Hydrangea Daddy

10/02/2026

Have you watched my September Garden tour yet? 🔗 in my bio!

10/01/2026

Lots of changes in flight in the garden this fall, along with a bunch of shrubs that are finding their forever home -

🌲 Strongbox Inkberry Holly
⚫️ Winecraft Black Smokebush
🌸 Let’s Dance Sky View Hydrangea

What are your garden plans this fall?

09/30/2026

No spoonfuls of sugar here, but there are spoonfuls of winterberries! These are Berry Poppins winterberry holly from Proven Winners Shrubs and I’ve planted them in my garden specifically for the red winter interest. 🔴

📐 Grows 3’-4’ tall and wide
📍 Hardy in Zones 3-9
☀️ Part to Full Sun

Oh, and they resist deer! 🦌

09/30/2026

Filming this on September 30th so I get to count it as both my September and Early Fall garden tour! Things are looking rough around the garden - weeks of intense heat and no rain coupled with travel have left many of my plants dying of thirst. So in this garden tour I show the good, the bad, and the ugly as we transition from Summer into Fall in this Zone 7a garden.

09/23/2026

Remember who your daddy is… 😜

09/22/2026

09/21/2026

The next time you struggle to get a plant to establish or thrive, just remember, there are other plants out there surviving in far worse conditions.

09/21/2026

You asked, and I listened - now we can all grow Groundbreaker Hydrangeas together! 📣 I’ve partnered with Plant Addicts to bring you a Hydrangea Daddy-Exclusive discount of 10% when you use code HYDRANGEADADDY at checkout for the next 7 days!

Groundbreaker Hydrangeas grow in USDA Zones 5-8, with a height between 12”-16” and a spread of roughly 2.5 ft and thrive in part to full sun. Groundbreaker is available from Plant Addicts in 3 colors: Blush, Ruby, and Greeny and they’re all great for borders, containers, and mass plantings!

This is a limited-time, Hydrangea Daddy-Exclusive deal, so make sure to use code HYDRANGEADADDY when you place your order at PlantAddicts.com ASAP to save 10% on your order of Groundbreaker Hydrangeas!

*Offer valid 9/21/2026 - 9/27/2026

09/14/2026

This one’s going to be controversial - but sometimes landscape fabric can make things so much easier.

Typically I start my new landscape beds by either removing the sod by hand with a shovel, or by using layers of cardboard or contractor paper topped with organic material to smother the grass. But sometimes, like the example in this video, the space was just far too big for what I could tackle as one person - this bed is approximately 70’ wide x 10’ deep.

So what did I do instead? I used a heavy duty landscape fabric topped with pine straw. This created the perfect environment to kill the grass underneath, without making it extremely difficult to pull up the fabric afterwards or the use of chemicals. Spreading the pine straw back out afterwards was a piece of cake.

Your soil wants to breathe, landscape fabric stops whatever you’ve put on top - compost, mulch, etc. - from breaking down and enriching your native soil. But in my case, for a temporary application, it made total sense.

Have you ever done something similar?

09/12/2026

Happy (early) Birthday to me! 🎂 This slow-grower found their permanent home today in our front yard. Growing just 3-6” per year, “Sparkler” is an extremely cold tolerant spruce, hardy all the way down to USDA Zone 2.

In 10 years this spruce will grow roughly 6-8’ wide and 10-12’ tall, providing privacy for the gate to our backyard.