Why I Oughta...

I spotted a few of these trees outside of a corporate campus building in Memphis recently and they struck me as a pretty nice shade tree.  The leaves were falling - and are long, non-traditional-Oak-tree-shaped.  Check one out here: This is from the same site as that cloud-like hedge of Boxwoods that I posted about earlier this month. It thrives in Tenneessee, but what about Illinois?  Zone 5B?  Not sure.  The Missouri Botanical Garden team lists this tree suitable down to Zone 5, but also includes this note: Trees or seeds for the St. Louis area should come from northern sources because there is some question as to the winter hardiness of this tree throughout USDA Zone 5. This tree has a couple of features that I can see people being drawn to:  it is shaped like an Oak, but has the leaves (above) that are Willow-like.  Oh...and it grows fast - something you can't say about most Oaks.  From Missouri Botanical Garden : Quercus phellos , commonly called willow oak, is

This one isn't 'new' for 2019, but rather was released last year.  At least....that's according to the  Lemax site that shows this Reindeer Grooming Barn being part of the Santa's Wonderland collection and 'new in 2018'. It is, however, new to me and new to Menards as far as I can tell. This is the fourth Lemax Christmas Village structure that I've put on the blog this year. First was the North Pole Tower - part of Santa's Wonderland. Over the weekend was The Hop Stop craft brew building - part of Harvest Crossing. And most recently, I posted photos of the Sugar Plum Bakery . Like the rest of the standard structures, the Fly-Tru Reindeer Washing Barn retails for $39.99 at Menards, but will be on their reverse Christmas pricing that has discounts that grow as we get closer to Christmas Day. As for Mantleburg...I think you know the answer by now:  the Village Board isn't going to annex anything like this in the near term.

Here's the tally from last night's visitors in Downers Grove:  32 kids we know.  20 kids we don't know.  15 adults with costumes.   3 kids no costume.  And 3 Adults no costume.    That would be a total of 73 with a pretty big asterisk. Last year, we had 24 total.  All kids we knew .  And that was a pretty sad number. I think it is safe to say that these numbers are in dispute.  For sure, the numbers in the red circles below, I think we can just simply throw out.  It was snowing like crazy and we don't live in Elmhurst any longer so there were no Adults and no babies out there like there have been in some years. So, let's throw out those numbers.  Minus 21.  Takes our 73 down to 52.   That seems plausible.  We did the whole 'bowl on the front porch' thing when we were out, so there's no counting those kids.  But, like we do every year, Nat has a little party at our house after trick-or-treating and there are more than a dozen kids that c

I walked by Marshall Field's Macy's this week and noticed that they've converted their State Street windows to the usual 'Pardon our appearance.  Something Magical is in store.' signage covering up the soon-to-be-revealed Holiday Christmas windows. One big flag to me is that they've only covered up the State Street side and not the one or two windows on the Randolph Street side.  In year's past, they've used those two windows to do something a little bit history-oriented like this one in 2017 .   Hopefully there will be a little Uncle Mistletoe in the windows and we don't get NYC's sloppy seconds again . 

Post where I initially pondered walking path edging On my post yesterday where I scored my yard/garden activity for the year , I included some initial thoughts about what I am thinking about doing next year.  On that list was to build the first section of the backyard 'path'.  I mentioned that I also need to figure out the edging - because what I start with is what I'll end up using going forward. I recently saw this photo from Laura at Garden Answer where she was sharing the beds out front of her chicken coop and was drawn to the brick edging that she's using. View this post on Instagram Chicken coop area is all cleaned up! Next thing to do is add some greenhouse plastic to the top and sides of their run to give them a warmer, dry place to move around for the winter! It’s going to look so classy... 😆🤦‍♀️ Oh well, happy chickens are more important! A post shared by Garden Answer (@gardenanswer) on Oct

Earlier this year, I set out a Yard & Garden To-Do List and a To-Do List Addendum that outlined 17 (10 on original list, 7 on Addendum) tasks that I wanted to tackle.  With the month of October coming to a close, I think it is worth taking a look and scoring myself. So...how did I do?  7 of the 10.  Missed on the Belgian Fence, Angel Topiary and raised beds. The original ten items on the list : 1.  Improve the soil.  Check . And Check .  And Check . 2.  Plant a Belgian Fence.  Nope. 3.  Try metal frame topiary.  Kinda.  I tried pruning small shrubs for topiary or bonsai . 4.  Do the Angel topiary.  Nope. 5.  Plant a Yew hedge.  Yes! 6.  Move Automower Boundary wires.  Yes.  No more getting caught up under the trampoline. 7.  Prune the Linden Espalier.  Yes . 8.  Add conifers.  A couple of them .  And planted six tiny Canadian Hemlocks.  Lost one so far . 9.  Build and plant a raised bed vegetable garden.  Nope. 10.  Remember the 'path'.  Yes.  Behind

Another 'new' for 2019 building from Lemax at Menards is this Sugar Plum Bakery.  The product page is here on Lemax's site .  It is part of the Santa's Wonderland collection.  This is the 3rd Christmas Village building from the Menards Enchanted Forest Christmas display that I've posted on the blog this year. First was the North Pole Tower - part of Santa's Wonderland. Yesterday was The Hop Stop craft brew building - part of Harvest Crossing.  This is a standard, non-animated building that is being retailed for $34.99. Once again, Mantleburg isn't growing as it seems the citizens won't be having a prosperous Christmas once again this year as the town continues to shrink.