Back Yard

 The back yard has flowers and blooms too.

Asters  are growing from a deck pot.

The sawhorses ready for more lettuce and small crops in trays.  I tightened a lot of bolts yesterday,

Some stargazer lillies (so named because the flowers point up) are coming up nicely.  I really love perrennial flowers!

I have some Autumn Joy Sedums to be moved to the flowerbed,  I had 3 for years, but they all suddenly died.  I'm happy I rooted some clippings just before that.

I have several dozen Nandina clippings are growing.  They will be a border along the drinage easement side of the front yard,  They are tough.  And evergreen with bright red berries in Winter.  

In a few years, they will look like this...  A whole hedge of them!

Back yard daffs...

A sourwood tree just starting to grow well...

Which will look like this someday...

There is a far back daffodil patch,,,

And some in the sides of the back.

A few hyacinths the voles haven't found yet,

Even a red tulip still uneaten...

The daffodils love it here.  The original 5 have multiplied, as have many planyings.  But this one is best at that..

And the y thrive even under the trees,

Sometimes, I just walk around admiring them.  

The back yard has a saucer magnolia too.  Actually, larger than the front one, but neighbors don't see it.

Some years, frost kills the blooms. But this was a good year.  Sometimes, I just stand on the deck and stare at them.

Garden And Yard, Part 1

1.  Well, it seems I can finally plant my tomato seedlings outside today.  Mid-April was warm and the forecasts suggested it would stay that way  but weather has been more variable the past decade and the Washington DC area is historically difficult anyway.  

Not to get into details about that, but basically DC is at the border between the last cold fronts from Canada and the early warm fronts from the Gulf with some swirling winds through the gaps in the Appalachian Mountains.  

Really mixes things around.  A night with an expected low of 50 suddenly drops to 40.  But it looks like the Gulf fronts have won and the lows will stay at 60 minimum.  Not much a difference to we humans in our homes, but it sure matters to a tomato seedling.

Tomatoes are actually semi-tropical plants.  And below about 55, they don't do well.  They can get permanently set back in growth and production.  Ever read that you shouldn't refrigerate tomatoes?  That's why.  It shuts down their enzymes and that's where the flavor is.  And as seedlings, they don't recover.  Oh, I don't mean they die; they just don't thrive.

I used to try all sorts of things to plant tomato seedling outside early.  Black plastic on the raised beds to warm the soil.  Surrounding the seedlings with plastic tubes of water

The idea is that the water warms in the daytime sun and keeps the seedling warm through the night.  It's a pain.  Each tube has to be filled individually and then after a day of warming the water, you have to plant the seedling down through the top.

I did that for 20 years, thinking I was getting a good head start on my planting and would get a nice ripe heirloom tomato a couple of weeks earlier.  I adore heirloom tomatoes!

Then, one year, I did that for half the tomatoes and delayed planting the other half until the soil warmed above 55.  The tomatoes planted later did better than the earlier ones...  Lesson?  You can't really warm the soil before Mother Nature does it herself!  

Waiting 3 weeks until the time is actually right to plant beats trying to get around the natural course of the seasons.  

2.  For different reasons (Aphids and Fungus Gnats) I think I will give up trying to grow lettuces under lights in the basement.  In the basement, they have no natural predators (other than me) and they multiply faster than I can manage.  

I try to stay organic and the best organic controls are Neem (a tree bark product) Safer's soap (soap dehydrates insects and plants don't mind mild soap much), and yellow sticky-paper (yellow attracts them and they can't get loose when the land.  I had a dozen 3"x5" of those around my basement lettuce and pak choy.  I lost the entire crop twice last Winter.

I'm not exaggerating when I say I caught 1,000 of them on the sticky paper.  But there is no end to them!  There are always a few who escape and lay 1000s of eggs in the soil and then "there we go again".

And that's just one sticky paper!

I have the trays replanted out on the deck.  I never see a ladybug of other predatory insect there, but I don't see any aphids either.  But the lettuces are growing nicely and I'll replant the Pak choy soon.  I cut the celery down to an inch and they are growing new stalks quickly.  The Red leaf lettuce is doing especially well, but I don't have a picture (it was all blurry).  So here is last year and they are all doing about as well.

