The Fenceside Perennial Bed, Part 1

I went through my photos and picked out early and prime-growth pictures of the fenceside perennial bed.   I'm glad I separate my processed pictures into years/month/subject.  I have one folder for just "Yard/Garden", LOL!  But there are too many to post all at once, so there are 2 posts.

About 30 years ago, I decided to establish a flowerbed along the fence, about 50' long and 6-8' deep.  I had a rototiller, but it wasn't a good one.  It would go in reverse (even though there was a lever for that) and would only go 6" deep at best.  I hired a guy with a BIG DRIVABLE ONE and he got down 12".  I dug in amendments (compost, peat moss) myself afterwards.

I planted annual flowers and a few shrubs for a few years, but that got massively tiring after a while.  So I decided to switch to perennials.  I knew little about them, but studied garden catalogs and made some choices.  Some worked well, some not so well ("perennial" can be a bit vague sometimes - from 2 years to nearly forever).  A few years later, I studied more concerning "expected lifetime" and chose those 10+ years.  I also added a small 5' plastic pond.

Some are 20+ years and still growing well.  So here are the early pictures of the bed.  There may be some repeats of one flower or another, but I will try to delete those.

The 1st year bare-bones.

Flags to locate very small transplants...

Mature potted perennials (Stokes Aster, a wonderful long-lived plant, still flowering).

Coreopsis?

Columbine.  Spring-bloomer.  They didn't do well in the bed, but they keep showing up in the shady parts of the backyard.

An assortment.  The purple ones in the back are Purple Loosestrife.  I ordered Coreopsis 'Golden Gain' and the nursery messed up.  Loosestrife is invasive.  The nursery replaced my order, but it took 5 years to finally kill off the Loosestrife.

I forget the name of both these, but they didn't last many years.  Pretty, though.

Stella D' Oro daylilies.  Bloom several times each year.

Lupine.  Also short-lived...

'Autum Joy' Sedum.  Deep red Fall color.  Dependable.  Clippings root in water for propagation.

A next-year look at the bed.  

And another...

This one isn't exactly along the fence, but is across from the garden path.  Stella D' Oro on both sides, Purple Coneflowers along the bottom, and I think I put annuals in the center.  

You can see one garden path.    It actually goes behind and on the other side.  I dug out the paths and back-filled with 3" of gravel.  I thought that would defeat the weeds, but it didn't.  But they sure are easy to pull out in gravel!

Tomorrow, Part 2...

Invasive Vine

I have a severe problem with Periwinkle.  It is a broadleaf evergreen vine that keeps its glossy leaves in winter. It’s fast growing, making a six-inch (15-cm) thick weed-suppressing mat, rooting from junctures in its long tendrils as they spread along the ground.  It has a pretty blue flower, which saved it from immediate attacks.  Had I known what it was like, I would have killed it immediately!

It is very difficult to eliminate.  First, the roots grow several feet deep, so it just resprouts when pulled or cut.  Second, it is basically immune to most herbicides (water-based, like Round-Up) because it has a waxy coating on the leaves that repel water.  It takes an oil-based one (and those are seriously nasty).  Third, even small bits of it will rereoot on ground-contact.  Fourth, the stuff grows more vigorously than English or Poison ivy (and I have those too from the Southern neighbor).

I didn't plant it!  It spred into my yard from the yard East of me.  That place seems to get new residents every few years.  One from 2 or 3 times ago planted it and it came through the fence.  It was a relatively ignored area with a few hardy shrubs.

The neighbors after the one that planted it were able to get rid of it by mowing.  Their yard was void of any landscaping.  Constant mowing exhausts the roots and it dies.  I am not that lucky.  It is growing in a narrow strip between the fence and garden.  A regular push mower can fit, but it is a real pain to maneuver.  A gas mower is powerful enough, but mine died a few years ago and I bought a good electric one.  But it can't handle such a tall thick mat and I have to lift it around a few obstacles.

It can be killed with oil herbicides, deep repeated digging, regular mowing, or smothering under black plastic.  Through my failure to kill it where it entered the yard, it has gotten among my perennial beds.  I can't use any of those methods there very well.  I could dig up all the perennials, pot them, and watch for any growth in the pots.  I'm getting too old for that.  

I may have to redo most of the perennial bed.  It is old, and most of the flowers have been dying off anyway.  The Euonymous and Butterfly bushes need to be removed due to age or growing out of control.  The dwarf apple trees it is growing around have never produced edible fruit (squirrels and insect pests ruin them every year).  In fact, if I cut down the dwarf apples, I can use the wood in the smoker/grill.

