Fall

Until I moved to my little house in the big oak forest I didn't really have a strong association with the word "Fall" for the season. But here, the acorns and hickory nuts come pelting down. In a big wind on Halloween, it sounded like stones were being thrown in the street. Bam! The acorns have piled up to dangerous levels - my dog slipped and fell while trying to walk on what was virtually the same as a pile of marbles. Poor old guy. He got up and limped home, but he was sore.

I got out in the yard today and planted 48 daffodils along my new fence by the neighbors, and a handful of crocuses by the front door. There are raking and pruning tasks to do, but planting daffodils is the single best investment to pay off for years-decades- in the future. The bulbs were from Costco. Because of the recent rain it was easy to dig.

The oakleaf hydrangea is truly terrific

Dogwood from below

Unusual for a white oak to be this colorful

My St John's Wort, looking good

The serviceberries are terrific this year

Even from inside the serviceberries look great

I brought the hibiscus in and it's blooming

First Hard Frost

 It was 25 degrees when I got up this morning. But sunny! It didn't get much above 40 degrees. Records set everywhere (for cold). Leaves are coming down fast. But the colors this year are fantastic.

Rain, Finally

We had an inch-and-a-quarter of rain yesterday, the first in a long time. I watered, sometimes, mostly in the front under the trees. September was the driest ever measured. Interestingly, mid-July is when things went badly off course. Up until then, we were even with last year, which was the wettest on record. But in mid-July, this year the water turned off, when last year it turned on at the same time. And also the year before (2017), the rains came in mid-July.

September Blooms

September continued dry - the dryest on record. The prairie plants did well, and it was the year of the ageratum, everywhere.

My full sun prairie patch

This vivid beauty is a bottle gentian.
I planted it several years ago, and haven't seen it recently.

This blue thing was planted by my landscaper
the first year I was here, 20+ years ago, and
continues to do well.

A good year for drought-tolerant goldenrood.

Woodland aster, spreading happily.

The white ageratum.

The blue ageratum.

August Blooms

Catching up on the garden, August was dry. Less hot than July, but hot. But some things bloomed.

Boneset - a eupatorium, volunteer widespread in the neighborhood.

Verbesina, popping up all over

It was the season for NY ironweed (the purple stuff),
and ageratums, which are everywhere.

Cardinal flower, of which I hope to have more, and pink turtleheads.

Fall Planting

Today is the kind of day that makes Fall the favorite season for some (I lean towards spring, myself). Low humidity, sunny, cool to start, warm to end. Most of the work I've done lately has been taking things out - bushes, trees, weeding. But today is for planting. This boring post is mostly my record for myself of what is going where, because without the record I'll forget. I've been known to inadvertently pull out things I planted, thinking they were weeds!

We've been way too dry for too long, so as I plant, I need to water, and finish with the sprinkler going for some time. I finally got some plants I had bought a while back planted. I pulled up some senecio from behind the tree trunk, and used that very prime spot to put in some Hibiscus moschutos. It should do well, if there is enough sun. I also relocated one of the lilies to next to the cranberry bush, trying to make sure there is a path to get further into the garden without trampling everything.

I've been throwing the senecio, and deadhead tops of ironweed and Chasmasthium grass, over the fence in hopes that they will spread there. Because it's downhill from inside the fence, I'm thinking they are less likely to spread back uphill into the more civilized garden. The existing ironweed and grass are totally volunteers spread by seed already, so I know they are opportunistic and hardy. I spent some time a couple of years ago rooting out the grass from areas that are now inside the fence, and I think I'm reaping the benefits of that work (in that there isn't more of it everywhere).

I received plants I ordered some months ago from Prairie Nursery, 32 small plugs of ferns and wildflowers, mostly flowers I already have some of, but want more of. Because they are plugs, I'm hoping I'll get them all planted quickly today.

Update: I did get all 32 plants done! (But it wasn't so quick.) For the record:

• Blue indigo along neighbor fence
• Geranium in wildflower garden
• Sunflower between log and fence
• Cardinal flower in bog garden
• Sedges down near fence
• Oak ferns between compost heap and spice bush
• Goldie's fern dark corner
• Bleeding heart in wildflower garden

I also watered for a total of six hours, moving the sprinkler every couple of hours. Things are looking lush!

My Deer Fence Works!

I got this shot as I came out of my neighbor's house, where I was feeding her cat while she was gone. I have seen from inside my house the deer looking longingly through the fence, but this was also good to see. The babies are cute, but voracious! And they try everything, they don't know what tastes good yet.

Pollinators

My yard has been a bonanza for all sorts of wildlife. With the increased sun in front, there has been a corresponding increase in flying, buzzing, activity of all types. In June, this St. John's Wort was a favorite:

Then in late summer it has been the mostly tough prairie plants where the tree used to be. One day, I saw this unusual guy - I think it's a "hummingbird hawk-moth", a strange chimera I was aware existed, but I don't think I've seen before:

And my volunteer verbesina (all over the neighborhood this year, but not noted by me previously) is the bees knees!

