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That bed also has Sedum and re-blooming Daylilies, Peony and shrub roses. I'm going for as 'maintenance free' as I can in that garden area.
Posted on 04/01/2024 6:23:19 AM PDT by Diana in Wisconsin
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I think he did - I kind of stormed off. He was using, ‘that tone’ with me. Sometimes he FORGETS that I am MORE THAN just The Hired Hand around here!
I DO get every third Sunday off, though. ;)
That bed also has Sedum and re-blooming Daylilies, Peony and shrub roses. I'm going for as 'maintenance free' as I can in that garden area.
Currently 40 - both temp and wind gusts. Just started the truck and it's heater and will give it plenty of time to warm up the cab. Gotta grab some groceries. My working outdoors vacation days have been getting whittled down one by one. Will get the dump run done, frame 7 up and some seedlings planted out but not much more.
I can pick up chain link top rails from Menard's after work someday. Don't need the trailer. I can hang them off the right side of the truck with straps to bed pockets, mirror and up under the hood. BTDT and the body on this truck is rough enough to not worry about a couple more scratches.
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Pollard...you are in the "Sky Blue" part of the map. Shucks! Diane is in the "Piles of Brown" part! (Colors probably chosen by a Michigan Spartans grad!)
Once they all stop yelling and hissing and go sleepy consider them as extra protein for your livestock I guess. (Better Cicadas than a black fly hatch!)
I was just thinking about buying a few 1 day old pullets.
(It gives you time to build up your compost heap for a colony of soldier flies and their lavae once they run out of cicadas!)
Went to the George O. White State Nursery and picked up my 10 elderberry and 10 persimmon seedlings, both 2 year seedlings. They're both native varieties but wild eldeberry patches are hard to find. Persimmon, not as hard but it's always going to be on someone's property.
Yesterday morning, I was eating breakfast in front of the bay window, taking in the view. A small bird landed in the closest tree and I was really happy to see it was a male bluebird! This was the first time I’ve seen one at the mountain place.
Our flatland place is loaded with bluebirds. We have 8 houses total, 5 my dad made. Since the nest boxes are already being ‘scouted’, I am leaving them this year, but after nesting season, they’ll be moved here.
Waiting on the roofer this morning - going to be a chilly day ‘up there’ doing repairs. I will be trying to finish what seems to be the never ending project of picking up & hauling away tree debris. I’ll clear a section, then mow it. The place really looks nice mowed.
The one tree I really want at this place is a persimmon. My niece just planted one, knows a nursery that sells them, but they go fast!
Two very opposite memories of eating persimmons. The first is when about 8 yo, my dear dad tricked me into taking a bite of a green one. The episode still rankles with me because I trusted my dad & he “betrayed” me (& about laughed his head off at my reaction).
The second memory is hiking in the mountains with 4 friends, our destination being a lake reservoir used by a city in the valley for their water supply. It was a beautiful hike & we started early so dew was still on the ground & the morning air was still damp when we got to the water. As we looked around, we spotted a persimmon tree. Deer tracks were numerous, but we found ripe ones we could get to & they were so good - sweet because there had been frost. I suspect I will never eat persimmons as good as those because of where I was & who I was with.
Romping around the woods of MA for hours on end growing up, I used to eat a lot of wild blueberries. The little low bush ones about the size of a pea. Then one day I found a hill with high bush blueberries almost as big around as a dime. I called it blueberry hill of course.
40 years later, I buy this place in MO and what do I find? Both low bush and high bush blueberries. Never any ripe ones though because the birds and deer get to them before that. I did get to try a serviceberry that they missed and it tasted like a blueberry.
My goats have eradicated the blueberry bushes.(and the poison ivy)
I tried to get some hazelnut bushes but they sell out of many things within 24 hours. It's the closest thing to a tree nut without the 50 year wait. The wild hickory trees on the property are called bitternut hickory and as you can guess by the name, not very edible. The wood makes for some good smoked ribs though.
Just checked their website and they still have elderberry. Everything's $1.00 per seedling.
I need to start working on the fence around the garden and tunnel. For now, I'll use four cattle panels and stick the seedlings in there to keep the goats away. Will probably get some 1 or 3 gallon pots, put bigger holes in the bottom and bury them to make it easier to move them later. Need to see if I can find a Red Haven peach tree too. Might try some blueberries in the corner of the tunnel so I guess I ought to get some while they have them.
Hiking in the mountains (and on a section of AT I used to maintain) there are wild blueberry patches. One ridge I know of has blueberries on both sides of the trail which is pretty cool - we hiked it at the right time one year & had all we could eat. Of course, the bears love them too - we always keep an eye out. We did run into a mama with cubs one year in a berry patch, but that was wild blackberries (also delicious!). We’d been seeing fresh scat in the trail loaded with blackberry seeds & we finally caught up with the bears. One cub went up a tree (about the size of a Cocker Spaniel) - cute, but scary situation. I’m fairly sure there was a 2nd cub, too. We backed away & gave them plenty of room - she called the cub down & they all took off through the woods.
Great news about the Bluebird, though. We have a few and we get the Scarlet Tanager and Indigo Bunting from time to time. Their colors don't even seem real! :)
I have seen Scarlet Tanagers & Indigo Buntings, both while hiking in the mountains. Since we are at the foot of said mountains, I think the possibility of seeing both has gone up considerably! The Indigo Bunting was iredescent in the sunlight, just gorgeous.
The roofer appears to be a good guy (& the folks who recommended him say he is) - so he’s looking for ways to save money. I have a long piece of aluminum siding that blew loose & is ripped. He tried to get siding to match (width & thickness), but it’s just not made any more. While putting in the new floor on the balcony, the bottom piece of siding needs to come off & be replaced with a board to accommodate the floor so that piece will replace the ripped piece & the color will match, too!
The very old & nasty storm door also needs to come off - interfering with the floor. I was going to replace it anyway - it’s flimsy, dented up & gross with ‘dirt’. The roofer (who does siding, windows & doors too) can get me a replacement door ($300-400, going to have to be custom fit) or he suggested trying a magnetic screen door for 1/10th the cost. Since the french door to the balcony is under roof, it doesn’t need weather protection so the magnetic screen door will catch a breeze & keep the bugs out which is just what I need.
Every time I see 3-4 foot tall ornamental grass, I drool a little. I’ll get some eventually.
Pretty clever. Are those barrels cut in half?
They use 'Karl' (we're on a first-name basis by now - I've sold 100,000 of them, LOL!) in parking lot medians around here - no water, no maintenance, full sun. It's a Miracle Plant!
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Duke! Questions here (Post 76) about your greenhouse planters!
Yep. We had four of them we picked up somewhere. I checked the bottoms to see that they were food grade, and then cut them along their seam line with my cordless circular saw. Washed them out and then attached them to the upper 2 by 4 framework. Three 2 by 4s just longer than the distance from top to bottom and two to connect them. Then add four legs (I cut them 30” long so that I could fit them through the greenhouse door and added some bracing below. I finished them up with a length of plastic gutter under each half barrel. I will be drilling drain holes along bottom so this will help localize water.
To finish this up, I am going to attach plastic gutter along the back to collect the drainage and route it to one location. I am also thinking about a storage shelf under each set of half barrels, possibly on small wheels to make access easier.
Hope this helps.
Just realized; We’ve been here 13 years. Our first summer here was filled with the sound of cicadas. It was also a heat wave year. We were camping in a wooded area. The camper AC was useless in 108 degree temps so we sat under a canopy and played cards most days with the cicadas screaming all day. It’s a wonder we didn’t lose our minds.
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