Why I Oughta...

I moved our Staghorn Fern outside recently.  I came across it on a lower rack at Home Depot for $10 back in late Winter/early Spring and brought it home.   It was potted in a plastic nursery pot and packed in a mix of soil and what seemed like Sphagnum Moss.  I looked around the Web and most everybody talks about how you can *mount* these ferns to boards and treat them like air plants.  There are a few places that talk about keeping them in containers, but it seems like having them mounted is the pro-move here.   Our fern is happy.  Slow-growing, but happy.  If you look at the very top of this post, you'll see some of the fronds have grown much longer than they were this Spring AND (this is important), the one droop'ing frond on the left seems to be the first frond with the sort-of antler-looking edges.  That's exciting to see. But, back to mounting....I really don't want to mount it.  At least for now.  I worry about watering it. Do I take it off the wall every few w

Back in the end of July, I posted a couple of photos showing the flush of new, mid-Summer growth on our small Bald Cypress tree in our front yard.  Well..technically, it is IB2DW , but that's still in front.  We have a second deciduous conifer in our yard - a Dawn Redwood that is planted out back - that had the same flush of new, Summer growth on the tips that I wanted to document.   This is our second Dawn Redwood; planted in the 2018 growing season .  I had planted one originally in 2017, but between some neglect and not knowing anything (I limb'd it up), it died.   This tree was green and happy just about 12 months ago (late July 2020 when we were deep in COVID). Below you can see the new, soft growth that is on the tips of the entire tree.  The top, apical meristem has added about six inches to the top so far, too. Last year, I posted similar 'new growth' photos of this same tree in September .  I'm wondering if that means we'll see new growth for the bett

Back in the end of June and early July, we had what felt like three-straight-weeks of constant rain.  My yard never looked better.  But it also had some other impacts - beyond having to cut the grass 3x per week to keep it how I wanted it.  I was moving some firewood around recently and noticed that a couple of the logs on TOP of our firewood racks were showing some new, white fungal growth: If you look at this post showing off the firewood rack that I built from parts I sourced dumpster diving next door, you can see that I put on a cedar shingle roof .  That *mostly* helps shed the water.  But, in one of those rain storms, our front yard Norway Maple lost a minor limb .  It came down and I cut it up into rounds.  But, I didn't process them fully as Summer tasks got away from me.  So, I just popped them up on TOP of the firewood rack.  They sat there thru all the rains.  And, you can see that they were already covered in moss from when they were up on the tree.   When I was walking

Earlier this Spring, I planted two pairs of two new ferns (at least they were new to me) in the backyard bed near where I transplanted a bunch of Ostrich Ferns last year.  They are in the shadow of the big Northern Red Oak tree (Tree Swing Tree).   The two different ferns were Shaggy Shield fern - Dryopteris cycadina  -   and Tassel fern - Polystichum polyblepharum.  They were small 4" containers with small ferns when I planted them in .  I applied a thick layer of mulch.  The Shaggy Shield (or sometimes called Shaggy Wood Fern) is doing fine.  But, that's not why I'm posting here.   I noticed some new growth on the Japanese Tassel Ferns - Polystichum polyblepharum - that helps me understand how they received their name.  Back in that post, I talked about how the new fronds kind of curl up to look like tassels.  T his screenshot below of the listing from Gardenia says it best , I think: Via Gardenia That's exactly the stage of some of the new growth on our first-year

Yesterday, I posted a couple of photos of the Prairie Winds Totem Pole Switch Grass that I planted in our front porch bed.  While I was over there taking those photos, I noticed that our Limelight Hydrangeas were in bad shape.  Ut oh.  These things have always been so very happy and have performed so very well in their spot.  But, this year, something is wrong.  Bad wrong.   They have flowered (profusely), but when you look at them, you can see that they've dropped A LOT of leaves.  Here's a photo of the pair of them below.  Notice the curled, brown leaves on the ground.  Here, below, is a closer look: What is so hard to figure out is that the TIPS of the plant are seemingly happy and growing.  Below, shows some of the new growth: I'm guessing that the Spring drought has given these some trouble and they're showing water-related stress, so I'm planning on soaking them both with the hose a couple of times this week to see if I can get them to recover in any meaningf

I picked up a new (to me) grass at the Spring Morton Arboretum Plant Sale.  It is called Panicum virgatum 'Totem Pole' and a couple of the defining characteristics are the blue color and the immense size. The tag lists this thing being 72" tall at maturity, so it is a tall cultivar, for sure.  I planted it back in early June after deciding that I thought it would work well in one of the front beds - kind of tucked behind the troubled Norway Maple tree.  I've planted various things in/around the tree over the years and I've had absolutely ZERO luck with just about anything.  Hostas fail.  Grasses fail.  The hydrangeas and boxwoods that live within the drip-line of the tree?  They're all in decline.   But, I thought that maybe this grass could be the plant that changes the course of this bed.  I've been watering this switchgrass whenever I water the front lawn, but other than that, I've mostly left it alone.   I went out front recently and noticed that i

  Getting this project done was *NOT* on my 2021 to-do list , but it should have been.  Although, I'd hesitate to call this project 'done', rather more like (this part) being 85% done.  The edging is installed (and has been for a month or more) and now I've put down the minimum amount of bluestone chips gravel, so the path is no longer a muddy mess.  The dark spots you see above are because I tried this path with larger paver/steppers laid in the ground with gravel around them, but it wasn't working.  So, I yanked them out and put down additional gravel.  They will dry out and the whole thing will look uniform in a half-a-day or so. This area has the firewood racks on the left and some random hostas and ferns that I've stuck here over the years on the right.  But...in looking at the inspiration photo here ...not too bad, right?   I still have to extend this path all the way to the driveway, but for now we've solved the most pressing part of the walkway that