Sunday, September 28, 2008

mushrooms...


the long stretch of warm, wet weather has resulted in a surprising bounty of Amanita cokeri, they're all over the front of the property, under the spruce trees and hemlocks.



There were a few monsters...



Here's a good idea of their size, that's a pint glass of Guinness...



Of course, when playing with mushrooms, there must be the obligatory crazy old man with mushrooms shot...



I must admit, my mushroom identifying skills are a bit rusty, I'm pretty sure they're A. cokeri, but if they're not, I'd like to know exactly what they are so I can enter them correctly into my natural plants diary!




sow what you will...

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Monday, September 22, 2008

the wheel, it doth turn...




A Blessed and Merry Mabon to you, one and all.
This is my time of the rolling year. I was born an Autumn child. It has been a time of great changes, wonderful adventures and unbridled growth for me, all my days. I love it so...
May the turning of the season bring you bounty, beauty and, above all, peace.


This beautiful illustration is by Mystickal Realms Graphics.


sow what you will...

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Sunday, September 21, 2008

Sunday in the yard...

Well, I have to admit, I lazied out yesterday and didn't attack the cactus bed. Instead, I watched "Vampire Circus" on MonstersHD and when it got dark, we built a fire in the pit, had some beers and watched the ISS glide overhead in the crystal clear night sky. I did the cactus this morning after I got home from taking care some early morning work at the sound studio I'm working on. I ended up with two shopping bags of prickly pear pads, so if you want some, drop me a line. I hit the local garden center which was having a sale of pots and planters and picked up a nicely glazed, two foot all and almost as wide one. I planted a pot bound yucca, some chicks and hens and a few prickly pear pads in it and set it in the inside corner where my living room and kitchen come together. It gets relentless sun all day and it's perfect for succulents and such.




It should do perfect there, although I'm planning on getting a banana plant next spring, so it will have to share the space.
I also dethatched a bit of lawn in a high wear area and seeded it, watered all the new shrubs and now I'm having a Guinness and scraping cactus spines out of my flesh. Ugh.


sow what you will...

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Saturday, September 20, 2008

Saturday yard work...

It is a beautiful day today, mid seventies, big puffy clouds meandering across the azure sky, gentle breeze, perfect, just perfect for playing yard slave. After I returned from running my usual Saturday morning errands, I cleaned all the fallen leaves from the gardens and beds, then fired up the lawn mower and chased it around the grounds for two hours. Then I cleaned up around the edges, then I dug out all the roots left from the old spruce tree we took down a few months ago, raked out the area, added some top soil and spread some grass seed and watered it down. With a little luck, I'll have even more grass to mow in a few weeks. I also fertilized the new trees across the front of the property to help them make it through the winter. And after I take a break, I'm going to start cleaning out the cactus bed. I'm sure I'll be scraping spines out of my hands and arms all night.
The grounds are slowly undergoing a transformation. I'm replacing perennial beds with shrubberies, getting rid of old, overgrown deciduous trees and replacing them with evergreens and will be replacing all the lawn on the western side of the house with fern, bluebells, hosta and other shade lovers, also putting in a nice stepping stone walkway and some sort of garden art. Don't know what yet, I've been thinking about making something interesting, like a slightly larger than life-sized winged cat, mounted on a springy piece of steel rod so it sways in the breeze. Or maybe a nice, whimsical gargoyle.
Well, there's no rest for the wicked, it's back to work.
Be well.

sow what you will...

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Monday, September 15, 2008

Harvest Moon...