That would allow me to get in the whole area to mow the periwinkle rototill it, and then cover it with black plastic for a year.  Apparently, that would be sufficient.  Or I could just get a landscaping service to do it.  And then replant it myself the next year.  

I can still do that myself.  And I know a lot more about good perennials and bushes than I did when I planted it 25 years ago!

But dang, periwinkle is an evil vine!

Tomorrow, the perennial bed at its prime...

US Football Game

I am not really a fan of US football.  But I do follow the local team sometimes out of habit.  Some teams have good years and bad ones.  The Washington team is "sort of" mine and they have had bad years recently.  

And some teams have established rivalries over the years.

The Dallas Cowboys and the Washington team (formerly Redskins, now Commanders) have that sort of rivalry.  In the last regular season game yesterday, they matched up.  The Commanders had nothing to lose and the Cowboys had everything to gain by winning and the game seemed pointless for the Commanders.

I expected a massive loss for the Washington team.  But you sometimes forget pride as a motivator.  It is sometimes easy to think of athletes as just "paid professionals" just earning (ridiculous) salaries.  But they get where they are mostly by drive and willpower and competitiveness.  

And as much as some get traded around from team to team, they do seem to bond among each other wherever they are.  Teams that are a group succeed.  Those that are just a collection of individuals don't.  And that applies the men's teams and women's teams (I love women's college basketball).

So, yesterday, with nothing to gain, the Washington Commanders beat the crap out of the Dallas Cowboys.

Hurray!  😂😅😆😊

Did Some Things

After complaining about minor problems, I meant to list things I managed to do anyway.  OK, I'm a couple days late...

1.  I have 2 birdfeeders.  One is thistle seed for the goldfinches.  Actually 2 feeders there on a movable pipe stand.  Those are easy to refill.  I buy thistle seed in 50# bags and store them in gallon plastic jugs for easy refill.

2.  The other is the black oil sunflower seed feeder for the cardinals, jays, titmouses etc etc.  That one takes the 8' stepladder to refill and is awkward even then.  The stepladder was in the far backyard where I was repairing the garden enclosure chicken wire crushed by heavy snow 2 years ago. 

I dragged it to the sunflower feeder liming all the way.  It could have been worse.  I might have had to just drag it.  But I got it set up.  I had the bucket of sunflower seeds at hand and dumped them in.  And I refilled the 2 suet cages.  I can already see that the birds are appreciating both.

3.  Indoors, from outside, my tray plantings of lettuces and carrots and celery were a mess and there were aphids.  I clipped off what was useful of the lettuce and sprayed the carrots with an organic soap.  Took a week to eliminate them.  They don't seem to like celery.  

4.  I have a 2' x 4' plastic box I mix new soils in.  But this time, I dumped the empty trays of freeze-killed lettuce in.  Watered them slightly and pulled all old roots and a few weeds out.  Mixed in some organic fertilizer and refilled them.  Re-planted them.  Seedlings are emerging now.  Hurray.

5.  But that meant they needed light.  I turned on the light stand power and timer and discovered half the bulbs were burned out.  The lowest ones, of course.  It is really hard to get down on my knees to do bulb replacement.  I spilled a bowl of thistle seeds indented to the pollinator garden and had to sweep it it all back into the bowl.  More bending at the knees...

6.  I got the light stand lights replaced so all are working.  I buy them by the case.  If you want to know, 2500 lumens and 5000K is the best combination for seedling growth.  Since they are on 14 hours per day, they only last a year though.

7.  So, after the lights were working, I had to replant some trays.  And because the trays can overflow with watering and the are electric lights below, I had to get trays under them to catch extra water.   And I have to match trays and emerging seedling to height.  You want the seedlings to stay close to the lights.

8.  So I had to move trays around according to their height.  Lifting objects above my shoulder is literally a "pain".  But it had to be done and I did.  Ouch and all that...

9.  I dragged 2 trash barrels of mown leaves to the compost bin.  The previously composted material had dropped 8" so there was room for more.  Carrying them there was "left foot forward, then right foot forward".  Repeat for 100'...

10.  I collected fallen branches, slowly.  I cut them apart with the bowsaw.  I have enough for a small fireplace fire when I want one.  I had thought to do it New Years Eve, but I was too tired then.  