3.  I planted a dozen snow peas behind a trellis 3 weeks ago. 9 came up.  So I decided to plant more in front and fill in the missing back ones.  I soak the seeds overnight and then fold them in a damp paper towel in a plastic bag.  Most germinate and that lets you know which to plant.

Planting dry peas gets me about 50% seedlings.  Planting pre-germinated peas gets me about 80% seedlings.  BTW, the pea trellis is 6' wide in the middle of a 10' wide raised box.  So I'll be planting two grids of corn on either side (both bicolor, but one early-maturing and one later).  And I will soak the corn overnight too.  That helps.  But I don't have to wait to see a root.  The soaking itself is sufficient for corn.

4.  I have actual meadow flowers finally growing in my 4 year old meadow bed!  I knew they tended to take a couple years to establish good roots, but I was beginning to worry.  But suddenly this year they are growing upwards fast.  I know which ones they are because I stuck the labels in the ground AND stuck landscaping flags next to each.  So I will be sneaking around them with clippers to cut the grass back and give them less competition.  

As far as I can tell, 33 of the 36 meadow seedlings I planted are growing.  I am THRILLED.  Some are a foot high (after staying near ground level last year).  There is tall grass throughout the bed, but most of these meadow flowers grow 3-5' tall, so they will overcome that.  Well, they survived at 2" last year, so they should do better at 2-3' this year.

5.  The pollinator bed should also do well.  I transplanted a dozen Black-Eyed Susans last Spring and I suddenly see dozens growing there.  And I have 38 seedlings (several each of about 10 different kinds designed to support a wide variety of butterflies for adult nectar and larva-feeding).  Also good for hummingbirds and bees (bumble, honey, and native).  I did some research...

6.  2 years ago, I planted Maltese Cross and Tithonia flowers in an empty spot.  The Tithinia frew to 4' rapidly; the Maltese Cross about 8" high.  There is one Tithonia regrowing (can't win them all).  But I have a dozen Maltese Cross 2' tall now!

I will transplant them to the fenceline flowerbed this Fall.  They are self-sowing too, so I'll have more in a few years.  Aside from the meadow bed and the pollinator bed, I am trying to establish a cottage flower bed of self-sowers.

7.  I have more flower seedlings growing inside (and oddly not bothered with aphids), but that is for tomorrow.

 

Yard Flowers

This hasn't been my best year for flowers in the yard.  Last year, I couldn't do much after falling off the extension ladder, this Spring was unusually wet, and I wasn't feeling very active.  Weeds are everywhere, and there are just so many hours in the day to try to dig them out.

And the meadow flower seedlings I bought and planted This Spring won't flower until next year.  I do expect some good results from them then, but have to wait.

There was some successes though.  There were Black-Eyed Susans growing where I wanted to plant my tomatoes this year and I dug up a dozen or so and moved them to the meadow garden.  About half survived and are blooming in several spots like this.

And some choose their own place so there are more transplant opportunities this Fall (when they are likely to transplant better).

One of my Daylilies decided to bloom a 2nd time just this week.  May be a good mutation.  I may divide those and give them a separate spot of their own to see if they keep re-blooming.  You never know if you accidentally have a better plant.  

Some good news...  The commercial poison ivy spray works.  I tried spraying them with vinegar, but they were too tough for that.  I try to stay organic, but there are limits.  The poison ivy is spreading though the back yard and has to be killed.  

Here is one nice picture of dead ones...

And here are more, dying.  A beautiful sight.  

There are more.  I use a small pump spray bottle (wearing disposal latex gloves and washing my hands afterwards).  But it gets easier to see where the surviving ones are seeing the dead ones, LOL!

 

A Nice Morning

I got up really early yesterday (for me, 9 am).  It was nice outside.  Fed The Mews and we all (except for Ayla of course) went outside.   Cool and calm...

Walked around the backyard and they followed me.  Not in a trail, but generally around me.  They like it when I am outside with them.  Too often, when I am outside, they can't be (lawn mower, open gates, etc).

But not this time.  I followed them around.  Marley knows his territory well and never leaves it.  Laz is a bit more explorish, but stays inside the backyard "usually" (he sometimes seeks mice in the front yard but understands the street is dangerous and stays away from it).  Lori barely wanders the backyard but will follow Laz "some".  I could see Ayla sitting inside on the bathroom windowsill.  

