Why I Oughta...

Full sun. Drought tolerant. And sandy soil.  Soft to the touch. As planted in a variety of spots on Disney Lookout Cay at Lighthouse Point in the Bahamas. 

I've posted a few times about the notion of 'repetition' in the garden and how it is a technique that helps create an eye-pleasing and easy-to-navigate visually garden.  I've taken up the idea of repetition a little bit in more recent years by focusing on a could of core, foundational plants that I can carry throughout the backyard.   I was happy with the idea of getting to know the concept of reptition in our garden.  Until....I came accross this piece on Meristem Horticulture by Jared Barnes, Ph.D where he introduced me to the idea of "Legibility in the Garden".  Here's a link to the piece and below is a screenshot of the lede. First things, first.  Dr. Barnes knows his stuff.   And, he takes pretty wonderful photos and is an engaging garden writer. He says: "I love cultivating plants and cultivating gardeners. Over the years, I’ve helped thousands of people of all ages learn to garden better. " He's been doing that with me for a while ...

I've been on a renewed journey with The Band since Garth Hudson passed away earlier this month.  YouTube is pretty good about surfacing things that I haven't come across before.  But, here's something from Wikipedia that I learned about The Band:  they played the Taste of Chicago .  Twice.  TWICE. Now...check out the years: Back-to-back 1993 and 1994.  A couple nights after John Hiatt and a few days before Kool & the Gang, Emmylou Harris and Dwight Yokam in 1993.  And the night after Barry White in 1994. Now...Richard Manuel died in 1986.  And Robbie never came back to The Band after The Last Waltz.   They were touring in support of the album Jericho - which features the Bruce Springsteen song "Atlantic City".  Which...if we're honest...feels like it is OWNED by The Band.  They completely own this version they played on Letterman . I haven't found any footage from the show, but I presume the people in attendance those two ...

Was packing up the Christmas train and found this Schlitz Beer Lionel Trains billboard in one of the tubs. "Taste the Gusto life."  With a 1974 copyright date.  From....get this:  "Milwaukee and the world."  (Love that.)  

Yesterday, I published a post detailing the idea of "Legibility in the Garden" and talked how Dr. Jared Barnes introduced me to the concept via his Meristem blog.  Barnes has developed a set of elements that he feels are the core components of "Legibility" and how we as gardeners can achieve it :   1. Clean edges 2. Desire lines and paths 3. Primary and secondary axes 4. Sightlines 5. Focal points 6. Entrances 7. Seeing over plantings Edging is something that I've posted about a number of times .  And, it seems to check a few of Dr. Barnes' components:  clean lines, paths and entrances.   Edging is something that I posted about last Fall when I included some inspiration from a YouTube channel (Moxie Gardens) and talked about how he used railroad ties and other wood beams cut up into chunks to edge various parts of his garden and beds.   A couple weeks ago, Amy at Pretty Purple Door sent a newsletter that talked about creating a dog-frie...

Jim Putnam over at HortTube has a video up all about Green Giant Thujas .   I've embedded it below.  I've long watched Jim's videos and always learn something, despite him gardening in Raleigh, North Carolina where the conditions are much different than my backyard Zone 5b/6a garden.   His video taught me a few things about these Thujas - that I've posted about before - that I didn't know before.  Jim says that these Green Giant Thujas don't "off-color" as much as other conifers during the Winter and that's been my experience as well.   He also talks about their fast-growing nature and how they get B I G.  I'm growing them in a little bit of part shade and lightly irrigated, so they haven't been 'rockets'.  He said that they 'pick up speed over time' - once they are well-established.  Here's hoping that mine are in that 'well-established' place and we'll see them shoot up tall. He also talks about how they...

A few years back, I learned my lesson when it comes to pruning young trees:  don't.  Don't prune them.  Let them go a few years before you touch them at all.  No limb'ing up.  No removing limbs/branches.  If you have to do anything, just clip off the tips of some of the lower branches, but leave them in place - attached to the tree.   In trying to 'hurry the tree up', I thought I could prune off all the lower branches and focus the energy near the top of the tree - to drive the leader UPWARDS.  Turns out, the tree needs limbs and branches and leaves to collect the necessary energy to grow.   That 'leave the tree' advice is what I've followed with the Bald Cypress tree that is planted IB2DWs.    It went in the ground in 2018 .    The Bald Cypress is probably my most 'successful tree'.  I planted it as a tiny, pencil-thin pot-grown tree.  Today, it is probably fifteen feet tall and growing.   Be...