Why I Oughta...

Just putting this out here - to say that the clip from Seinfeld episode of the Real Kramer bus tour - where he hands out mini pizza - and the guy says, "What's this?  Pizza poundcake?" is something I say to myself anytime someone mentions the word pizza.  Not available on YouTube, so have this yarn.io embed:

 Yesterday, I started to share some items that I bought at the Morton Arboretum Fall Plant Sale starting with a pair of Karl Foerster grasses and mentioned that I also came home with some other items.  Here is one of those: A Waterslide Hosta. They had a few different varieties of hostas that were unique - ones that you can't buy at Home Depot or most big box garden centers.  All of them were selected by the staff at the Arboretum to be good for Fall planting.  Of the six or so for sale, I ended up deciding on trying a few.  I mean...tell me that you could see a rack of these hostas and not want to buy one? Here's the tag showing the Waterslide hosta mixed in with some other more lime-colored hostas. And the back of the tag: The description on the tag reads: This beautifully ruffled hosta is a thrill to behold! Blue, rippled leaves hold their color all season long.  Lavender flowers appear on proportionate flower scapes. Here, below, is the sign that was up at the Plant Sale

 Last week I went over to the Morton Arboretum Plant Sale and picked up a few things for Fall planting.  They had some items that I've come across before and others that were new to me - having not come across them at either a garden center or big box store.  I'll post about the groups of plants (and one tree) that I brought home over the next few days.   First up are a pair of Karl Foerster Feather Reed Grasses.  I've posted about them over the years - and have a series of them planted outside of our kitchen windows in back , three of them planted by our landscapers between our front porch and driveway and one solo grass planted outside of our screened porch.  I bought six and only planted five by the kitchen windows, hence this other one being all alone. I really like these grasses as they provide a mix of coloring through the year - from green to purple to gold - and provide a lot of interest all year long - including Winter.   Back to that one outside our screened por

Back in April, I posted about how I had started to go over to the Downers "mulch pit" with some buckets and my pitchfork and bringing home about 1/3rd of a yard of arborist wood chips a couple of times per week.  At that time, I was mostly stuck at home due to COVID, so I had the time.  And, I had a huge part of our far backyard that I had never mulched.  These wood chips seemed like a good idea to cover some of that soil, provide a little bit of mulch and potentially create a base upon which I could cover with higher quality mulch.   I ended up doing a big section across the back of my yard, but after getting that *mostly* done, Spring had arrived and I switched my attention to other parts of the yard.  I also had 12 yards of hardwood fines premium mulch delivered that covered the rest of my yard.  (Note to self:  12 yards wasn't enough for my yard.) Well...guess what?  COVID is still here. And I'm still *mostly* stuck around the house with time.  For me, A

Over the past few years, I've dreamed about building a backyard pizza oven - both in our old house in Elmhurst and here in Downers. I've posted a few times on the potential location(s) on the blog. Here back in 2017 . And, here again earlier this year and most recently just last month when I was talking about a pond. In each of those explorations, I've included a location of the pizza oven that is along the north side of our property, off of our patio, down in a lower level of our patio. As I continue to think about the location - and I'm increasingly thinking that the northside site - that is situated down low - is the right spot.  It is low-lying, so the fireplace won't be sticking up for all of the neighbors to see - and to expose to the elements.   I've read the Forno Bravo DIY installation instructions like six times and lurked all over the forums over the years.  One of the pieces of counsel that they give is that if you live in an area of

Each of the last few seasons, we've swapped out the wood holding grate in our fireplace.  I've bought some commonly-available ones from big-box stores.  They're made of steel (and not cast iron) and, frankly, while they appear beefy, they're not super heavy-duty.  And that's been a fine trade-off.  Buying one for $20 to $25 for the family room fireplace and it lasts for the one burning season.  Some call it Fireplace Grate Melt - but what happens is that a couple of places come loose and larger openings start to appear in the grate. I've posted recently about the prep work done by ordering , sorting and stacking all the firewoo d on the racks this year, but I also wanted to get ahead of the firewood season by dealing with the grate.  I looked around and settled on the grate that I think is right for us: this 28" wide x 15.5" deep (they call it Deep) "extra heavy-duty" grate .  It comes with what they bill as a lifetime guarantee t

The past few days, I've added some entries to my garden diary showing off some late Summer growth on  our Dawn Redwood tree ,   our front-yard Bald Cypress tree  and most recently the hedge of Hicks upright yews .   The Summer has been hot and dry.  And, therefore, it hasn't been all good news for the yard.  In the photo at the top, you can see some of the foliage of our London Planetree.  It is clearly stressed.  A good portion of the tree is going yellow - and it is just early September.  The history of this tree - which I call the Grampy tree: Bought in April (during lockdown) on an early am run to Home Depot with some birthday money from Nat's Gramp y. Got around to planting it in May.  And it was immediately stressed due to the transplant .   It recovered and leaf'd out again this Summer.  I've tried to water it a bit, but have not paid nearly enough attention to this tree - and it shows.  Here, below, is another look at the yellow leaves.  Also,