New blooms.

The red clover in the meadow is nearly done. The wind and rain has trampled it down pretty good. The seeds are forming. I'm tempted to rip out most of the plants, but I want to let this area do its thing. Cosmos are up and growing even without rain. I'm watering once a week with the sprinkler.

New larkspur blooms are open in the perennial bed.





Blue Bedder salvia, grown from seed last spring and overwintered, is budding.



The roses along the front bed parallel to the driveway look great. These are knockouts. Sunny Knockout is growing faster than the pink or reds.



At the base of the dead oak tree, a new fungus appeared last night. I didn't notice it yesterday as I walked around the yard watering new plantings.



It's 59 degrees. The humidity stands at 93%. The high today will reach the low 90s. No rain in the 10 day forecast, again.

Making plans for the gully.

This morning, I spent a couple hours cutting more wood from the dead oak tree in the gully. I was finally able to remove all the pieces of wood from the neighbor's property. There are still a lot of branches and small limbs from other trees that it took out when it fell this summer. Because this is such back breaking work, I can only give it a couple hours at most before I am just completely tuckered out. I made some nice progress though. Still a lot of wood to cut/split and burn this winter.



I've known for some time now that I need to address a situation that this dead tree has created. There's now a very walkable path from my garage door to the neighbor's property. As the wood is split and removed, it's getting easier to imagine all sorts of vagrants slinking through my backyard late at night. They'd have to be nuts, but I know the type.



Standing on the neighbor's furthest corner, Brown Ave, full of rentals and undesirable elements, is just a quick skip through a very thin border of privet.



Crossing over the privet hedge, one can see my house and the backyard. The privacy I've spent the past couple of years creating vanished in a single afternoon in July.



Where the cut wood currently sits, there used to be a creek. Years ago, I'm told the city blocked off the creek and installed drains on 7th street to funnel rain water into this gully. Prior to that, this entire area was used as a neighborhood garden. The woman that owned the house next door collaborated with the former owner of my house to keep the garden open for everyone to use. Twenty years later, the trees have taken over again. Ivy and periwinkle has covered nearly every inch of soil. Privet has sprouted and blooms, reseeds, and sprouts again every year. When it rains, as it's done a lot lately, the gully collects water. It absorbs slowly in our heavy stone and clay soil. Even in the middle of summer, it's not uncommon to find water in the lowest spots of the gully. Today, there's a bit of running water under the wood I cut into manageable logs.



It's already been suggested that I create a rain garden in this area. I've certainly got plenty of seeds for swamp mallow, lobelia cardinalis, and other bog loving perennials. As I remove the wood over the next few weeks, the size and layout of the rain garden should become more apparent. I don't plan to dig anything. I don't plan to move any earth aside from what is necessary to plant. I want to leave everything pretty much as it is, just adding some blooming interests and food sources for the native wildlife. I need to do some research on NC plants suited for wet locations.

The final plan for the gully includes a Magnolia grandiflora that I planted two years ago in the backyard. It's currently in the shrub island. I found it in the woods one fall day. A branch had fallen from another tree and pinned it to the ground. The stem had grown some large white roots under the leaves from the previous fall. I snipped it free from the mother and moved it a couple weeks later to its current location. I knew when I built that bed I would need to move the Magnolia. I had hoped to give it away, but the fallen oak tree gave me reason to rethink that idea. I'll be moving the magnolia in a couple of months. The hole it is planted in was once an anchor post for an old clothesline. I've cleared out a lot since this photo was taken in June 2007. The dog wasn't happy about my being there, let me tell you.



Standing in the same spot, you can see the magnolia exactly where the clothesline post was. The old crape myrtle is to the right and has regrown many new branches. I cut it down in the summer of 2008. I committed crape murder.



I'm sure the magnolia has a massive root system already. I hope to move it in early March if the weather cooperates. I'll plant it directly in the path that has been created by hauling wood from the neighbor's property. Other wintersown shrubs and cuttings will be used to create a physical barrier along the property line. The surveyor's tape is still visible along the rear of the wild. I'll be well within the bounds of my property so no one should complain.



