Why I Oughta...

Just a few days ago, I posted a photo of the three fountain grasses that Nat picked up in an early fall sale .  After a week or so of them sitting on our driveway, I finally found the time to dig up the holes and plant them in the #newoldbackyard.  I toyed around with planting them in different configurations, but after laying them out in various places, Nat encouraged me to put them in a line because the bed where these are located now, isn't quite defined yet.  And instead of putting them out further from the fence, I lined them up along the fence in a row.  That way, the kids would be a lot less likely to trample them when they come/go in the yard/neighbor's yard.  To give you a sense of the context of their location, I put them to the south of this Japanese Flowering Cherry tree that I planted at the very beginning of July of this year .  If you look at this photo , these are between the daylilies and the hostas.    I am going to try to b...

Over the years, I've been quietly (and not so quietly ) pining for the day when I can build a wood-fired oven in our backyard.  Between the lifestyle we have (with young kids) and this being a pretty hands-on, weekend-time-sucking project, it seemed like it wasn't ever quite time.  But now?  I'm still not sure it is the right time for tackling something like this - what with the digging of the foundation/footings, building the frame, then cutting and creating the dome from firebricks. But, I also want to - and need to - get going on the full planning for the #newoldbackyard including some fall tree/shrub plantings and hardscape upgrades, future water feature placement , the eventual placement of a vegetable garden and greenhouse, irrigation system, a sports court and more. At our old house in Elmhurst, we built out a backyard pavilion that we used to shelter us from the sun that housed our patio and I'm keen to replicate some parts of that with a new pavilion ...

The work over at our #NewOldFarmhouse has begun to shift to include the outdoors areas as the project continues to come together.  That means hard surfaces, grass and landscaping.  In the back, we're going to tend to a good chunk of the yard, but there is going to be the back portion that we won't be getting to out of the gate.  That means, we'll be leaving it in it's natural state for now. The whole thing is kind of in it's 'natural state' for now, meaning there are clumps of weeds and trees and ground covering scattered all over the place.  The landscape crew that is coming in to straighten things out will be clearing some of this stuff out.  But, check out the photo above.  See what is in those red circles?  That's right?!?   Ostrich Ferns.  My favorite .  I've covered them extensively including this post where the University of Illinois Master Gardener confirmed the species and I even transplanted a good set of them out in Nape...

The Annabelle Hydrangea plant that I put in a few years back is really popping this summer.  It has a partially sunny spot on the north side of our backyard landscape beds.  It is sitting right up against the fence and has filled in the spot really nicely.  We have a few 'Incrediball" varieties close to this Annabelle that are doing well this year, too.  I lost one of them two summers ago, but the other two quickly filled in the space.  *Those* blooms, while not as many as this one, are much more spectacular.  They're currently running a little big behind but will catch up by mid-July, I'd think.

My 'shade garden' grows.  I picked up these Storm Seas bulbs at Costco and put them in the ground this weekend on the northside of our house next to the hostas and ferns.    They're supposed to be a hearty bunch (much like a hosta), so I'm hoping they'll produce some nice (non-green) color on this side of the yard.

We had 7.5 yards of mulch put down in our beds yesterday and I'll tell you that there's nothing better looking than a freshly mulched yard.  It makes the our plants look healthier, our shrubs look bigger, and even makes the spots on our grass look a lot less barren. This year, we got the mulch in a lot earlier than in 2012.   It wasn't until mid-July until we had mulch last year .   As I noted last year, I was about 2 months behind the neighborhood schedule, so I think we're right on track this time around.  At least now Nat will be able to pull out of our garage without our neighbors frowning at her.  (I'm kidding!  Our neighbors don't frown at us because of the mulch....it is more about when they see me gardening/mowing the grass in my socks/sandals garb.)

I found these two boxes of flower seeds in the garage today and figured it was well past time I put them down.  If I remember correctly, I bought them last year at Menards when they were on some sort of killer deal....like $0.25 a box or something. I put down the zinnias in the back yard in the sun on the south side of the beds.  And the shade mix?  It went east of our fence on the north side behind some boxwoods.

The mulch has been placed.  About 2 months late by our neighor's standards, but....at least it is in place.  That's what I'm telling myself.

My sister Vic gave us this cute welcome sign a week back and it immediately found it's way into the grass right next to our front porch stairs.  Neither Nat nor myself are big on yard chotchkies in general, but this sign is different and we both like it. Aside from the pain that yanking it out every time I cut the grass, I think it makes for a very cute addition to our yard.  Welcome, indeed.

10 steaming yards of it delivered on the driveway.   Our beds are going to be soooo happy.

Today was a yard day.  After a quick trip to the store to pick up a few plants, both Nat and I got dirt under our fingernails and planted a bunch of different varieties in both our back and front yard.  Out of all the new plants we bought, I think my favorite is something called a Jacob's Ladder . The photo doesn't do them justice - but the leaves are really quite pretty to see and are very delicate.  We planted two of them near some of our ferns on the north side of our yard right near our deck.  I'm very hopeful that they'll thrive there.  They're called 'part shade' plants, but they flower, so I'm wondering how much sun they actually need.

Turns out, we're not alone.  Elmhust Patch is saying that the City of Elmhurst is going around quite a few neighborhoods - and in a pro-active attempt to keep the Ash Borer from finding a home in our city - chopping down as many Ash trees as they can find regardless of their size.  Just one block from our house - at the southeast corner of Third and Indiana Streets sits this massive stump. I put the Babe's stroller in the photo to give you some perspective.  I tried to count the rings, but lost track somewhere north of 100. I can understand the issue behind the elimination of these Ash trees, but it seems like a pretty significant waste in my mind.  More sad than anything else I suppose.  On the bright side, it seems that not only is the City replacing the trees with something else, they're willing to work with the homeowner if the Ash tree is *really* special to the homeowner and they don't want it chopped down. But, I have to ask:  Can't they be ...

