Author Archives: Cheryl

The Chipper

After a long  weekend of  fall clean-up work out in the yard , I  am reminded again how old I am getting and how grateful I am I have help. Thankfully, I have CJ my oldest boy who is starving college student and will do anything for some dough, and Bill who is a super-hero gem of a husband. But, much as I enjoy his help, like all men Bill  has his lovable eccentiricites,( many of which force me to place all of the sharp objects in the house out of reach just in case things get  ugly.)

One of his most endearing eccentricities (if you are the CEO of Home Depot) , is his deep pocket approach to problem solving in the household chore arena. Bill sees a problem, rapidly assesses  what needs to be done to remedy it, then hops in his car and flies off the the store to drop a load of cash on stuff we either don’t need , or that he already has but can’t locate due to organizational dysfunction.Seroiusly, if I took inventory of the utility room, first I might cry, and then I could open up my own hardware store right in the basement.He has a whole stash of extra blades (at $50 each) for a saw he uses about once a year, a wall of fasteners in litle bins that are unlabeled so therefore do not exist in his head becasue they are too hard to find, many little metal bits like screws and bolts etc all in their original baggies purpose unknown, His cable running supplies take up two whole toolboxes and a large carboard box and several plastic bags as well(FYI he is a suit wearing financial guy, not an electrician or cable installer by trade).He also owns every tool most people borrow like tile wet saws, power mitre saw, screw guns, power washers, air compressors, table saw, you get the idea. This all gets overwhelming to me , as I like things neat and organized and hate his stashing habit and his ability to spend large  money on the most useless of items….BUT….one day while out doing some cleanup in the yard, Bill abruptly left for a while, then came back with this

The Chipper

Honest to God, my heart was beating so fast I needed to take a little lie-down to recouperate! OUR VERY OWN CHIPPER! What a joy!

Now, I hear your warning:   new chipper+ mouthy wife with crappy attitude+ wait? are those bags of lime he stacked in the corner of the garage? =fresh addition to compost pile .Maybe it will be best to tiptoe around Bill for a while, be on my best behavior and such. Duly noted.But… as long as I am looking at it from the OUTSIDE, the chipper is a thing a beauty, a wonder to behold, the love of my gardening life. We have chipped and chipped, and mulched and mulched, then chipped some more. The compost pile is usuable almost immediately thanks to the chipper, and those large stacks of limbs and twigs have all but disappreared, only existing now as the most wonderful and free wood chips for the garden. This weekend, what typically would have taken several days was compacted into two thanks to the chipper (Thankyou Bill) nad now the beds have a rich layer of shredded leaves over them which is a great soil conditioner. I am a lucky girl 🙂

So here is something I like to do……

In my quest to find colossal ways to waste my valuable time…every fall I dig up all my dhalias to store for the winter. After frost has blackened the foliage,( which by the way has only happened to a few so far, Jack ole buddy where are you?) I dig up the tubers and roots shake off any loose soil and lay them on my deck to dry in the sun for a few days. Then I give them a better cleaning once the dirt has dried and falls off more easily, and pack them in either peat moss or vermiculite .After that I try in a ridiculous fashion to find a suitable place in this airtight overly insulated house with  finished cellar.  My parents had a dirt cellar in their first house , and an actual honest to goodness root cellar in their second.Those would have been perfect . We have a carpeted heated man-cave and work out room which never dips below 60. The garage, although insulated ,still gets way too cold. In a spectacular failure last year I listened to a garden speaker who said she just leaves hers in containers which she places in her unheated garage for the winter and Viola!  in spring they get put back outside to start to grow again. Well, guess what? mine were rotted disgusting wet mush in the spring, thank you very much! So they went where ALL  my dhalias go, the great compost pile in the sky. As you can see from photo, year after year of  nothing but dried or rotted tubers has done nothing to dampen my enthusiasm for trying to store and re-plant my dhalias. What is that definition of insanity?….do the same thing over and over again expecting to somehow get a different result?……well ok…… point taken.