11.  I did some shopping at Walmart.  For whatever reason, they sell Fancy Food real cheap.  While I was looking for the varieties The Mews like, 2 ladies were also there.  One commented on my cat mask and asked about what I knew about getting their cats to eat.

I mentioned that sprinkling a few kibbles on the top got their hunger activated.  Also that dipping a fingertip in the canned stuff and rubbing it on their nose made them lick it and activated eating.  They were thrilled at the advice.  

12.  I repaired the vacuum cleaner.  Had to take it mostly apart at the bottom, but found the input chute was clogged.  That was a real pain to clear but I finally managed it.  Works great again now.  So I suppose I will have to clean the whole house now.

Why Few Posts Lately Here

I used to post more often here.  Mostly about projects, sometimes about world events, sometimes about complaints.  Well, I kind of got inactive for a while.  I simply stopped doing projects for a while...

It's health issues.  I'm not ill, but I've been having increasing physical problems that make it harder to just "do stuff" and it is really annoying .  Let me make it clear that I understand many people my age (72) have far more serious problems and a significant % of the world population would dearly love to have "only" my problems.

So this isn't a competition.  But my issues are MY issues and I'm having some difficulties adjusting to them.  A bit of background and a list:

1.  Back in the early 1960s, my town sent out DDT fogger trucks to kill mosquitoes.  No one thought DDT harmed humans.  We kids rode or bicycles in and out of the fog behind the truck just for fun.  Shortly after, I started to develop slight hand tremors to the point where building plastic models became difficult,  "glue everywhere". The past decade, those have been getting worse.

2.  Two decades ago, my right knee started failing occasionally.  I had to be careful on stairs.  Thge past 2 months, my left knee has been a problem and it has gotten worse.  I even bought a velcro strap knee compression support.  It helps, but I walk kind of stiff-legged lately.  

I'm pretty sure I know what the cause is.  I sit with one ankle up on the opposite knee (either way).  I think it used to be called the "English Sitting Position".  Which is probably OK in itself, but when you have cats on your lap, it puts a torque on the knee (of the ankle on the other knee).  After decades of that, I think I have ruined both of them.

But the result is that I don't exactly run around the house or yard "doing stuff" lately.

3.  I'm getting too many muscle cramps!  At night in bed, I get them in my thigh, calf and ankle on either leg (randomly and never more than one place at the same time.  But they feel like my muscle is about to tear loose from the bone.  I say "bad words" when that happens.  Sometimes no problems for a couple weeks, them every night for days.  Doesn't happen in daytime.  I can't think of a cause for them.  I get enough water.

In daytime, I get rib muscle cramps if I twist around to look behind me or lift something awkwardly.  

I get finger-clenches, too.  Holding anything tightly for even short periods can cause it.  Which means most garden tools can cause it.  Just holding the steering wheel for a while can cause it.  But it doesn't happen immediately.  Usually doing that stuff is OK at the time.  I pay for it in the evening making dinner.  I  prepare a lot of fresh food, which involves a lot of knifework.  All of a sudden, my fingers on the holding hand clench and I can't hold the knife.  Typing for an hour or more also causes problems later the next day.  I don't know what causes the delay, but it is predictable.

I use a lot of Aspercreme and Lidocaine ointments these days!

4.  I've been sleeping badly.  Not that I'm not in bed.  I am sometimes in bed 10-12 hours but getting maybe 6 hours sleep.  Partly, a heated waterbed is addictive and comfy, but I've had heated waterbeds since I was 25 and kept normal sleeping hours most of that time.  I used to be a morning person, but now the idea of getting up at 9 am feels weird.  Sometimes after being up 10 hours, I just want to go to bed again at 9 pm but that means I would be getting up at 6 am and I don't know what to do at 6 am.  I don't know what has changed.  

5.  So I haven't been as active lately as in the past.  And therefore have less to post about here.  But I think I need to take advantage of my medical insurance.  I got a card from them encouraging me to visit a doctor for a "basic exam".  I think I will take them up on that big time.  

My primary Dr (geriatric internist) didn't seem to understand what I was asking for as a "physical" 2 years ago (may have to change Dr).  But I'm thinking of many things to be done.

Full scale physical exam and many tests.  I made a long list based on several websites (I may post it separately in another post).  It may take months to get it all done.  But I've put some things off too long and my New Year Resolution is to get them all done this year.  If there are problems, better to discover them now than later (and it is really already "later").  

