Baby steps towards the future gardens of Beebe

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Manalto
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Re: Baby steps towards the future gardens of Beebe

Post by Manalto »

I can't tell without a photograph of the plant itself but one that bears a strong resemblance to the photo (and tends to spread itself around in residential neighborhoods) is Lychnis coronaria, rose campion. It's an old-fashioned species that's borderline invasive here but I tolerate it for its early-summer display of magenta flowers, then cut it back to limit its spread. Here's some in bloom:

ImageLychnis 020 by James McInnis, on Flickr

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Re: Baby steps towards the future gardens of Beebe

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Manalto wrote:I can't tell without a photograph of the plant itself but one that bears a strong resemblance to the photo (and tends to spread itself around in residential neighborhoods) is Lychnis coronaria, rose campion. It's an old-fashioned species that's borderline invasive here but I tolerate it for its early-summer display of magenta flowers, then cut it back to limit its spread. Here's some in bloom:

ImageLychnis 020 by James McInnis, on Flickr
The campion leaves always seem more upright to me. I tried to take a picture with the good camera, but it's acting up, so I grabbed the bad camera.

Image

Here's the photo I posted yesterday from the web for comparison:
Image

I did just find one tidbit that would explain why no flowers.
"Most everyone is familiar with mullein, Verbascum thapsis, the “flannel plant”. Even if you don’t know what it is, it’s rather conspicuous with it’s basil rosette of big, grayish green, downy, feltlike, ovate leaves, or it’s 2nd year flower spikes, sometimes towering 5 to 6 feet tall, with yellow flowers blooming cylindricaly at the top."

So maybe next year the flowers will show up.
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Re: Baby steps towards the future gardens of Beebe

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So, lots has happened, and I've been too busy to post.

I can't remember if I ever said so, but my mystery plants (to Sean) did finally open, although the poor sunflowers suffered early when we had a weird cold patch in September. They didn't grow enough to seed, but that's ok. I still have a lot of seeds. I am still feeling a bit mixed about how few seeds I planted grew, but I did start them late, directly in the ground, and the pouch was old and not stored properly for a spell. So at least some made it, right? :P

Latest for now...I just harvested most of the milkweed seed pods the other day (some had already cracked and released). I also left two clumps as is, as I noticed both tiny orange mites and ladybirds munching them. I'm pretty sure they're all dead now, given last night's temperatures.

Seeing the ladybirds made my heart sing, though. I've been looking desperately for them all year since that last cold snap in the spring seemed to make the ones I'd seen vanish. I think the ones I saw might have been early bloomers from that weird Indian summer we had for a spell. Now, though, it's frost time. Friday it's not even supposed to break 40°F during the day.

We actually had a dusting of snow two nights ago. They were saying we'd get more later this week, but now they've changed it to rain.

I did empty our rain barrel yesterday, which I was already nervous about since we had a few nights drop to 30s. But it's done and we just need to move it into the cellar for winter. We still have too much in the garage because the cellar is unfinished, and we're trying to make room for my car before winter really sets in.

I'm hoping to set up a leaf mold bin this week after I finish rough supporting the compost enclosure.

It's amazing to me how bare the view out of my office window is now, even though there are still more leaves yet to fall.

I am very glad I hesitated on buying the bulbs I wanted. We had unexpected expenses (car, house) that gobbled that right up. It just hammered home the need to keep trying to build savings and emergency funds. Flowers in the spring would have been lovely, but we'll still do just fine without them next year.

As silly as it sounds, taking that oriental bittersweet out of the conifers is something I still smile about every time I am in the backyard, looking up at them.

As expected, there's a lot I haven't and likely won't finish this year. I may have some time to get closer before the hard frost really sets in and makes the ground a brick. Especially with the mess we found in the backyard, forget about the regrading work, there was a lot I didn't even know to plan into my garden plan for the year until it was obvious how much work really would be needed to amend. The latter is coming along, but not as done as it could be. I have noticed a difference already when we had a sizeable rainstorm come through the other week. So it goes to show we might just get that basement dry yet! :D


Time will tell. :confusion-waiting:
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Re: Baby steps towards the future gardens of Beebe

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I did spend a bit of time in the backyard yesterday. I finally brought in the now empty of the last icy bits rain barrel and stored it in the cellar. I also moved the last of the baking bags and the one ash bag (leftover from the ashes they had dumped in the bin without a bag plus some from the fire pit Sean cleared out) to the compost, which I'll mix in some of the ash and the remaining weed stock into.