While I wish they were the HUGE ones , these little green shoots are our Allium bulbs that rise up in front of our porch in the front yard. Nat had been talking for a few years about how she *wanted* Alliums, so late in the fall of 2009, I secured a handful of the bulbs and planted them without telling her.  I hoped that I had done everything right - the depth, spacing, watering, etc.  I crossed my fingers.  Then, waited. Come Spring of 2010, they sprung to life and with a big smile on my face, I took Nat out to see her new Alliums.  I may not be the most romantic guy on the planet, but I have to say that my Allium adventure turned out great.

Although the thermometer this weekend said the exact opposite, Spring appears to be right around the corner as our Hyacinths are peeking out of the mulch in our front yard. I planted these back in the fall of 2009 and they came to life for the first time last spring.  They're my favorite color - orange - and while they don't stick around too terribly long, they make a nice impression right next to our front stairs.

Menard's is running some pretty good sales on bulbs/seeds/tubers as they try to clear out their early spring inventory.  We have one planting bed that is staying put in our backyard, but the rest is up in the air.  That's making plant-buying decisions a bit hairy.  I've - for the most part - held off on buying much of anything this year because of all the uncertainty. That was, until this Menard's sale.  I bought a few different sets of bulbs - which turned out to be tubers.  Excuse me for saying this, but I'm a tuber virgin.  Either I never planted one, or I didn't know it was a tuber if I did.  Turns out, both Dahlias and Caladiums are tubers. My Mom told me that you have to "dig up tubers" each fall in Illinois.  I didn't believer her:  couldn't be that you'd have to take in your bulbs each fall just to plant them again.  Seems like a bit too much work. Turns out....my Mom was right:   Once these are planted, I'll have to di...

When we bought our house, a mean, unhappy woman was living there.  She lives in our neighborhood still and we see her driving by slowly from time-to-time.  I have a feeling that she doesn't really care much for what we "did" to her house.  After we had our house inspection, we were set to close the deal.  A few days before the closing, we drove by the house and saw the evil woman frantically digging up EVERY SINGLE PLANT that was in the ground.  She eviserated the flower beds and took every hosta, tulip bulb and anything green and growing, she ripped out.   She was probably smiling the whole time she was ripping out her plants thinking that us two young people who bought her house were NEVER going to get her flowers. Unfortunately for her, she was wrong!  Although we didn't see much action last year, I am pleased to report that we have a bunch of hostas that came up this Spring in some of the beds that were devastated when she tore the place up...

Wednesday and Thursday were spent clearing and prepping the site of our garage and driveway/slab, but Friday was for actual construction:  framing of the foundations. They put together the woodwork quickly, then dug some-more and filled in with wire, plastic and plenty of stone.  The plastic is a vapor barrier.   The garage takes up 3/4 of the width of our yard.  Makes me nervous to see our yard shrink so much.  We're also putting in a "driveway".  I put "driveway" in quotes because it isn't a typical driveway that leads to our garage.  Instead, we've put our garage backwards to face our alley and our driveway starts at the street and goes for 35 feet and stops.  It is more of a "parking pad" than driveway, but we're still calling it a driveway.  It was previously made of some pretty ratty asphalt and was mostly broken up into little pieces.  We're pouring concrete at the same time of the garage.  We've also made it 2 feet wider -...

Have you ever walked by your neighbors yard and saw something that looked like this and wondered what the heck they were doing?  I admit, when I was younger everytime I encountered grass that had been aerated, I always thought that they were a bunch of turds.  They kinda look like it. Well...guess what?  We're now the house on the block with a lawn that the kids in our neighborhood will think is full of turds.  Late last week, we had a company called Pluggin A Lawn come out and aerate the yard and parkway.  They say that the benefits of aeration include enhanced root growth through moisture and air circulation which all lead to a greener yard.  This will be our second summer with the yard and while many of our neighbors have companies come take care of their lawns with maintenance and fertilization products, we're going to go it alone.  We won't have the best looking grass right away, but hopefully we'll get there with steps like this. I'm not tot...

Along with the flowering tree we planted out front last spring , we also bought a few different fruit trees - they were cheap, too, at $5.00 a tree.  I didn't have much hope that they'd last the winter, but surprisingly enough...they've come back strong! Here's (what I'm pretty sure is) our Pear Tree.  We planted it on the south side of our lot and it took in plenty of sun last summer.  It shot up and is now thriving. It has some quite pretty blooms on it - hopefully they'll pop open with flowers.  The documents that came say that it is fast growing and doesn't need an opposite sex tree in the area to produce fruit.  Nat's mom has a Pear Tree and I believe it fruits every-other-year.  We'll see what happens with this little guy. Here's to " creeping " this summer! (Note:  due to the bark on the tree - and it's simliarlity to the "Cleveland Pear Flowering Tree" in the front yard, I'm pretty sure this is a Pear Tree...

If you know Nat, I don't have to tell you about what she thinks of peonies . In late 2008, right after we closed on our house, we planted a peony plant that we received from Nat's aunt - which I believe was split from a plant she received from another relative.  Last year, we bought a few other peony plants including a transplant of a big peony plant from my sister's yard in Hinsdale - but the original plant from Nat's Aunt was clearly the prized possession in the yard. Last summer, the plants bloomed, but were NOT spectacular.  And...if you garden at all, you know that peonies can really be spectacular.  We hosted my niece and nephew last summer for a few months and they gave our backyard a workout - including trampling all over most of everything I've planted.  I bought a few small tomato cages to put the plants in, but that just slowed the kids down, it didn't keep them away from them. Fast forward to this Spring and as some of our bulbs started to emer...