Why I Oughta...

This weekend we popped into the Garden Show at Wannemakers and it was a lot of fun and a really welcome pop of gardening as we wind down Winter.  A bunch of things were on sale (Trellises were 10% off) and they had some hardy annuals like pansies for sale, too.  But, they also had some vendors with little tables set up including a local pond and koi group, the Downer Grove Garden Walk and these folks from American Beauties Native Plants .  They were handing out buttons - which...I of course - glommed on to one of them.  It isn't a Disney Pin, but I think I'll put it up on the board in the garage none-the-less. We inherited a few Native trees on hand in our yard including the Catalpas and the Kentucky Coffee Trees.  I planted a Pagoda Dogwood  and a Chinkapin Oak that I bought at a local sale in Glen Ellyn.   Last year, I tried to grow a few Kentucky Coffee Tree seedlings from seed and this year, I'm going to do the same with Catalpas.   The button calls out how native plant

  Sedges are something that I've just recently (in the past few growing season) gotten to know and planted in our garden.  We have five of these Carex Everillos planted around my flowering cherry tree in the backyard.  They're a nice little pop of color and are evergreen through the Winter.  Normally.  Based on my experience last year, I found myself leaving the foliage all the way through Spring clean-up and then I trimmed off all the leftover blades and cut it back to a clump.  From there, the normal cycle of regrowth took over and - just like an ornamental grass - new growth emerged from the center.   This year?  Much of that 'clean up' was done for me.  By rabbits.  Those same jerks that have been eating at my Oakleaf Hydrangeas all Winter .  Or was it?  This document from Good Oak in Madison Wisconsin says that rabbits don't usually eat sedges.  From that pdf : "Rabbits do not typically eat grasses, sedges and ferns, however, there are always exceptions.

While I can't get started with Spring clean-up just yet, the warm(er) temperatures have me wanting to be outside in the garden working on things that I'd like to get done this season.  One of the projects that has been on my mind since last Summer is thinking about a plan to address the hydrophobic mulch that is present in a few spots - but specifically under the Norway Maple outside of our Front Porch.   I don't think (I can't find) that I've posted specifically about hydrophobic mulch.  And the problem that it creates.  It is something that I'm dealing with in a couple of spots, but as I've gotten to learn more about it, I'm still trying to figure out both what CAUSED it and how to address it.   One of the VERY COMMON reasons for hydrophobic mulch is that it was applied too thickly.  That's true for me.  Especially under the Norway Maple.  I've had a lot of trouble growing under that tree - h ere's a whole post on the topic - so I'm no

The last time that I showed the state of our two compost bins in the far back of our yard was back in early November when I had just topped the bins with their final collection of grass and leaves.  You can see that post here .  Below, you can see the current (this week) state of the bins after a Winter of snow and compaction.   On the left is a browns-only bin.  And on the right is a mixed bin with some passive aeration pipes inserted in a couple of spots. Not a TON of compaction, is there?  The temperatures are really working against any active decomposition during the Winter, so gravity is what is mostly at play.  The bin on the right had some compaction - and was aided by that log on top.  One of the things I'll get to this Spring is doing a full-turn on both bins and working in more of the browns from the right to get a 'cooking' bin set up for success this Summer.   I suppose, I should include in my 2022 to-do list an item on compost.  I think the right goal is to pu

I planted a (new-to-me) variety of Allium last Summer with Serendipity Allium in the IB2DWs bed - in a little colony of three plants .   I've had a lot of luck with Allium Summer Beauty and these are similar, but are a little bit more 'strap-y' in their foliage, so when I found them, I knew I could put them to work in the garden.  When I was out looking for tulip tips coming out of the mulch, I came across some green shoots - from these Allium.  See below, a photo showing the little green foliage that has emerged for the first Spring on these in this bed next to our driveway . This past weekend, we had what is known (around here) as False Spring.  Where we get temperatures up in the seventies.  That makes gardeners like me what to get out and start Spring clean-up.  But, I also know that we'll get more snow (and we did...on Monday).  So, you have to resist the temptation to pull any of last year's dead material away from these tender, green shoots.  

I've been known to garbage pick.  At the curb.  Not in dumpsters and other what-have-yous.  You know the move:  people put stuff out on the curb on their garbage day (or very often...on Saturdays or Sundays when they've just done a clean-up project) and if someone doesn't grab whatever the thing is, it goes into the truck on pickup day.  I posted about an organ late last year and when we lived back in Elmhurst, they had this wonderful, annual all-city-wide amnesty day.  You could put anything you wanted on the curb and the garbage guys would take it; no stickers needed.  That was always a fun hour of driving around seeing what people were tossing.   Mostly, you find junk.  And, this time, I think that's what I found:  junk.  It is metal.  So, the most likely picker is one of those guys in the pickup trucks with wood boards that extend the height of the bed and have all sorts of metal objects tossed in there.  I call them the "metal guys".  They only focus on

Last Fall, I planted a variety of Spring bulbs in beds like I've done over the years.  I posted some photos and details of the various Allium that I planted , but I don't seem to have shared the details of the tulip bulbs that I also put in at the same time.  The problem with that is that I'm TOTALLY unsure of where I put all of the bulbs.  It appears - based on some photos I've found in Google Photos that I put in 100 Tulip bulbs.  See below for the photos - showing two bags from Longfield Gardens: I recall planting *some* bulbs down by the parkway - both under the Norway Maple and around the 'hard to grow' area IB2DWs.  But, I'm guessing I put them in elsewhere, too and will have to track the blooms as they come up.  But, guess what?  I'm seeing some of these newly planted bulbs peek up through the mulch.  That means...Spring is ALMOST HERE. First, around the Norway Maple tree in the parkway.  I don't know now many bulbs are here, but I remember p