Why I Oughta...

This is the first year that I'm growing dahlias that are taller than say...30".  That means that they all need to be staked or supported in some way.  I *thought* I had done a pretty good job of staking everything and supporting the various stems and stalks with padded garden wire, but...for the Mystery Fox dahlia in our backyard...I was...well...wrong.   On a recent morning, I came out back to discover that the dahlia had split open and part of it was laying on the ground.  Eeek!  I picked it up, realized it wasn't going to be 're-connected' and cut it off cleanly.   I brought it in, shortened the stem and stuck it in a jar of water.  The head is filled with five-or-six un-opened blooms and one good-sized one.   Lesson learned.  And, not a total plant-killer.  At least we get to enjoy this branch/stem/stalk with blooms inside for a little while.  

Last growing season, I fell behind on weeding the garden.  Between the pizza oven build, my own health and the lack of mulch on top of our soil, we had some weed problems.  Sure, I tried to use my push/pull hoe to chop them off.  But, I fell behind. That's why I put #8 on my 2025 to-do list : 8. Be a weeder. Just use the push-pull hoe. It is a good way to get out in the evenings to observe what is working in the garden. In the list item, I say that I should just use the hoe.  But, I (now) know that isn't enough.  Especially...when things are getting ahead of me in terms of weeds with flowers.  And...going to seed. This year, we have a clover infestation.  Clover in the beds.  Clover in the lawn.  Clover with little yellow flowers.  The past few weeks, I've been pulling as much clover and other weeds as I can.  See below...here's one evening's work: The weeds that are producing flowers are the key ones that I've been pulling and toss...

In the Summer of 2023, I planted a pair of Snow Queen Oakleaf Hydrangeas in between some of the Green Giant Thujas along the fenceline in the backyard.  Since then...both of them were ravaged by the (dang!) rabbits.  One of them - the one closer to the house - never came back.  But the other one - a little further back - survived the past two Winters.  Despite the rabbit pressure.  Has it flowered since I planted it?  No.  There's been no "Old Wood" left after the rabbits get to it.  But, that isn't stopping it from putting on some new - and much needed - growth this Summer. See below for current state of this shade-tolerant flowering shrub:  From the looks of them in this July 2023 photo , I'd say that this one isn't quite back to the size it was when I first planted it, but getting close.   Also...note the chicken wire attached to the fence behind this shrub.  More on that soon. 

Thanks to Google Photos, I was served this image of our sideyard from 2017.  This was the day were were installing our fence and shows the state of the sideyard before we moved in.  Grass all the way around the house, no trees or plants.  And, no walkway/boardwalk/path.  See below: Compare that with the photo from this post from this past month showing the same view towards the backyard (photo posted below): Quite the change.  Eight years apart.

In the backyard on both sides, there are beds that are full of ordinary, run-of-the-mill hostas.  They are just green ones.  There are also, some more interesting ones.  Waterslide, Island Breeze, Forbidden Fruit and Guacamole - amongst others.  Below is a peek at a section where these "ordinary" hostas are eating up space.  They served a purpose - and filled in the bed.   But, there are others, like these two Forbidden Fruit ones with bright centers that are 'hidden'.   Something I'm putting on m Fall to-do list is to take-on a section of these hostas and replace them/move some of the more interesting ones up front.  

In the Summer of 2023, I planted a couple of Japanese Maple trees including a high-grafted Inaba Shadire , a Seiryu upright , a small First Ghost , a Firefly Japanese Maple , a small, mis-labeled cutleaf red Japanese Maple , an Emperor 1 JM in the Kitchen Curved bed,  and a Waterfall (or Virdis) low-grafted weeping Japanese Maple .   Of those seven Japanese Maples planted in 2023, just two of them are still with us in the garden.  The Emperor 1 in the "kitchen curved" bed is doing well (despite the Cicada damage last year) and the Waterfall weeping Japanese Maple.  The other five are gone.   When the Waterfall tree went in , it had a couple of primary branches that extended in each direction from the trunk.  It seemed to get established in 2023 and came back in 2024.   Then, it suffered a setback.  In the Summer of 2024, we had a significant storm that dropped some limbs from one of our Black Walnut trees.  That fallen branch (...

Earlier this Summer, I planted a pair of Pink Beauty Doublefile Viburnum flowering shrubs.  One on the northside in the back by the Dawn Redwood and the other one on the southside near the little container water feature.  At that time, I i ncluded a little blurb from a product listing that described the shrub like this : A spectacular shrub when in bloom, covered in beautiful rich pink flowers along the branches in spring, an outstanding selection; attractive horizontal branching on a compact plant with bright red berries in summer and good fall color. That part about 'bright red berries' is what I'm interested in right now.  Below, is a photo showing one of these shrubs right now, in mid-Summer.  What do we see?  Bright red berries: These berries are down near the bottom of the shrub, so as it matures, I'm guessing we'll see the berries migrate further up the branches.