I'm happy to say that all of the pieces of fake wood vinyl planks I had broken down and put into small bags to go over time in the garbage are now gone. I have not yet removed the remainder of that flooring from the dining room/hall/closet. Still good on my word with that.

Now that the leaves are mostly gone, I also got a better look at the trees and saplings we have. There are so very many oak saplings. I had let them be this year, to allow them to grow a bit taller. They still won't have much underground, but I'm hoping to use the sapling's trunks for something. If I can't come up with an idea by spring, though, they'll get chopped up and thrown in the wood only bin to add to compost when needed.

It's amazing how much more light (and view) there is now on the south side. I am a bit disappointed we did not manage to move the crab apple tree, but I knew it was a distinct possibility when that earlier freeze hit surrounded by the rains. I noticed for the first time that one of our very living trees has both a live and totally dead and obviously used before dead side of a twin split trunk. The dead side broke off long ago, so no worries about that falling on the back neighbor's fence.

I still find it both curious and sad that the above mentioned fence has a small gate in it, but it was long ago bound closed and locked. I'm not sure if that's a reflection on which side of the fence before us, because the binding is obviously old.

There are a few spots I need to note that we may want to trim back next spring. I also less than fondly recalled the SW corner I spent a lot of my earliest yard cleaning up in, finding more motor parts than I wanted. There's still more buried back there, and it lies in wait for spring now.

I was very happy to see all sorts of bits of moss peeking up through the leaf cover. With all the oak leaves, I need to do a grand rake up at some point, so the moss breathes free through the winter and doesn't get smothered.


When we were at Home Despot yesterday, I was immediately reminded that XMAS IS COMING. I was surprised at how many of their tree stands were empty outside. My family never bought a tree before Thanksgiving, and I can't think of anyone in our family that put up even the artificial ones before turkey day.

The store was loaded both inside and out with Xmas based greenery. I caught myself looking fondly at a Norfolk Pine indoors, then snapped back to reality. :D

The one thing we have not done, and I need to remedy this as soon as possible is to dig the hole where our first year Xmas tree will be planted after Xmas. We already have the instructions from the nursery, so I know what to do. I just really, really hope we have no more financial surprises that may inhibit buying said tree, and then having nothing to put in the hole! :lol:

Speaking of digging holes, I have decided that as awesome as my garden wagon is, I need a wheelbarrow. So I'm going to try to work that into the budget for next spring.

I never managed to revive the herbs that froze on the porch. I'm holding onto them and tending them just in case somehow there is a scrap of chance for a comeback. Time will tell.

I almost started my garden book, but ran out of time. I'm trying to use a three ring for a calendar and general info about what we have in Beebe's gardens.

I have seen a scant few ladybirds indoors, but they don't last. I've been wondering if there was something I could have indoors to keep any I might catch alive for the winter, but I think it would be an exercise in futility. I need to research viability of that. My main rationale is because of the late freeze we had this year that killed off a slew that had moved out during a warm spell. I don't want to ship in bugs, as that has a long list of problems. I do have notes for two companion plants to attract them next year, and hope to be ordering some seeds for those.

We did try to find some solar Xmas lights when we were burning through the remaining credit at Home Depot, but they only had two types, one of which was star shaped lights, the other very modern LED rounds, and both were just white. So we held off and I bought a really nice hangable worklight instead that I plan to use while insulating. I thought I had an old one, and that one had a pretty battered cord, but we can't find it. Still going through the tools. We do have two outdoor sets, but no outdoor outlet. So we might not do any outside lights this year because of budget and lack of exterior outlet.

I'm still planning to trim back the holly bushes, and uses those cuttings as decor this year. I've been trying to hold off as long as I can so they will stay fresh both in and outdoors. The tree we'll be putting in the library. We have yet to figure out where in there. Another day.
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Re: Baby steps towards the future gardens of Beebe

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Lily left the valley wrote:We did try to find some solar Xmas lights when we were burning through the remaining credit at Home Depot, but they only had two types, one of which was star shaped lights, the other very modern LED rounds, and both were just white. So we held off and I bought a really nice hangable worklight instead that I plan to use while insulating. I thought I had an old one, and that one had a pretty battered cord, but we can't find it. Still going through the tools. We do have two outdoor sets, but no outdoor outlet. So we might not do any outside lights this year because of budget and lack of exterior outlet.


