Why I Oughta...

If you follow along on the Web for any hobby you might be interested in, you are certain to come across posts/articles in the early part of the calendar year that are all about 'trends to watch in 2020'.  One of the pieces that I read recently is this one called ' What will be the hot gardening trends of 2020? '.  There are some things in there that I think I see popping up over-and-over like "Plant Parenting" and the adoption of succulents (due to climate change/low water usage, etc), but there was one item that really got my attention:  Garden Nooks.  Those little 'secluded spot' that you can create in your garden.  From PennLive : Jody Davey, an indoor horticulture and programs specialist at Hershey Gardens , says she’s seeing more people interested in creating secluded spots for relaxing and enjoying their yard’s gardens. “Part of the reward of nurturing a garden is spending leisure time in the beautiful outdoor space you’ve created,” she said.

This is the fourth in the series of different snapshots of our emerging landscape plan for our #newoldbackyard.  The other three are here and are worth visiting to get a sense for the overall plan.   Here's a look at part of the southern fence line .  Includes a set of hydrangeas, some hostas and ferns, allium and some Canadian Hemlocks.  I got a little bit of a headstart on this section last Fall when I planted some hydrangeas that we were given by Nat's Mom.   Here's a look at part of the rear foundation planting areas.  This one is right outside our breakfast nook/kitchen .  It includes some grasses, boxwoods, a rhododendron and some hostas.  This is right where our bird feeders are located, so the grasses are perfect.  Also, I harvested some hostas/ferns from our neighbor's house down the street late last season and got those started in their spots.  Hoping they'll come back this Spring.  Unfortunately, I also planted our Disneyland Rose there, so

In the past couple of posts, I've talked about the need for backyard planning in our #newoldbackyard including the placement of a potential pizza oven and pavilion and my desire (despite Nat's properly-grounded resistance) to incorporate a waterfall/water feature into the 'entrance' of the backyard along with some stone stairs .   Because we've been so deliberate about all the choices that went into our New Old Farmhouse, I thought it was only appropriate that we enlisted some professionals when thinking about phase 2 of our landscape design and specifically to help us figure out the best way to provide some privacy screening and transition from the front yard to the backyard - as this will be the main traffic route for us and guests.  If you look back at this post that shows the pizza oven placement options , you can see the existing patio that we are working with and if you peek back at this post that shows a photo of this so-called 'entrance' to the

My 2023 yard and garden to-do list had 25 items on it and with most 1 of the growing season behind us, I thought it would be helpful (for me!) to do a mid-season check-in.  How am I doing against my priorities?  What do I need to do before the season ends?  Let's run through the list and see how we're doing: 1.  Evergreens.  I wanted to plant more evergreens.  I've planted 19 evergreens so far this season:  five Boxwoods in front, a Columnar Scotch Pine tree in back and now 13 more Boxwoods in back.  I also transplanted a large Boxwood from the front-to-back.  So..20 evergreens including one transplant.  I'd say... Done .  2.  IB2DW Extension.   I wanted to extend the bed and add 'clustered evergreens' along with other things like grasses and annuals.  I haven't added anything, but I did amend the soil with biosolids and carved out some turf to extend the bed a little bit.  I'd say this is: Incomplete.   3.  Front porch bed.   I amended the bed with

Over the years, I've been quietly (and not so quietly ) pining for the day when I can build a wood-fired oven in our backyard.  Between the lifestyle we have (with young kids) and this being a pretty hands-on, weekend-time-sucking project, it seemed like it wasn't ever quite time.  But now?  I'm still not sure it is the right time for tackling something like this - what with the digging of the foundation/footings, building the frame, then cutting and creating the dome from firebricks. But, I also want to - and need to - get going on the full planning for the #newoldbackyard including some fall tree/shrub plantings and hardscape upgrades, future water feature placement , the eventual placement of a vegetable garden and greenhouse, irrigation system, a sports court and more. At our old house in Elmhurst, we built out a backyard pavilion that we used to shelter us from the sun that housed our patio and I'm keen to replicate some parts of that with a new pavilion

Source image from here .  Not my photo. A few weeks back, we were at one of our neighbor's house for a get-together and we spent the entire afternoon out in their backyard where they have quite a large perennial garden.  I wanted to get a little closer look, so I wandered out there and discovered not only a native-looking perennial garden, but also a series of walking paths *in* the garden.  The image above is NOT their garden, but rather just some example image that I found online ( source here ). The garden I was walking in (with the paths) was in full sun, so it was quite different than the one you see above, but I picked that image because it is a shade garden and more of what we have to deal with on Hornbeam Hill.  Hostas and ferns and hostas and ferns. The path idea really struck me and made me think about our own landscape plan.  I've showed a bunch of cuts/selects of our landscape plan here on the blog , but none of them had a 'walking path'.  It wasn

That photo (above) shows the five Ghost Ferns (Athyrium 'Ghost') that I planted (as a set of four) in the Spring of 2021. They were from the Morton Arboretum Spring sale and they've thrived since they were added to our backyard shade garden.  Why are there five Ghost Ferns when I planted four?  No...they're not spreading ferns like the Ostrich Fern that sends out underground runners.   The reason that there are (now) five of these ferns is because last Fall, I divided one of them into two .   At that time, I only divided one because I was a little afraid.  I didn't want to kill all of them off. I did the same dividing with some Shaggy Shield ferns and my fears were well-placed as not all of the divisions made it this year.   But, the Ghost Fern division not only survived, but it appears to have had a good year and is a vigorous, healthy fern.   Why do I bring this up?  First...to remind myself and to help prioritize my Fall dividing program.  But, also because of

