Why I Oughta...

A color/aging check-in on the Ash Firewood that I acquired last year.  I still haven't split all of the rounds, but with the social distancing experience going on, we're going to have some good backyard time in the next week or two.  I first covered this wood - when it was standing as a (dead) Ash tree last year in November .  The full archive of ash firewood posts are here .   I had the rounds dropped over the fence late last year .  And started splitting and stacking it right after Christmas .  Head there to that post and see the color. There's been a change and I think darkening of the wood since this was first split.  I know that I kind of have a 'golden hour' thing going on in the photo at the top of this post.  But, to my eye: it seems to have aged/seasoned. I haven't put a moisture meter to any of this stuff yet, but it seems that I should be tracking it going forward.  I've actually brought in some of this wood and have burned it at night -

It has been over a year since I shared a post about our little Lizzie .  She's still little.  At least...quite a bit smaller than what I remember Maisy being when she was around.   We lost Maisy in the Summer of 2016, so we're coming up on four years of her not being around our family.  It also means that this Summer will be four years since Lizzie joined our family .  She's, ummm, NOT Maisy.  But, she is family.  And that means that she's around with ALL OF US during the whole social distancing period.  I found her the other day up on this bench - where she sits often - enjoying the day's sun.  Everyone copes with quarantine differently, right? 

That right there is a five gallon bucket of biosolids.  Yeah...biosolids.  Courtesy of the Downers Grove Sanitary District.  They have what they call a " Biosolids Distribution Program " that residents have a few ways of engaging with in terms of receiving the, ummm, biosolids. First...you might be wondering:  what the heck are biosolids?  According to the DGSD : Biosolids, a byproduct of the process of wastewater purification at the Wastewater Treatment Center, is highly recommended for use in flower beds, lawns, shrubs, hedges, and other landscaping. The biosolids are stockpiled for one to two years and then pulverized to provide a product that is easily incorporated into the soil.  The high organic content of biosolids enhances soil work-ability and water retention capacity. The substantial nutrient content will help supply plant needs for nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium. The lawn fertilizer that I've been using called Milorganite is a biosolid.  But....if

Stuck at home due to 'social distancing' like we are?  I'm sure that you're dreaming about your Spring and Summer garden like I am these days.  If you're doing any tree planning, you are likely turning to some online resources to research and buy your trees.  I came across this link from one of our local nurseries:  The Growing Place in Naperville where they list their 2020 bare root tree availability for purchase .  They're running a special on their bare root tree inventory, but you have to call them at 630.355.4000 and place your order by March 29, 2020. They say that there are "Limited quantities on select varieties." So, why would you buy bare root trees? The Growing Place lists some benefits including: What are they offering this year?  You can click here to see the full list and all the details .  But, below, is a snapshot of what is available.  Redpointe Maple. 1.25" Branched. $99 Autumn Brilliance Serviceberry. 3' Multi-stem

Over the weekend, I started to organize some of my garden tools in preparation for the Spring garden season and began to turn to my hand tools.  Part of stimulating my organization this weekend was the whole 'social distancing' thing that we're doing, but it was also this video from Erin - the Impatient Gardener - where she talked about how she sharpens and treats her garden tools . I'll come back to that video in another post (mostly because....ummm...the whole Niwaki pruners are pretty sweet and warrant a post where I lust after them, right?) I have collected my tools and have begun to think about how to store them in an easy-to-use way for the season.  I also began to look at my gloves and inventory'd them.  Out of that exercise, I think I'm going to call it now:  I need to add something to my 2020 to-do list:  Upgrade my garden gloves.  Here's my full 2020 list .  For the past few years, I've been MOSTLY using disposable gloves in the gar

With the whole 'social distancing' policy being enforced in our household, I had some time to putter around the yard this weekend.  One of the things that drew my attention was the sad state of these Gold Cone Junipers.  You can see one of them in the photo at the top of this post.  I bought three of these from Menards on April 6, 2019.  I have the receipt in my little file that shows the purchase date AND the 1 Year guarantee tag on them that you can see in the two photos below.  One note that might be useful for you:  Everytime I buy a tree or a shrub that has a 1 year guarantee, I do 2 things:  I staple one of the plant tags to the receipt and file it away in an envelope.  I also then add it to my Google calendar - one week short of a year.  That means...I bought this on April 6, 2019, I put an entry for these Gold Cone Junipers on March 30th, 2020. According to the garden diary, I had them on hand by April 22nd and ended up planting them in late April/early Ma

I was out in the far back of our yard yesterday and I saw some brand new, bright green growth.  I knew immediately what I was looking at:  the first instance of Wild Onions for the year.  I know it won't be the last.  If you've followed along, you know that Wild Onions in my yard are public enemy #1.  They've achieved that status due to their prolific nature (they are EVERYWHERE), the fact that I can combat them in early Spring when there isn't much else going on in the yard and they are a DIY project that doesn't involve herbicides (you have to dig them out). I've chronicled my Wild Onion journey here on the blog starting with last Spring when I started to dig the clumps of Wild Onion bulbs out of the turf everywhere I could .  Once their season passed, I tried my best to make the soil less hospitable for them by applying Lime a few times.  I posted about them earlier this year when I saw this story about a potential spray (Bonide Burnout) that might wo