Autumn

I gave in and turned on the heat when I got home from work last night. 

Outside

There is a lot going on outside. I'll just post and caption a bunch of pictures.

Rocky did some liberal mixing of bulbs together.

The ironweed was spectacular this year.

This showed up - bidens?

The turtleheads are doing great. I think they like more light.

This showed up, too!  I had to cut back suckers and branches to create the little grotto she is sitting in.

Vignette of yellows.

White and purple ageratum with some asters as well.

The white blooms are in heavy shade by the Norway spruce.

Bite the Bullet on the Basement

It's smelling awfully damp and musty down there - it's time to bite the bullet and deal with it.  I'm not entirely sure what that means - except that getting rid of a lot of crap from there seems like a good first step. I've been dealing with the paper, and have taken some books to the library store. I've got more in my car right now. But I'm going to end up with a lot of still usable stuff. Some I would be happy to recycle - if I can figure out how to recycle them - and some I can pitch. But there is a lot of stuff I'll want to keep. I'm not sure what to do with it.

I'm also not sure what exactly I want to have done with the basement. I know I want it dry. I think I want a new, waterproof floor. I think I need to get almost everything out the basement - which probably means a pod, since there will be signficant stuff going back down in there when its all done.

How much do I want to do myself? How much do I want to hire out? And what kinds of contractors do this kind of work?  Unambiguously, getting rid of stuff is the right step right now, but what next?

Turtles!

I was reading in a garden book this very morning that eastern box turtles live underground their first year. Then I found while weeding two tiny turtles, where the dog had been digging. I moved them outside of the dog's yard under a bush. 

Corn

I would like to have my very own corn this year. To that end, I've built a deer exclosure.  We'll see how well it works. It's very flimsy. 

Morning Sighting

This family (or coven) of six deer tried to cross the creek and road this morning, but the volume of people traffic (including me and my dog) seemed to have turned them back- no doubt to dine in my yard instead. 

Tomato Cages

Have been deer munched so going behind a barrier.





- iPhone uPdate

Shoo!

I've got a couple of days off work and am putting a fair amount of effort into the yard. I believe that I have already done more work on the garden this year than all of last year.  Things are sprouting and growing everywhere, so it's not like I can stop and rest on my laurels.

The deer are a huge problem. They are shameless, and they are voracious. There is a path where they come up into my yard from Paul Robbins' yard, wander through the front, around to the side, poop there, and maybe detour briefly to the back bed behind the house. They have eaten back my tomato plants, but not killed them. I need to figure out how to protect them, while still allowing myself access to them. So I'm contemplating a small construction project.

The back bed has corn and beans. I thought that bed would work because the tulips that I planted years ago have come up each year and bloomed without getting eaten. But shortly after things sprouted, the deer made at least a brief pit stop, chomping the bean stalks and making big footprints in the bed. Before I left on vacation, I partially wrapped the bed in bird netting. That looks ugly but seems to have worked. I returned to find many weeds, mostly bindweed and the fleshy thing (saxifrage?).  I had to work my way through the netting to weed it, and cursed the infernal clingy stuff throughout. I bought supplies to make something better, but don't know what best to do.

I also want to protect the tomatoes, and yesterday I planted zucchini and sunflowers in the other small squares by the street. I know from experience they will need to be protected. I'm wondering about something for each bed, or something that covers the whole territory. But whatever I do, I want better aesthetics than I've got with the bird netting.

Since I have something ugly that works for now with the corn, the sunflowers and tomatoes and zukes are the priority.

Yesterday I had sauteed zucchini (from Whole Foods) a myriad of herbs from the garden. Yum!

I have blueberries marching towards ripeness, and many apples. I think it would be good to try to protect a few of each. Not sure if I can.

Random Garden Pix from the past couple of months

Spring Cleanup Continues

Got the grass mowed finally!  (Never got the last cut in last fall.)

Took out the trees along the north side of the house - a hickory, and the other maybe was an elm?  They were surprisingly big - more than 4" diameter.

Turned over the back bed. I took the invincible tulips and put them inside the fence in a line along the back.

New roof tomorrow!

Spring Blooms

Apple blossoms against my house

Dogwood

Green and Gold, which has settled right in

Poppies and Bluebells

Lilies bought this year

I wanted to capture the shade of red for reference

This brave little oak tree is the designated successor to the silver maple that had to come down. It's a volunteer from the big oak and I've been nuturing it for a couple of years.

Some kind of carex?

The native carolina vioet

Camassia

These are total volunteers (the dandelion came out).

Finally Some Spring

Blood root has really settled in.  It's planted by ants

Trout lily? Again, settled into the bog area, foliage is great.

Spring beauties

Can't get enough of the red bud

Dismantling a Tree

It had to go... threatening the house.

Pieces of a tree

"Timber!"

New Seat