So I was there just watching them walk around.  And wherever I went, they did too.  Not like they were at my feet, but they generally stayed "near", like 20-30'.  So I was under the backyard Saucer Magnolia tree and laid down on the "needs-to-be-mowed" lawn and looked up at it for about 5 minutes.  It was a nice change of view...

And suddenly realized that The Mews were all sitting within a few feet of me!  Not snuggling close like in bed, just sitting around me some few feet away, ya know?  

Beautiful happy cats, all unique in some ways, getting along, enjoying their lives here, happy to be around me...

I must be the luckiest Cat-Daddy on Earth.

Flowerbeds Part 4

The mid-Spring white daffodils were at their best.

The last quandrant of daffidils are yet to come, but starting.

One later planting of late yellow daffodils are blooming.

It looks good...

Some late clumps in the far backyard are nice too.

A closeup...

 

Flowers

The Mews have not decided who will host the Thursday Garden Tours and I haven't collected the pictures of the Saucer Magnolia and the Daffodil Bed as they bloomed for a slideshow yet, so I wanted to show the Happy Pansies in the deck pots for now...

The warmish Winter and soft Spring has let tem grow better than they have in any previous year here.

If the pots look like they have too many of some color and not enough of others, it is because they got all the ones that weren't blooming at the time I planted the outside large mass. 

I was expecting some randomness surprises, and I got some.  

But that was the point, LOL!

The massed planting is doing well, though the Winter weeds have grown suddenly.  I had dragged the scuffle how between them in January, but apparently the weeds either grew back or new seeds germinated due to me disturbing the soil.   

Maybe they looked better in March.  Fewer flowers but fewer weeds...

I would hoe again, but newer demands command attention for longer-term benefits.  I have perennials and self-sowing annuals to plant in the Meadow and Pollinator Beds, wild blackberries and other briars (and some poison ivy) to dig out in the back non-lawn area.  It took days with the brush-cutter to chop all the wild stuff down last Fall, so I don't want to let that escape again.

But the Pansies sure have been a pleasure since October!

Taking A Break From A Break

I'm still trying to catch up with house and yard work.  It's not going well.  But it's Friday night and there isn't much I can do right now and I just can't stay out of communication forever.  And not much I will be doing outside Saturday or Sunday.  It is going to reach 100F or close both days.

1.  My initial efforts to lever the broken cinderblock wall back into place failed.  Levers are great, but I can't seem to get enough pressure to move either side of the broken wall.  I have a scissor-jack on order to arrive tomorrow. 


I'll put it on its side and place a 4"x4" post against the post at the house foundation and see if that works.  It only cost $80 and it might save me several thousand.  If I am able to push the broken cinderblock wall back toward straight, I will cover all the broken edges with construction adhesive and make the final push to press the edges together.

If THAT works, I will drill holes in the top to secure a board on the top to help hold the wall straight and cement and bolt a brick on the bottom.  The one masonry repair person who visited said it wouldn't work.  But he wanted to rebuild the entire patio and walls for $15,000 (saying "I ONLY do quality work").  Well, congratulations to him for having enough work to be fussy, but I don't need a whole new patio.  I just need a repair job.

If my attempt doesn't work, I will hire a less-fussy repair mason.  I called 5 repair companies (through a centralized repair website) asking for email contact.   I had to provide a phone number to so.  I got 2 responses by phone.  Unfortunately, I could not understand what they were saying (which I expected and why I asked for email contact).  I do not have a good ear for foreign accents (and I blame myself).

So, if my own efforts fail, I have to start again with contractors.

2.  The 1/4 of the backyard that became a wild blackberry thicket after I removed a couple trees and that I cleared last Fall is driv8ng me crazy.  All Spring, I went around weekly spraying the blackberries that regrew.  It was a pleasure seeing them bend over and die a day later.  And I had some piles of tree saplings to remove.

But I also had gardening and flower-planting to do and poison ivy to fight.  And I did plant 4 specimen trees that would shade the area but not cast shade on my garden.  So one day, I noticed that the entire cleared area wasn't clear anymore!