Moving on to fall, or the lack thereof….many of my plants and I , as well as a few grasshoppers so the story goes, are harboring the delusion that winter may never come. Although the trees seem to get it and their foliage is stunning, my daylilys have fresh strappy green leaves , the hosta although a little fried from a September night, are all still solid not translucent and melting away into the soil. How the heck I am supposed to clean up the garden like this??? Cutting down all this lively foliage is work work work and I am not a fan. I know I could leave it until later, but then it’s soooo cold( piss moan piss moan). I refuse to leave it until spring because it gives the rabbits great cover as they decimmate the evergreen stuff, ain’t happenin’. While I think on the dilema, please feel free to enjoy some stellar (humor me)  photographs taken at  the peak of  fall color here in the Burrow.

Fall in the Burrow

Well  after 3 frosts, all light,( even though the temps have been in the 20’s a few nights), I guess I can call it a day (or a season anyway) in the garden. Even thought there is still so much to look at out there, my chore list consists of waiting for a hard frost to take everything down so I can do a fall clean-up. I had planned one more big day of planting after I visited a friend who is kindly giving me some great plants, but on the morning I was set to head over to her house Tigger took it upon himself to attack the puppy. He gave her a good gash on her ear and punctured her nose, so instead of gardening fun, I spent the morning at an emergency vet visit, and the afternoon finding a vet-behavior therapist for Tigger. He sadly has gotten so fearful it is time for doggie drugs as a last ditch effort to keep him here.  Ahhh,on to happier topics………

Outside the leaves are turning. a few trees have prematurely dropped leaves due to the drought, but most look spectacular. Here, because our neighborhood is young , borrowed scenery is the way to go. Around our development, which looks like a UFO landing carved out of the forest ,we are surrounded by lovely trees in the distance circling the acreage where the houses are sited. Translate: lovely view, no raking. But my favorite bit of borrowed scenery is the line of eunymous (burning bushes) that hedge the property line to the south of my house. For those of you who don’t know, burning bushes are outlawed here in MA because they are on the invasive plant list. Hurumph! I have a great many thoughts on the “native plant” movement and the invasive plant list , but it would take pages and pages to rant about it, and it makes me angry so I shall save it for a yucky day in the winter when I am bored and in a bad mood. Back to the burning bushes…..they get their nickname from the fact that they are so vibrantly red in the fall, they look aflame and they frame out my yard beautifully , AND they are not mine, so I don’t have to listen to anyone reprimanding me to take them out. (if you think that would never happen ,you are wrong…it does…and it has…..some people love to get on any high horse they can rein in and shout  their opinions from the tree-tops). I  never discourage them, as it amuses me, and increases that smug little feeling inside I so enjoy.

The weather here has also been pretty darn nice the last few days, gorgeous autumn sunshine, moderate temps, and rain last week make it a joy to be out in the garden. Add in the fact that the weeds have slowed down (or died) and it is garden nirvana. Hope it is just as nice in your neck of the woods, and that you can fit in some time to be a leaf-peeper or get to a few fall festivals. Pretty soon I will be blogging snow fall amounts!

[cincopa AAOAOQ6PwiBM]

A new Welsh Corgi takes to the garden

 

Boy things have been busy around here. After the passing of Baby Dear, our 11 year old corgi, I had started an e-mail hunt to get on “the list” of a breeder for a spring litter and puppy. I just happened on one breeder website that had 5 new pups that were unspoken for,( for the unitiated in corgi purchasing, this is unheard of) .So, Bill and I took a drive to NH just to see them (yeah,right!) andended up putting  a deposit on a little female pup.

AFTER the deposit was made, (but before the puppy came home) Tigger, our 3 year old male corgi, suffered a complete mental breakdown. The loss of his leader and friend sent him into a tailspin of cosmic proportions. He developed severe fear-agression toward other dogs, fear of the rope that he gets tied on in the yard closest to the road, fear of life in general. So now in addition to puppy training I am in dog training with him trying to gain control of his behavior and move forward. Yee-ikes. This is leaving me no time to garden whatsoever.

