Why I Oughta...

Our neighbor has a massive Maple tree that is right near our property line.  In the summer it provides a really wonderful shade, but in the Spring?  I hate it.  It drops so so so so many of these helicopter seed pods that clog up our gutters, litter our landscape beds and just make a mess of everything. Just last week, I was so pleased with our our mulch/beds looked and today they look terrible. I get our gutters cleaned every Spring and I've learned to wait until after these things fall to get it done.  Perhaps I need to remember to wait until late May for the mulch next year.

I've never grown German Queen tomatoes, but like a Sharpei dog, they're so darn cute so I figured I should give them a try.  I know I said that I wouldn't be doing too many tomato plants this year, and I'm not....Just going to limit it to just five or 6 varieties.  Hopefully, I'll get this one in the beds before the calendar turns to June.  

For but one week each Spring, the Crab Apple tree in our backyard turns into a spectacular pink beauty.   It gets covered with these flowers and really shows off.  Unfortunately, the show isn't very long and the petals fall into the landscape beds and the tree leafs out. When we moved in, I wanted to take the tree down, but Nat pushed back.  She really likes the size/shape of the tree while I hate the location.  It is still standing.  And isn't going anywhere.

Over the weekend, I couldn't resist picking up a few tomato plants.  I typically wait until the pickings are thin and the heirloom varieties are few and far between.  I usually plant at least one cherry/grape plant, but it isn't typically an heirloom.  This year, that changes with this Black Cherry beauty. The beds aren't quite cleaned up yet, but by June 1st, we'll hopefully be able to plant these in the ground.  Until then, I'll do my best to keep it happy in the peat pot.

On Saturday we made our normal run to Kirsbaum's for doughnuts in the early am hours when we came across the Western Springs Garden Club Plant Sale which was taking place under the big tower on the Village Green. This species will find a home in our plan in our backyard as it can tolerate some heat.  There are two spots that it would work:  on the southside by our butterfly bushes and in the front yard by our anemone.  I'm thinking it would work well in the front.      If you ask some gardeners, they'll tell you that this is an allergy attack waiting to happen.  Good news:  they're wrong.  Consider me the Snopes.com of Goldenrod.   From the source : Don’t worry about it causing long-lasting sneezes, either. Goldenrod is often blamed for aggravating hay fever, but the real culprit is ragweed, which blooms at the same time.

We had 7.5 yards of mulch put down in our beds yesterday and I'll tell you that there's nothing better looking than a freshly mulched yard.  It makes the our plants look healthier, our shrubs look bigger, and even makes the spots on our grass look a lot less barren. This year, we got the mulch in a lot earlier than in 2012.   It wasn't until mid-July until we had mulch last year .   As I noted last year, I was about 2 months behind the neighborhood schedule, so I think we're right on track this time around.  At least now Nat will be able to pull out of our garage without our neighbors frowning at her.  (I'm kidding!  Our neighbors don't frown at us because of the mulch....it is more about when they see me gardening/mowing the grass in my socks/sandals garb.)

Last summer, per the recommendation on our landscape plan, I moved a small perennial plant called "Baskets of Gold" from the front yard - on the south side, to the back yard on the north side.  I moved it some time after it had bloomed in the spring and it didn't like the move too much.  I wasn't sure if it would make it though the year.  To my surprise, it came back this spring and bloomed already.   This little plant is a spreader and sounds pretty versatile : Basket-of-gold is one of those plants that loves to grow in the least likely of place -- cracks between paving stones, the edge of gravel paths and patios, rocky outcroppings, between the stacked stones of a retaining wall, and more. It loves a baked spot with excellent drainage but will struggle in hot, humid areas and tends not to do well in the South.   But where it does well, it's a showstopper. It will reseed prolifically in little cracks, filling an area each spring with dazzling neon yellows.