The Obsessive Neurotic Gardener

Author Archives: jmarkowski

Yuck uh, what?

Posted on by Posted in Containers .

So this happened last week.

yucca-container

Yes, that is my back deck.

And these plants weren’t purchased on a whim or on a dare. I actually came up with the concept while falling asleep the other night knowing I had these two containers begging for occupants.

The tall and upright planters were most recently occupied by two Sorbaria shrubs and were strategically located within my garden. I thought the containers and shrubs were a decent attempt at focal points since they stood out from all of the surrounding greenery.

Except they weren’t very focally or pointy.

So I removed the shrubs, planted them in the ground in more logical locations (for now at least) and the containers became vacant. That vacancy sparked many thoughts as the clock struck midnight on Monday last week and I some how settled on two yuccas framing the view from my kitchen into the backyard.

But I despise yuccas.

They are too spiky.

And too tropical.

And too dry inspiring.

And too modern.

And need never set foot anywhere near my property.

Yet even after sleeping on the concept and waking up with fresh mind and thought, I was still in favor of operation Yucca. That afternoon I found myself at the nursery carrying the two potential weapons and willingly having my wrists cut up along the way.

And I still like them in their current location.

I don’t know if I could ever describe why but I’m rolling with it. Maybe I enjoy the departure from my usual style/liking. Maybe I’m looking forward to color in fall and into winter. Who knows, but for now they’re staying.

Am I crazy? What is the over/under for how long they will reside in their current location?

 

Gratitude

Posted on by Posted in Uncategorized .

I am thankful for all of the deer that have made me a better gardener

I am thankful for my wife who makes me laugh, pushes me to dream and has more integrity than anyone I know

I am thankful for indestructible gardening gloves

I am thankful for a compassionate son who loves to write

I am thankful for 2.25 acres that has been my muse for 12 years running

I am thankful for my daughter and her unabashed enthusiasm and creativity

I am thankful for the health of my circle

I am thankful to have discovered Gary Vaynerchuk and James Altucher and Seth Godin

I am thankful for the written word and how it has dramatically changed my life

 

Fading

Posted on by Posted in My garden, Summer, Winter interest .

We have arrived at the initial stages of the the time of year when I get pissed off at a lot of my gardening brethren. When I say brethren, I mean anyone who has personally planted at least 19 plants within the past 3 years. I didn’t just make up those numbers, they have been carefully curated over time.

Plus I only work in odd numbers as all gardeners should.

My data shows me that this ratio properly identifies what I’ll call the “kind-of-into-it-gardener”. Anything less than that and the term gardener cannot be attached to those fools people. This is a crucial distinction and one I suggest you borrow/steal moving forward.

Here is why I get all sorts of perturbed:

We are nearing the end of summer and with it, the end of the line for so many perennials. They’ve worked their asses off for weeks/months on end. They’ve given us nothing but joy all spring/summer and now they are ready to take a seat, drop their petals and enjoy some much needed down time. All well deserved.

But by no means does that require us to cut them down, clean them up and remove all signs of their existence. I liken that nonsense to those people who chuck their Christmas trees on December 26th or put away the holiday decorations the day after. Take a breath, relax and allow nature to do its thing. If you look at it through the appropriate lens, it is a wondrous thing.

Yes, I openly embrace the fact that I can be a bit obsessive and compulsive and neurotic in my own garden and hypocritical from time to time.

True story interlude: I announced my distaste for sedums earlier this week because they weren’t native enough and didn’t fit into my garden aesthetic here in the Northeast U.S. This afternoon I just bought two Yucca plants for containers on my deck. Hypocrite much?

