I’ve nearly succeeded (again) in killing off the indestructible Tatarian daisy (Aster tataricus ‘Jindai’). Last gasp efforts will be made to salvage it, to find a sunnier spot where it can grow shoulder high and spread like the coarsely textured weed that it is. The typically vigorous aster has grown only a foot tall and…

A week ago, I began digging to level a pad in the sloping back garden to erect a small, six sided greenhouse. I was undecided about the purchase, and of course every gardener needs a greenhouse, or at least thinks he does, so when an offer for a two hundred dollar discount came in, I…

I’m in no rush for winter to arrive, but I’m all in for the recent cooler temperatures. The last hot day a week ago hit ninety-seven, so no one I know was sad to see days like that go away. Today, there are more signs in the garden from the heat and extended drought than…

Berries of hollies (Ilex) and beautyberries (Callicarpa americana and C. dichotoma) stand out along margins of the garden, but in the thicket just beyond a heavily berried vine climbs into the scrubby trees. This is Oriental bittersweet (Celastrus orbiculatus), a lovely and vigorous vine if it was not invasive. Several years ago, extensive labor was…

Of all the treasures seen on a too quick run through the Chicago Botanic Garden, a Seven Son tree (Heptacodium micioniodes) caught my eye, reminding me of the tree lost in a storm several years ago. I’ve thought many times about planting another, but never found the right tree. In a well established garden, a…

I don’t recall ‘Oridono nishiki’ (Acer palmatum ‘Oridono nishiki’) as a constant disappointment, but in recent years new growth on the Japanese maple showed little color. Of course, then its health declined and finally it perished for reasons that are unclear. Its removal was somewhat a relief, though the loss of any large tree is…

As summer turns to autumn, flowers are conspicuous in the garden, but this is not the only color. While native dogwoods are beginning to show autumn foliage color, it will be weeks before the swamp maples and tulip poplars in the forest, and the garden’s Japanese maples, show their autumn colors. Several weeks ago, a…

Cattails that have invaded the koi pond from a nearby wetland are limited to a small section of the shallows by more vigorous pickerrel weed (Pontederia cordata), yellow flag iris (Iris pseudacorus), and less aggressive variegated leaf cattails planted in this bog area (below) of the pond years ago. The native cattails are on the…

I do not intend to be discouraging, but flowering of mophead hydrangeas has been quite disappointing in recent years. Not for a year, but three. Early springs and late frosts have been to blame a few times, but I think this spring should have been ideal. Yet, there were few spring flowers and only a…

I suspect that I might overreact a bit when patches of weeds jump up to get ahead of me. Most often, I quietly cuss the labor to dig out stubborn nutsedge, but I’ve been known occasionally to moan aloud over the messy state of the garden. Really, it’s not so bad, even when spotted spurge…

After thirty years, the rhymes and reasons of this garden are occasionally garbled. Please excuse my faulty recollection if timelines are muddled. It’s a flub, not a fib, though I’m not above an innocent embellishment when the details are foggy. Several trees have been here for the duration. I know, I dug every hole, five…

Three toad lilies (Tricyrtis, of unknown variety, as is so often the case in these parts), planted in ground that proved to be too damp, were recently transplanted to drier and sunnier spots. One was single stemmed and quite tall, the second clearly a dwarf, with the third in between. I presume that I will…