Why I Oughta...

These things keep doing better than they should.  They are on the southside of our house, in full sun and I've left them alone after I mulched them.  Here's what they looked like in Spring . They bloomed earlier this year and have kept on going.  Here, below, is a close up of the Western-most plant. Here, below, is the other one - closer to the front porch.  I have one more of these that I have to move over by these , but I'm not sure the best time - (seems like Spring before bloom time is the best). 

Back in June, I posted a photo of the one Japanese Painted Fern that we have next to our screened porch and talked about how - after leaving it almost exclusively ALONE for the past two years, it. seems to have established itself and is doing well. Today, I'm sharing another photo at the top of this post showing what it looks like in the heat of the Summer.  It has grown bigger and more full.  And it now has me thinking that when I come across MORE of them - or if I seek them out - I should buy and plant a series of them along the fenceline -underneath the Frans Fontaine Hornbeam trees.  I've had good luck with Ostrich Ferns, but they start to look kinda shabby later in the Summer and I've recently planted a Lady Fern - so I'm not sure how that will look once mature.  But, I do love the look of this Japanese Painted Fern in it's full Summer glory and think they'd look nice mixed in with some hostas under the trees .  I have a gift card from Wannemake

Just a few days ago, I posted a photo of our three-trunk River Birch in our backyard that we inherited with our lot.  If you look close enough at the photo in that post, you'll see a few yellow leaves on the tips of the tree.  I didn't notice the yellow at the time, but when I was out in the yard this week, I saw something that surprised me:  the yellow leaves covering this thing.  And...seeing a bunch of leaves drop to the ground.  Here's what the patch of grass underneath this River Birch looks like (photo below).  In the top right corner of the photo, you can see the three-trunks of the tree. Seeing all those leaves on the ground is, ummm, concerning.  I mean...it is early August.  Not early October.  And, it has happened really fast.  Like, from green a week ago to yellow and dropping now. I went poking around and found some (potential) answers. Miller Nursery says it is one of two things :  Stress.  Or something called chlorosis - which sounds like it is l

The sky was full of pinks and purples as we stood on the pier and took in the magic of the twilight sky.  This is what I'll call a midway point in the series - is it a series?  - that started with sunrise at Sunset Park (terribly named) back in June of 2020 .  Like a lot of lakes, Elizabeth Lake is dealing with Eurasian Watermilfoil - an invasive plant that takes over.  We had it up in Coloma on Paw Paw Lake , too.   It is a common 'hitchhiker' that is brought from lake to lake hung up on props and trailers.  The weeds on Elizabeth Lake have been something this year - maybe that's due to the water temperatures? Or, maybe that's just how things are these days. 

Documenting here, in the [garden diary] our front yard cast iron urn that I've planted the past few years.  I bought it off of Craigslist from a lady in LaGrange in the Spring of 2018 and we've kept it adjacent to our driveway ever since.  I'm not sure it is the best location, but for a variety of reasons, it has stayed put.  One change this year:  it is now sitting on top of a larger, square paver to give it a proper base. Here's what we had in the urn last year - which was a bit more colorful. This year, there are three plants in the container - with two of them being replicated from our backyard container that is based on a color pattern we saw in Paris at Luxembourg Gardens . This has a larger Blue Salvia (Salvia farinacea), in front a red Wave petunia, and tucked into the upper left is a small Foxtail Fern.  We've had Foxtail Ferns in containers the past few years and have had mixed results - depending on how tightly we've packed them into the

I've thought about an in-ground irrigation system for the past few seasons and went so far as to get a quote from the guy that Chris at Green Grass recommended ( Phil's Irrigation ).  We have been talking about a zoned system that covers our grass, our perennial beds and even some of the containers on the front porch and back patio.   But, in the mean time, I've been both hand-watering, soaker hoses and using various sprinklers to try to keep things alive.  In the front , that's been - exclusively - via an impact sprinkler on a spike.  And, it has worked pretty well.  But, we're on the third season of the impact sprinkler and between using it a lot and the wear/tear that comes with it being on the end of a retractable hose , it started to have a bunch of leaks and the pressure wasn't strong enough to have it complete a full evolution.   In the back, I've used that same impact sprinkler and a multi-pattern stationary sprinkler.  That one was, to

A week or so ago, I mentioned that I threw down some pavers to form a makeshift walkway behind the tiny yews that we have at the back part of our yard.  You can see in the photo here that all of the yews have settled into a pretty dark green color after experiencing some bright-green Spring growth this year .  As of now, all of the Hicks Yews have seemingly established themselves despite having some trouble this Winter with some frost/cold damage .  There are 12 total Hicks Yews back there that I bought last Summer and planted shortly there after .  My inspiration for this hedge is this swooping one from Bunny Williams .  We're now one year in and I'm hoping that by year three, we'll see these things begin to grow closer together and close some of the current gaps.  I was thinking that I'd leave these to grow to about three feet tall before I get out the hedge clippers to start shaping them. This is part of what I've called " Priority Area #3 "