But one thing I’ve done, or not done I should say, since gardening stole my heart back in the late 90’s, is cut down my perennials. I’ve always left them standing even when my OCD tendencies were telling me to cut, cut, cut. I enjoy them around all fall and winter and implore all of the “make it nice and neat” crowd to do the same. You want reasons why? Here are just some off the top of my head:

  1. Enjoy the life cycle – from emergence in spring, to peak in summer, to the slow death in fall and dormancy in winter, I love it all. It is how it works in the wild and the way it is supposed to be. Embrace it.
  2. You’ll remember what is planted where – this is very underrated. No more issues with mistaking a newly emerging perennial as a weed or digging one up accidentally when planting in spring.
  3. The birds and bugs need it – a place of respite or food source for so many. I like nothing more than watching the finches hit up my coneflowers in winter.
  4. They look good covered in ice and snow – I’ll take any additional winter interest I can get. And bare garden space is not attractive.

So friends, family, some time acquaintances and strangers, accept the demise of your plants.

Do a lot by doing nothing.

Clean the pruners and stow them away.

Accept a bit of chaos.

Give the bees one last chance to enjoy the Agastache.

anise-hyssop

 

Remember how that vivid orange color excited you in mid summer.

sneezeweed-2

 

Don’t forget that brown is a color.

pink-veronica

 

And thank your Bee Balm for the endless entertainment they provided all summer drawing in all of those bees and butterflies.

bee-balm

QOTD: What perennial do you enjoy most in fall/winter?

 

 

 

Breaking News

Posted on by Posted in Comedy .

Frenchtown, NJ –

The people in this small and tight knit rural New Jersey river town are in collective shock this afternoon after learning that one of their own has done the unthinkable; publicly denounce the ubiquitous and fall thriving plant known as “Stonecrop” (or “Sedum” to those garden snobs who throw around Latin plant names as a means to impress and ultimately intimidate).

John Markowski, a local avid gardener and supposed garden blogger, was allegedly discovered early this morning in a disillusioned state as he gave a tongue lashing to the previously mentioned “Sedum” plants in his sprawling garden. A neighbor, concerned that John seemed agitated and louder than usual as he walked through his garden early this morning, tried to approach him but was quickly rebuked by a look that he could only describe as “peculiar”.

Here is the unnamed neighbor’s take:

“John normally walks through the garden early each morning but he normally does so as if he were I don’t know, a giddy ballerina. The entire neighborhood knows this and we’ve all become accustomed to it. Whatever floats his boat.”

“But this morning was very different. Scarily different. There was an intensity like I’ve never seen before and the noises coming from within the garden were strange enough that it had both of my dogs barking incessantly.”

“I attempted to approach him to see what was wrong and all he was doing was mumbling to himself. All I could make out was ‘I’m done with sedums. I don’t like them and they will be removed from my garden’. Now I don’t know much about gardening, but I know enough to know that them there are the words of a crazy man. Everyone loves sedums, or whatever they are called. I quickly walked away and contacted my buddy at the local newspaper”. 

Upon receiving this tip, we immediately sent someone out to the property to monitor the situation but the self proclaimed ONG was nowhere to be found. We did, however, encounter a family spokesperson who offered little more than a “no comment” and “this family has suffered enough gardening drama to last a lifetime so please respect their privacy at this time.”  

We were however able to get this photo of what was allegedly the subject of Mr. Markowski’s wrath earlier today.          

sedum

Adorable and pink, right? 

After leaving the home, we sent an email to Mr. Markowski hoping to get his side of the story so it would quell the fears of all of the locals. Within a few hours we received a response and well, you be the judge:

“I appreciate your concern and the concern from my neighbors and all of the community. I assure you I am of sound mind and there is no reason for any drummed up hysteria. It is as simple as this: I no longer enjoy having sedums in my garden. They just don’t work for me any more or I should say, they just don’t “fit” any longer. I knew there would be great backlash if I removed and tossed them because the friggin world loves sedums, especially right now as we move into fall. I had to psych myself up in order to do away with them and that pep talk must have been what scared my neighbor away. You can all breathe easy, it is no big deal. As the years have gone by, my garden has taken on a look and feel of mostly native plants and the sedum stick out like a sore thumb. If it would make everyone happy, I would be thrilled to donate them all to the highest bidder, I mean first to reach out. Thank you for your concern. By the way, check out my blog at www.obsessiveneuroticgardener.com”

We’ll all have to chew on that one for a while.

We plan on taking some time to page through Mr. Markowski’s blog to see if we can further assess his current demeanor. 