On the plus side, the puppy , her name is Pumpkin, adores the garden. She loves the ground cover plants  to hop all over, is thrilled by the arching dangling flowers of the guara, checks out the cool nooks under every shrub, and to my great dismay, puts every plant in her mouth. Neither of the other dogs have ever done this, so now I must brush up on the poisionous no-no’s and really work with her to learn to not taste everything in her path.

Another positive of the mayhem that is my world right now, is that my time spent outside is just viewing and taking in the beauty of the fall garden. Anemones are blooming, as is the black eyed susan vine. The Huchera and Hucherella plants show their vibrant foliage colors when the weather starts to cool and they are truly stunning. Sweet Autumn Clematis evelops the porch in its lovely scent and spray of white flowers,and the pink garden is alive with vibrant dhalias, the knockout roses , and snapdragons. I can finally just enjoy all the work of spring and summer, although not guilt free, at least knowing I have a more important job at this immediate time. All the work of re-edging, moving shrubs, cutting down perrenials will either wait or get skipped altogether.

Another positive side of  current events is that we are finally getting a fence around the side garden which I think will add lots of character, and new places to plant vines, and a whole new shrub bed near the road. Hmmmmmm……what shall I plant? Criteria to be met….1.)fall color….2.)winter interest  (structure,berries,etc)….3.)cheap 😉    ……any suggestions?

sweet atuumn clematis

huchera 'stoplight'

Caryopteris

Blue Mist spirea, blue mist shrub, whatever you call it is one happy asset to the late summer /fall garden. Trouble is, it can be really difficult to establish. I have tried caryopteris x clandonensis ‘Dark Knight’,  ‘First Choice’ and ‘Worcester Gold’ and caryopteris ‘Bluebeard’.

 The problems begin with the fact that although a shrub (or sub-shrub), here in Zone 5 ( 4 some winters) it will die back to the ground and hopefully reshoot from the roots.  But in a really cold or wet winter it will just die back, and forego the reshooting altogether. In one winter I lost several, and due to my plant labeling skills, who’s to say who it was that actually survived? I can rule out ‘Worcester Gold’, it leaves are yellowish, but after that it just becomes “caryopteris” .

 The problems continue if you forget that like many late bloomers it gets off to a slow start. Then you are apt to pull out the bunch of twigs you left that died, or replant in the  curious bare space that exists if you cut the stems in the fall. Sometimes gardening is nothing but a pain in the behind.

After the “Great Loss of ’08” I now a.) leave the stems and b.) place a 4 inch pile of mulch over the base of the remaining, unnamed plant. Success. The caryopteris is beautiful this summer.

One of my other favorite shrubs in the fall (ish) time is snowberry, or symphoricarpos albus. It has glaucus blue leaves and although covered in small pink flowers all summer, they are reallly really tiny so it is hard to notice. this time of year it fruits in plump white berries that are a good food source for game birds like pheasant and quail, of which we have none. Therefore the berries remain on the shrub for an extended period of time and look great if you cut the brancehs to use in flower arrangements. They are also said to have a sedative effect on small children, which is a good enough reason as any to keep the shrub around. Some nights they just won’t go to bed, just kidding my friends, I use benadryl for that.

snowberry bush

Everything I have ever read says snowberry likes to be planted in the shade. well, here, as you know there is none, and it is a wonderful arching berry filled bush. It will sucker and colonize as it gets older, giving you shoots to share with your friends whose kids are unruly and hyper . It has a gentle nature though, so will not agressively annex all the real estate in your garden.

snow-berries

Theer are a few more shrubs that provide lots of color and bloom for me in late summer/early fall, they are the hydrangea paniculatas , both ‘limelight and ‘grandiflora’, the Hibiscus or Rose of Sharon,and  all the Knockout Rose bushes.