It seems all the new lights are so cheap to buy and so cheaply made too. I remember setting p the tree every year and my parents would comment that htye used to make the strings so cheaply that if one light burned out you had to check every single one.. wel it seems they have returned to that , a lot of the new ones have them arranged in series strings of about 11 bulbs and if any one is out they all go out. on top of that the sockets and bulbs are so cheap that they crumble in your hands if you attempt to just change them.. I wish we could have quality standards on what we accept from China because it is so wasteful to throw them out every second year. I have a few strings with the older screw in bulbs, they are worth saving if you can find them , and if they get snowed on they have the power to melt the snow.. the new ones get buried.
they are replacing traffic lights and same issue, no heat from the LED's so they get covered in snow. kind of a half baked plan I guess. they o save power but I liked to put up some outside because they also light up the yard a little, but the LED ones just don't really cast any light, they just light themselves up. the rechargeable ones all have cheap made in china batteries inside, they are cheap to buy new but then after 2 years need all new batteries and they are so degraded by then,,not worth new batteries. It's just more consumer waste.. how is this "green" ?

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Re: Baby steps towards the future gardens of Beebe

Post by Lily left the valley »

phil wrote:how is this "green" ?
There are so many times when I've had similar thoughts on so-called "green" products overall. They also all too easily slap the green label on things where the process of making said item is much more toxic then the electricity savings would balance out. There's a reason the word "greenwashing" is now part of the lexicon.

What was frustrating today was trying to find a smaller solar panel kit for outdoor lights that one could use with already owned LED lights. No dice so far. Every kit I'd found only worked with that site's own solar lights. I'd have to research making my own set up.

We had talked about just hanging some greenery on the porch, and having a wreath on the front door with the only lights would be the tree in the library window. I'm now thinking such a simple plan might be the best. If we get snow, we can always snow sculpt too, since we have a decent sized front lawn.
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Re: Baby steps towards the future gardens of Beebe

Post by Lily left the valley »

We had some near to or at 50° F temps last week, and the snow was well on its way downwards watering the yard. As I type this, snow is falling outside, and starting to white the ground once again. These "flurries" look a wee bit heavier to me than flurries tend to be. Nights have still been freezing, and there's no sun currently. I guess I'll find out when I wake up whether it sticks around or not.

Enthusiastic at this (the snow melting at the time), I dragged Sean outside and we did a walk around of the property, going over different things we both had and hadn't decided on to see how we still felt about what after our first full winter here. Sean pestered me about what we were doing with all this dead wood all over, and I demurred and asked "Well, if you don't like so many piles, where should we let it rot?" He never did give me an answer. Which is fine, because I already know what I'll be doing with them. I'm going to try a few hugelkultur mounds this year.

I am worried about the Oriental Bittersweet having a come back. I didn't realize until it was too late that I never did finish stripping the berries off the vines I had been working on near the compost pile (from the vines we clipped and pulled out of Shirley's trees). So in addition to trying to get rid of the last of the stems from last year, I may have new sprouts of it this year. :doh:

Although everything looks like a mess to me again, I know that what got done last year will mean less work this year. I did notice when we were in the SW corner that last year's bits that were hiding more mechanicals have now sunk a bit so more is exposed again. So more work to do there for certain.

I did realize that we not only have a lot of oak saplings, but a lot of badly broken off older saplings that someone without pruners must have tried to kill off. The property line along the rock wall gets really shifty that far back. We're still not completely certain where we stop and they end to the gradual curve the wall takes going southwest.

We did not move the crab apple, which I might have mentioned last year. There is quite a bit of lichen on it--even more branches than before. But it also has some fairly low side shoots that are near to 8", so I no longer worry about really deep pruning to the point of mostly loped off the two main branched trunk top. We both decided we're ok if it doesn't fruit for a few years, though I have read stories where the year after transplant, they fruit like crazy, then nothing for a year or two.