Our best guess is that this story still has legs going forward. Dude has a serious case of too many ornamental grasses and not enough flowers in his garden. Just look at these photos we obtained from an anonymous source.

grasses

grasses 2

grasses 3

Something just smells wrong here.   

 

                    

Goals

Posted on by Posted in Garden memoir .

I suck at the whole setting and attaining goals deal. Like I’m not sure if I’ve ever actually set one and if I did, I forgot what it was.

True story: The day I met my wife, freshman year in college, I managed to tell her within minutes of meeting that “I have no goals”. Gentleman, try that one on for size and let me know how it plays out. How this woman still agreed to hang with me after that I’ll never know and I won’t be selling my “Blueprint to Meeting and Retaining Your Future Wife” eBook any time soon. There had to have been divine intervention in play or my boyish charm was just too overwhelming to pass up.

Truth is, I have lived the majority of my life for the day or if I’m being generous, for the week. I’m not sure which parent supplied me with this DNA but it is who I have been for as far back as I can remember. I wasn’t one of those kids who would say “When I grow up, I want to …” and I have vivid memories of listening to those goal-oriented SOB’s and thinking, you’re shitting me, right? You can’t possibly be thinking that far ahead. We’re 5 and we’re supposed to be catching lightning bugs and riding our Big Wheels.

me blog

I’ve got anecdotes for days.

I was a solid to “good” basketball player in high school (helps when you are 6 foot 3 in a small town with a small pool of players) and probably had potential to be “dang good”. But guess who didn’t train in the off season or hit the weight room to add much needed muscle to his skinny frame? Don’t mess with #21.

me blog 2

I still remember my father offering to make me protein shakes and urging me to practice my jump shot nightly. I chose Wiffleball and Atari instead. I didn’t dream of making the varsity team as a freshman or set my sights on All League honors. I played hard and enjoyed the game during the season but after that I moved on.

The gist of my college entry essay was that I looked forward to discovering my passion while attending school and dedicating myself to it fully. A laser sharp focus with goals to carry it over to a career. I was ready to mature and the collegiate atmosphere would do just that for me.

That laser sharp focus took me from a Journalism major to an unknown major to a Criminal Justice major/Psychology minor to eventually taking the LSAT’s for law school only to never pursue that path and then dabbling in private investigation before settling in the insurance industry where I reside today. A true plan never entered the equation.

Now this mentality does have its advantages:

  • It is a lot easier to enjoy the smaller moments in life. Future? Who cares, this apple is delicious.
  • Stress levels remain low. There is no formal map to follow and no need to constantly assess where we are on said map.
  • You become the rock for others. Aren’t you worried about “blank” or “blank” John? Me, not one iota. I’m living for today, man.

But some serious disadvantages:

  • A lot of shit doesn’t get done. What’s the rush or why the urgency, bro?
  • The burden of future thinking falls on your significant other. Just ask my wife.
  • A true sense of accomplishment. “Wow, I did that” is against all odds is foreign to me.

Now don’t start painting me with the lazy brush or a wanna-be hippie (I’m talking to myself here). I’ve managed to navigate life rather decently to this point. I graduated college, got married and bought a few houses. We pay our bills each month, hold down jobs and we’ve managed to raise some pretty kick ass children along the way in spite of me. It has just been a battle of trying to shed a personality flaw and do my best to become a more goal oriented and future thinking fellow.

And that battle only continues to intensify as I get older.

Since technically, this is a garden blog, I’ll spare you my personal, professional, financial, etc. goal building and goal assessment plan. God bless my wife for setting the foundation on these fronts. It is time for me to step up to the plate but that will be handled on the down low.

But with garden goals, I am an open book or as open as the hole in the middle of my irises that I’ve failed to divide for years now. I’ve been passionate about this blog for over 7 years and even more passionate about my garden beyond that. It is who I am and what I do. And here’s one for you: I’ve got a book in me and it is in the works. That’s a friggin goal and one I will accomplish. I’ve never felt more confident in my life. But that doesn’t mean Johnnie doesn’t still have goal issues in the garden.

