2014 Wednesday, Jan 1 2014 

gardening acairfearann 11:35

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.

 

Rose of the Day Monday, Dec 30 2013 

gardening and Modern Photos , , acairfearann 16:38

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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.

 

 

Winter Hemlocks Tuesday, Dec 17 2013 

gardening and Modern Photos , , acairfearann 22:59

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December Ice Monday, Dec 9 2013 

gardening and Modern Photos and Trees , , acairfearann 12:21

Contrary to the expected, December around here tends more towards ice than snow.  This year, the long spell of close/below freezing has meant that our current winter weather is rather mild: it started as snow and is now sort of drizzle.

Other years, however, it comes as ice.  That ice can be pretty is in no way a redeeming feature.  It tends to prune trees in an unfortunate manner. Most of the native trees can adapt, hemlock and spruce simply droop, white pine unfortunately tends to drop branches, usually snapping off a few feet out from the main trunk.*  This doesn’t bother the tree, but people don’t care for it. Birches bend, until they don’t of course.  Oaks and Maples stand tall, unless they are unbalanced due to a combination of factors (unbalanced rapid growth, saturated ground, wind, etc.); they usually don’t drop branches in ice storms however.**  The truly vulnerable trees are the non-native ornamental ones which often have many narrowly branched limbs, such as Japanese Maples; sadly those tend to tear off at the trunk, making for a difficult pruning job afterwards.

This shows a light ice-load on the trees east of the house, you can see how the Norway Spruces in the background (which normally would be touching) have turned into individual ‘cones’ as the branches are weighed down.  The closest trees are pines, and you can just tell that the main branches do not flex at all, only the smaller branches under a few inches in diameter.  The Maples in the midground have not changed shape at all.

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*Mature white pines, that is, the 70 ft plus monsters, such as the ones in the photo.  The limbs simply fracture, if you look at them afterwards there is very little tearing in the way you see on maple or ash.

**Look, All Trees can and do drop things in storms (don’t go dancing around in the woods without paying attention to what is above you!)

Balanced trees are important, some trees are more tolerant than others and can carry an uneven load: as is shown by this River Birch, which is quite one-sided, but it capable of bending in the main trunk:

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However, there is always a possibility that they can carry the uneven load until they don’t: this double trunk Red Oak was about sixty years old, perfectly healthy.  It simply grew a bit too much due to the other side of the road being cleared two years previously, giving it much more light.  As you can see, there were no branches on the side facing away from the road.  Ice plus saturated ground plus a year of abundant extra growth and…thud.  (this was several years ago, the trees have since been aggressively pruned by the DOT)*

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*Murphy’s Law being what it is, there was a car going past at the time.  The driver was fine, the car not so much.

 

 

Old Sugar Maples Tuesday, Dec 3 2013 

gardening and Landscapes and Modern Photos , , acairfearann 14:38

Out beyond the big garden, lining the old road.  It is essentially impossible to get a good picture of them, too big and too close! I cannot touch the bottom of those lower limbs, however, even on my toes and arm outstretched. We have planted beneath them with a mix of evergreens, as the new road/highway is only about fifty feet away from this point, off to the right of the photo.

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Apples and Woodpeckers Monday, Dec 2 2013 

gardening , acairfearann 14:02

The ‘Wolf River’ apple tree that did its once every few years, at random, massive apple crop this year (necessitating marathon sessions of applesauce making) still has a few apples on it.  It shouldn’t, for the health of the tree, but I am glad it does.

The apples are frozen solid at the moment, and look a bit like Christmas ornaments as they are scattered picturesquely through the upper branches*.  That is nice enough.  But what is especially pleasant is the discovery that the odd pockmarks/toothmarks which have been slowly appearing on them belong primarily to the woodpeckers.  Sapsuckers, Downy, Hairy, and the lot.  I don’t know if the Red Bellied has been past or not, but I wouldn’t be surprised.  A nice treat for them and for us.

 

*It was Supposed to be a semi-dwarf.  Ten years on and it is quite clear that we got a standard instead….

 

The turning wheel Saturday, Nov 23 2013 

gardening , , acairfearann 12:25

We all have specific calendars we pay attention beyond the standard calendar: school, gardening, theological, tax, politics, so forth.  I am ‘tuned’ to only two, gardening and theology. (tax and politics can go hang)  They are not in conflict in the way school (new year in the fall) and gardening (new year in the spring) are, but rather offset in such a way that they work together.  The theological calendar starts its new year in December for me, at the time when the garden is done for the year and I am looking ahead to the coming year.  Theologically, the calendar peaks in Spring, with the long summer stretching out ahead in a fairly stable pattern.  The same with the garden.

