Why I Oughta...

Our plan for the year called for a focus on shrubs .  Shrubs in the backyard, mostly.  But, also shrubs in the front yard.  In my post outlining the list of shrubs that are called for in the plan, I mentioned needing to replace one of the Vanilla Strawberry Hydrangeas that are sitting in front of our front porch out front.  It started to decline last year and despite watering, it withered and died last Summer.  A couple of factors came in play (I'm pretty sure) that caused the hydrangea to die:  the surface root mat from the Norway Maple tree outcompeting the hydrangea COUPLED with the hydrophobic mulch that was taking place and not allowing the watering that I *was* providing to get down to the rootball.   I found four treeform Viburnum - Doublefile - at Menards and brought them home with the goal of adding them to our yard - mostly in the backyard.  Our plan called for eight additional Viburnum (Arrowwood Chicago Lustre) around the border of our yard that would complement the

There are some plants that I've bought at various nurseries that seem to have done well and others that don't make it.  Then, there are the plants and perennials that I've bought at the Morton Arboretum plant sales.  I'm pretty sure that aside from some Huecheras that I planted in full Sun and were trampled by workers building the house next door, just about everything that I've brought home has worked out well.  The first time I went to the Morton sale was in the Fall of 2020 - they had a Fall Sale due to COVID - and I brought home some new-to-me perennials.  The first of those were three Twinkle Toes Pulmonaria - or Lungwort - that I planted in our backyard in late September 2020 .  They survived their first Winter and emerged for their first Spring a year ago - in mid-March 2021 .   Ever since, they've just performed and had some nice growth along the way.    The last time that I showed these were in Fall of last year when they put on some new, post-Summer g

Last week, I posted some photos and details of the Karl Foerster Feather Reed Grasses that I divided last Fall and transplanted around the yard with (so far...) success.  At that time, I mentioned that I had a few more grasses that I left in place as a sort-of hedge against the division killing all of the grasses.  This past weekend, I got around to digging up the remaining grasses and dividing them into new clumps ready for transplant.  Starting with the little bed outside our kitchen window, we had (as of this Spring) three large clumps.  Now, we're back to five smaller grasses - three in the back, two in the front.  See that below: The other grass that was ready to divide was one outside our screened porch.  I dug it up and divided it and put one of the divisions back in place - you can see it below.  The newly divided grass is on the right along with three other grasses that were planted in subsequent years.  Now there are four grasses in this little bed.  I'm thinking tha

Last Spring, I planted two pairs of new (to me) ferns in a little bed:  Two Shaggy Shield Ferns and two Tassel Ferns .  This post is looking at the Tassel Ferns.  They're different than what I have in other spots - Ostrich and Autumn Ferns - in a couple of ways:  they emerge a little different in that they don't unfurl the same way AND....they don't shed all their prior season foliage.   They're also - seemingly - this season the FIRST of the ferns to way up. See below for a photo of the tassels that have emerged along with last season's foliage that is still in place: The 'tassels' that you see in the photo are the reason for the fern's name.  They're quite lovely and a welcome sign of Spring in the yard.  The photo also is a reminder that I have a bunch of turf removal in the beds to continue to explore as well as finishing up the Spring cleanup to remove the dead foliage and the Oak leaves that are laying about.   The other ferns in this area - Sh

The perennial that is the furthest ahead in terms of emergence and showing foliage this Spring?  The trio of Queen of Hearts Brunnera that have popped up and begun to show their silvery-spotted leaves in the backyard bed close to the urn and the medium-sized Weeping Nootka Falsecypress tree . I planted these three last Summer - June of 2021 - in a little colony amongst some hostas in the newly defined bed .   See below for their current state and how they're beginning to fill in the area with a full set of (as-of-now) small leaves. these had much larger leaves last year, so I'm expecting them to fill out even more as Spring continues ahead.

The multi-trunk Saucer Magnolia tree that we planted in our front yard in 2017 is RIGHT NOW in full bloom showing pink and white flowers all over the tips of the tree.  The last time that I checked in on this tree was in mid-February of this year when I looked at the fuzzy cluster of buds on the tips of the limbs that were getting ready to put on the show.   The history of the Saucer Magnolia in Northern Illinois - Zone 5b: Summer 2017 : Planted as a small, multi-trunk tree. Early May 2018 :  Didn't bloom until early/mid May 2018.   2019:  The tree did NOT bloom at all. Early April 2020 : Blooms began the first week of April. Mid-April 2021 : In bloom by mid-month (April). This year - April 2022 - the tree is in full bloom the last week of April:  From April 23rd thru (at least) April 27th.   See below for this VERY pretty tree: The tree continues to have a good upright shape.  Once the blooms fade this Spring, I'll look to try to prune a few of the lower limbs to continue

I was digging around in some of the old landscape design files and I found this sketch of an expanded patio that adds a secondary square onto one of the corners that expands the whole patio, includes a firepit and a seating wall.  It appears that we discussed going this route out of the gate, but opted for a smaller, starter patio.  That doesn't mean this doesn't have merit - aside from the firepit - and a good reminder of what we *could* do back there with a slightly larger patio.  Filing this drawing below for future reference. But, the other reason for this post is to mark an occassion. This is my 4,000th post on the blog.  Across 18 years of blogging - since February 2004.  More than half of those 4K posts have come in past seven years, so the once-a-day-everyday momentum has pushed the volume up in a big way.