Not many wild blackberries, but lots of OTHER stuff.  Some large plant with purple berries I can never remember the name of.  Wild grape vines.  Virginia Creeper vines.  So it was time to use the brush mower again.  Except I had to find the piles of sapling trunks and the garden hose buried under all the junk growth before I could use the brush mower.

I spent 3 days (30 minutes a day - it was HOT outside) using the cordless hedge trimmer to cut the junk down searching for the piles of saplings.  I knew approximately where they were, but it took a lot of cutting.  The hedge trimmer worked better than I expected.  I pulled 2 of the 4 piles out to the lawn.  Those are worth cutting into kindling for the fireplace.

The rest is too small to be worth burning and I started filling the 5'x8' trailer.  Its piled higher than the top.  The County has a site to deliver stuff like that and I can get free mulch (from mine and other residents' deliveries).  I can use the processed mulch on flowerbeds, my compost bins, and garden paths.  But I'm sure not going to attack the entire new overgrowth with a couple 100F days coming up.  So I'll be working in the house.

3.  My basement has become a clutterred mess!  Well, I've seen worse where people just used the basement for storage, but mine is supposed to be a functional work area.  Partly, I have stuff I need to get rid of.  Not junk, stuff that has some value.  Like an air compressor I haven't used in 10 years, the bicycle, the old shop vac I replaced with a better one, the boxes of newspapers I planned to use to smother weeds in the garden paths (more than I would ever need), an old refrigerator, etc, etc, etc.

There are also things down there for projects I've never gotten around to actually doing.  Things like metal shelf that fit around and above a bathroom toilet,  bolts for hanging heavy cast iron pans on a wall, shelves to install to hold seldom used kitchen appliances in the cat room (they won't mind), additional to-assemble bookcases for the computer room, etc.

The older I get, the harder these things are to do.  I think I will leave the car out of the garage for a few days and collect all the stuff to sell in the garage.  Craig's List works well for that.  But I need it all in one space to make a list for posting.

We used to be able to donate that kind of stuff to charities, but the new tax laws don't count donations unless the get to many thousands of dollars, so it just makes sense to sell them for "something".  I don't have enough for a yard sale, so individual sales are the only way I can get anything for them.

4.  The house needs work.  The computer room and cat room have cheap carpet from 32 years ago.  I want linoleum for ease of rolling my office chair around and cleaning the cat fur.  But to do that, I have to empty the rooms.  So I've been saving wine boxes to put my books in (about as heavy as I want to lift and they are all the same size so stacking them is easy).  Other boxes will hold original software disks and computer books.  Others will hold random stuff.

The kitchen light fixture has got to go.  It is tight to the ceiling and the heat from the attic makes it not work after a week of 90F.  The TV room ceiling fan stopped working a few years ago.  The Living room 2-bulb ceiling light is too dim and I have a nice stained glass replacement 3-bulb light.  But the last time I messed with a ceiling light I almost electrocuted myself (only felt "pulses" as I was sitting on a wooden ladder, fortunately).  And the kitchen faucet is leaking...

I want to tile the kitchen walls.  And I'm not going to do that myself.  20 years ago, I would have.  Not today.  There are things I CAN'T do (plumbing).  There are things I CAN do (most other things).  And there are things I can do but just don't want do anymore (anything electrical).

I'm spending time trying to create a detailed list of things that need to be done.  Some will be things I could do myself, but most are things I can't or don't want to do myself.  I would be very happy if all the things on my list were done.  I would like my home better and be happier here for another decade at least.

5.  The drainage easement...  In past years, the drainage easement (the water drainage from upper properties to the swamp below me) have brought tree debris and odd yard junk.  This is usually clearable though sometimes the County has come out for serious intertwined branches and silt.

But Monday last week, we got something new.  The storm drain was covered with gravel and clay and debris and the entire easement filled with gravel 40' up.  Essentially, it no longer flows much and is almost at yar level.  A future strorm would leave me with standing water in the front yard.  And that is after having soil added to my front yard several years ago to raise it 1'.

The easement is a shared responsibility of my neighbor and I (8-12' not sure) from the storm drain.  We need to have the easement dredged, but we can't tell what area until the County comes and does whatever they will around the storm drain (some crews do more than others).  And I can't get them to tell me when they will come and do their part first.