Isn't it odd? The sun, which gives us light and warmth and life, has but four days a year when we celebrate our travels around it in the course of the year. The Vernal Equinox, The Summer Solstice, The Vernal Equinox and, my favorite, The Winter Solstice. Such a wonderful thing it is, the sun, but when we get too much of it, we complain; not enough, we complain. We sometimes dread it's rising. We sometimes fear it's setting. It's the gardener's friend and foe. It requires that we who work the soil take measures to temper it's bounty and we worry ourselves when it hides behind the veil of clouds for days on end. It is vexing...
And then, there's my good friend, my companion, my guide, my love, the fairest Selene, the enchanting Luna, our moon. How we revere our closest celestial neighbor. She governs the ebb and flow of the waters. She guides us in our gardening tasks. She sets our moods, whether we realize it or not. I garden by the moon. There are moon times to set plants, to turn ground, to dig holes, to prune, to sow seeds and to reap. Mankind and Womankind have lived their lives under the smile of the sun, but have led their lives by the turn of the moon. Tonight is the Harvest Moon, as we of the Celtic and Anglo-Saxon ilk have named it. The full moon of this time of year was a gift to the farmers, who would work through the night, under her subtle glow, to get in all the crops needed to survive another coming winter. Hay was mown, by scythe and sickle, gathered and tied to stand in the sun and dry, to become fodder and bedding for animals, stuffing for mattresses and boots. Grain was gathered. Corn was harvested. Every crop that could be, was gathered under this moonlight. And, to those who lived in that harder time, the moon imparted something special to those crops, empowered them with something mystical and wonderful. Barley gathered under the light of the Harvest Moon was brewed into special ales and wines. Wheat was woven into intricate corn dollies by the English farmers, special figures for luck and health and protection.
Each civilization and culture had their own names for this special moon; to the Chinese, it is The Chrysanthemum Moon; to the Choctaw, The Mulberry Moon; there are many, many more.
As a child, I was fascinated, no, awed, by the moon. I would lay in bed on Summer nights, the hope of breeze sneaking in the open window, bathing in the light of the full moon. I felt something that I could not recognize as a child, but now I know that feeling was peace. As a child, I would walk the woods on Winter's night, the trees alight with the sparkle of the moon on the crystals of snow piled in thin lines on the empty branches, the blue glow of the ground where the light streamed down through the skeletons of the towering trees. I felt something that I could not appreciate on those childhood walks, but I know it now as true wonder. And the garden, oh, what a wonderful thing it is to sit in a garden under the light of the moon. The living plants take on such a wonderful, subtle new color under that light. I sit so still, watching the flitting moths take their nocturnal nourishment, wondering, hoping that one might not really be a moth, but might be one of the shy Faery folk, the bashful Fae, come to dance amongst the muted glow of the blooms, to drink the nectar of the nodding flowers, to flick on some unsuspecting toad the drops of dew formed on the still leaves... ah, if only.
So, tonight, turn off your porch light, stand in your back yard and look up at the wonderful, mysterious and giving Harvest Moon. Let your face bathe in her light. Let your soul drink her special love. I shall be. And I shall be thinking of you...




sow what you will...

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Sunday, September 14, 2008

mums...




Here's a not so hot picture of the new mums I planted yesterday. They're small, they were in 6" pots, but they'll fill out the border nicely next year, especially with some astute pinching back. Which made me wonder why I planted them, to tell the truth.
When I was a kid, my father, Jack of the Green Thumb, had a mum border that was almost 100' long and about three feet deep. They were all one color, sort of a dark rust color, double bloomed. When they started to grow each spring, it was my job to pinch them back so they would form mounds. After a while I became quite good at it and the results were worth the time and effort, although, in my kid's mind, it seemed that once I got to the end, it was time to walk back to the other end and start all over again. When I was able to start gardening for myself, many years ago, I swore I would never, ever, plant mums. I used to buy them to put on the front and back porch each Autumn, but never planted them. But, on Saturday morning, when I was at the garden center looking for sales on perennials, I walked past a huge display of mums and their scent was carried to me on the breeze and I immediately thought of my father and how much he loved them. I also thought about the endless hours spent on my hand and knees pinching back his border and how, now it didn't really seem, to my older, if not adult mind, too bad, working with flowers, the sun on my back, the smell of mums permeating my fingers. So, I bought a half dozen and now have a very small mum border. Now, next year, when I'm on my hands and knees, sun on my back, pinching them back, enveloped in their scent, I'll be reminded of my father, which makes it all the more worthwhile.



sow what you will...

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Saturday, September 13, 2008

busy, busy...

I finally received the two replacement Thuja trees I needed for the hedgerow on the Eastern front of the house, so I could pull out the two dead ones that were run over my persons unknown and plant new ones before it got too late in the season. (getting them is a whole 'nother post). We've been fretting that the ones I planted in the spring didn't seem to be growing very much, especially after how these trees are supposed to almost double in size every year. I guess it's like anything else, if you see it every day, you don't notice the changes that happen gradually. The new plantings are half the size of the old ones. And the old ones are twice as bushy. Amazing. If they keep growing at this rate, we'll have a six foot wall of green across the front of the property in three years. Impressive.
I also planted six mums in front of the kitchen garden, so you can see them when you come up the back walk. Pictures of both tomorrow, I was too tired to take any, since I decided to rake the yard after I got done planting.
It never ends.



sow what you will...

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Thursday, September 11, 2008

free cactus..!

anyone want some prickly pear cactus?




