Why I Oughta...

Having locked-in my 2022 priorities for the yard and garden last week , I have begun to think about the practical implementation of the first item on the list:  Shrubs.  A discussion of some of the shrub needs were walked thru earlier in March in this post that laid out a list of needs and included a reference to adding three Tardiva Hydrangeas.  Back in 2017, I included a look at that part of the beds that called for these Tardiva Hydrangeas here .   With all that background out of the way, I think it is useful to look at the current conditions of this portion of the bed AND my current thinking in terms of deciduous shrubs based on some pointers from others.   To be sure, this is NOT a 'clean slate' situation.  I've planted things there that NEED to be relocated. First, I have four Lilac shrubs planted along the fenceline.  Two common Lilacs ( planted in 2018 ) and two Nocture Lilacs ( planted in 2019 ).  NONE of these have worked here.  They haven't died.  But, they

A few days ago, I posted a photo of a new-to-us fossil find from our backyard (a Crinoid fossil) and mentioned about how I used my first backyard fossil find (a Trilobite) as a use case to try to understand the world of NFTs and the platform OpenSea.  I posted a photo of my Trilobite fossil on OpenSea , but didn't list it for sale (due to the 'gas fees'), so I'm not totally sure what the utility of the exercise was (in that case), but it also lead me to a different platform:  VeVe.  VeVe is an NFT marketplace for 'digital collectibles '.  From brands.  Digital art, images and comic books are what they're mostly dealing with on the platform from brands like Marvel, Disney, Pixar , James Bond, Back to the Future and Adventure Time among others.  Veve offers a store - where you can buy these digital collectibles.  They also offer a 'drop' system where creators 'drop' collectibles at a specific time when they (seemingly) get gobbled up by collec

Earlier here on the blog, I posted about the idea of a 'fountain wall' right next to our patio and mentioned that I thought there was an 'order of operations' post that needed to come first to ensure that I had all of the pieces sorted out and that any project that I took on would not have to be REDONE when I moved on to other projects.  However....in order to get to that 'order of operations' post, I think I need to lay out a few more of the building blocks/underlying projects that make up the choices I have to make.   One of the biggest ones is to finish up solving the 'entrance' to our backyard.    I've gone around-and-around on how to best solve the situation I'm facing:  a gradient that transverses the path we need to complete from our front yard (driveway) back to our patio. Last year, I put in a gravel walkway that covers half of the area .  And, we love it.  But, I can't simply lay down a gravel walkway for the rest of this walkway b

I saw this bag of Lesco 19-0-7 lawn fertilizer with pre-emergent at one of the big box stores recently and thought it was worth tracking here for both price and N-P-K makeup.  For reference, Milorganite has a 6-4-0 N-P-K and based on what I've both read/watched and my initial soil testing, finding something like this that has a # in the Potassium part of the equation is, inherently interesting to me.  At $68 a bag, it is a little bit LESS interesting, though. This post and photo, however...reminds me that I NEED to keep an eye on my 2022 lawn care schedule as I'm planning on making some changes to the treatments this year - especially as I try to balance my historical heavy N-P's in the N-P-K analysis.

Last Fall, I was moving around a few pieces of flagstone in our yard when I - for some reason - looked closer at one of the stones and I realized I was staring at a fossil.  Weird.  Or at least it seemed weird to me.  I examined the piece of flagstone and realized there were a few fossils imprinted in the stone, so I went looking on the Web to figure out what we had.  Turns out, we're the owner of some Trilobites that are hundreds of millions of years old (yes...read that again... hundreds of millions of years old ).  Kinda neat, right?  Finding it and researching the fossil was a fun little exercise to do with the kids.   Imagine my delight when I was out in the yard this past week and noticed that a few of our pieces of flagstone and split open due to the winter and freezing.  I picked the pieces up to see if any of the freshly-revealed surfaces showed off any new (to us) fossils.  And, sure enough....along the edge of one of them looks like this: Below is another, more zoom'

What's better than one garden water feature and 'garden dreaming' post on the blog?  Certainly...You could say that: Two of those posts would be better.  But, even better than two?  That's right....three of said posts.  Especially when they run in close proximity to each other...as it serves as a document of the evolution of my thinking on projects like this and allows me the ability to work in draft format in my garden diary. First... I started this series with a look at some available stock tanks that could be used as ponds . Then, a few days ago, I posted about how I learned all about rills and what they are in the garden .  Today, I'm posting about some further inspiration that I've come across that has appeal to me as a gardener.  In terms of location, I'm talking about the patio-adjacent area to the north of our current patio .  I posted some drawings and thoughts about doing a second Belgian Fence in this area .  You can see the location here .   I st

As the calendar is showing late March, we're now STARING down the real beginning of gardening and yard care season here in USDA Growing Zone 5b.  And, like a lot of amateur gardeners and landscape caretakers, I often find myself adrift - drawn to things in garden centers that I don't have in my plans, pulled to focus on projects that steal time and end up planting things in places that don't make sense for the long haul.  However, I *do* have a landscape plan that was drawn by a professional.  I have of gardening rules don't buy just ONE of anything  and dig a $5 hole for a 50 cent plant .  (That makes me think that I *should* write a post that outlines my adopted gardening rules that I've collected over tim).  And, I have list of projects that I'd like to tackle.   Using those tools and direction SHOULD make the growing season go smoothly.  But, everybody - including me - needs to be held accountable.   That's why, over the past three growing seasons, I'