Why I Oughta...

Day three of tree buds in Spring today.  First was the Dawn Redwood tree that I have high hopes for this year.  Then, yesterday, I posted a photo of the Weeping Cherry tree that is in the far part of our yard.  Today comes the Frans Fontaine European Columnar Hornbeam trees.  Welp, this photo is of just one of the trees, but if you've been following along, you likely know that there are a bunch of these trees.  And these are clearly the most handsome buds of the bunch.  Look at those beauties all wrapped up and ready to explode.  Compared to the Cherry ones - who look angry and jagged - these are perfectly positioned at the end of the branch tips and almost egg-shaped.   These trees are not quite a year old (in our yard), so I'm still holding my breath to ensure that all of them survived.  For now, I'm taking these buds as a strong sign of health heading into Spring of 2019. 

Another day, another look at a tree's buds that have set in our #newoldbackyard.  Yesterday, I posted a photo of the buds from our Dawn Redwood tree and today is a look at the Weeping Cherry in the far reaches of our yard.   I haven't posted much about this tree on the blog, but that's not because it isn't interesting.  This was one of the three trees we planted for Earth Day 2018 and is formally named the Snow Fountains Weeping Cherry .    We planted it in the rear of our property and it appeared to have some positive growth in the first year.  Looking at the buds that were set in the photo of this post, I'm thinking we'll have another bloom this year as the tree appears to have established itself.  This is the second flowering Cherry tree we have - the first is a Kwanzan Cherry Tree - that I bought after my first trip to Tokyo.  This is a grafted tree and it has a shoot from the trunk that has emerged that I haven't removed yet, that tells me tha

Last Summer, I had to replace the Dawn Redwood tree that had died in our yard.  This was the very first tree that we planted in 2017 before we moved in to our new house.   I noticed that first Fall that the tree was in trouble and posted a photo wondering if it was going to make the Winter.    It didn't. So, last year we replaced it.  And baby'd it all Summer.  It was reacting positively and we saw some new growth all the way through October - which was a good sign.  Then, I did a final check-in on the tree in November where we saw all of the needles still clinging to the branches.  Today, the limbs are covered with little buds that you can see in the photo above.  Good sign of life, right?  I also picked up a little trick that helps ascertain if a tree is healthy and alive:  you take your fingernail and scrape off a tiny bit of bark.  If you see 'green', you're in good shape.  For this Dawn Redwood after the scrape?  Green.  Could this be the Spring w

I posted a photo of some of our tulip bulbs that have emerged from the mulch beds at the end of last week. And today we have our first backyard flower at Hornbeam Hill.  This is a Snowdrop and despite this being our second Spring in our new house, I don't think I noticed this thing last year.  It is along the north side of our backyard about half way back to the rear lot line.  There's just one of these blooms and it is in the side of the yard that we haven't spent a minute working on, so I'm not totally sure how it got there but I'm glad to see it!  We have a bunch of daffodils in various spots around our backyard (quite a few of them in places where we've grown grass!), so perhaps the previous owner bought some early Spring bulb sets and this was included. 

The Big Ten Conference put up this B1G outside of the Daley Center during the Big Ten Hoops Tournament earlier this month.  Like seeing this way more than having it at the Garden.

Seems like this is the week for (finally) some action in our garden/yard that indicates Spring is actually arriving.  Yesterday, I posted a photo of what I think is a 'clump' 1 of Ostrich Ferns.  Today, let's talk about bulbs.   Last October, I planted 50 Tulip bulbs in one of our beds out in front of the porch, just underneath a giant Norway Maple .  At the time, I did my best to protect them from various critters, but as time went on, I noticed some digging in the area.  Between the skunks looking for grubs and perhaps squirrels with their eyes on the actual bulbs, somebody was pretty active shortly after I planted these bulbs.   And the soil?  I've talked about the soil we have close to our foundation.  It is terrible right now.  All clay.  If you read my Top 10 2019 Spring/Summer Gardening To-Do List , you'll remember that #1 on my list was to continue to improve the soil .  But, I've only have had one full garden season to work the soil and the

I was out back cleaning up some things and I came across this clump of plant life that was sticking out of the ground.  I was about to step on it when I noticed it amongst a bunch of leaves and what I think is leaf mold.  In looking at it, I'm pretty sure it is a clump of pre-furl'd fern fronds.  This clump is all the way in the back of the property close to where the kids climb a tree.  When climbing there, they also stomp around on plants and things, so I'm going to mark this with a stick or something to keep the kids away from it when the weather warms up. What makes me unsure if this is a fern is the location.  I planted a whole bunch of stuff that we took out of my sister-in-law's lot before she tore her house down .  One of those items was a big fern that I transplanted that seemed to take last year , but that was on the other side of the lot. I'll keep an eye on this to see if I'm correct and this is, indeed a fern clump.  This is an area of deep s