It's now 45 degrees. Inside the hoophouse, it's 81. I placed the other half of a wireless thermometer in there this morning. I'll use it to keep track of the temperatures over the next couple of weeks. Too hot, and I'll need to think about venting. Too cold at night, and I'll look at other ways of capturing the sun's heat. The larger hoophouse will need some tweaking over what I learned last year with the smaller one.

How much wood can a wood splitter split....

In an hour, with my dad at the controls, we split enough wood to last at least a week. Considering what I split with the ax this past weekend, plus what we have stacked now in two piles, only one branch from this massive oak tree has been chopped. There's a lot more wood to cut and split. The gas powered splitter makes it so much easier than doing it with an ax.

Pile #1



Pile #2



Later in the week, I'd like to tackle these large pieces.



Before I can do that, I need to clean out an area to walk through. Lots of privet and undergrowth makes it hard to carry/roll these logs to the splitter.



There's a LOT of stone laying on the ground back here. I think the lady that built these gardens years ago used it to edge the creek bed that is now just a drainage ditch. The average size is roughly 6" across.



I'll use that one stack of stone to finish edging the new perennial bed path today.



It's 48 degrees. Today's high should be in the mid 70s. Tonight, 46. No frost last night at 38 degrees. This weekend should be very nice.

11:47am - I must have disturbed a yellow jacket nest. No more work in the gully today. I could pot up the white brugs. I could drill, cut, and hammer the rebar for my two new planting beds. I could spend some time raking leaves in Larry's yard. But I think I plan to sit here for a bit before I do anything. Those big pieces of wood are heavy. The stone, it's much larger than it appears. I only got 4-6 pieces.

I'm not done yet!

My parents arrived this morning about 7am. There is nothing like the sound of a 1950s era tractor with no muffler starting up to let the neighbors know you really like them. Fortunately, we only had to run it long enough to get it off the trailer. They're all gone now, including the tractor. A knot from a limb on the ground ended any chances of moving much with the tractor. It punched a hole right through the tire. But we got a lot more chopped into bits I can manage with the ax.



The branches of the tree have been reduced to massive logs short enough to fit in the fireplace.



It's just that they're 20 inches in diameter.



The largest piece we cut is 36 inches across and required two passes with a 26" chain saw.



My tiny hands, in perspective at least.



There's a lot more "smaller" wood still to be cut. We were tired. It was beginning to rain. We left this for another day.



My dad brought his old gasoline powered wood splitter. It was brought back to him, finally, after the man that borrowed it passed away. They brought it back because it didn't work. I wish my dad would check these things BEFORE hauling it all the way here from his house. In any case, I'm heading back out once I sharpen the ax to split what I can in the next 30 minutes. I'll stack it in the basement using the wheelbarrow for transportation. Oh how I wish I had a bobcat.

4:29pm - I'm not as strong as I wish. I took cuttings from the yellow/orange and pink brugs. I don't know if we'll get frost, or if they'll die over the winter, but I cannot stand it. I brought some branches in that had nearly formed flowers. I've been told they'll open if kept in water. I wonder if they'll root?



How it was...



And now.

It's gonna rain.

Unless something drastic happens in the next 2 hours, we're gonna get wet. The storms are moving in a straight line from Atlanta through Charlotte and on to Raleigh. After a week of promises, Mother Nature is finally going to deliver. The red clover in the meadow garden will enjoy the rain.



Before work yesterday, I scattered Flanders poppy seeds, blue larkspur, more echinacea, and several other varieties I've now forgotten. I'm hoping we don't tear things up too bad this weekend as we work on the dead oak tree out back. I'm ready to no longer see that monster laying there.

7:42pm - 1/4" of rain today. The high temperature got into the mid 60s and started dropping shortly after lunch. It's 55 degrees and drizzling. Dinner tonight, beef stew over rice with lots of potatoes, carrots, and corn. I make it much like momma does, but with some thickening to make it stick.

Dinner music:









and others.

Looking Back/Forward

I went looking this morning for an entry I made this spring. I found it, but it wasn't where I thought it would be. We're a day away from the official start of fall, but something about the angle of the sun is different this morning.



It took me a while to realize it's the missing oak tree that has changed the garden. More sun comes through earlier in the day. We had another .5" of rain last night, and the mist hanging in the air was perfect for photographing what's left of the perennial bed this morning. I grabbed my coffee and camera and hit the door.