They are the low spreading variety, Opuntia macrorhiza. Their habit is only about a foot tall, with very tiny, hard to see spines that are the devil to get out of your skin. They bloom in June in zone 6, beautiful yellow flowers that look like they're carved out of yellow crystal. The blooms only last a day or so, but they flower profusely, so you get about two weeks worth of blooms. They are hardy to zone 4. They look awful in the winter, all shriveled and laying flat on the ground, but the perk right up in the spring and send out new growth. They are edible, there are lots of recipes on line for pickling them as well as candied cactus, very good. I don't recommend them for areas where kids play or pets might nose around, but they're great in that dry, sunny spot in your garden or rock garden. Just make sure it's a well drained area, they don't like wet feet and will rot.
Very easy to plant, I will be sending fresh growth pads. Just stick them in the soil where they have room to spread and they'll do great. These particular plants are native to New Jersey and were propagated from plants that have been in my family for over forty years. I'm putting in a patio next spring and they are in the way.
Send me an email if you're interested, but do it soon, they should get stuck in the soil before frost, but, they will root if you lay them flat on the ground after a frost.
Send me an email if you're interested.
sow what you will...

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Sunday, September 7, 2008

the new shrubbery...




I managed to get in the edging and mulch today before my lungs closed up and I had to quit. I've been battling a chest cold for weeks, I think it may have developed into pneumonia. I have a low grade fever and I'm gasping for air like a fish out of water. It's also pretty painful.
Off to see the sawbones tomorrow. I hope it's just bronchitis, I don't need to get laid up right now, too much to do.



sow what you will...

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storm damage...




Here's what I had to clean up today, one branch from one of our Sweetgum trees...


sow what you will...

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Saturday, September 6, 2008

Tropical Storm Hanna, 9/6/08...

Scroll down for the latest updates...


11:00 AM -
clouds are now covering the sky, with low-lying tropical looking ones in the Southwest.

Only an occasional breeze right now, enough to cause the smaller tree branches to sway a bit and the poplar trees are shedding their leaves at the slightest zephyr. It gets really bright for a few seconds once in a while, but then the gap in the clouds is filled and it gets dull outside again. The humidity is nuts, everything in the house feels sticky, even with the air on and outside it's like trying to breath through a wet sponge...



12:08 PM -
A steady, freshening breeze has come up, everything outside is in motion. No rain yet, I'm sure we'll start seeing some soon, but the weather radars are showing the worst of it to the West right now. Maybe we'll dodge the big bullet, but we've a long way to go before she moves completely through.



The cattails back by the brook...

Tiger The Weather Cat remains unimpressed...









1:00 PM -
It's gotten eerily still outside and very bright... and, just as I'm writing this, the breeze is back a bit stronger than before, but it's still pretty bright. I'm going to go outside and walk around the woods out back a bit...
While I was out back, we had a light rain squall carried on some pretty gusty breezes... this does not bode well, me thinks.






2:00 PM -
A steady, light shower now, with a steady light breeze. The temperature has picked up, too and the humidity is oppressive...
The local radar shows some pretty heavy rains in South Jersey, but it looks like that band might track off to the West of us, with any luck.
More later...






3:20 PM -
Just had a band of soaking rain move through that lasted about fifteen minutes, with a pretty good Easterly wind behind it. It's now a moderate steady rain, but some swirling gusts that are driving it from the East, then the West, then the South, but mostly from the East right now. Some light ponding in the low spots in the yard already, but nothing more than what we'd see during a Summer thundershower. I'm glad I cleaned out the gutters yesterday after work, though.
The wind just picked up from the Southeast, some pretty healthy gusts that have the poplars waving around a bit. They seem to come and go, no sustained winds for now. Looks like this band is going to move through in about an hour, then a little break and then another, according to the radar. The next band should precede the passing of the eye of system, which is moving quickly over the Chesapeake Bay area to the North-Northeast.
This crap makes me nervous. I went out yesterday afternoon when I got home from work and cleaned out the culvert that our little brook flows into, just to make sure that it wouldn't back up, but I'm always a bit uneasy when we get four or five inches like this in a short while. We had it back up once and our property had about two feet of water in it and it actually got into our kitchen, which sits on a slab. That was a long time ago, before I did lots of work redirecting the brook and adding some additional drainage to the grounds, but once was enough for me.
I need a smoke, be back later...
That was fast. The skies just opened up, it's coming down buckets...






3:55 PM -
Buckets again and THUNDER!!! The rain is sheeting down the windows. Very scary.






