Why I Oughta...

Yesterday I posted a photo of a new bed on the corner of our back patio that is now home to three transplanted Karl Foerster Feather Reed Grasses .  These were divided from another grass, so....they're the best kind of plants:  free plants.  Today, I'm posting a photo of some other free plants:  another trio of Karl Foerster grasses.   This is the third in the series of dividing these grasses with the first being back i in September.  In that post , I showed how I added just ONE grass underneath our Norway Maple tree in front.   This time, I took another of the driveway grasses (the middle one) and divided it into four pieces.  This one was suffering from Center Rot , so it was due to be divided.  I left the largest piece in place (you can see it in the photo below) and took the other three over by the Maple. I took the other three divisions and planted them in an array in front of the Norway Maple - along with the first one I put there last week.  Now, there's four of the

The Fall ornamental grass dividing season continues with a few more Karl Foerster Feather Reed Grasses.  I started dividing these grasses the last few weeks by taking some of the larger ones in front and back and dividing them up and transplanting .  Of the five larger ones in our backyard, I had already divided one of them and transplanted near our hops vine .  So, it was natural to take another one of the larger ones from this same area - in front of our kitchen window - and divide it up again.  One of the things that I've been thinking about for a while is how we add some 'corner beds' to our patio and I've mused about using boxwoods.  But, in thinking about how I could use these feather reed grasses in a series of plantings to bring some cohesion to the garden, it seemed right to try a trio of grasses on one of the corners of the patio.   I dug out a small bed on the southwest corner of the patio, removed the Automower wire and then divided a Karl Foerster Grass in

I added another (existing) perennial down in the newly created bed by the sidewalk that has been a troublesome spot for growing anything since we moved in.  After cutting out the small bed, I added some Lemon Coral Sedum then installed a Panicum Shenandoah Red Switchgrass last week .  I mentioned that I was going to put down some other things this Fall in that post and today's photos show off the new addition:  a pink Bee Balm.  Officially:  Pardon My Pink Monarda didyma (Bee Balm) - which I kept in a container all Spring and Summer in the backyard.   You can see it in the photo below (Bee Balm in the bottom left of the bed): I held on to the plant tag when I planted this in the container, knowing that I was going to be digging this into the beds at some point.  Below is the front of the plant tag showing it takes Full Sun: Below, is the back, where it says to tuck it into the 'front of your border'.  Done and done.  The only issue that I see here is that Monarda prefers mo

We have had a particularly difficult grass-growing season this Summer.  The heat and drought sent the majority of our Kentucky Blue Grass into dormancy.  There were a couple of spots that I believe went beyond dormancy into death including the low spot outside of our patio area in back.  At first, I thought that maybe this was grub damage - because it wasn't responding to water - but after digging up the turf and having a look, all I saw was worms.  No grubs.  But, I also found a pretty shallow area of topsoil on top of gravel for our drywell.   I haven't done any sizeable Fall seeding projects, but based on the soil temperature, coupled with a forecast that called for a period of cooler temperatures and some rain, I thought that I'd take on trying to overseed a good portion of this area.   I first used my thatch rake to remove a lot of the dead material , then took out my manual aeration tool to create some holes.  After doing a little bit of research, I decided to buy som

Last week, I posted a couple of photos of a tiny Ginko Biloba tree that I received in the mail that had suffered some shipping damage and had a bent-over trunk.  I ended up planting that damaged Ginko tree in the backyard - uncertain if it will survive .   When I sent in some photos of the damage that the Ginko biloba tree, they shipped me out a replacement tree.  This second one arrived undamaged and in slightly better condition.   Ginko trees are known to be pretty slow-growing, so I needed to stick this tree in a spot that I can largely ignore for a number of years.  Knowing I had one (already) in the backyard, I figured I should look at my front-yard tree planting wish list and pick out a spot that made sense.  My history of small trees is mixed, but one of the (more recent) success stories was the Bald Cypress that I planted a few Falls ago .  That tree started VERY small - about the size and caliper of this Ginko.  But, it has thrived.  I showed off the recent late Summer flus

The kids have been playing/practicing Fall soccer at the 'main park' here in Downers Grove called McCollum Park .  The athletic facilities are just fine - soccer fields, ball diamonds, basketball courts, etc.  But, if you take a walk around the exterior path at McCollum, you can't help but be struck by the size and diversity of the mature trees that have grown there including a bunch of different large Oak trees.  The have some VERY mature trees, some medium-aged ones and some young ones that appear to be planted via the Downers Grove Park Districts Memorial tree program .   During one of the soccer practices, I noticed an oak tree that had a nice shape and narrower - yet coarse-toothed leaves scattered around the park.  I'm familiar with the common Red and White Oaks, but when I looked at the leaves of this particular tree (see below for photos), I wasn't sure what it was.   Here, below, shows the tree with a nice shape: And, here, below, is a closer look at the le

Back a week or so ago 1 , we had our Fall delivery of firewood delivered to kick off the burning season.  This year, I ordered (again) from The Grove Firewood out in Sugar Grove.  This is the second time I've ordered from them having been pretty happy earlier this Spring with a couple of face cords.   Here, below, is the delivery being dumped on our driveway.  This represents three face cords - a full face cord of Cherry, full face cord of Birch, and a facecord of their "Supermix".  That "Supermix" is a combo of Oak, Hickory and Cherry, so the driver mentioned that since I bought a separate face cord of Cherry, he went 50/50 with Hickory and Oak.  This is the first year that I've bought Hickory wood - where I normally buy Oak, Cherry and Birch. That load of three face cords is between six hundred and seven hundred pieces of firewood and is the same amount that I bought last Fall.  Here's the post showing three facecords of Birch, Cherry and Oak (one each