The castor beans are starting to split and should probably be removed soon. I'll toss them into the gully and hope some seeds germinate next year.



Looking forward, I remembered an idea I had some time ago concerning the perennial bed. I need to expand my path. To the left of the birdbath, I want to move some plants, mulch, and stone. You can see the stepping stones I've been using to get back there.



This area would become a path. On the left is the gully, Rose of Sharon, and lots of privet. On the right, KnockOut Roses and Buddleia (crocosmia and others too).



The path would reconnect at the Yvonne's salvia.



It would create an oblong semi-circular ovalesque bed that I'd be able to walk all the way around. I'll get to that this winter when I can see the bones of the garden better. In the meantime, I've got to start moving more Rose of Sharon seedlings, a couple forsythia I planted back there, and an unknown deciduous shrub that has a red flower in late spring. It's not quince or Sweetshrub.



It's 64 and sunny this morning. It's nice outside. The hummers are protecting their plants. Yesterday, my mom asked where I hung my feeders. I pointed out all their favorite plants. She loved the pineapple salvia. Today's high should be in the upper 70s. More rain in the forecast for the evening. Not even gonna complain.

Today, I start working on the walls in the kitchen. For the first time since Wednesday, I didn't have to drink coffee made on the bathroom sink.

Propagation results.

On June 14, I stuck gardenia and rose cuttings from Jim @ The Gaudy Garden. Unfortunately, I lost all 6 of the rose cuttings to fungus. I also lost a couple of the gardenias, which is surprising since they normally root incredibly easy. These are the old gardenias. The mother plant was over 6' tall and wide. Shortly after, I also stuck cuttings of eleangus and several other plants including my snowball viburnum.

This is what they looked like this morning. I've been ignoring them. As Nell says, labeling them ensures failure.



Pyracantha - I lost several, but two rooted.



A gardenia cutting.



Snowball viburnum - all three rooted.



I potted them into gallon sized pots using a fast draining cow manure compost. Broken bags, half price.



On July 2, I potted up the hydrangeas that I rooted in my homemade cloning machine. They're ready to be potted up again and should be planted out in early September. I'll move them to 1 gallon nursery pots this afternoon. They'll get the same cow manure compost as the others. It'll give me nice growth, without the likelihood of burning the tender roots using chemical fertilizers.



Here's the variegated hydrangea I rooted without really trying. I wish all plants were this easy.



And a variegated sedum I got from a customer at the store. I took another clump of her sedum in exchange for some low growing bamboo.



Then I spent an hour cutting up more of the fallen oak tree. Most of the branches you see are more than 16" in diameter. My dad will be coming up in a few weeks with a larger chainsaw. He's considering bringing the small tractor to pull the limbs out of the woods and into the yard. If he does, I'll get him to till the gully area where I want to plant a garden next year.





I promised Cat I would show her how to take cuttings of passionvine. I haven't forgotten. I've got a list of things I plan to make more of. I'll do that this afternoon. There will be pictures.

Me and my chainsaw

I thought I would get a start on that tree that fell in my wild area last weekend. I'm gonna need some help, obviously. After an hour of limbing and cutting "small" pieces of the trunk into nowhere near manageable logs, it is apparent that this job is a little too big for me and my tiny Poulan chainsaw.



I did get a rather large limb chopped up. There are about 20 more to go.



At least 10' off the ground, my size 13s are dwarfed.



Is this the face of sanity?



It's time to call my dad.

A Huge Loss

I had an excellent weekend. It's always good to see friends again. As I normally do when driving, I think about the yard, the house, and other things going on in life. If I had known what was waiting for me, I would have made some different plans for the backyard. When I pulled into the driveway, something felt wrong. Why do I see so much sky?



Upon closer inspection, it was obvious what had happened. I lost one of the huge oaks in the wild.



This thing was massive.



Areas of the gully that were in full shade on Friday are now exposed to hot afternoon sunlight, maybe for the first time ever.



Looking under the tree, you can see the wild roses that I found and played with a bit over the past two years. I wonder what the soil is like back here.



I guess she just couldn't take it anymore. Rotted from the inside out.



As she was, Friday morning before I left.