Why I Oughta...

I've begun my Fall cleanup around the yard the past few days.  That means that in addition to beginning to mulch in some of the woody perennials, I've begun leaf cleanup.  There is still come time left in the season, so I thought I'd go through my 2020 To-Do List to see if there are any items that I can cross off before I put the yard to bed for the season.   Back in February, I set out my list for the year that included 25 items .  Seven items were for planting.  Three were in the yard.  Seven were for trees.  Two in the beds.  Four in building structures.  And a few others that are the only item in their category. Then in June, I did a mid-season check-in.  I had completed 13 of the 25 tasks .   Let's have a look at the list as it stands today: 1. Plant Area #1 (oak leaf hydrangeas) . 2. Build the  'bridge' in Priority Area #2 - between the Hornbeams and Mighty Oak . 3.  Get the walkway installed/spec'd in behind the Yews along with some other plantings .

Yesterday, I posted a photo and talked about this 'unknown Juniper' that is in a large container on our patio.  In that post, I mentioned the other two Junipers that I have in the ground - Youngstown and Chinese.  I bought them as small $5 nursery stock from Home Depot and at kept them around the patio all season while I tried (it was hard) to NOT prune them too much.  My goal is to work them into tree-form as I learn (just a little bit) about bonsai.   I've documented my "bonsai journey" over the past few years on the blog and you can find those posts here .  I've learned (and killed) from one tree and have tried to be patient.   At the end of the season, I read that it is smart to dig them into the ground to overwinter them in their containers (people do this with all sorts of bonsai pots).  So, that's what I did:  dug up a couple of holes, stuck the junipers - pots and all - directly in the ground, covered them and tried to mulch them in with leaves.

 On our back patio, we have a container with a small conifer that I'm not sure the cultivar.  I bought it last year and worked on it a little bit - as there is some wire on parts of it - but I'm not sure which kind of juniper it really is at this point.  I have two junipers - Youngstown and Chinese - that I have in containers that I planted in the ground .  My plan is to dig them up next Spring and give them another haircut/style.  My Bonsai journey has been one of buying some nursery stock initially and KILLING my first one.  In a matter of months.  Due to over-pruning it, I think.  As a result of that experience, I've kinda taken the 'lazy bonsai' route on these - by giving them an initial wiring up and then planting them (in their containers to restrict the roots) in the ground (or in this case in a larger container).  By next year, all three will hopefully able to handle a little bit of pruning. Here is the unknown Juniper that has grown nicely in the container

\ It is hard to determine the size of this Cooper's Hawk in our backyard, but he was big.  And, I'm pretty sure he is/was a Cooper's Hawk based on the details from Cornell .  The last time that I captured one of these birds of prey was back in February of 2019 when I saw one sitting on our fence.  This time, he was way up on a tree limb and he hung around for a while - like five minutes - before flying off. This piece shows all the hawks that call Illinois their home, but I can't tell from it if I should change by classification from Cooper's Hawk or not.

Back in late September, I posted some photos and details of three Twinkle Toes Lungwort plants that I bought at the Fall Plant Sale .  These are pretty interesting plants in that they have hairy foliage, are variegated and throw off blue flowers.  All while being shade plants.  I got around to planting them in a mass right to the yard-side of the Dwarf Albert Spruce tree - that is having some stress right now.   You can see them below:   I'm going to keep watering these in every few days to try to help them get established and hope that they'll stick around come next Spring.  ( Note:  I labeled this planting in September, yet the date of the post is October. )

 Back in July, on a whim, I bought a small Lady Fern from Home Depot and decided to plant it in the bed adjacent to my Ostrich Ferns a couple of weeks later. The fern was looking very healthy when it went in near mid/late July .  But, then something happened.  It went from green and healthy to dry, brown, limp and seemingly dead.   It felt like that transformation happened one day.  I was looking at the fern one day and the next it was dead.  I panic'd and grabbed the hose and soaked it.  Then I applied some wood chip mulch around it and watered it again the next day and the day after that.  A week later or so....I saw some new growth.   Since then, I've watered it and tried to keep it going.   Today?  This is what it looks like below.  It seems that between the water and the cooler temperatures, this Lady Fern seems to have recovered.   Will this recovery be enough for the fern to establish itself and prepare for the coming Winter?  We'll know next Spring.  

 I bought a total of eleven All Gold Japanese Grasses from the Fall Plant Sale and put them in the ground in two locations with the aim of making two distinct masses of these grasses.  I put five in the front yard - and I'll post about that shortly.  And, I put six in the ground in the backyard - in between the largest Flowering Pear tree and the 31" Red Oak Tree on the north side.  These are in 'front' of the Apple Tree Belgian Fence .  You can see that location in the photo below: The grasses might be hard to pick out, so below, you can find an annotated version of that photo showing the location of these six grasses interplanted with some hostas and our lone Azalea.  This is a brand new - this year - bed.  You can see it as bare mulch here .   I supplemented the soil around these six with a couple of bags of composted manure to try to enrich the soil and give the grasses a good headstart.  I'm going to water these in every few days this Fall to keep them establ