Why I Oughta...

Of the three hydrangea plants that we've put in on the south fence line of the backyard, this "teardown hydrangea" is doing the best.  Above you see it here in Early June of 2019.  Here's a post showing it in August of 2018 .  It threw off a bunch of nice-sized blooms last year, so I'm hoping that this year, it will do even better.  Comparing the two photos, it has seemed to grow larger/taller than last year.  I'll have to try to document later this Summer where this thing blooms - on new or old wood. 

Last year, I planted ten tiny bare root strawberry plants in containers and placed the two containers outside of our kitchen windows.  I didn't end up getting any fruit and when looking at the containers at the end of the year, it seemed that they were mostly dead and weren't going to come back this Spring.  I took them off to the compost bin earlier this Spring and moved on. But this past weekend, Nat asked me if I could move a strawberry plant that was growing in and around some ornamental grasses.  What strawberry plant, I asked?  And she pointed me to this one.  Turns out, we have a volunteer Strawberry plant that is coming up and flowering.  What a nice surprise, right?  I *do* need to move this, but I'm thinking I should wait for it to go through one season of throwing off whatever tiny berries it might throw off this season, then move it.  This post says to wait until August : If you already have an established bed, you should gen...

Last year, I discovered a few smallish, but growing trees that had been through some heavy pruning in our yard.  The previous owner had cut most of the little cluster of trees back to stumps at some point before we acquired the property.  Two or three of them are tall (15' or so) and I couldn't figure out what they were, so I sent a few photos in to the U of Illinois Master Gardener program .  They identified them as American Elm trees and provided some details about Dutch Elm Disease and pests that weaken these trees.  With my recent interest in bonsai including the purchase of a few pieces of nursery stock ( here , here  and here) , I've discovered that one of the *other* ways to get bonsai trees is through the collection of natural bonsai species.  Or...what I think they call "Pre-Bonsai" species.  Collecting bonsai (or...again pre-bonsai) is about going out in nature, finding and selecting potential trees that can be dug up and potted....

Last year, I added two common Purple Lilacs to the southside fence line to our backyard in a couple of spots that were called out for hydrangea plants in our plan.  I deviated from that plan because Nat always loved our neighbor's Lilacs in Elmhurst and wanted to try to replicate that in some way here in Downers.   The first two (commons) get about 12 feet tall and can take a prune .  My expectation is to get these to grow *up*, but pruned back to make a bit of a hedge.  They were small when we put them in and they're small today. Nat mentioned that she wanted to add even more lilacs to that spot and so after looking at the plan, I found two more hydrangeas that we can swap out for lilacs.  And after a little bit of research, I found this other variety called "Nocturne".    These are later blooming - to extend the Lilac season - and are similar shaped .  The leaves are a bit different, but the most important part is that extended bloomi...

Back at the end of May, I posted about how I was trying to sort out my yard hydrant situation .  With our yard being so deep, I needed a way to get a hose about half-way back that would allow me to water everything in the rear part of the yard.  Last year, I solved that (kind-of) by burying a rubber hose underground from the house to a location about 100' or so from the rear boundary.  There, I stuck what is called a "Yard Hydrant" in the ground and called it a day.  That yard hydrant had a place to hold a big mess of hose and had a spigot that would allow me to turn on/off the water from that location.  The problem was that it didn't make using or storing the hose any easier.  And with the Automower in the backyard, I ended up having a sliced hose because I never got all of the hose off the grass.  Hence... why I posted about this project in the first place .   This project made it to my 2019 To-do addendum list , so we can begin to cr...

A few weeks back, I posted about how I fertilized the set of Frans Fontaine European Hornbeam trees and posted a photo of a few of them that are right outside of our screened porch.  In a post from a few weeks back about our flowering Cherry, someone asked in the comments how these were doing .  Figured it warranted an update. Today, here's a few photos showing these trees in their late Spring/early summer foliage.    You can see that they've all leaf'd out in a major way and they look great for year two.  I wasn't worried too much about these coming back, but I do have to admit that I am relieved that they did.  However....some of these do, indeed, look better - or more full - than others. First, the top photo that shows four of the trees to the left from our patio.  These are all about the same in terms of thickness, lushness, etc.  They're all close to the same height and you can see that a couple of them have a really nice, thick set...

The last time I chronicled this small Dawn Redwood was back in April when the limbs were full of swollen buds about ready to burst open .  Today is the tree as it has leaf'd/needle'd out a bit and is coming into its own.  This is the second Dawn Redwood we've planted as the first one died in the first season.   This area is pretty close to one of the spots of standing water that I documented a bit back , so I'm thinking that this Redwood received good water this Spring.    I want this one to thrive this year (hopefully 'creep' up, too), so I'll keep it watered when the heat hits this Summer.  I measured this Dawn Redwood at 63" tall in September of last year .  I don't see a lot of new growth out of the top of the tree yet.  But....this is a good benchmark to check against later this Summer.