So I'm frozen in place waiting for them to do their part.  I've emailed them asking A) Are we currently on your schedule?  B)  If so, what is the scheduled date?  C)  If not, when will we be on your schedule?  D)  When our repair is scheduled, will we be advised of the scheduled date?

So I'm mostly doing inside stuff for a couple days but also outside stuff and I feel exhausted sometimes...

I'm letting the Mews outside at times in this hot weather (briefly), but calling them back inside after about 15 minutes and making sure they get water.  The next couple days at 100F, they aren't going out at all.  They'll hate that, but it is too hot for furries.

Been Busy

I haven't posted here in a while.  Not that I didn't have things to mention, just didn't do it.  I've been busy...

On the outside (and some of this may not be new but I'm too lazy to check, so forgive me):

1.  Transplanted 4 specimen saplings (2 dogwoods  and 2 sourwood) in the cleared area where the wild blackberries, virginia creeper vines and wild grape vines used to rule.  The saplings will stay about 20' tall and NOT shade the garden like the trees I removed did).

2.  Straightened and re-attached bent PVC tubes (with metal pipe inside) on the garden enclosure (I built it to keep squirrels, groundhogs, rabbits, and weird birds out.  Pollinating insects get through the chicken wire just fine.

3.  Been carefully spraying individual wild blackberries and vines to kill them.  New stuff is growing now that the blackberries aren't shading them, but a string trimmer cuts them down well.  When the sapling start to grow they will cast enough shade below them to prevent new growth.

4.  I used to have a compost bin next to the older shed.  I removed it a few years ago and built another one that is better.  But there was a foot of rich soil left over on the old site.  I moved most of it to the new garden beds.

5.  Years ago, I ordered a dozen seedlings of a nice perennial flower with purple leaves.  They sent me the wrong plant.  But as it also had purple leaves I didn't realize the error.  The wrong plant is VERY INVASIVE. (lychimastria 'Firecracker' I think).    I spent 2 days pulling up all that I could.  I'll have to do that several times, but progress is progress.  And there are some volunteers a 100 yard away.

6.  I have 2 toolsheds.  One I built when I moved here 32 years ago and one I had a contractor build (larger, with a cement floor, and a garage door).  I reorganized everything in both.  Now the equipment I seldom use is packed tightly in the old one and the stuff I use often is in the new one.  And I added shelves to the old one for odd stuff that was clutterring up the basement.

7.  I spread seeds for the meadow garden bed.  Some were saved seeds from last years plants and some were new from a packet.  Supposedly, they are are surface-germinators (well, like a natural meadow WOULD be).  I will be interested in seeing if the bed flowers better this year.

8.  The hummer/butterfly/bee bed was a failure last year.  So I tilled the whole area and spread a new batch of hummer/butterfly/bee seeds.  I also have a few dozen seedlings of the same sort to plant in there.  The seedlings will give the bed a head-start.

9.  I planted 15 annual sunflower seedlings in the meadow bed today.  They were weak last year when I did the same, so this year I planted them around a cylinder of mesh wire (anchored to a stake) and clipped them all the the cylinder.  That gives them 2' of support.  Strained my back doing all that bending-over...  I had 1 left over, so I planted it right behind the mailbox.  Maybe my mailperson will enjoy seeing it.

10.  I've been interested in grafted heirloom tomatoes for several years.  My efforts have always failed.  So this year, I bought 3 grafted tomatoes.  With shipping and taxes, $12 each.  OUCH.  But I really need to know if the effort is worth it.   I planted 2 today.  I have 6 graft attempts I did myself, but I won't know if they worked for a week.  At least THIS time, they are still alive after a week.  And I have 6 more home-grown ungrafted heirloom seedlings as back-up...

11.  I'm fighting some invasive plants.  I get poison ivy coming in from 3 neighbors.  They don't care about it because they don't go into the corners of their yards.  And there has been a vine from deliberate plantings of a 4th yard (2 residents ago).  I finally figured out it is Vinca Major.  It is almost impossible to kill.  My veggie garden is organic.  But I'll use napalm on the Vinca and poison ivy if I have to.  By "napalm" I mean Roundup.  I hate the herbicide, but the vines have taken over half my fence flowerbed.  I'm desperate.