 Usually the side garden is awash in color also from the clethras, both ‘Ruby Spice’ and ‘Alba’, but this year in a stellar feat of idiocy I trimmed off alll the blooms when tidying the bushes for the garden tour in July. I really miss the sweet smell they infused throughout  the entire side yard off the porch where I sit and read.

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'limelight'

knockout rose

Back to the Bunnies

Well, I must say , this has been the most ridiculous year in the garden yet. We are still running around here like lunatics chasing rabbits, me with my long bamboo stick to flush’em out, Bill with his long black stick to finish’em off. There has been some noticeable improvement including sightings of predators (hawks and foxes) that may help alleviate the overpopulation somewhat. So what have I learned from this you wonder?

Well for starters, bunnies aren’t cute. They smell, they crap everywhere and they eat voraciously and do not do much else. I will never understand the bunnies as pets phenomenon. They just sit there , where is the fun in that? Anyway…

I also would like to dispel some myths I had heard. First , that bunnies eat at dawn and dusk , or even night, but never during the day. False, they eat 24/7 and could care less what the sun is doing or who is standing next to them for that matter.

Secondly, they will avoid herbs and fuzzy foliage. Wrong again. They liked my lavender and germander  just fine, ate rudbeckia leaves, and even thorns.

Third, bunnies will freeze when you startle them. Depends. Babies and young’uns are more apt to freeze, leaving you time for a clean shot. The older ones flee at record speed. That is why they are still alive. They are also not afraid of dogs, dog barking and frequently dine right next to where the dog has done it’s business. This I saw over and over, have no explanation for it either.

Although they would dine on just about anything, they definitely had favorites. Top of the list is a tie between asters and clematis. No asters survived their foraging  and the clematis are all caged off now for their own safety (thankfully they will re-grow from their roots ). Then in no particular order, they feasted on sedums (autumn joy and the other taller cultivars first, lower growers second), poppy flowers, ferns,euonymous, and purple sand cherry bushes (eating all lower leaves as soon as they grow).

Surprising things (to me) they ate are: any climbing rose canes in their reach no matter how thorny, the sedum, germander, lavendar, and daylily leaves.

Things they never touched: artemesia (‘silver king’ which is , ahem, silver, and lemon and lime which is guess what color combination??), coreopsis graniflora, ajuga, (they were welcome to whatever they wanted of this, guess they are plant snobs), bee balm , one happy surprise ,peony and one frustrating one , clover. There are about 40 or so peony plants scattered over the entire acre and not one leave  was touched even once. Go figure. And as for the clover, someone suggested to plant this and many sources said bunnies love this above all else. I planted some out back and let two patches invade the lawn and there they remain, un-nibbled and happily overtaking the grass that has taken me years to get into a good lawn.

In other craptastic news, the voles have been breeding like there is no tomorrow , and I took a photo of the back rock wall where they apparently decided all the sand that made up the base of the wall was in their way….. so they excavated it. Thank you voles.

And as if we needed even more craptastic thoughts….what was YOUR water bill like this year?… the money I spent on mine could have sent me to a place with frosty umbrella drinks and white sand…….sigh.

euonymous remains a bunny fav

cages as garden art?

all clematis are now caged and many are recovering, let’s see if this c.orientalis blooms, fingers crossed!

these sedums are very happy to be saved from the onerous critters

the lovely sand excavation done by the voles, why? I have no idea. I am going to wait until spring to re-build the wall. Grrrrrr…

Baby Dear

On Saturday I was grumpy with Bill. Our weekend was not turning out as planned and as usual in feelings of stress and tension it feels good to hit the dirt to work them out. Out in the farthest reaches of the back 40 there was an area in front of two white pines we used to use as a brush pile. The brush has long been cleared but the ground was still a mess with two hilly areas where grass was growing again and unlevel spaces where weeds were taking over. It has been on my project list since spring. Early in May I had transplanted some forsythia shoots at the edge and now I attacked the grass, weeds and leftover twigs and branches and then in a fit of fury leveled the ground and covered it with pine needles and grass cliipings mixed as a mulch. Now instead of an eyesore I had to pass every time I went out back, it was a nice little grove of sorts that once the forsythia grows in will be lovely.