In other news, I'm learning how to play with youtube.

Bird Brains

I put up a new crop cage over my vegetable bed this year. It is a plastic structure with netting over it, including a closed top. At the bottom, it is tied down, but apparently not tightly enough. Repeatedly, birds have gotten inside and stuck. The birds are mostly cardinals, and because I can't imagine I have so many cardinals, it's got to be the same ones getting stuck. Apparently they are not capable of learning.

I set up an extra barrier along the bottom, and for a while it seemed to stop the problem, but then they showed up again. It's a simple matter to unzip one of the doors and shoo them out, but I worry about not spotting them and having birds trapped all day in the sunshine inside. So far, no dead bodies inside!

Garden Art

I've had a couple of old bikes in my shed for years. They were so old and in such bad shape five years ago that Bikes for the World (an awesome organization that sends fixable bikes to the third world) refused to let me donate them. In fact, one bike is the very first bike-with-gears I ever bought, back in 1984! Ever since my trip a few years ago to Italy, I decided they needed to become garden art. So, I finally got around to doing it! My girl helped, and it was good to have a second opinion on colors, as well as the second finger on the spray can nozzles. We had an awesome low humidity day, where hanging out in the shady backyard was perfectly pleasant. I think the dogs did not get any paint, though it was a close thing.

They are not yet permanently installed, though I want them visible on the corner as folks come up the street. I'm thinking some rebar stakes pounded into the ground more than a foot deep will work.

Harvest!

I was able to pick a couple of terrific tomatoes today!  I've eaten some tiny cherry tomatoes right off the vine, but this is the first real harvest in a long, long, time.  Time for a BLT!

Heat Slows Everything Down

As July winds down, the garden has slowed way down. It's been hot-hot-hot! And rain has only come in a couple of big lumps. The DC region had an epic rainstorm - most ever recorded at one time at National Airport - 6"! While the airport is only 12 miles from here, we got about an inch of rain is all. I've watered the garden, at least the parts I care about, with the flowers and especially the new plants. And my old epic oak tree gets watered with that, and denuded shagbark hickory. But the heat and lack of rain means I may need to water more, despite my vow of not encouraging the grass to grow and then need cutting. So here are the vignettes of what is blooming.

I have NY Ironweed seeded everywhere.
I love its deep purple blooms.
Coneflowers in the background.

This tender tropical is my favorite this year!

This obscure guy is a native lobelia,
known as "Indian Tobacco".
I'm certain it's a native that just volunteered,
but it's welcome in my yard.

This is the showy, but also native lobelia,
known as cardinal flower.
I planted it and I want more!
I love red flowers.

Coreopsis, or tickseed.

These are onions and hyssop, pollinator favorites
but deer resistant, planted in the harsh sun where the
Big Spruce used to be.

This is looking down over the slope the Big Spruce used to occupy. In the foreground, Verbena bonarensis (not native but lovely, seeded itself from the single time I planted it nearby years ago), mid-ground is the hyssop and onions, and background is NY ironweed.

Not blooming, but thriving interesting foliage.
"Brighten a dark spot" they said. It does.

Attacked!

I noticed, idly, a couple of days ago that my adolescent shagbark hickory had lost some leaves on one of its branches. Yesterday, I looked out the window and at least half of the leaves were missing! There were green spines from some of the leaves on the denuded branches, so I assumed someone was eating it.

I took some pictures and posted them on the local neighborhood listserve, and also a local gardening one. The pictures weren't great, and I didn't get a lot of useful information. I dug out my camera with a long lens, and its battery was dead. An hour of charging later, I went out and took some high resolution photos and found these caterpillars. Also residue (previous instars?) on the trunk. And under the tree, it was very unpleasant, it appeared to be raining caterpillar poop (scientific name "frass").



The tree, planted by me as a stick about 15 years ago, is way too tall for me to be able to reach where the caterpillars were to spray with chemicals. Instead, I sprayed them with a high pressure stream of water from the ground, which knocked some of them off the tree, and maybe annoyed the others. But considering how hot it was, it was probably well received by them. I also topped off the bird bath, thinking birds were my only hope.

 This morning, I didn't see any caterpillars when I went out, but I bought some Bt. This is a bacteria that is specific to kill caterpillars and not much else, and doesn't persist in the environment. When I got back, I saw a regular parade of caterpillars making their way from my hickory, across the front walk, and headed steadily north under the azaleas in the shade. For no reason other than vindictiveness, I made it rain Bt on their parade. There was satisfaction in this.

I also preemptively sprayed my only other hickory, on the ground and on the trunk, though it wasn't their direction.

