Bloodroot

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My Sunspot

A couple of decades ago, when I had my first house, I read my first book about landscape design.  (That's as opposed to gardening.) It really changed the way I approached my own property, and at the time led to my spending a couple of days digging up dirt from one part of my yard and dumping it into a different part, to change the lay of the terrain.

One of the concepts the book urged was to review your property and think about having a "sunspot". This would be an area, probably nestled against the house (though it could be against a fence, but sheltered), that would get full sun for some period of time. They pointed out that with full sun, a surface to absorb the solar heat, and shelter from the wind, often it is warm enough to sit outside comfortably when most people are all bundled up to move from their house to their car to their office.

I've got a couple of sunspots in my house, including a truly great spring sunspot here - in fact, I'm sitting in it right now. (The sun is so bright I have a hard time reading the computer screen; I'll review more carefully for typos when I go back in.)  Imagine a rectangle with one corner missing - I'm sitting outside in that little corner with walls to the north and west of me. It's off the kitchen and porch, and inside the dog's fenced yard. I have major deciduous trees to the south and east, so in the summer its shady, but the leaves aren't out yet. If I look straight up, I see clear sky, because I lost a 100+ year-old tree ten years ago and the remaining trees are farther away and haven't filled in the gap. So all summer, I get a few hours of full sun around noon, even with the leaves on the tree.

This is my personal spot. It is inside the dog's yard, which is a "yard" versus "garden" in the English sense of the word. From my seat, I have a view off over the Park behind my house, but I also can see my two un-lovely sheds, three motorcycles, a rain barrel, a compost heap, a garbage can for bird seed, my ancient barbeque, a heap of firewood, and stacks of unused flowerpots, some with dirt and weeds in them. Not really a prime spot for entertaining.

A couple of years ago at about this time of year I found outdoor wood furniture at Ikea, for much less money than any comparable stuff. I bought a chaise (and then a good cushion for nearly the same amount), and some side chairs, and this has become my little private oasis. Only family, or friends close enough to be house guests ever come here. I totally adore my chaise, and even occasionally sleep out on it.  The best times for sitting here are spring mornings like now, and nights in the summer. I love the forest noises - the tree cover is continuous down into the Park below and so the birds, raccoons, deer and other animals are nearby. Generally, the dog keeps the mammals out of the yard itself, but I've got bird houses and bird feeders and plenty of birds using them.

From time to time I've thought about enclosing this corner, perhaps even as a glassed in greenhouse. I'll probably vacillate again, but right now I really like sitting in the plain air, though out of the main breeze, and enjoying being truly outdoors.

Crocus

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Most of a Day in the Garden

This is the time of year when everything pops!  Right now, most of what's blooming comes from somewhere else. We've had a week of warm weather, but woke this morning to cool crisp pure sun, down around freezing.

Blooming now: forsythia, vinca, daffodils, the crocus are mostly done, heather, rosemary, grape hyacinth, jasmine.

Also about to bloom - up but not open - bloodroot. Each leaf circles a single bloom point.

I spent much of the day cleaning up on the outside corner. I cut up and bundled some of the branches that were down. I raked through the grasses on the north side to pull out last year's dead stuff. I weeded the four symmetrical beds on the north side - they had a bursting crop of the little white cress. I pulled out much of the dead stuff from the beds on the corner, cleaned up along the street, and bent the rose trellis back upright.

How pleasant to feel the outside air and sun on me while I keep moving.

Owls

For the second night in a row, I heard an owl along the edge of the park near my yard. Tuesday night it was clearly the "who cooks for you" call- is that the barn owl? Last night it was probably the same bird but the call was more jumbled. Signs of a healthy ecosystem.


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The Hedge is Gone

The snow broke down the cedar hedge along my property line adjacent to the driveway, and it had to come out. I wanted it out anyway - the cedars were not sufficiently fastigate - they were at least three feet in diameter and edging out my car. They were scratchy and aggressive to anyone accidently bumping them. When pruned back too severely they didn't resprout but stayed barren and ugly at the base. They had ivy and poison ivy growing through them.

My neighbor on the other side of the hedge suggested he hire a crew and take it down. Hooray!  It got done and it looks fine. He got enthusiastic about helping me out and cleaned out the packed gravel at the place where the driveway jumps the curb and now I've got a big bump to climb over when I park my car.  I'll ask my helpful neighbor Paul for ideas on what to do there. (Pour my own cement?)

I want a fence there - something that lets light and air through, that I can grow vines on. I'll discuss with the neighbor when I get home.

Blooming Now

As soon as the snow receded, the crocuses along the front of the house popped up and are blooming. It took longer, but the hellebores are also blooming now.  The witchhazel started blooming before the snow, but is really going strong right now. No daffs are actually blooming now, but they are getting close.  My white heather in the rock garden has a few blooms going. The confederate jasmine over the rock wall on the corner has a few blooms - it was about to go before the snow smothered it and it may have taken a big hit. The heucheras are spreading their leaves and creating little blotches of color.  There is still quite a bit of snow in my side yard and along the corner, which is north, shaded by the house and the Norway spruce.  It's all gone in the back.

Tired and Feeling Good

I got most of a day in the yard today, and what a treat it was.  Sunny and relatively warm - though I kept some fleece on the whole day. I got the japanese honeysuckle off the mock orange along the back fence and cut up and put out in bags. I raked the grass inside the dog's yard, and put most of the leaves and brown grass into the compost heap. I would like to overseed the dog's yard now - that worked really well last year because of the March and April rains. I peered into the greenhouse, and to my surprise it does seem the bayleaf plant is doing fine - I watered it thoroughly. I left elephant ears and cannas in the back and in the greenhouse all winter - never got them into the basement - I can't tell if they will come through or not.  I had a lot of clutter right out the back kitchen door - boxes and coolers and pots of dead plants - and I got that whole area cleaned up. No clutter by the door is supposed to be good feng shiu and indeed my spirit is lifted up by the free movement and space. I moved the Vespa into the dog's yard for now. I raked out the bed along the back of the house and found daffs doing well and the mums up and sprouting already.  There is grass in that bed - it needs better tending, but I was only going for easy stuff. I chopped off the butterfly bushes but ran out of time and didn't get that all bagged or bundled.

So Many Chores....

The first really good weekend and there is SO MUCH to do!!! But other priorities also clamor (a little matter of a major initiative at work...). I won't make list and prioritize, I'll just put on some mud shoes, grab some tools and head out the door. Soon enough the clock will tell me to come in and clean up.

Snowy February

We had two back to back storms in February that added up to 38" in my yard. The first photo is from February 6, 2010, between the storms, and the second is on Valentine's Day, after the second storm.  The weight of the snow bent and broke many bushes and trees and limbs. Snow was piled up on my corner - luckily no plowing into the wall, but the piling up did bend and break some stuff. I haven't been able to get out there to see what's happened yet.

 

 

First Post

Here we go.