Why I Oughta...

Another sign of Spring:  one of (at least one of) the Brookside Geraniums has emerged from the mulch in the square bed next to our backdoor stoop.  These are growing in the shadow of the Spring Grove Ginkgos.  Planted in 2023 from the Morton Arboretum Plant Sale , this will be their third full growing season.  They're the only Geraniums that we have growing, but that might be something I'll add this year via the same Morton Arboretum sale. Below is the green foliage emerging in late March 2025:  

Progress on the pizza oven MVP continues.  At least in terms of the hard surface part of the project.  Back ten days ago, I showed the first timber (6x6x8 treated ground-contact) being placed on site and talked about how much more excavation was required.  A few days ago, I posted a photo showing the three other timbers that I brought home from the lumber store that were ready to get placed for dry-fitting .  Now that I have the first four timbers on-site, I can start to see how much more excavation is required.  With the wall being about ten-inches-tall, that means that I would like to have about ten-inches of gravel behind the wall.  Thus, excavation is for the space required for the timbers to be square plus ten-inches in each direction.  Below is a look at the current state of the area:  All four timbers are on-site and I've been pulling away at the earth that needs to be retained: My plan is to use a flat shovel to create a clean edge in the...

Last I checked-in on the pizza oven ground project, I was dry-fitting the first 6x6 treated (ground-contact) timber that I'll use to retain the earth and (I think) hold in gravel in the middle of the surface.  I spent a little bit of time this past weekend doing more excavation and found time to run to the hardware store to bring home three more 6x6 timbers.   Below, you can see the three timbers (and a pile of bags of gravel) that I'll haul to the backyard in the coming days.  Once back there, I'll use them to make sure I've excavated *enough* earth.  My plan is to dry-fit all of these in the ground, then measure what over-dig still needs to be done that will allow for a foot-or-so of gravel to sit *behind* (earth-side) of the wall.   I'll next update the project once I put all the timbers in and fit.  After that, I'll finalize the excavation, lay down the nonwoven fabric, establish the grade for the first course of timbers with gravel and/or pa...

I have planted zero Crocus bulbs.  Yet, I have a couple of Crocus flowers that have shot up this Spring.  See below for one of them.  I've begun to think about a 'bulb lawn' - vs....where I used to be:  a perfect lawn.  This naturalized Crocus might have pushed me over the edge in that direction.

Planted in the Fall of 2023 , a pair of Silver Mount Artemisia are emerging for Spring 2025 in the IB2DWs bed right next to the driveway.  This pair of silver-foliage perennials can be seen in this Summer 2024 post about some Zinnias .  They're called 'mound', but I think a better name would be 'cloud'.   Silver foliage is a recent garden trend, with more plants being hybridtized to be white/silver.  These Artemisias stand out in the IB2DWs bed.  According to most sources on the Web, Fall is the best time to divided Artemisia - so if these have a good growing season - these will go on my '2025 Fall Dividing Candidates' list. See below for the greenish-silver tips emerging for Spring:

My experience with clumping Allium started with Roy Diblik's Summer Beauty Allium.  Or...ornamental onion.  I have them planted in a number of spots - in the back and in the front.  But, in 2021, I added a new variety - Serendipity Allium .  They're *very* similar to Summer Beauty, but have a few improvements.   I started with three, but only two came back IB2DWs, and by the Fall of 2023, those two were big enough to begin dividing .   I took the two existing clumps and made five total.  All five came back in the Spring of 2024 .  Three in the original spot - in the initial IB2DWs bed and two more in the IB2DWs extended.  Last Fall, I divided one of the originals again.  And, transplanted the new clump further down the bed.  Leaving me with six Serendipity Alliums before dormancy .   Like other hybrid perennials, these Serendipity Alliums are an improvement over the original.  They bloom a little later and ...

 Below is a photo of the small colony of yellow daffodils that we inherited in our backyard.  They've sort-of naturalized a bit and have moved over time - but they're always in the bed behind the Northern Red Oak tree on the south side of the lawn.   The clumps of those strap-like tips are a sure sign of Spring: Last year, these were further along by early March .  And were blooming the first week of April .  We're a week away from April and these are no-where-close to blooming.  The flower buds haven't even come up.   I don't know what caused the slower-to-emerge cycle, but I'm noting it for everything else.   We had a VERY MILD Winter from December 2023 to March 2024.  So much so, that the ground was un-frozen enough for me to begin excavation of the pizza oven in February .  February!   I'll see if this two-week delay holds true to other perennials this Spring.