Maybe some things that trouble me now can be fixed.  But more importantly, maybe some things that would trouble me more in the future can be fixed or avoided.  

Eating small amounts of meat and lots of fruits&veggies doesn't prevent all problems.  It helps, but isn't a cure-all.  😟

Won One Against AOL

When I had email from Verizon, they were happy to grant me 3 email addresses.  I used one for ME, one for The Mews and one for my forum discussions.  When Verizon dumped us onto AOL, AOL wanted only one email per user.  It was supossed to be "identical service", but of course it was not.  I figured out how to get 2, but not the forum one.  I figured that out today, LOL!

It's one per browser...  I had the main email set up on Safari and I discovered I could set up The Mews on Firefox without AOL noticing.

But I'm so stupid, I didn't think about trying Chrome until last night.  It sort of works, but it shows all my emails to me.  Took me all night to get that far.  I'll work on that in a couple days.  Right now, I'm pretty much damn worn out.  I'll take my paltry 1/2 victory and go with it for now.  LOL!  At least I can get gardening emails again...

Does everyone else have to struggle this much?  I feel so damn stupid sometimes. 

Holiday Lights 2

I got the house lights set better on the timer.  They come on at dusk and go off at dawn,  Took a few days of adjusting.  It was so cold the past few nights I had to wear gloves.  Picking out and removing tiny plastic  timer push-ins wearing gloves isn't easy.  But I finally got them right.

The Mews didn't like that I didn't let them outside much the past few days.  Sure they have fur, but it was only 12F when I got up.  I'm not going to let them out in that temperature.  The last time I let Laz out like that, he went up a tree, I fell off the ladder, and I haven't recovered from that yet.   

Seriously, some of the parts I injured then are getting worse lately.  I'm getting to an age where things never quite heal.  The compression knee brace helps on the left.  I walk kind of stiff-leeged these days.  But I think it is getting better.  Some problems heal with time and careful waling.  Stairs are annoying.

So, when I got up and Laz and Lori wanted to go out when it was just 12F, I just laughed at them. 

It was too cold in the house late Christmas Eve,  It actually got down to 8F at one point outside.  We haven't gotten that cold here in over 20 years.

I have 2 digital thermometers that also tell me the outside temp and they agreed about 8 all night.  The thermostat was set at 68F; it stayed at 62.  Even the direct (emergency) electrical heating didn't help.  OK, yeah 62 isn't exactly threatening, but I worried the heat pump was failing.  "Perfect" time of year for that, right?

When it got up to 20F outside, it worked better and slowly got to 72.  8F outside isn't exactly the world's coldest temp by a long shot,  but apparently it defeats my aging heat pump.  I bet it fails soon.  They always fail on the hottest or coldest days...  Calling the installers for a maintenance check tomorrow. They have been good about maintenance before.

Complaining that the heat "only kept the house at 62F" sounds pretty "high-faluting" (I grew up with routinely colder morning house temps as that as a kid in New England) but what I want to avoid is it suddenly being 32F.  The house is extremely insulated and holds warmth, but it loses heat eventually of course.  It's hard to cook wearing a heavy Winter coat and hoping repair people can arrive in a few days...  

Happily, the weather is warming.  Should allow the heat pump guys some days to fix serious other problems elsewhere and check mine out soon enough before it fails entirely.

Holiday Habits

I got the house lights lit.  Not a big deal, they have been there for 2 years.  But I had to get up on a step ladder to set the timer.   Well, I don't love ladders these days. 

Some of my neighbors do serious yard decorating.  Some have inflatable stuff on the lawn.  Some have fancy  moving lights.  I stay simple.  A line of blue lights along the  lower part of the house.  I'll decorate a fake tree in a day or two,  Just wrap a light string around it near a window so my neighbors can see it.

As they say, it is the thought that counts.

Some years, I do more effort than other years.  LOL!

Best tree a few years ago...:  

Remembering Skeeter

Today is Skeeter's Over The Bridge Day.  He was the first cat I ever chose on my own.  All the previous ones were rescues or "give-aways" as in "can you take an unwanted cat"?

Not that I didn't give love and care to the many grey tabby females who came my way.  I loved them and cared for them and gave them attention.  But Skeeter was the first one I had much choice about.  He was male (and I wasn't sure if that was good).  He was mostly orange (and that was different).  But even then, I didn't have much choice in the decision.