I've pointed it out before, but one of the spots that I'd like to tackle first in our #newoldbackyard is t he 'entrance' or traffic path that we use to get from the front to the backyard.   I posted about a walkway, bridge and pond setup that I thought might work here on the blog back in July .  Recently, I had our landscape contractor come out to talk about some options and how we'd tackle them - and in what order. There's screening material needed (trees), hardscaping and maybe even some retaining walls involved.  And that is just to get us to the point of having a setup where we could think about something like a water feature/waterfall (which...I really want.) One of the ideas that came up in my conversations with landscape designer was the idea of decomposed granite walkways.  That's a photo of one up top.   It came from here .  I like the look of paths made out of the stuff and you see it in lots of places both formal and informal.  There are d

There's this spot on the rear/side of our house - right next to the screened-in porch and behind the garage that is sandwiched up against the fence and is on a grade appears to be the likely 'entry point' for our backyard.  Right now, it is grass (some of it yellowed!) and a few stepper stones that you can see above.  The concrete pad that you see on the left is the bottom of a few steps that come out of my office and is right behind one that comes out from the side door of our garage.  Behind where I'm standing when I took this photo is one of the fence gates. The grade poses a problem and that's revealed by the current installation.  You have to kind of walk sideways on the pavers as they make the turn on their angles.  It is *fine* for now.  But, not ideal. The first thing that pops into my mind is to contemplate how we engineer or build out a little footbridge that incorporates a water feature/pond.  I can imagine excavating a good portion of the area whe

I have had this load of cedar boards and planks of various lengths and widths in my garage for almost two months just waiting for either me hauling them to the curb (my inclination) or for inspiration to strike for a new project.   They're leftovers from our fence installation and include some 2x4's a few 4x4's and some fence pickets/planks.   With all the thinking going into our #newoldbackyard this fall (see this post about pizza oven planning , this post for 'entrance' planning , and this post about the planning for a water feature for some of the latest on #newoldbackyard landscape design), I've been out there looking at how the sun interacts with the yard to see if I could find the best spot for a permanent vegetable garden and maybe even a greenhouse/conservatory/solarium.  In addition to the pure location planning, we've been thinking of putting in a full irrigation system, so knowing where and what the garden looks like/lays out like is import

This is the way.  My 2023 yard and garden to-do list is the way that I set-up some guardrails on my activies in the garden this year.  This is something that I've done over the years - starting in 2019 .  Here is 2022's version - which included 25 items .  That (25 items) is where I've seemed to settle the past few years.   Earlier this year, I started to collect my thoughts and published a 'potential projects' post in late January that unpacked some priorities that I could work through this year.   Without further preamble, let's turn to the 2023 to-do list. 1. Evergreens. Like last year, where I listed 'shrubs' as my #1 item, this ye ar, I want to think about having a focus on evergreens. That means...trees and shrubs. For now, that means adding boxwoods under the Lindens , thinking about more upright evergreens in other places in the back and using them to create some Winter structure in the beds.  And, adding dwarf varieties (staggered) to the

Just a couple of weeks ago, I posted a scorecard from my 2021 Yard and Garden To-Do List and ( after grading on a curve), gave myself a solid B on the report card .  Did I get everything done on the list?  Nope.  Just 17.5 of the 25 completed.  2 of the 25 semi-completed.  And 5.5 (more than 20%) incomplete. What were the 5.5 that didn't get done ? 1. Stain patio container (the half one) 2. Do more bonsai (combined) 3. Figure out small tool storage and build something (combined) 4. Keep going to mulch pit for wood chips and bio solids. So, let's call those the first four of potential 2022 to-do items. What could the other 21 look like?  A good place to start are the various posts that I've already tagged in my potential 2022 list  and my running list of 2022 plant 'wish list' items .  Those are full of quite a bit of random thoughts, ideas and concepts that I didn't want to lose based on this season's experience and garden diary.  There's way more than

Late last week, I posted about the idea of building a 'garden nook' or a secluded area that draws you in as something that is 'on trend' this year and maybe something to consider for our backyard.  In that same post, I made a reference near the bottom of Japanese Moon Gates .   I included the moon gate as a way to potentially create a 'nook' but after looking around the Web, I now realize they're so much more. From this Old House Online story , you can find out the details of the structure: A moon gate is a circular opening, usually in a garden wall, which acts as a passageway. In China, where the gates were built in the gardens of wealthy nobles, various parts of the form and its ornamentation carry meaning. More generally, though, a moon gate is thought to offer an auspicious welcome or fortune to those who pass through. English gardeners borrowed the idea from China in the late 19th century. American gardeners immediately followed suit. A moon gat

Prioritizing is important for a gardener like me.  Without a task list, I end up spinning around and not getting things done that I wanted to/planned to/thought about.  Instead, I flutter about with the latest thing that I come across and when I look back at the season, I end up disappointed.  That's where this whole 'to-do list' thing came from:  prioritizing the many needs.  Like most growing seasons, I was optimistic. And went out of the gate hard with a big goal and started with 25 items on my 2023 to-do list - published in early April 2023 . Historical look at my previous lists: Here's my 2019 'Season Scorecard '. 12/17. 70% complete. Here's my 2020 'Season Scorecard' . 22 of 25 complete . 88%. Here's my 2021 'Season Scorecard '. 17.5 completes. 2 semi-completes. 5.5 not-completes. 70%. Here's my 2022 'Season Scorecard. ' 17 completes. 3 'mixed'. 5 not-completes. 68%. I did a September check-in on the lis