Case in point.

This past weekend we were up in Vermont visiting friends and ended up in the inevitable sitting around, enjoying some beverages and let’s get into deep discussion mode. The kind where you ignore the kids who have been on their devices for hours and the kids in turn wonder why adults like sitting around and talking so much. What should have been relatively light discussion ended up getting me all panicky. Not what you are supposed to do on vacation.

Topic #1 was the requisite pie-in-the-sky discussion.

“If you could start any business regardless of finances, location, etc. what would it be?”

To the surprise of exactly no one, I dream of a nursery that not only offers uncommon and interesting plants but also brings you killer coffee in the morning and craft beers from 12:00 on. We talk nothing but plants and gardens and sports while you traverse my grounds. Oodles of native ornamental grasses. There are plant/seed swaps daily and Piet Oudolf makes the occasional guest appearance. I make frequent visits to your home to see how your plants are doing. And maybe pull a few weeds along the way.

Quick aside: There was also a long discussion about an Uber type service for local kids’ activities. A lot of potential here. Please don’t steal this idea. And my wife’s idea is so unique and so solid that I can’t even share it here. It could work and I’m not messing that up.

So back to my potential nursery business. While it was a light conversation among friends, I felt a twinge of uneasiness. Should I at least be doing some level of research into this? If I really feel strongly about it, don’t I owe it to myself? A non-long-term-goal-setter like me typically shrugs this off. But I’m not getting any younger and I’d want to do this while I was still spry and full of energy. Should I be building a timeline/succession plan from my current job? How do the kids and college factor in? We’re so not in financial risk mode right now, but shit, I so want to pursue this in spite of myself.

Topic #2 was simple and straight forward:

Would you do a kitchen makeover?

As the discussion weaved in and out about cabinets, islands, subway tile and track lighting I found myself nodding out of that conversation and moving on to my own internal discussion. Is it possible to “redo” your garden?

My initial thought was “no”. While it is relatively easy to change cabinet doors, paint walls and switch out hardware, you cannot replace mature trees and shrubs. Beyond the physical labor, the prohibitive cost to buy new mature trees and shrubs make it a ridiculously expensive proposition. But what if I really wanted to attempt a garden makeover, albeit one on a smaller scale? Do I have enough time to start over? Do I have the time to actually install it?

From there, I allowed my mind to wander even further and after bypassing the idea of making over the garden, I started to do the math to determine how much longer I had with my current garden. The factors included:

  • College – if we follow the standard four year plan, my son would graduate in 2024 and my daughter in 2028. That is roughly 12 years from now.

jack graduate

  • Relocation – my wife and I dream of moving south to warmer weather and near the ocean. We’d wait until after the kids graduate from college at a minimum.
  • Current jobs – when can we say goodbye or more likely, when will they show us the door? Could we keep our jobs upon relocating?

With all that in mind, I couldn’t get 12 years out of my head. Shit, only 12 more years. Do I need to take that into account when buying new trees and shrubs? Do I need to lay out a plan or gulp, start setting goals around the end game of my garden as I know it? For years I’ve tackled a bit at a time without any thought as to how it ties into a larger master plan. Is it time to change that mentality? Do I care what the next homeowners will do with my garden? What if they tear it all out?

I have dreamed of getting my garden to the point where it could be showcased as part of a public garden tour and I can’t imagine accomplishing that in the next 12 years. Should I develop a specific site plan in order to attempt this? Does it take away from the day to day enjoyment of my garden and does that impact what I write about here?

A lot of questions with precious few answers at this point.

To be continued …

QOTD: Do you have a long term vision/plan for your garden?

 

Samsung Galaxy 7 pics on Instagram

Posted on by Posted in My garden .

My new Samsung Galaxy 7 phone should really be called a camera that has telephonic capabilities. I can take unbelievable macro shots with this phone and here are a few for your viewing pleasure.

Grasses, transitions and a new destroyer of plants

Posted on by Posted in My garden, Ornamental grass, Summer .