This, of course, is hardly accidental: the early Christians paid close attention to the climate in the Roman Empire, and the seasonal cycle for that bit of the world is roughly the same as it is in northeastern North America, if much milder.*

Consequently, I would have a horrid time adjusting my internal clock to Australia or South America.  All of this came to mind talking to my farrier on bitterly cold and windy morning, commiserating on holding horses in the winter and holiday plans.  He is originally from LA, and commented that he much preferred New England in the holiday season: ‘everything makes more sense’  (referring to Christmas trees, turkeys, and all that).  Obviously, one can have an excellent Christmas in Rio, or Melbourne, or Wellington.  But it is rather nice to be able to look forward to the holiday season, it takes the sting away from the fact that it is cold out there! And dark, and cold, and you can’t do anything outside that is constructive and dark and cold and…

Winter is closing in, but next year is already coming.**

*aligning the two calendars was as much about using the natural world as an object lesson/mirror as it was about politics/historical accuracy.  One need not get into the tangle of whether it was human manufacture or divine intent plus human manufacture

**I just hope winter holds off a little, as sexton of the nearby cemetery, I have a funeral that is coming up, and this cemetery follows New England tradition if there is snow or the ground is frozen one waits till spring, which is a little hard to explain to people these days. It looks like it will just squeak in.

 

The Problem of Scale Tuesday, Nov 12 2013 

Esperanza and gardening and Landscapes and Modern Photos acairfearann 23:45

One of the more common problems with projects around here is the ‘everything is Bigger’ one.  In the house this cropped up recently with the discovery that the ceiling in one room was not 15 feet, but more like 17 plus to the peak….of course in some other rooms it is less than seven, so no guarantees.

It is fairly typical to hit this with trees, usually when we try to prune them.

The scale of the place is rarely conveyed in photos, since I hate taking photos of people and most people around here have no desire to have their photo taken.

This rare shot helps illustrate scale. (my apologies to the model! ) 🙂 Consider it in relation to the Japanese Maple photo of a few days, which shows the same trees.

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Japanese Maples in the Fall Thursday, Nov 7 2013 

gardening and Historic Photos and Landscapes and Modern Photos , , acairfearann 23:02

I mentioned in passing that I don’t object to Japanese Maples, which is good as we have a number of them…Although some of the more strict ‘native plants only’ group would argue for them being invasive; they don’t fit the definition very well here.  They grow much too slowly to compete with native maples or oaks, (assuming of course there are native maples to seed the area).  They do, however, germinate and grow.  We started with two: a finely cut dwarf and a fairly coarse purple/red back in the 1920’s.  They have crossed over the years and have produced many babies: some with finer cut leaves than others; some with good fall color (brilliant orange or scarlet), some that are an OK purple/red; some that have green summer foliage (always orange in the fall), some with dark red summer foliage. 

IMG_4099 The original dwarf, finely cut one.  You can see a branch of the other original in the top left corner.  Sadly, this dwarf is not long for the world, this photo was taken three years ago, the top branches have since died.

IMG_4090 One of the babies with a fairly typical medium fine cut, this one is almost green in the summer.

IMG_2141 Two of the offspring, the closer one is a genuine scarlet in the fall, the other is noticeably more purple/maroon.  That is accurate color in the photo. 

Specialc099One of the earliest photos that show the original two in 1957.

IMG_4763 The same maples in 2012. This maroon color is the standard for most of the offspring as well.

 

Does anyone else Wednesday, Nov 6 2013 

gardening and Landscapes acairfearann 22:50

find little engines (in mowers, string-trimmers, chainsaws, etc) to be utterly, totally invaluable and irreplaceable? And utterly infuriating?

The lawnmower didn’t like the cold and didn’t like the load that the leaf-catcher put on it, and kept stalling. It had to be on clean ground with exactly the right amount of choke/throttle to engage yesterday.  On the other hand, I can’t imagine raking all those gingko leaves…

And the string trimmer….getting it restarted after refilling the gas tank? Flood, wait, flood, wrench the wrist, flood, start! Then it runs beautifully.  And clearing the unwanted seedlings from five acres? While going around all the wanted saplings and seedlings? Well a brush scythe would do it, but it would take forever and not be nearly as neat.

Useful gadgets, but they certainly are prima donnas!

 

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