Why I Oughta...

For the first time since 2018, we have some Cherry Blossoms in our yard.  And it is so nice to see them appear on our Kwanzan Flowering Cherry Tree that was inspired by my first trip to Tokyo .  Back in the Spring of 2017, I was able to see some of the famed Cherry Blossom trees in Japan and when I came back home, I sought out a tree.  I found one at Menards in May of 2017 .  We were in the midst of building our new house, so my plan was to plant it in our new backyard.    It was flowering when I bought it and the next Spring - May of 2018 - it flowered .  Last Spring - 2019 - it seemed like it wanted to flower , but it never did.  It wasn't alone - as our Saucer Magnolia and Rhododendrons didn't flower, either last year.    I posted a photo of some Winter damage on this tree in January of this year . And today?  It is starting to show some blossoms.  Less than ten so far, but I'm hopeful for a full tree of pretty pink blossoms.  They remind me of peony flowers - Nat

The last time I posted about a trio of Gold Cone Junipers in our yard was earlier this year when I wasn't sure if these things were totally dying or if they were just simply struggling to recover .  I was being proactive last year and wired them up to protect from snow damage and I believe now that I caused the damage myself with the bottom 1/2 or so browning out pretty hard . I was out in the backyard this week and it turns out that these Junipers are showing some signs of growth with their yellow (or...um....GOLD) tips growing out.  Last Summer, these things were beautifully bright, so I'm hopeful that they'll come back in some way and overcome the brown dead parts.    Right now, the signs are pointing up for new growth, but I'm not sure if I should be thinning out the dead stuff by hand to try to stimulate some new growth on the dead sections?

Number 6 (#6) on my 2020 To-Do list in the garden this year was to add some passive aeration mechanism in our compost bin setup in the backyard.   I have a three-bin setup (one active bin, one carbon storage bin, one nitrogen storage bin) and a 50 gallon tumbler.  Last Fall, the active bin (on the left) was about half-full and I was storing the excess leaves in the carbon storage bin (middle) . Earlier this year, I posted some discussion about various passive compost aeration techniques - including one design with vertically installed pvc pipes and another with horizontally inserted perforated pipes.    After poking around on the Web, I decided to go with 10' sections of 2" perforated PVC pipe inserted horizontally in the pile.  My bins are 3' x 3', so I cut down 6 40" sections.   Then, I grabbed my garden fork and started to dig out the active bin of compost to get the volume low enough to install the pipes at a level that would make them work well

This is the second year in a row that I've posted a photo of these beautiful multi-color buds on our Greenspire Linden trees that have been espalier'd in our backyard.  Here's last year's post showing the same buds .   I think that these are my *favorite* buds on trees that we have.  Each of them are a little different - the Hornbeams are neat, too - but I think these are the largest, most colorful ones that really just SCREAM Spring to me.  Last year, I made the call to think about changing t his set of espalier to candelabra shape , but this Spring, I'm thinking that I'm going to go back to just a formal cordon and remove the tips that bend up.  Once I get around to wiring and pruning this Spring, I'll post some additional photos. 

This is the third in a series of posts all addressing some transplants that are now in what I have been calling ' Priority Area 2 ' between the Hornbeams and the Oak tree swing.  First was this post showing some hostas being added under the Hornbeam hedge . Yesterday was a photo showing four transplanted hostas under the Oak tree and Flowering Pear . Today I'm showing a recently transplanted Ostrich Fern that you can see in the red circle below.  This is in the area between the Oak tree - swing tree - and the River Birch tree .  It came from the area in the yellow circle where there are a series of "Survivor Ferns" that I first documented in April of 2017 while our house was still being constructed .  In the blue circle below, you can also see another hosta that was planted around the large Oak tree. The plan calls for eleven (11) Ostrich Ferns in this area - so I have more transplanting to do.  You can see some grass poking through the mulch in this

Yesterday, I posted a photo of a few of the teardown hostas that I divided and transplanted underneath the Hornbeam hedge and talked about how it was getting me closer to fulfilling my goal on " Priority Area #2 ".  I mentioned that I planted a few more as part of this set around the Oak and flowering Pear tree in that area.  In the photo above, you can see an existing hosta in the blue circle that I *think* is one of these Bessingham Blue hostas that I planted a few years ago as a bareroot plant .  On the backside of this Oak tree is this miniature variegated hosta that I transplanted last year .  It has started to pop through the mulch.  The hosta that you see in the middle of the photo at the top is one of the hostas that I dug up from in front of the house that was on our property before we tore it down.  I stuck it back by the Dawn Redwood for a few years.  Now, it is here.  And, below, you'll see three more clumps of that same hosta around the larger Chant

The hostas that are emerging from the mulch in the blue circles are ones that I've planted over the past few seasons.  They were taken from other parts of the yard, divided and planted in this bed.  I have nine blue circles, but I think that there are 11 current hostas with a couple of them being just 'tips'. The two hostas in red circles are non-variegated hostas that I dug up from around the kitchen window, divided and transplanted here.  These are some of the 'teardown hostas' that I've posted about over the years including when they flowered last year .   If I get around to it, I'm going to dig up another bunch to split and transplant further back in the bed - along the fence - like the two current transplants.  I think a blend of different color hostas would look nice filling in this area below the trees. I also transplanted some of these hostas around the tree swing Oak tree - and I'll post about that tomorrow but the most critical part of t