A tour around my garden:

Ornamental grasses are the dominant feature right now as they round into their peak form. So why don’t we start there.

I’m sure you are well aware of my affinity for Panicum ‘Rotstrahlbusch’ by now but if not, here is some visible propaganda.

rots

 

rots 2

 

More Panicum love here as well.

driveway bed

 

Not only do the grasses put a smile on my face but they also serve a very tangible purpose. Here they are protecting the tomatoes from the deer and doing a bang up job I must say.

tomatoes grasses

 

‘Karl Foerster’, kicking ass in John’s garden since ’07.

karl

 

A recent addition to the grass collection, Pennisetum ‘Burgundy Bunny’ has phenomenal color right now. I am going to liberally add these wherever I can find the space for them. Love.

burgundy bunny 2

 

Soghastrum (Indian Grass) has announced its presence in a big way of late but I’ll hold off on photos until they are just right. By just right, I mean when all of the blooms have arrived. For now, here is a taste of one of those blooms. Love.

indian grass bloom

 

Speaking of blooms on the grasses. Here is one of the Andropogon (Big Bluestem) ‘Red October’ blooms. I now get why this grass is often referred to as Turkey Foot.

andropogon flower

 

Yes, there are plants other than ornamental grasses that tickle my fancy right now and some of these newly emerged this week. Like seen here with the first blooms of Chelone lyonii. This plant truly loves my often waterlogged soil and for that I am indebted for life.

chelone

 

This Boltonia bloom could be heard yelling “first” this morning.

boltonia

 

Sedum ‘Matrona’ is playing nicely with Veronica ‘Royal Candles’ and my little hide-it-from-the-deer-game is still going strong.

sedum veronica

 

Transition of seasons. It is coming.

Look at what we have here. The seedheads of Baptisia are slowly opening and that makes me think winter is around the corner and that makes me cold which in turn makes me both mad and sad.

baptisia seedhead

 

Speaking of a transitional period, I just noticed this week that the stems on the Redtwig Dogwood are well, red and that also is freaking me out a bit. I love the red stems in winter and it is welcome winter interest, but for god’s sake, not yet.

redtwig

 

This Rhamnus (Buckthorn) ‘Fine Line’ was inundated with Japanese beetles just a few weeks ago and looked nasty. Now I know how resilient and tough she is and that will be noted on the trusty plant spreadsheet.

rhamnus

 

This spring I ordered a massive quantity of small plugs of Packer Aurea (Golden Ragwort) from Izel Native Plants and while they all initially struggled with the heat and the humidity, they have all bounced back like a champ. I love the foliage. And I’m banking on mass blooms in early spring next year and post bloom, I plan on it being the plant to hide the ugly legs of others like Bee Balm and Sneezeweed.

ragwort

 

I cannot for the life of me successfully grow Cimicifuga (Bugbane). It is official now. I’ve tried in full shade, mostly shade, partial shade and full sun. I’ve left alone for years and remained patient with no success. I’ve kept them consistently moist and no dice. It may be time to move on.

cimici 3

 

cimici 2

 

cimici

 

One last one before I go. I spotted this bloom of Hydrangea ‘Little Lime’ just laying in my front lawn this morning and thought it curious since it wasn’t actually eaten by the deer.

hydrangea

Upon closer inspection, there were Bee Balm plants knocked to the ground near it as well.

Upon closer inspection this was not the act of deer or any other animal.

Upon closer inspection, a certain 14 year old boy seemed awfully nervous around me this morning.

Upon closer inspection, said 14 y/o boy likes to hit a baseball across the front lawn and this area happens to be right in the way.

QOTD: How should I appropriately handle this situation?

The August Garden

Posted on by Posted in My garden, Ornamental grass, Summer .

As we hit the midpoint of August and slog through the dog days of summer, I realize that the plants in my garden can be broken down into three different categories:

Fading

Still going strong

Ready to take center stage

I guess these same categories exist throughout all of the gardening “seasons”, but it seems to be at an extreme right now.

And the garden, shocker, reflects life itself. Allow me to pontificate.

