Why I Oughta...

Last week, I picked up these three Abiqua Drinking Gourd Hostas that I resisted in buying for a number of years due to not being knowledgable about the attributes of this big, beautiful hosta.  I decided to stick them into the border bed near the firepit out back - right in between the bluestone chips gravel and the tiny Northern Red Oak tree that I planted last year.  You can see the three hostas below and the Red Oak tree on the far left, the fence near the top and the firepit edging on the right. I kept them off the fence a bit - thinking I will extend the Yew hedge around (at least part) of the firepit.  Will check on these come Spring and hope they emerge from Winter after I tuck them in with a little bit of new mulch.

Earlier this year, I posted some thoughts about how I could create a Block I - University of Illinois - topiary in our backyard and how I was inspired by an Etsy listing.   In that post, I did some of the layout and decided on a 4' wide and 6' tall Block I that would be about 18" thick when mature.  I've been thinking about something like this topiary for a number of years after seeing a bunch of them at a nursery on Route 12 that were (mostly) created from Arborvitae .  But, knowing we have mostly shade out back, I went through the mental gymnastics to convince myself that if I bought an 'upright' Yew, I could make the Block I topiary a go.  So, imagine my delight when I came across some $5 Fall sale Hicks upright Yews at Home Depot over the weekend.  I stuck a couple in my cart and brought them home. I put them out in a few spots and thought about placement.  I kept moving them, walking away and viewing the pots.  I want to see it from near the patio, but al

Six weeks ago, I posted a photo of part of our garden path on the northside of our house that we installed this Summer that featured a metal edge and a thick layer of Bluestone chips for the gravel.  In that post (from early August), I showed a view from a concrete landing forward to the gate on our fence .  The Bluestone garden path extends PAST the gate and (now) connects our driveway with our backyard.  Or....mostly does.  There's still another section to do that I think we're going to have to do in pavers with a retaining wall.   But, I wanted to capture in the [ garden diary ] how the path works with the driveway.  You can see below how I flared the edging out to make a wider birth and tapered it back to a 48" wide path as it makes the curve around that Vanilla Strawberry Hydrangea.  As I said back in August, this project wasn't on my 2021 to-do list , but it should have been.  It was something that we NEEDED to get done and now gives me a bunch of opportunities t

It seems that September is when we get a big flush of growth on our front yard Bald Cypress tree.  This year is the second year in a row when I've been able to catch (and document) the new, happy feather-like needles that show up in a big, late-Summer blow-up.  Here's last year's post on the same subject .  The last time I posted a photo was from July when this tree had new Summer-time growth . Here - below - is a look at the big, feathery "pom-poms" of growth that are currently sitting on a bunch of the limbs and branches.   I used "pom-poms" because they are sort of little balls of growth on the edges that remind me of pom-poms. And, here below, is a look at the full tree.  It has really grown big and strong this season and comes in close to eight or nine feet tall by my eyeball. I haven't measured the caliper of the trunk, but it is sizable - and way up compared to what I measured 18 months ago when it was less than 1.25" .  I'll get the

Documenting a bit of pest damage to our Toad Lilies in late Summer/early Fall here with what I think is a rabbit gnawing on these perennials.  See below, for a photo of one of the three Toad Lilies that I planted this year.  This is the one that is closest to the fence and has suffered the most damage.  It is down to a single stalk with one good-sized leaf.  I mentioned in August that we didn't see any flowers on these this year as they were chewed right off by rabbits (I'm guessing) while we were on vacation .  In that post, I talked about having to put up some pest fencing - and I thought that would be a "next year" task.  But, with one of these suffering and me seeing a lot of rabbits around our garden, the time is now to put that fencing up.   I grabbed a little bit of chicken wire and wrapped them in a ring - with the goal of keeping these alive during their last few weeks.  I put the two on the right in one ring.  And the most-damaged one (on the left) in a ring

Last month, I posted about an interesting hosta that I came across at the Growing Place called Brother Stefan hosta.  In that post , I referenced a Rob Zimmer column in the Wisconsin Gardener that highlighted a few OTHER 'interesting' cultivars of hostas that mentioned a hosta that I've seen ALL OVER various big box garden centers and, without much thought, I simply dismissed.  I dismissed it because it seemed very popular.  But, Zimmer calls the Abiqua Drinking Gourd 'One of the true giants'.  Well...that has me interested.   Source via WisFarmer.com So, when I found myself at one of the Home Depots this past weekend, I picked up a trio of Miscanthus sinesis 'Adagio' Maiden Grasses .  I also found these Abiqua Drinking Gourd hostas in the 50% off section.   Well, they *had* to come home with me.  Below, you can see the label: And, here, below, are the trio of these hostas in their nursery containers: What is the description of these?  New Hampshire Host

Last year, I added a number of new perennials to our garden in late September due to a shopping trip to the Morton Arboretum Fall Plant Sale.  That was, turns out, a one-time event due to COVID cancelling the annual Arbor Day sale.  It ended up working to my benefit because I brought home all sorts of new/interesting material including some new (to me) hostas , a slew of All Gold Japanese Forest Grasses , my first sedges and a Katsura tree .  With no Fall Sale, I'm left to my own devices in terms of shopping for some sales at the garden centers where I am finding some things that fit our plan AND are on sale.  Those are my two criteria for shopping this Fall:  50% off sale + something that fits in our plan or is something I've posted a 'dreaming' post about. I started a few days ago with the pair of Sugar Tyme Crabpple trees - which I'm planning on espalier'ing - in our sideyard .  Today, sharing a couple of photos of a new dwarf Maiden Grass that I bought in a