Showy white flowers in summer.  Self clinging vine." This is our second climbing hydrangea.  I put one in the backyard by the firepit in 2023 .  At first, the vine was doing well.  But, last year it suffered a setback.  Here's a post from September of 2024 when the vine had declined .  I'm not sure if it was...

What a difference one year makes.  At least that's the case with our Cascade Hops vine that is growing in our backyard.  Last August (the first growing season) the vine threw off fruit (hops) by mid-August.  In that post, the vine was happy and thriving .   This August?  Not so much.  First...there are no hops.  And, second...there's quite a bit of yellowing and browning on both the vine and the leaves.   Below, is a photo showing the current - late August - view of the vine: I have NOT fed this, but I'm thinking that's a step that I need to take going forward.  I've also not paid much attention to this water-wise, but I'm also thinking that's something I need to do next season. The other dynamic here is that I did trellis this up (somewhat) , but it needs to be trellis'd higher because I'm pretty sure the tips of the vine were/are leaking OVER to my neighbors yard.  I'm thinking that means I need to create taller (and likely w...