With the heat and humidity at what feels like an all time high (I’ll still take it over winter) I some times find myself caving and giving in to the joys of air conditioning. Likewise, so many plants have succumbed to the conditions and have thrown in the towel. No more fighting for that last new bloom or trying to keep up the facade of clean looking foliage. Uncle.

At the same time, there are those plants in my garden that say “f you” to these conditions and keep kicking ass. Not too unlike a certain gardener I know who can’t get enough of the stinging sweat in his eyes, the burning in the calves and easily runs through three t-shirts a day. A gardener who accepts the chuckles from his neighbors and keeps pulling weeds like it was hot yoga.

And then there are those plants who sense the cooler weather is coming and are ramping up for a big time display. There are subtle signs from some and not so subtle signs from others. You can feel their excitement, their turn to take the lead in the play. Fall is their time and they f’n know it. Hopefully my kids feel that same type of energy and excitement as they soon head off to high school and 5th grade. Because all kids feel that way,right?

FADING

No plants better represent the concept of fading than the coneflower. Phenomenal in peak bloom but in my humble opinion, still killer as the pink and yellow and white washes out, turns black and eventually becomes all cone.

coneflower spent

 

white coneflower

 

astilbe coneflower spent

 

Almost all of the Bee Balm blooms are in full fade mode yet still have a presence. That is if you take them in from a distance and ignore the slow takeover of powdery mildew.

bee balm and joe pye

 

Fading Agastache still pulls in the bees and who wants to get in the way of that?

spent agastache

 

STILL GOING STRONG

The dwarf Sneezeweed (‘Mariachi’ series) are still blooming strong and the deer have no interest.

red dwarf sneezeweed

 

orange dwarf sneezeweed

Providing a nice contrast in form and color with the emerging ornamental grasses.

planter bed

 

If it takes surrounding hydrangea by grasses and other deer despising plants, so be it. It has worked and this hydrangea continues to thrive even with the extreme heat of the past few weeks.

hydrangea

 

Veronica ‘Royal Candles’, one of the few plants I cut back religiously, always provides multiple rebloom periods. These were cut back only two weeks ago.

veronica prune

 

veronica sedum bee balm

 

Of course it isn’t all about the flowers and one of my favorite foliage plants right now is Diervilla ‘Cool Splash’. It brightens up one of the few shaded areas in my garden and holds up all spring/summer.

diervilla

 

I have tried for years to find a blue evergreen that would be ignored by the deer and say “no problem” to my clay soil that can sometimes be a bit waterlogged. Some how, Juniper ‘Wichita Blue’ has been the one to take the crown and three years in I am beyond thrilled. Upright, untouched by the deer and very little winter damage has made it a winner.

juniper wichita

 

READY TO TAKE CENTER STAGE

The first signs of bloom on the Sedum ‘Autumn Fire’ appeared this week, which is always a reminder that September is fast approaching.

sedum pink

 

Boltonia blooms aplenty are here with plenty more to come. Of course once all blooms are present it will lean over and not be as fun to look at but I’ll be sure to never show you that photo.

boltonia

 

Eupatorium ‘Wayside’ or Hardy Ageratum (but not really an Ageratum) finally survived the winter for me after two previous attempts. It seems to have reseeded more than it actually survived but who can complain. I love the late season color. A fun one to photograph in fall.

eup wayside

 

BONUS – Ornamental Grasses

I kind of like ornamental grasses in case you are new here. You’ve been warned.

Pennisetum ‘Hameln’ in full bloom as of this week.

pennisetum

 

penn and joe pye

 

First signs of blooms on Panicum ‘Northwind’.

panicum and joe pye

 

Same goes for Miscanthus ‘purpurascens’ or Flame Grass.

panicum miscanthus blooms

 

Panicum ‘Rotstrahlbusch’ and their airy blooms.

panicum rots

 

I “attempted” to rid my garden of all Northern Sea Oats and while there is still a ways to go, I’ve made major progress. Having said that, I can’t deny these NSO that have grown right through an Itea shrub look kind of awesome. Oh well.

sea oats

QOTD: Do you like this time of year in your garden? Why or why not?