One thing that was a sheer delight to see was all the additional moss peeking out from the multitude of oak leaves that finally fell down long after I'd stopped raking. I was actually planning to spend some time gathering the oak leaves today, but not if the snow keeps going as strong as it is.

I also need to remember which berry bushes to cut back or not as to if the canes fruited or not last year. I still get them confused. And, no, Garden Book is not going well, that came to a bit of a standstill as well. Shoobie seems to have weather things well, so I expect he'll keep growing this year and we'll have even more tasty blueberries. :dance:

I did do an awful lot of reading of books and online while I was sick. Enough that we drastically changed our plan for this year, and I've been fiddling with sketches towards a beginner food forest tied in to the other features we've been considering here. Time will tell how it pans out.

I read back a few posts to try to recall what I'd talked about last. One thing that stuck out was my mentioning trying to fit in a wheelbarrow purchase in the budget. The good news is that one family we got some free stuff from as they were moving cross country had a wheelbarrow they were more than happy to part with, as well as a potted tree--the name of which I can't recall, but it's not a native. I was thrilled with both unexpected items *as well as others, though not garden related), as we had originally responded to an ad for free furniture. The wheelbarrow is a nice one too. We really have been lucky with some of our CL finds.

The tree, though...he had suggested we garage it since he wasn't sure it would be ok exposed outside still in the pot. Sadly, I totally forgot about it until about a month ago. I threw a handful of snow in the pot in case that would help somehow, but hopefully it was dormant enough that it survived. Time will tell. I am still trying really hard to stick to natives, but he just didn't think it would make the drive and when I later read up on it, it's something either that will be great, or will take over our yard if not kept in check. The takeover, though, may happen long after we are dead and gone.

Ah. I just remembered I did bookmark the tree in my "at Beebe" garden folder: Zelkova_serrata The pic from wiki of one many, many, many moons old in Japan:
Image

From what I've read about them, they're like a giant bonsai to me in how shape-able they are. If it survives, we'll see what happens. It could turn into bonzilla for all I know. I did read that the wood from them is much loved by woodworkers, though it'd be years before I might cultivate any big enough to use.

I did manage to at least organize what bulbs and pips I had stored in the cellar as to which month what needs to get planted. Some of them have been waiting since NJ, so anything that grows will be a celebration.

Oh, and all the herbs that froze on our porch that I brought inside and tried to revive? Dead as doornails. :problem:

We did buy one African violet for indoors. I, not having had a houseplant in years, promptly forgot we bought it because we put it in the parlor, and all the flowers died. I pinched them back, and have been watering it regularly. I plan to repot it sometime soonish. It seems to be doing fine, but no flowers yet since the die back. I may need to feed it a bit to encourage if nothing within a month or so. I always wanted one because my dad's mom always had one, and seeing it makes me think of her, which is exactly what I wanted to happen. At least I didn't kill it straightaway.

I really need to get my butt in bed and get some sleep. Last thing, I did start a garden focused blog finally, but right now it's just a one page teaser. As I've said elsewhere, if I post to it once a month this year, I'll be thrilled.

Still snowing...no accumulation expected my left foot! :occasion-snowman:
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Re: Baby steps towards the future gardens of Beebe

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Zelkova has been suggested as a substitute for our native elm, Ulmus americana, the vast majority of which have been lost to Dutch elm disease. It bears a passing resemblance but doesn't have the graceful vase shape, one of the factors that made the elm such a desirable street tree.

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Re: Baby steps towards the future gardens of Beebe

Post by Lily left the valley »

Manalto wrote:Zelkova has been suggested as a substitute for our native elm, Ulmus americana, the vast majority of which have been lost to Dutch elm disease. It bears a passing resemblance but doesn't have the graceful vase shape, one of the factors that made the elm such a desirable street tree.
Reading that, I do seem to recall the bit about the resistance. Not sure if you mentioned it before, or I saw it while researching it.

It was very warm yesterday, and we had a strong rain, so I dared to pull it out of the garage and put it in a fairly flat spot on what I tend to call the "Garage Bed" since it butts up against the garage. The winds have been crazy tonight, but I checked on it when I went out to tidy up our bins that had been blown over, and it's still standing. I left the bins down, but closed the lids well so at least the recycling won't blow around. Since I've warned Sean that if we don't mind it, the Zelkova could turn into a bonzilla, that's what he calls it. So I guess it has a name. :lol: I did find the note the former owner scribbed for me on the back of an envelope, and ours is the "Green Veil" variant.

