Possibly ‘Goldilocks’
Crocus chrysanthus Saturday, Mar 30 2013
gardening and Modern Photos gardening, photography 12:11
Over-rated optimism Saturday, Mar 16 2013
I clearly should not trim the apple trees…every time I get going on them it starts snowing. I am a wimp, I admit. But the fact is that while I enjoy pruning them, it is hard enough when it is not cold and windy. All that looking up. The apple trees by the way are one of those ‘oops’ that sometimes happens. They should have been semi-dwarf. Over the past few years it has become increasingly clear that they are not semi-dwarf. Now, I don’t mind standards, it’s just they are a bit harder to prune. I am actually going to see if I can prune the Wolf River from the second-story balcony with the pole saw…
I do wish that I knew more about how certain spring plants manage. The daffodils and snow-drops are just starting up, as are the crocus. None of these plants mind getting frozen. It got down to about 18 last night, but that doesn’t hurt these bulbs even if they are up with flowers. The snow-drops are quite happy to poke up through the snow and bloom. Living up to their name quite well. Some mosses seem to be able to do the same thing.
It is an interesting bit of evolution…
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Hah! Identified! Monday, Mar 11 2013
gardening daylilies, gardening, heirlooms, photography 10:54
We have here, in quantity, a certain daylily. We have always referred to it as the ‘Double-ditch’ for obvious reasons and assumed that it was an unnamed oddity. Well, what should I find in a gardening catalog today? (Old House Gardens; www.oldhousegardens.com)
H. fluva ‘Kwanso’ circa 1860
Here it is at Esperanza
Forward! Sunday, Mar 10 2013
There is something very satisfying about clambering over the snowdrifts to the south facing bank, which has no snow on it and is supposed to be replanted this spring, and removing the unnecessary burning bushes. I know in a few weeks or maybe even days that area will be being scouted by nesting birds. Planting young trees/shrubs in the area doesn’t bother them, taking away the cover they have already seen in the area does. But if the cover is gone now, they don’t miss it.
Hopefully, the bank will turn into a nice mixed edge: a ninebark (sulking in its current location), a smokebush or two (ditto), a native shadblow (I have to move it about five feet), two shadblows in the vegetable garden, and a chokecherry. All joining several volunteer Pagoda Dogwoods, some sweet-fern, a volunteer elderberry, a blueberry, some pokeweed, and a clump of steeplebush; underneath a canopy of mature pines, black cherries, birches, and oaks. Along with the requisite goldenrod, pasture grass, daylilies, and daffodils. Sounds good? And yes, a few burning bushes still.
Besides, I Have to get the two shadblows out of the vegetable garden. I still haven’t figured out where to put the three copper beech seedlings, which I didn’t expect to live.
Yes, I garden by trial and error.
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Iris Friday, Mar 8 2013
gardening and Modern Photos gardening, iris, photography 14:40
Photo of the day (or weekend) Sunday, Mar 3 2013
gardening and Modern Photos and Trees gardening, photography 08:48
The old redbud in winter
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Hope Rises Eternal Wednesday, Feb 27 2013
It is about 33 and pouring rain out there (so much for replenishing the water table, the ground is frozen); but looking through pictures always lifts the spirits.
I like this one, taken in June, even if it is a bit fuzzy. I was especially pleased to find that the combination of Moss Roses and Alliums is used in other gardens, Hidcote in England to be exact. Such illustrious company for us little folk! The yellow flowers just visible in the left foreground are evening/Ozark primroses.
Amaryllis ‘Apple Blossom’ Monday, Feb 25 2013
gardening and Modern Photos gardening, photography 14:50
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Forward Progress Friday, Feb 22 2013
gardening 12:58
Finally, having straightened out an unfortunate miscommunication with our tree people. Houses and gardens tend to require a ‘go-to’ list; that is people who you can call to get something fixed: plumbers, plasterers, carpenters, and tree people. It isn’t that you will need them every year, but you know who to contact when you do need them.
Trees have been a headache for us. But, I think that this time around we will get the dead wood taken out of the two big oaks by the end of March. As I told the tree people, it is a bit nerve-wracking to look up at four to six inch diameter, very dead, oak limbs that are fifty or sixty feet up. Although, oddly, they don’t come down when you expect them to. Hurricanes, snowstorms, high winds…they don’t come down then. They do seem to drop on a quiet night. Go figure.
It should be an interesting process. The two trees in question are fully mature Black Oaks between 110 and 130 years of age, the limbs don’t start until you are about twenty five feet up and the real crowns only begun above the main house, so about thirty-five feet. They are 75-80 feet tall with a spread of about 50-60 feet. Big trees. This company does not use trucks for this sort of work, because of the problem of soil compaction and root damage. They use climbers. I am going to be curious to see how they get one branch in particular: it can’t be dropped, as it is a major limb that extends right over the ridge of the cottage. I image it will include some ingenious ties and ropes to some of the other equally large trees in order to get it swung off and down in a controlled fashion.
Better them then me.
The trunks of the two oaks in question are shown here:
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Frustrated plans Sunday, Feb 10 2013
It is somewhat stupid to have begun pruning an apple tree just before the storm. I am now stuck eyeing the unfinished project from the window. I am sure that if I was made of tougher stuff, I’d be out there pruning. Somehow, however, 28 inches of snow, plus Drifting, just aren’t conducive to any ease of work.* And no, I don’t have snowshoes from which I can prune! So I shall content myself with contemplating which branches I want to work on and how. The tree will wait and the snow will melt, would that life was always so!
*as this town had one of the ‘official’ stations for measurement, I can be fairly confident in that amount. It would impossible to measure that on the property: if it isn’t under a tree, it is in the wind. Actually, there was one wind-free spot, or less windy, the north-west, bottom corner of the hayfield: the snow was still stuck to the branches in that corner even after high winds all Saturday; an interesting bit of information to see clearly demonstrated. I will say that thigh high drifts are an awesome workout, and they make both the fishpond (which needed shoveling for the waterfall to continue to work if this next storm is ice) and the barn marvellously far away.
Acair Fearann 