Healthy, established trees should be able to withstand being eaten for as many as two years in a row. Sadly, this tree was subject to big stress last year when the Big Spruce fell. On its way down, its branches grabbed the hickory and bent it double, all the way to the ground. When the crew came to remove the Big Spruce, I pointed out this hickory and said I wanted to save it. They were glad to have it pointed out, because these trees might whip back up and cause injury. As it turns out, it only came partially up. The arborist gave it a less than 50-50 chance to survive. This spring, it seemed to be quite healthy. It leaned, but it was filling out and growing straight on the new growth.

Luckily, it doesn't threaten my house or any powerlines, so I can just allow nature to take its course. If it lives, great, and if not, it just means more light and an opportunity to plant something else.

High Summer

It feels like high summer came a bit early. It's been hot and dry. Today, a little less hot (hooray!) but even drier. Yesterday morning, I watered for three hours, in front, inside and outside the fence. The birds loved it! I am thinking of a water feature for in the back, at least a bird bath. I've been watering the vegetables, and the pots, as well.

I did another substantial cutback / rootout of the sweetshrub yesterday, maybe a quarter of its mass. I think I've decided to remove it entirely from that location:  the best, sunshiny spot in front. It is too aggressive, and insufficiently interesting. In that front clump of bushes outside the fence but by the frontdoor and my bedroom window, I have the sweetshrub, several blueberries, a shadbush, a dogwood, an oakleaf hydrangea that is also way too big, an arrowwood and a cranberry viburnum. When the sweetshrub comes out, there will be more room for the better behaved blueberries. I may think about yet another shrub. The birds love the berries and they flit around inside the thicket.

I may transplant pieces of the sweetshrub to a a shadier site outside the fence, where it is not so likely to be aggressive. I had the shrub for nearly 20 years, and it's only been a problem recently. I was surprised to see the oakleaf hydrangea is also sprouting suckers. I'll transplant some of them to the shade outside the fence as well.

I've been studying the patterns of shade and light. After 8 in the morning, it's uncomfortable to work in the sun, so I have to plan my work carefully. Today, I mowed the side yard. It was mostly shady when I started, but the sun quickly came around and it was half sun before I was done. I was struck by how the grass is so different at the sunny end, sparse and scratchy, versus lush and green and soft at the shadier, driveway, end. The shade at that end is partially from the apple tree that I plan to get rid of (when the crop is done), so things will change.

I found both a dead mouse and a dead baby bunny in the yard today. I didn't examine the mouse, but the bunny had (minor from the outside) injuries, but hadn't been snacked on. Luckily, I got there before Rocky did!  It may have been the baby from the Great Bunny Rescue last week, but no way to tell.  The neighborhood is crawling (hopping) with bunnies - I see them on every walk, crossing roads. I wonder how big their territories are?

Vegetables

I got very few veggies last year, but deer were not the problem. I had a deer enclosure built some years ago, and it lasted far beyond my expectations. But it had become an eyesore, so I pulled it down in the early spring. I ordered a crop cage from Gardener's Supply, which arrived promptly and sat in its box.

I turned over the bed, added three bags of LeafGro, and finally, finally, planted the vegetables on June 1. I have three tomato plants, two eggplants, and one pepper. Plus basil.

Bambi came by a week ago, and I hadn't built the new cage yet. It's not total devastation, but it is definitely a setback. Each plant (except the basil) was sampled.

I got motivated and put up the cage a couple days later. It looks good. I'm sure it's Bambi proof.

I don't think it'll keep Thumper out, but I don't think she'll be motivated enough to do a lot of damage.

Lilies!

The most spectacular part of the garden this year is a display of lilies. I bought bulbs last fall from White Flower Farm, their "Strawberries and Cream" mix. (Their named varieties are expensive, but their mixes are quite reasonably priced.)  Enjoy!

June Blooms

I suspect this is not everything, but it's a lot. In contrast to the early spring, most of this stuff are things I planted just for the blooms.

June 1: The little daylily strip I planted. Yay!

Called Spigelia. I love this and have it repeating in front.

June 16: Daylilies that haven't always bloomed. Must be the light.

June 16: Wild petunia. Planted it once,
seeds itself freely (a GOOD thing!).

June 16: Stokes aster, being crowded out.

June 17: St. John's wort, beloved of bees,
seems to have seeded the whole neighborhood.

June 17: Common milkweed.
Fragrant, beloved of bees and monarchs.

June 18: I will have to look up what this is.

June 18: Sundrops! I always wanted them.
Now I have enough sun!

June 18: acquired from a now-deceased neighbor.
Spreads a bit too much. Forget its name.

June 22: My patriotic pot!

Oakleaf hydrangea. I was surprised by the pink. Also, huge pollen drifts. Loving its new sunshine,
I'm going to have to cut it back. But it is really luxuriant this year!