gardening and Landscapes and Modern Photos daylilies, gardening 14:14
The daylilies along the fence, nearly all big orange doubles. It is a bit hard to believe that all of those came out of one very crowded 20′ by 5′ foot strip, now part of the vegetable garden, two years ago. The strip they are now is about 130 feet long and 4 feet wide.
(in other news, still too hot. But the guys got close to a 1000 bales of hay off the field, or over 100 bales on acre. which is rather impressive)
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gardening and Landscapes and Modern Photos gardening, landscapes, photography 13:27
The flagpole, which was put up in 1999, has gone through a variety of forms, the first was the top of a Norway spruce, this one is basically a box. We can pivot it down to untangle the lines or do repairs. Originally, the drive had a turn around below the flagpole. That is long gone, but the area is the only well-draining, truly full-sun, garden. Well, mostly sun, with the trees and house to the east, it is in the shade until mid-morning. It is currently an arc of white Shasta daisies, earlier it was red Oriental Poppies with blue and gold iris; in the fall it will be mostly dusky pink and blue from NY/New England asters and Joe-Pye weed, with a touch of goldenrod.
The bench gives you a bit of scale. The large tree looming there is a bit of the big Cucumber Magnolia.
Landscapes and Modern Photos photography 12:57
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gardening and Landscapes gardening, landscapes 14:43
Most gardeners do not have unlimited budgets, Esperanza is no exception. In this case, a decent display is created by an entirely untended, unplanted volunteer combination: the classic orange ditch lily and native elderberries. It won’t win any awards, but you know it doesn’t look bad filling in the distant background. And it didn’t cost anything!
Landscapes and Modern Photos photography, weather 21:52
We have jumped from cold New England spring to hot, muggy New England summer essentially overnight. Naturally, the storms have come along; this one hammered the towns to the west and south with hail and numerous ground strikes, we (thankfully) simply got a lot of much needed rain.
gardening and Landscapes and Modern Photos eastern redbud, gardening, photography, trillium, tulips 14:30
Taken in the last few days, these show the big garden, some tulips in the rose garden, some trillium grandiflorum under the chestnut trees, a bit of path east of the house, and the redbud on the east lawn which is still surviving!
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Landscapes ecology 13:23
Pull away! We went for years without this pest here, and then it exploded. I personally lay the fault partially at the feet of the town: it can be traced to some fill for the road, and then several catastrophic washouts which deposited the road all over the Royal Oak area.* That being said, it would have gotten here anyway. And had I been paying attention, I might have caught it the year before the road washed. Some of you will recall, it was the fast thaw following the winter of all the snow that did it. The hurricanes finished the job.
At any rate, it is here. Victory, however, is possible. I went down to the Calf Pasture and wood road entrance the other day, with the gloomy assumption that I would be spending the day on that section. Amazingly, I found that the last two years have substantially reduced the infestation. The wood road had almost none (five plants); the Calf pasture had perhaps one-sixth the amount that it had last year. Now, I’ll have to get it again later in the summer and next year (a lot of first year seedlings were visible) but that is a far cry from the near 100% cover of the last two years. This gave me the time and the impetus to start in on Royal Oak proper. Maybe in a few years we’ll get it under control. It will never be eradicated, but it might fall under seasonal management as opposed to Oh My God.
As to why…well the Calf Pasture has golden-rod, Wake-Robin, Jack-in-the-Pulpit, Canadian Lily-of-the-Valley, Baneberry, Cranesbill, Hay fern, Cinnamon Fern, Christmas Fern, various bunch grasses, grape, honeysuckle, dogwood, and various others.* All of which are going to do much better if they aren’t being choked by Garlic Mustard, which will eventually kill off most other understory plants. (it is actually capable of stressing mature trees thanks to the chemicals in its roots)
In my opinion, one has a certain responsibility to the land, if not to future generations. That said responsibility carries the dubious joy of seven ticks, wading in poison-ivy, and pulling Garlic Mustard till one’s respiratory system rebels; well, that is a very small price.
*the Royal Oak, Calf Pasture, and wood road entrance are about 6 acres of former pasture, evenly divided between flat and steep with rocks. They are now mostly open, second-growth forest. Several intermittent streams cut through the area, the dirt road is perched above it.
*I wasn’t doing plant ID, just passing observations while pulling.
Esperanza and gardening and Landscapes and Modern Photos gardening, photography 10:37
View from the south porch, showing the little kitchen and pergola…now if I could just get the clematis to grow along the top bar rather than curling up in a bunch…
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gardening and Landscapes and Modern Photos gardening, photography, wordless wednesdays 10:13
yesterday afternoon, from the big garden looking south.
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Acair Fearann 