Why I Oughta...

Here, below is a look at an unfinished part of a 2024 'garden edit'.  There are just three Hakonechloa Macra (straight green) grasses planted.  I think there's room for four or five more.   The other side of this bed (the pizza oven bed) is on my early, early priority list for adding the same grasses.  I'm thinking we need to do both ends:

Earlier in January, I posted an exploration of the expansion of my front yard "island bed " and talked about how I'd like to clean up the edges and expand the bed in a direction that will allow for even-more future bed expansion.  In that post, I suggested attacking from the sidewalk back to the house.  And, by expanding by going across the front of the yard along the sidewalk - connecting to the edge of the property line.   But, after staring at the bed every time I came/went on a walk, I have come to the realization: "The Defense is wrong." Well...at least *partially* wrong.   Since I put the Island Bed in back in 2024, I said I wanted to create three things: 1. A path. 2. A bern. 3. ...and some miegakure. My previous approach focused on the 'path'.  And, expanded a little bit of beds.   Here's how the beds looked last Spring when they were freshly mulched  below.  The lines, while clean, aren't what I want in terms of 'sweeping...

A couple of my backyard 'garden edits' involved what I termed the "Hosta Replacement Project" - where I yanked out some hostas and replaced them with something else that persisted in the winter (grasses, astilbes, etc).   I moved a bunch of them out, but there are many more left in place.  Perhaps, another section of the great 'hosta replacement project' could be one of my potential "2026 priority projects"?  I'm not convinced.  But, like Paul Graham has said :  writing helps you understand what you actually think.  As he put it , "Writing about something, even something you know well, usually shows you that you didn't know it as well as you thought." Below is a photo showing the northside bed that is about half-way back (behind the picnic table).  The thing you see standing tall and proud are those white stalks.  Those are hosta flower stalks that are hanging around after the foliage disappeared when the perennial went dormant.   ...

One of the 'wins' from last garden season were the three Garden Ghost Artemisia that I planted in the front yard Island Bed along the driveway .  They quickly filled-in/filled-out, provided a nice pop of white to brighten up the bed and were *very useful* in cut flower arrangements.  I bought them from Roy Diblik's nursery up in Wisconsin (Northwind Perennial Farm) and planted them along with a couple of grasses, some annuals and the Korean Maple tree.   Here's a look at one of the MANY arrangements that I used the Garden Ghost plumes in as filler flowers . The provide a tiny bit of Winter interest, but they also have stems that help protect the crown of the plants by trapping leaf litter around the base of the woody plants.  Below is a look at the current state of these Garden Ghost Artemisias planted right next to the driveway: I've talked about it a few times, but between the early snow-fall and the deliberate adoption (at least a little bit more than normal...

Over the years, I've posted about various cheeses that I've been using for pizza-making here on the blog.    The first one (I think) is back in 2011 when I posted about how I had been using Chellino Scamorza Cheese (a low-moisture, non-smoked scamorza from Joliet) in my pizza making at home.  In 2022, I posted about a full-fat low-moisture mozzarella + Fontina combo that I was using at the time .  Today, I'm adding another chapter to my pizza cheese archives:  Buholzer Brothers Brick Cheese.  I've been using Brick cheese for a long time, but never documented the details.   Below is the brand of Brick Cheese as seen in the deli case at the local Jewels (Right next to a Muenster, of course).  This was $7.49 per pound (not on sale) this week: Buholzer Brothers Brick Cheese is from Monroe, Wisconsin.  Here's their product page .  Their listing describes their Brick Cheese as: Brick is a Wisconsin original, first made by John Jossi arou...

Last Spring, I posted some photos of the perennial garden plantings along the (then-recently) renovated Riverside Plaza that runs along the Chicago River's South Branch .  I pointed out the inclusion of some of my favorite plants (Autumn Moor Grass) and how the designer used them in mass plantings.   This past week, on a walk to the train I noticed something else in these raised beds:  winter interest.  Here, below is a photo showing the seedheads or plumes (of what I think is some sort of Astilbe or Goat's Beard) that is planted in mass.  There's something planted in the front (Looks like some Lady's Mantle foliage on the right) and something that is still green in the back (Looks like a fern like Autumn Fern) making this a layered bed.  But...there's certainly four-season interest, isn't there? Later on, I took another photo of another bed that was in the dark that shows the same seedheads.  These, however, were planted in a narrow bed, so they...

This Summer will mark seven (7) years since I planted and installed twelve (12) small Hicks Yews in the far back reach of our yard in a straight row spanning the width of our grass/yard.  Here's the post showing them in the ground for the first time when the needles were barely above the mulch .  That was mid-Summer 2019.   Seven years and this will be the eight growing season. Back then, I had a swoop-ing, undulating, but formally pruned hedge in mind .  That closely-clipped hedge was a product of YEARS of growth.   I watered them in the first year, but have mostly left them alone.  *Knock on Wood*.  I haven't lost one.  Yet.  Here they are in August of 2020 - one year after planting . Here the hedge is in November 2021 - four years ago . Here are some photos from December of 2022 showing the growth . And.. the Hicks Yews snuck into this post from Summer 2023 where I was talking about some ferns . Here's a post showing the gr...