The little private pet store was being renovated.  There were workers with loud equipment and dust everywhere.  Alone in a small cage was this one little orange kitten, shaking in terror.  I had to save him.

I went in looking for a Siamese female (like my family had in my childhood).  I left with an orange male kitten trembling from the chaos.  And he terrified by white plastic bags all his life.  My guess is that "if you went into that white plastic bag, you never came back".  That was Halloween Day 1992.

He hid for 3 days.  I finally lured him out from the under-counter hidey-hole (that every kitten since has discovered) with some treats.  While he he desperately eating, I stroked him gently.  It may have been the first decent attention he ever received.

After that, there was no getting away from him.  He was at my feet all the hours I was at home.  When I returned home from work, he climbed up on me.  I still had a grey tabby female, but she was injured by a dog and was rather mean.  I was his sanctuary.  He slept under the blanket with me at night.

I didn't really understand at first, but I eventually figured out his desperate attention was his version of security.  I was his only "safe place".  I will never forget that sense of being so important to a cat.  It changed my life.

The grey tabby female (Tinkerbelle) and I got along fine, but I was mostly just food&shelter to her.  For Skeeter, I was life itself.

He got named "Skeeter" because he stayed around me like a mosquito.  Not to diminish all the happy grey tabbies who came before, but we just generally "shared space".  Skeeter occupied it desperately as if his life was on the line every day the first year.  

After a year, I finally understood he needed a friend for when I was away at work.  Tinkerbelle was kind of mean.  So exactly at Halloween Day again 1993, I went to the same pet store.  This time it was quiet.  There was a cage with 2 female kittens at the front.  I loved one friendly one, but was told it was being kept as a Honeymoon gift.  That left the unfriendly B&W one who kept .  I decided to take her.

It wasn't easy.  The owner had to literally pry her claws off the mesh cage.  She was not a happy kitty!  Like Skeeter, she hid in the hidey-hole for a couple of days.  She was happier to meet Skeeter.  It wasn't quite like Laz and Lori (50% maybe) but they got along.  And Skeeter had somekitty to spend the day with.  

Skeeter blossomed from scared lonely kitty to Protective Mancat.  He kept "mean old Tinkerbelle" away from her.  They often napped together, but mostly he guarded her.  I named her "LC"for "Little Cow" because of her colors.  

At least, they were good friends all their lives.  Sadly, Tinkerbelle was outside one day in 1999 and I (sadly) never saw her again.  So it was Skeeter and LC after that.

Skeeter remained very attached to me.  LC was attached to Skeeter.  He was my cat and LC was his.

When I retired in March 2006, it was the happiest day of Skeeter's life.  I was suddenly home all day.  Even approaching 14, he wanted very much to be near me all day.  I retired on the earliest day I could.  As much as he liked LC, I think 14-16 were the happiest 2 years of his life.  He adored my constant presence.

I know that seems self-glorifying, but he did.  He was around me all day.  I had to learn to shuffle my feet so that I wouldn't step on him.  He never forgot (I think) that I rescued him and gave him a good life.  

He sat on my lap anytime I sat down (and LC would sit next to him).

Skeeter is the reason I have the cat-blog.

He was sitting on my lap while I was reading another cat-blog, and I saw a button that said "start a blog".  That was August 2006.  I clicked it.  I'm not great at apps, so it took a couple days before I got it working. But Skeeter was on my lap the whole time.  I finally got a post up...

It was, of course, originally called "Skeeter and LC".  I was kind of dumb then.  It didn't really occur to me at the time that Skeeter was getting older. 

On this day in 2008, I had to bring Skeeter to the vet to be euthanized.  His kidneys were failing and he was suddenly falling over against the wall.  I held him in my arms as the Good Vet gave him the final shot.

I will never forget the drive home with him.  Just 2 miles and I had to pull off the road many times.  Brought his body into the house for LC and Ayla to sniff for understanding.

It took LC a month to get on my lap for attention.  And she left a year later.

Ayla remained, so I got her a companion (Iza).  

I went back and read the last posts about Skeeter earlier today.  It was hard.  But there were so many wonderful comments about him.  And from so many who are no longer with us.

I originally had a hole in my heart I thought could not be filled.  I've learned holes can be filled with new love.

But there will always be a special soft spot in the walls of my heart for Skeeter, my first chosen one and so attached to me...

24 years and sometimes I still I see him around.

Wow!

 Now, THAT IS A HOLIDAY SHIRT!