Why I Oughta...

A couple weeks ago, I read this post on Martha Stewart's blog titled: Staking the Herbaceous Peonies - and realized that we're coming up quickly on peony season in our garden.  Martha uses (of course she does) stakes that she designed herself and has a huge number of peonies on her property.  We, well...don't.   Over the years, we've ended up with five peony plants.  Two in front (IB2DWs) and three in the back (Kitchen curved bed).  After the first five-or-six years in our new garden, we finally had our first *real* peony season back in 2023 .  Why did we finally get blooms?  Because I moved the peony plants we had on-hand from the back of the yard to closer to the sun/patio.  And, I moved a couple up to the front yard where they get full sun.  Last year (2024), we had even more peonies.  Here's a post showing a full vase of Sarah Bernhardt pink peonies that I cut from one of the plants .   However, due to their small-siz...

Recently, we put the oven into service for a small party where I baked eight pizzas.  I've had challenges getting the oven up to temperature with the first firing of the season, so this time I fired it up for three hours the day before the party.  Then, I pre-heated the oven with wood for five hours.  That got the fire roaring and the temps way up:  950 on the dome, 900 on the floor, 750 to 800 on the walls of the dome.   Here are a few photos - showing the fire starting and eventually "Clearing the dome" of the black soot.  Also, I pre-cooked some sausage in a cast iron pan during the pre-heat and that worked really well.   I'm learning how the oven works and how much 'feel' is required to get the pizzas to come out edible.  Also, I'm learning that the insulation that I used is WORKING.  (hooray...)

The treeform Doublefile Viburnums that we have in our backyard are in their full, Spring-blooming glory this week.  At least one of them, that is.  The shrubs have a layered set of branches that are home to clusters of white flowers that spread out from these little green dots.  The result is dramatic pop of white.  Below are a few photos - showing the full treeform viburnum and some close-ups of the white Doublefile Viburnum flowers.   Here's a post from a year-ago that shows the blooms on these same shrubs in Spring 2024 .  They were a few weeks ahead of this year.   A couple weeks ago, I added two more Doublefile Viburnums to the backyard - Pink Beauty .  They are shrubs - not treeform - versions that (I hope) will provide some pink-hued blooms in the coming years.  

Of all the trees, shrubs and other plants in our garden, the row of Frans Fontaine European (Columnar) Hornbeam Trees that are planted as a screen along our property line in our suburban backyard get by-far, the most comments and reactions.  The last time that I posted about these upright trees was in late April, just about a month ago , when the trees were still bare and emerging out of winter dormancy.  I posted that photo because someone commented on a different post asking to see what the trees look like this Spring.   There has been a lot of change in the garden the past thirty days as everything wakes up.  And, the Frans Fontaine Hornbeam Trees sure are showing signs of that awakening.   Below is a photo from this week showing the current state of these trees.  They're filling-up and the green leaves are screening our patio from our neighbor.  I expect them to continue to thicken-up over the coming weeks to fill-in even more than they ...

Last Summer, I posted a "getting to know" post about a new (to me) Korean Maple called Northern Glow .  After years of mixed results with Japanese Maples, discovering Korean Maple hybrids, introduced by Iseli Nursery in their "Jack Frost Collection" was an eye-opening moment.  We could get the same beauty of the Japanese Maple with a bit more cold tolerance via the Korean Maple hybrid.  What's not to love.    I ended up planting one in the Island Bed in the front yard .  Shaded it from the hot sun most of the Summer and it has come back really strongly this Spring.   The Arctic Jade is another tree from the Jack Frost collection.   Here is a photo from The Growing Place showing the Arctic Jade tree: From the description on the Iseli Nursery site : Acer x pseudosieboldianum Arctic Jade® is a member of our Jack Frost® collection of hybrid maples and is an excellent substitute for less hardy Japanese maples in harsh climate conditions. It ...

I've gone back-and-forth with our backyard patio containers over the years.  From moncultures to mixed containers.  From big-box store common plants to nursery-born more unique flowers.    One of my 2025 to-do list items this year is to 'do better containers on the patio' .   I've used Wave Petunias in some containers in the past, but have never used Superbells.  That was, until I came across this small quart container.  Here it is planted in one of our patio containers as a monoculture: Those yellow centers on a peach (or coral-colored) flower jumped off the nursery table. I bought only one of them, and I already regret it. Here's the container below: From Proven Winners listing for Superbells Coral Sun , they list these characteristics: Abundant, small petunia-like flowers all season on cascading growth, no deadheading necessary. Award Winner Continuous Bloom or Rebloomer Long Blooming Fall Interest Heat Tolerant Deadheading Not Necessary What'...

Last Fall, I planted a small Oregon Green Austrian Pine tree in our front yard that managed to handle the Winter and is seemingly doing ok this Spring.  When I planted that tree, I also wrote a 'Getting to Know" post about the tree that included this description of part of the tree: ... In the Spring...there is a firework explosion of pearly white candles that come out in clusters. Candles.  That's neat.   I was waiting to see if it would happen on our tree this Spring and watching and watching.  This past week, these white tubes began to grow and 'explode'.  Just like the description said.  See below for the candles on the Austrian Pine Oregon Green tree: Pretty neat to see them - as this is a first for me.   There is something that some folks do called "Candling", where they deliberately REMOVE or SHORTEN the candles in Spring.  Here's more from the Seattle Japanese Garden : April to May is when we begin the spring pruning process, o...