Then came Sunday and Baby Dear , our 11 year old corgi,was acting out of sorts, very quiet and subdued. At 8 o’clock Erin realized she hadn’t come in from outside yet so she went to get her and she would not climb the porch stairs. Erin carried her in and the girls laid with her on the floor while we had a family movie night. Then Erin carried her to where she likes to sleep and Faith and I gave her a pill that is like doggie advil. Baby Dear has had problems with her back before and has lately been having some other issues as well so I went to bed envisioning a day of vet visits and horrible conversations involving what we could and could not do for her. I awoke Monday to Bill standing over me telling me she had died during the night. That would so suit her personality, always thinking of us, and leaving in the most quiet and unobtrusive fashion. She brought such joy to this household, and they say you no matter how many pets you have there is always one who is your “soul-mate” pet, and she was mine. The hole in my heart is gaping and painful.

We gathered the kids together and got her  wrapped up and they brought out her bowls (she LOVED her food!) and her favorite toys, and we gave her a resting place under the two pines in the little grove I had cleared on Saturday.

That is some kind of gardening providence, how much easier that horrible situation was made by having the perfect place for her, near us in the garden, yet somewhere that will remain undisturbed and be shaded and restful.

We could never have given back to her what she gave to us, the love , the happiness, the comfort. She was a princess of dogs, and truly my Baby Dear. I will miss her in a way words can not describe.

The begining of the end, or just the end of the begining?

Who is that screamin in my  ear???  Street preacher? Doomsday prophet?  One of the Seven Angels or Four Horseman? Garden Writer?

This time of year it is impossible to escape all the screaming and yelling, only in this case from garden magazine writers and columnists , instead of the usual  cardboard sign carrying crazies, preaching change your ways!..plant more fall color!! The season is waning…is your garden prepared?!!

Well, I can’t speak for my soul, but my  garden seems A-ok. Still, I fall under the spell of their hypnotic chants…ornamental grasses…asters…foliage and textures…. and I feel as though somehow I am NOT ready,  yes, I need to re-assess, re-vamp, plan better for the slow down of Fall

Wait a minute, No I don’t. One quick look at the garden tells me that I actually have quite a bit going on here, and a follow up closer look tells me I actually have more in bloom than I did in July. Check out this list written poorly with no italics or proper botanic names 😉

Traditional Late Bloomers: helianthus x multiflorous, Joe-Pye weed, Sedum (‘Matrona’ ‘Autumn Joy’ ‘Brilliant ‘Vera Jameson’), Trumpet Vines, Rudbeckia, Coneflowers, Caryopteris, Hydrangea (paniculata and grandiflora) Hosta, Hibiscus ( perennial and Rose of Sharon) asters,allium,and buddleia

Long Bloomers that have great staying power: Hydrangea (var. species) catamint ,knockout roses,Christopher Marlowe english rose, magic carpet roses, fairy roses, bee balm,pansies,yarrow,poppies,persicaria (firetail) coreopsis grandiflora ,rose mallow, garden phlox,potentilla, clematis (‘Huldine’ ‘Betty Corning’  ‘Kermesina’ ‘Comtesse de Bouchard’ ‘Dr. Ruppel’  integrifolia and texensis), summersweet (clethra anifolia) shasta daisy, hucheras, perennial verbena’Annie’,blanket flower,

Bushes in berry: snowberry, holly, viburnums (arrowwood and burkwodii) dogwood

Annuals in their prime; bacopa,petunia,nicotiana, sweet peas, helenium, snapdragons, amaranth, sunflowers, hyacinth bean vine, zinnias, cosmos, nasturtiums, stock, pelergoniums and  dhalias

Things re-blooming after being cut back : stella d’oro daylily, armeria, dianthus, feverfew, germander, lavendar, geraniums, spireas,

That’s nothing to sneeze at, and on that subject,  NO I am NOT going to plant solidago (goldenrod), it may not be the cause of the hay-fever (which is it’s look alike- ragweed) but it IS a look alike to what I think of as an ugly weed/plant, and you can’t make me like it!

