Shasta daisies beyond, the cucumber magnolia is the frame.
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Tree pruning Saturday, Jan 18 2014
gardening and Trees gardening 13:40
I enjoy it. Well, most of the time. I enjoy the challenge of making the decision, that slow guessing game of what a cut here and now will do ten years from now. Some trees a pretty forgiving, apples for example, either because they grow fast or because they have plenty of dormant buds. Others are a challenge. Maples, for example, slow growing and unwilling to change direction. The saying measure twice, cut once? More like, look four times, check again, then cut. You can’t glue it back on. And while trees grow, an unwanted hole is still an unwanted hole.
The goal, in my view, is to end with a pruned tree that doesn’t look pruned. I think we did pretty well on the red maple next to the drive. It had to have a major branch taken off, being much too low and heading across the drive. And, of course, some other judicious pruning for balance. Just about every other year we have been limbing it up. Eventually it will have to branch off at about 25 feet to clear the house and drive as a fully mature tree. It is always better to cut the branches when they are smaller. In this case, the limb ought to have come off last year, honestly. You can see the scar, a four inch wide mark on the trunk, but that will heal within a year or two. What you don’t see is a hole or an unbalanced tree. Just a young red maple growing upwards with a nice open set of limbs. And the drive isn’t closed in either….much to the relief of the trucks I am sure!
Glory of the Morning Wednesday, Jan 15 2014
gardening and Modern Photos gardening, photography 09:29
Morning Glory ‘Grandpa Ott’s’
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The Rain in Spain Tuesday, Jan 14 2014
does anybody recall that song anymore? It’s from My Fair Lady and is a earworm par excellence.
Anyway, it is raining here when it ought to be snowing…. At least the ground is now completely thawed, which means aside from the MUD, the water table is benefiting. Lord knows we need it. The river is higher than I have seen it in three or four years. Still, if anyone goes off the driveway or tries to turn around at the top, I will do something unspeakable, the lawns are beyond fragile at this point.
I’d prefer snow, if only because my family members would like to try out their cross-country skies and snowshoes. It is very English of the weather though, I expect a daffodil to pop up at any moment. I never could get used to daffodils in February in Edinburgh!
Creak… Saturday, Jan 11 2014
gardening and Trees gardening, trees 09:22
Nothing makes one’s ears perk up as well as walking through the woods (in this case the Rabbit Hole’s stand of Norway Spruce/Pine/Maple) on a windless, warm day and hearing an ominous popping creak from high above. It might be the massive double trunk White Pine near the drive, it has several pieces of climbing Euonymous jammed in the crotch of the trunk and consequently it sometimes makes some very odd noises, even on a day with essentially no wind.* It might be an innocuous branch rubbing somewhere; it might be a tree reacting to the changing temperature. Or it might be gravity asserting itself. It is the sort of noise that is very hard to get a solid directional fix on, you’re doing well to pin it down to about 90 degrees.
You can’t go and visually inspect all those trees, not when there are well over a dozen Norway Spruces and Pines standing at between 80 and 110 feet in height. Besides in my experience, you can never tell. The White Pine on the North Lawn all those years ago was a lovely example: a perfectly fine, fully mature pine when I walked past on a day with light wind; fifteen minutes later and it had snapped like a toothpick. On the other hand, there is an ash that is busy defying physics: it has a spiral crack so large that a child could hide in the hollow of the trunk and on windy days you can see the crack shifting. It has been that way for about five years and two hurricanes.
If it is something…well, we will KNOW about it one of these days!
*even 5mph wind is enough to get a little bit of sway at the top, which is just enough to get it to rub.
Reminders Thursday, Jan 9 2014
Esperanza and gardening and Landscapes and Modern Photos gardening, photography 08:58
A reminder that last winter was no more kind than this year’s; and this was the result…
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Shhh… Wednesday, Jan 8 2014
We’re hibernating.
Actually, this wouldn’t be so bad if there was any snow on the ground. But there is no snow here. So the ground is working on freeze-drying, rather than just freezing.
I have to be impressed with the cellular mechanics of the broad-leaved evergreens (rhododendrons/azaleas). During the rain (and 55 F) last weekend the leaves were wide open and flat. In the deep freezes immediately before and after they are either limp and loosely curled (rhododendrons) and stiff and tightly curled (azaleas). It is an impressive bit of bio-mechanics. It would be interesting to see what exactly is happening on the cellular level. Do the leaves always curl in the same direction? I would think so…I am not, however, going to go out and look!
Pick one and stick with it Sunday, Jan 5 2014
My suggestion to the weather… Yesterday morning, we were down below zero. Today? Rain.
I think the seed catalogs are a much better form of entertainment than the outdoors! Of course, seed catalogs are probably even worse than clothing catalogs. You at least get the clothes that are advertised from the latter (even if you never can look like the model). With the seed catalog (or plant) you don’t get the lovely flower, you get the seed and then you have to figure out how to grow it. Actually, the tropical/flowering plant/tree ones are really the worst: the ad is always some decade plus plant, carefully grown, pruned, and photographed. The one you get? A two year cutting. We’re all dreamers!
2014 Wednesday, Jan 1 2014
May it be better than 2013.*
The old calendar had the new year coming in March. This area kept that calendar until 1752 or thereabouts, engendering much confusion in those digging through the records of the day. I confess that January is not the most natural time to start the new year, even if the sun is beginning to swing around. Winter is really starting in earnest now, we had an early six inches of snow at the beginning of December, but that was followed by rain. At that time, the ground was not yet frozen and the grass was still greenish in the field. Now the ground is rock hard and any hint of late green in the grass is entirely gone. It is cold, clear, and windy. I am keeping my fingers crossed for one of my clematis, C. montana ‘Mayleen’, it blooms on last year’s growth so if it dies to the ground….well. Technically, it is a zone 6 plant, I’m hoping the microclimate south of the house is just warm enough. It managed last winter, but that was a bit milder and the temperature got down to zero but not below. The weather gurus may claim that the zone here is 6; but neither the plants nor the weather listen to their pontification. It is zone 5, the old zone 5. always has been.
*I won’t say it could hardly be worse, because it could be indeed. All things counted, 2013 was a good year.
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Rose of the Day Monday, Dec 30 2013
gardening and Modern Photos gardening, photography, roses 16:38
It might be ‘Morden’s Blush’ or ‘Winchester Cathedral’ or possibly another that I can’t recall at the moment, beyond it is the old ‘Fourth of July’ rose, a floribunda type that sprawls and blooms with abandon, usually on the fourth of July, and is as tough as nails, name unknown.
Acair Fearann 