12.  The daffodil/tulip/hyacinth bed is fading, so I gave them a good dose of organic fertilizer suited for bulbs.  That should help them improve for next year.  When the leaves turn brown I will cover the whole bed with landscape fabric to smother the weeds.  Next February, I will remove it.  I tried using regular black plastic last year but all it did was collect rainwater in low spots and Asian Tiger Mosquitos developed there.  So I was constantly going around and poking holes in the plastic to drain rainfall.  The landscape fabric is permeable, so it won't hold puddles.

13.  I planted corn in a bed under the roof edge.  It doesn't get much natural rain, so I'll have to water it regularly all Summer.  But it is rich soil and safe from wind, so the bi-color corn will like it.  I plant a block of 9 corns (3x3, fewer gets poor kernal development) and the bed is 4 blocks long, so I'll plant a new block every 2 weeks for continued harvest.

14.  I pruned my front yard saucer magnolia tree.  For some reason, the backyard one grows just fine with minimal pruning in Winter, but the front yard one grows oddly with lots of suckers and internal shoots.  By the time I was done, half the tree was gone, but it looked a lot better.  With careful future pruning, it should get more balanced.

15.  When I originally cleared the backyard back in the 90s, I discovered that I had a wild rose growing there.  It has small white flowers and a nice scent, and I think it is a 'Hawthorn Rose'.  Unfortunately, it looks just like a wild blackberry, and was overgrown with them among its canes.  I was sad to mow it down with the new DR Brushcutter I bought last year.  But I HAD to get rid of the wild blackberries.

Now, the main area in the backyard is cleared of wild blackberries, but there are some that spread to odd spots and I have to dig them out.

So when I saw white flowers suddenly blooming among a Burning Bush I love, I was depressed at the effort it would take to remove it.  But when I approached, there was The Scent!  The Hawthorn Rose had established itself 150' away from the original plant!

I have to remove it from the Burning Bush shrub, but I'm going to take 36 cuttings (a flat of 6-cels) and try to grow some first.  The rose never spread much from its original spot, so I'm not worried about it taking over like the blackberries did.  I can think of several spots where it would be happy (and I with it).

I think that is more than enough for today.  I still have the inside projects to discuss...

The Bramble And Sapling Jungle, Part 3

So, my back working again, and ready to wreck it again if need be (that area WILL BE CLEARED) I went at it again 2 days ago.  There were some last saplings to be chainsawed and hauled out of the way.  There was most of the underbrush and brambles to be mowed and turned into mulch, and there were vines still attached to saplings.

I went after the vines first.  My habit of bad luck is that any vine attached to a sapling I cut down will fall on me as opposed to away from me.  So the fewer of them connecting saplings, the better.

Funny thought:  The vines don't show up to neighbors.  They might have seen me thrashing around at ground level and up over my head with a hedge trimmer and concluded I was completely nuts, LOL!

But then I went after the remaining saplings with the chainsaw.  MUCH more carefully this time.  Instead of leaning over to cut, I knealt carefully so as not to strain any back muscles.  And I dragged the cut saplings instead of lifting them. 

After that, I took out the DR brush mower and went over the entire area.  I was so pleased to see the results...  I also chainsawed the saplings into stemless trunks.  The trunks are worth saving for the fireplace.  The twigs and vine debris went into piles. 

I used the brush mower on the piles of stems and twigs and vines.  It was like mowing leaves into the lawn until there was only leaf-shreds left.  HURRAY!

From the deck...

Closer...

And in directions all around the former jungle...

I was so happy to uncover my bridge...

And discovered a hose stand that had been covered with vines.

There is still debris there that I may or may not remove (it might smother new underbrush).  But the important thing is that the entire area is clear.

I finished it.  And with only some slight muscle complaints.  I'll count that as a victory.  

The next step is to make sure the undergrowth does not return.  Trees shaded them out before; I will plant new trees.  But these will be smaller ones; Dogwoods, Sourwoods, a dwarf apple...  They will shade the space under them, but never grow tall enough to shade the garden.  I have 4 in a raised bed ready to transplant in January and will have pre-dug holes ready to receive them.  I just need to decide exactly where to put each.

And I can get at the pond again.  That will be in Spring when things warm up.  It is too cold to try and install a new pond liner now.  But I WILL get the pond and raceway set up and working again come Spring!  That will be SO nice...