 

Top 14 Favorite Plants List

Posted on by Posted in My garden, Ornamental grass, Perennials, Shrubs .

After hours of research, reminiscing, comparisons, self evaluation, honest arguments with myself and numerous drafts thrown in the garbage in a fit of rage, I’ve finally completed my long awaited “Top 14 Favorite Plants List”.

Why 14? Why not, I say. Truth is that was the natural cutoff point and there was no way I could limit it to 10.

10 is so 2015.

Consider the “extra 4” a bonus for your botanical viewing pleasure.

A few suggestions before the reveal:

  1. Print this list and take it to your local nursery when shopping for plants in fall.
  2. Memorize this list and share it with your friends while at your kids soccer game.
  3. Email it to all of your friends and show them that you’re thinking about them.
  4. Share this on all forms of social media so you can say that you read this list before it exploded and became the go-to list for gardeners all over the globe. #WhatAList

When compiling this list, I took a lot of different criteria into account from multiple season impact, ease of maintaining, prettiness level, level of creature attraction, focal pointed-ness, etc. In the end, there was no official scoring system and all of these plants (perennials, shrubs, grasses only) naturally fell into their ranking. Some are ubiquitous and others not so well known.

All of these plants currently reside in my garden and I eliminated all plants from contention if I haven’t had years nurturing/killing/crying with them.

Each plant has a hyperlink to the original blog posts I had dedicated for each or were part of another story that I’d think you’d enjoy. Go ahead, click them and get educated.

So here we go, in reverse order starting with:

14. Mountain Mint

mint2

 

13. Viburnum carlesii ‘Aurora’

viburnum aurora

 

12. Sorghastrum nutans (Indian Grass)

indian panicum sage

 

11. Calamagrostis ‘Karl Foerster’

karl foerster bee balm

 

10. Redtwig Dogwood 

pruning redtwig dogwood 4

 

9. Astilbe arendsii ‘Amethyst’

astilbe3

 

8. Veronica ‘Royal Candles’

veronica

 

7. Panicum ‘Rotstrahlbusch’

rp_panicum-rots-1024x683.jpg

 

6. Purple Coneflower 

butterfly coneflower

 

5. Miscanthus purpurascens (Flame Grass)

rots flame grass

 

4. Baptisia australis

baptisia 2

 

3. Panicum ‘Northwind’

northwind

 

2. Amsonia hubrichtii and/or tabernaemontana 

amsonia and panicum

 

1. Eupatorium ‘Joe Pye Weed’

joe pye playroom bed

What do you think of the list? Any surprises? Any strong disagreements? Fill those comments up now and let’s get a discussion rolling.

Thursday Thoughts

Posted on by Posted in Comedy .

Read at your own peril:

  • When a “farmer’s tan” becomes all the rage in fashion, I’ll be on the cover of Esquire. People were literally alarmed at the beach a few weeks back and my daughter got a case of the giggles like I’ve never seen before. It’s that bad … or good.

 

  • I’m way late to the party, but I just finished Elizabeth Gilbert’s “Big Magic”. A must read for those wanting to explore their creative side more. Too many quotes to add here but just know that I’m creating things like this on Instagram as a result. Scary, I know.

liz

 

  • Speaking of inspiration, I’m still all in on Gary Vaynerchuk and vow to one day work for him in some capacity. He lit a fire under this mid 40’s dude like I didn’t think was possible. I’m also creating things like this on Instagram as a result.

gary

  • I have many book ideas rolling around in my head and they range from a “An Illustrated guide to what not to do when gardening” to “How Joe Pye Weed changed my life” to “How to survive deer and shit soil”. Would you read any of those?

 

  • I’m negotiating with my daughter to dispose of her swingset/playground so I can install a large and fenced in vegetable/fruit garden. On one hand, It’s killing me to end that era as I remember pushing her for hours on end just based on her smile and remember teaching both kids how to jump off a swing in style. On the other hand, this could be epic and I could teach her all about growing your own and how to tend to a garden that bears food. On the other hand part II, do I have the time for such a venture? #GardenProblems