Why I Oughta...

 This is the second new (to us) perennial that we recently planted that came from Roy Diblik's Northwind Perennial Farm.  I'll admit that I made one of the core gardening mistakes ( don't buy just one of anything ) with both of these recent additions, but these were picked out from the shade section by my middle child.  This post is about Alchemilla mollis 'Auslese' - or Ladys Mantle.  The sign at Northwind is below and points out that this works in part shade, has yellow flowers and spreads out to about 20".  It also calls out the scalloped, grey-green foliage. And, here below, is our pint-sized plant.  Of note, after just a few days home, I've come to realize that this thing needs to be watered regularly.   So, what, exactly is this?  Is it like a Heuchera?  Is it ground cover?  (If so, it would count towards my 2022 to-do list goal around groundcover, right?) The University of Wisconsin Horticulture Extension has a page up about Lady's Mantle where

I have had various volunteer trees take off in different parts of our garden over the years.  The American Elm pops up EVERYWHERE .  The Chicago Blues Black Locust does, too .  I've talked about how I have Catalpa seedlings (or what I think are Catalpa seedlings) in different spots of the front and backyard.  For the most part, I rub or rip out the little seedlings before they can become anything of signficance.   However, there have been a couple of tiny seedlings in the southside backyard bed that I've been watching for the past few months, wondering what they'd become and if they were worth nurturing.  Before we went into Fall, I wanted to document here in the [tree diary] both of these trees as they are currently standing. First up is a Maple tree.  This Maple (unknown cultivar) is growing up right behind the Fanal Astilbes on the southside.  It is about 24" tall, has a strong central leader and is throwing off a LOT of healthy, green foliage.  See below for two p

Yesterday, I posted a couple of photos showing the transplant location of three purple Astilbes that I moved from the north bed to the south bed where they're (now) tucked in amongst some other Fanal Astilbes.  In that post, I mentioned that this was the first of my early Fall transplant moves that I was planning to take on as the weather begins to turn cooler.  On my [ Fall 2022 ] task list was another transplant project:  Twinkle Toes Lungwort .   I planted three of these Lungwort in the south bed back in the Fall of 2020 and they've done really well over the past two growing seasons.  All three of them have put on size and are really lovely dotted silver, low border-loving plants.   In my post from a couple weeks ago, I mentioned that I wanted to dig these up and move them closer to the front of the bed.  The reality is that they're low-lying plants and need to be closer to the front so I can plant something more intermediate behind them.   This post shows the location

Last Spring (March 2021), I planted some bare root Astilbes from Longfield Gardens that Nat picked up at Costco in the backyard .  They were Gloria purpurea variety and were billed as having purple flowers.  I checked in on them this Summer when I noted that they were pretty crowded in a spot between the trunk of a tree and some hostas.  I mentioned then that I wanted to transplant these this Fall.   Well...Fall isn't REALLY here, but in my garden, I'm doing some of my Fall tasks, including transplanting and dividing.   On a recent, rainy evening, I went out and dug the three Astilbes up and transplanted them over into the second row of my OTHER Astilbes.  Here, below, is what the area looks like with the three new ones planted: It isn't PLAINLY obvious where the three transplants are located, so I've included (below) an annotated photo that I can reference next season when I start scanning the mulch layer for tips of new growth to emerge in Spring.  Here's where

On a trip up to Wisconsin recently, we brought home a couple of part shade perennials from Northwind that were destined to go into the Bird's little backyard garden that sits along the northside fence.  Both of these were new (to us) and will work in the understory section of the beds.  The first one is commonly known as Serbian Bellflower, but is listed at Northwind as Campanula Poscharskyana - Blue Waterfall.  See below for a look at the 1# plant that we brought home....and was PROMPTLY eaten by the dang rabbits.  Below is the sign from Northwind Perennial Farm where they describe the plant as 'vigorous'. What it doesn't, explicitly say is the word 'groundcover'.  But, that's what Bluestone Perennials call it: a short, mounding groundcover .   #5 on my 2022 to-do list was to 'fall in love with groundcover' and this is another data point towards that goal.  As of late last month, I had planted 20 ground cover plants this season including a variety

I posted the growth details of our front yard Bald Cypress tree last week.  Those photos and details are here .  But, I also wanted to get the rest of the measurements on all of our trees before they dropped their leaves.  #7 on my 2022 to-do list included 'capturing the caliper measurements' of our trees.  This post details the growth that I've seen on some trees and documenting other newly planted trees (since the last time that I measured).   There are a few trees that we've lost and a few that we've gained since January 2020 - the last time that I measured.  At the bottom of this post is a series of photos showing the measurements.   But, the best way to look through this is by looking at this table below.  Showing their Jan 2020 size, their September 2022 size, the growth in inches and percentages.   First, the Hornbeams.  Most grew in the 30-40% range with the first one growing almost 70% (which feels like an outlier).  They're mostly >3.5" trees

Earlier this week I posted a couple of updates on our compost project.  First, I shared photos of the black gold compost that came out of our tumbler .  I spread that material on the front beds as an amendment and a way to try to improve the conditions up there.  Then, I posted some photos of what the pair of bins looked like pre-turning and walked through how I emptied them to get down to the 'most done' material (at the bottom of the mixed bin - under the passive aeration pipes) in an attempt to fill the tumbler and get the balance of the material ready for re-pilin'ing.  At that point, I had two full-to-the-top bins.  The one on the right, properly mixed.  The one on the left...not so much.  It was filled with Fall leaves and whatever I picked up this season including all the thatch from my backyard lawn renovation project. My plan was to open up the front panel of the bins to allow me to empty the bins to allow for proper mixing, then put the front panel back in place