 So, if the end is near, and we are woefully ill-prepared for the garden making it’s last stand, then someone better tell my Sheffield mums, they haven’t even started to bud yet.

Bloom Day

One more time I missed bloom Day over at May Dreams Gardens  ..  maydreamsgardens.com  ……and you all know how I hate to be left out of anything :)…..so better late than never, and this post will remind me next month on the 15th to get my a** in gear.

I could list all the plants that are blooming here, but they mimic the lists already on other sites, so instead on bloom day I will stick to clematis (and or other vines as the mood strikes me).

c.Dr. Ruppel

c.’ Dr. Ruppel’ is planted twice in the same bed, once to grow into a Rose of Sharon, once in a container. It is blooming in the container right now

Elsa Spath

c.’Elsa Spath’ is in her second, and smaller flush of blooms for the summer

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c.viticella’ Kermesina’ is blooming with abandon, but will be moved to a better more visisble location when it is finished (can’t seem to find the picture….hmmmmm

c.’Comtesse de Bouchard’ (right) just keeps on keepin on as does c. viticella ‘Betty Corning ‘ (left)(both in week 16 of bloom)

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c.’Huldine’ (left)is blooming out front although it finished out back two weeks ago, and c.texensis’ Gravetye Beauty'(right) is doing what is does best..being beautiful! What a job to have, huh?

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Last but certainly not least, the herbaceous c.integrifolia ‘Rosea’ (below) is blooming all around the ever so beautiful Christopher Marlowe rose I am infatuated with since it’s arrival from David Austin roses this spring. 

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Because of the bunny issues here ,I will not swear here even though I wanna, some clematis have been blooming out of their ordinary time, so almost every day I am surprised to see a new one with buds and look forward (now that they are all caged off grrrrrrr) to see who comes out next.

Feeling left out

At this time of year I tend to notice how everybody is going on and on about their vegetable gardens. They are all so smug and impressed with their gardening prowess and bounty.I want to go on and on about something too ! (hear the whine in my voice?), but I do not grow a vegetable garden for a plethora of reasons. A.) There are many perfectly stocked farmers markets in my area loaded with beautiful  produce  at dirt cheap prices  B.)Being an ornamental gardener if something seems off or doesn’t look it’s best I can move it, cut it back or replace it. Not so with the veggies, they must remain and try to produce . Does not work with my OCD.  C.)Given my failure rate with so very many types of plants, why would I add one more that may crash and burn , that seems like setting myself up for more heartbreak. Add to that ego slam a family that “tolerates” vegetables when they appear on the plate as opposed to “enjoying” them and I don’t really see the point for all that effort.

But since I do not like to be left out of the party, I will wax on about the two semi-veggies I DO grow. First is the bottle gourd. Given that it is  a squash plant, it alone amoung many seedlings survived the miserable excuse of an unweeded bed my cutting garden was this year. Meant to be the centerpeice of a sea of zinnias and Bells of Ireland, instead it is a jewel in the crabgrass. It is grown to be used as a container, or for me hopefully birdhouses if I can dry it correctly. And guess what?  even though it is a squash you can walk by me without lowering your gaze lest I hand you a bag of it, and you will not find any on your doorstop or your car seat either. Nor will I have to scour the internet for clever ways to incorporate it into tasty baked goods just to get rid of it. I may even have too few!

Secondly I am growing hyacinth bean (lablab purpurea) which is a wonderful vine that I spent $2 on seeds for several years ago and have had from that investment much August joy as it climbs with it’s big bold burgandy leaves and comes into flower with lovely purplish-white flowers that will then turn into electric purple seed pods, from which I will collect seed and do it all again next year. Hummingbirds go ga-ga over it too.

So there, beans and squash. No family drama, no ego slams, no worries about crop failure or late blight. Just birdhouses and purple-y goodness.