I turned the compost today as well when I took out our latest batch to add. Since most of the snow had washed away, I took another look around in general and snapped a few photos, but the rains started in earnest again, so I high tailed it indoors before I finished.

Related, blogging about the garden has actually been good for me because as I'm talking about last year and posting images from same, I'm remembering what we did, when we did it, and what to keep an eye out for this year to see if it comes back again. I've already been posting a lot more than I thought I would be at this point. Whether I can keep up the pace, though, is anyone's guess. Right now I guess it's easy to come up with content because I can talk about all sorts of things from last year. The theme I picked also works really well for me because I can put little reminders up that would be useful to anyone in my zone, but also help give me quick to read reminders when I'm looking at the site.

In a way, the blog is starting to shape into the Garden Book I've been meaning to keep, as I'm finding or rediscovering plant (what are they called? The X they put either on a string around larger plants, or a stake in the smaller ones) ID thingys I'll call them for now until I learn the right word, and looking at images I thankfully was smart enough to group by dating folders back then. I still want to start my Garden Book, because as much as I love the internet...sometimes I get tired of the screen and would rather flip through an actual book in my hands that I can sketch in and color with pencils and such.

One thing I realized, when I looked further up on this page, is I forgot whether I should have cut the flannel plant back or not. I read recently that I should do that with whatever milkweed didn't break off. The muellin wintered really well, but now I'm worried that the spot I put it in will be too small because of the slope. It definitely did do well in that partially shady spot, though. I need to find if I have any tracing paper still, so I can overlay it on our house lot plan and start sketching out where we'll be regrading this year.

Originally, I was going to do short steps, in a sense, given how steep the slope is to the area that technically, the town could put a sidewalk on at any given time. I need to call City Hall and see if they have a set date for our block, as I know they are trying to make sure a certain overall area of the city has sidewalks on both sides--even if some of them are just asphalt style with no true curb. If we're not even on the list yet, I might just extend the bottom most step a bit further out, and simply reposition it a bit forward for now. It really is a lovely plant, and if it flowers this year, all the better!

I'm also starting to wonder what will happen to all of the wildflower volunteers we had last year, like the devil's paintbrushes and fleabane, if I wind up really digging into the areas where they grew best to the point where any self seededs get unintentionally buried deeper than they can grow back up. Since I'm currently trying to loosely plan a schedule for the work we'd like to do, I think I'll worry most about the new walkway area that will go straight to the street alongside the driveway first, and then focus on the safety glass bed and finish the immediate nearest house foundation grading in the wild hopes that some of the wildflowers might be peeking out by the time I get around to those other areas we plan to regrade. I still haven't ID'd that bush I'll have to transplant when I do the regrade for that strip. It's growing strong, though, whatever it is. Lots of buds already.

Because of how much the daylilies have already started growing up in what will soon be the walkway area, I almost tried to plant the lily of the valley pips today along the fenceline, but knowing we have another snow coming, I'm going to wait until next week. The were poorly stored for a long time, so I want to give them the best chance they can have. Maybe I should try starting them indoors?

Lastly for now, I am once again thrilled at all the moss I'm finding, mostly in the rear yard. I'm not sure that I'll ever get sick of finding moss outdoors. :D
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Re: Baby steps towards the future gardens of Beebe

Post by Lily left the valley »

I put up a few new snaps I took on the 4th (with the lousy camera. Sean moved the good one and I have no idea where it is.)
Three from then:
1) The walkway by the drive we stopped working on because we never finished regrading out front to replant lily pips;
2) Our newest addition to the family, Bonzilla (the Zelkova);
3) Shoobie, with our compost behind prior to my fixing the fencing yesterday.
Image Image Image

Then today, I managed to get Sean outside and working on the yard for an hour. We wasted a lot of time tool hunting, but we finally got our first leaf mould bin set up. We were thinking about throwing caution to the wind and planting the lily of the vallies with compost protecting them from the impending snow. At that point we were chilly, it was still damp and we headed in for tea instead. Don't let his layers fool you, he's not that broad of a guy.
Image

They're predicting 4-6" tomorrow, so I'll be doing indoor things.
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