4:22 PM -
I just had to go out and climb up a ladder to clean out the gutters on the front of the house again. Water was cascading over the tops of them and they were starting to sag. Have I ever told you how much I hate spruce trees? The gutters were full of needles. And, the storm drains in the street in front of my house are not quite up to the occasional deluges, there's some heavy duty ponding going on in the street. I went out and checked them and they're clear, just too much water in too short of a time. The yard is staying oddly free of any standing water, though. Maybe the lack of rain during the summer was a good thing, in that respect. The brook is hold it's own, so far. I'll be continuing to check it as time goes on, but it's doing it's job right now.






6:00 PM -
Well, it looks like we're heading into the thick of the center section of Hanna right now, where the eyewall would be if she was a little better organized. This is where the higher winds are going to hit, if she has any steam left. No shortage of rain, though. A really steady hard rain right now, coming straight down. The current radar shows a glob of yellow, orange and red starting about ten miles to the South and extending to Cape May, so this is going to be going on a while. The storm drains are backing up again, the ponding receded after the last downpour, but they're building up. Of course, the assholes driving down the street can't seem to get the idea that you can steer around the ponding, so they're sending up a wall of water into the front yard when they pass. Jerks.
At least it's almost time for dinner; whole wheat spaghetti, with turkey meatballs and homemade sauce. And garlic bread and a green salad and the last bottle of Sam Adam's Octoberfest I've been hording.
Be back later with more.






Dinner was great. The rain is all but stopped and the high winds predicted seem to be happening somewhere else. Unless something crazy happens, I'm just going to end this here and watch a movie. If Hanna's headed your way, good luck.
Later



sow what you will...

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Tuesday, September 2, 2008

"we want... A SHRUBBERY!"




I took a ride to the local garden center yesterday morning, looking for some cheap mums to plant in front of our kitchen border and, as luck would have it, they were having a one day only 50% off sale on most of their shrubs and trees. Not being able to pass up a bargain like that, I ended up getting six nice size specimens at a terrific price and loaded them into the truck and headed home. Mrs. SOG has been wanting something to fill the bare western side of the house, which is now very visible from the street, since I felled the Red Cedar and cleared out the Lilac hedge for the planting of the new Thujas across the front of the property. I dug out a free form bed the width of the house and about four feet deep at the two widest areas and spent the day planting the new additions. I got a nice white Rhododendron, three spreading Junipers, a white Azalea and a Gold Dust Aucuba.

Here's the rhoddy, I really love these things. When I was a kid the woods behind my house was full of wild ones, we used to pull off the buds and peel them down like artichokes. They were large enough that they formed bowers you could actually crawl into and hide. A sweet place to hang out when they were in bloom.






Here's two of the junipers, a variety named Andorra Compacta. They will spread out to fill the area nicely and in the winter they turn from grayish-green to a deep plum color.

I added the azalea for some height, although I must admit, I'm not a real fan of them. I much prefer Mountain Laurel, but the price on propagated Laurels is ridiculous, even at half price they were out of my league. It's flanked by another spreading Juniper.

And, last but not least, the Gold Dust Aucuba. That's another one to the right of the new planting that started out the same size. It's taken about five years to grow only half again as much, but it's a beautiful plant. The leave are a bright green base with very light, almost white spots, much like an Apple Leaf Crouton. It does suffer a bit from the winter wind and gets some leaf drop, but comes back in the spring. The new one is suffering from over exposure to sunlight, they really like dappled shade and it will soon settle in to it's new home and provide a nice effect next to it's more mature neighbor.

And, here's the new shrubbery bed, just need to put in the edging and add the mulch and it should be good for winter. I'll post a picture of the final project tomorrow.
Oh, yeah, I never got the mums. I guess I'll have to pick some up one night this week and get them in the ground before the remnants of Gustav Hanna gets here on Saturday. Too many big blows out there to keep them straight.



sow what you will...

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Monday, September 1, 2008

Welcome...

I've decided that trying to come up with fodder for one blog wasn't enough, so I'm branching out (it's a joke, get it?) into another blog, dedicated to my gardening and landscaping projects, as well as forays into the woods out back and other matters that might befit the telling here. Don't expect much right off the bat, I'm betwixt and between so many projects right now that I'll be posting here less often then over at the other place, but as things settle down, I'll be sharing my ideas for the ongoing major overhaul of the grounds that surround this grim old pile, as well as some dreams and the occasional real event. Stop in once in a while, if you have the time. Please leave comments by clicking "sow what you will" at the bottom of the posts. I guess that's about it for now. Thanks for looking in.
Gregor



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aw, for cryin' out loud...

I didn't expect to have to do this on September 1st...



Those are poplar leaves, friends. It's not unusual for them to be the first to fall, but they're about two weeks early. I don't know if this is a sign of the winter to come, I hope not.



sow what you will...

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