tilling by moonlight

2010-03-20T10:47:00.000-07:00

It's Spring..!
What a perfect day to pick up on Tilling By Moonlight! I was out at the crack of dawn cleaning the yard after the storms of last weekend. I also pruned a lot of trees, cleaned and trimmed the ivy beds in the front yard, and, at 1:30, the equinox, I went around and whacked all the trees with a rolled up newspaper to wake the up from their winter slumber and get them growing!
It's a beautiful here on the grounds of Stately Sad Old Goth Manor, all the spring bulbs are popping up and, a little surprise on the East side of the grim old pile under the hemlock trees, a crop of Snow Drops! I have no idea where they came from, I didn't plant them, but there they are.

I'll take it as a sign from Mother Earth that beautiful surprises are in order this coming year.
Well, back to the tasks at hand, I've got hours of cleaning up to do now.
Welcome back, my fellow wanderers!

2009-08-16T08:30:00.000-07:00

this...
is not what I'm supposed to be doing on the sixteenth of August, especially when it's already close to ninety degrees at ten o'clock in the morning...

sow what you will...

2009-07-09T15:25:00.000-07:00

mealybugs...
I came home from work last night and was wandering around the front yard, looking at our Thuja planting, when I saw they were infested with mealybugs. I hopped in the goth mobile and headed to The Big Orange Box and bought a bottle of insecticidal soap, came home and gave them a good spraying. They look clean today, but I guess I'll have to keep an eye on them to make sure.
Other than that, everything is still growing like crazy, it's been a cool, wet summer so far, but everything loves it. How's your garden growing?

sow what you will...

2009-07-06T08:15:00.000-07:00

finished, for the most part...
here, without much commentary, are the during and after shots of the new living room book shelves. still have one to complete over the bay window in the south wall, need to design some abbreviated height brackets to accomplish that, so it's on the back burner for a week while I wind down a bit.
Once the mantle, bookcase set in over the mantle, new door and interior shutters are complete, I'll post the whole set of before and after pix...

(click on any to enlarge)

They do encircle the room, but I don't want to post pictures yet until the bay window section is complete and the bookcase/mantel thing is done.

This is why I'm always beat...

sow what you will...

2009-06-20T07:32:00.000-07:00

the latest project...
the brackets for the living room book shelves are finally assembled...

I spent yesterday at the drill press, drilling all the screw holes and counter sinks, then spent two hours assembling everything. Today is going to be a wasted day, we have a combination graduation party and Father's day party to attend, so nothing else will get done until tomorrow, when I'll shoot the line around the room with the laser level and start putting up the brackets. After they're mounted to the walls, I'll rip and trim to length the ledger strips to support the back of the shelves, prime and paint them, then spend Monday putting them up. I might actually have this done by the 4th, maybe even have the inset bookcase over the mantle assembled, stained and in place as well. We'll see.

More rain today. Everything is growing like gang busters. The Thuja that I put in last May are almost three times the size they were then. All the perennials and annuals are lush and full and huge. Even the vegetables are going wild. I've yet to use any of the irrigation system I put in last year.
Well, I've a few errands to run before we leave for the festivities. Enjoy the day.

sow what you will...

2009-06-13T17:18:00.001-07:00

no idle hands around here...

I was up at 5:30 this morning, although, I have to admit, I medicated myself into a coma last night when I got home from work, I had a headache that defies description by words that can be uttered by mere mortals... I put a coat of finish color on the new living room door trim, hung out with Tiger The Cat for a while, then ran my usual Saturday morning errands to the post office and the recycling place, then headed over to The Big Orange Box in town to get some more foam roller covers for my trim roller and some blue painter's tape, then came home and started painting some of the pieces for the living room book shelf brackets...

These are just the pieces that make up the vertical and horizontal parts, the angle braces still need to be ripped and cut, I guess I'll get to that tomorrow.
Here's the result of four hours of off and on painting...

The blue tape keeps the paint off the gluing surface of the dado in the vertical piece that mounts to the wall, into which the shorter horizontal pieces will be set, the slight dado will offer up a bit more strength. I'm still a bit sketchy about loading the final shelves up with books and such, I think I'm going to add weight little by little until I'm sure they're not going to come down and kill one of us. It's not that I don't have faith in my handiwork or my design, which is based upon some serious calculation using some tables I worked up for the weight bearing limits of certain types of wood, fasteners, etc, but I've moved enough boxes of books around to know how heavy the are. Time will tell, I suppose.

Well, time to kick back and watch some "go fast, turn left" for a while.
Have a wonderful evening, friends.

sow what you will...

2009-06-06T14:12:00.000-07:00

wood butchery...

I cut all the blanks for the shelf brackets last weekend, but didn't have the chance to work on them again until today. I routed the dadoes in the blanks for the wall pieces, then ripped those and the horizontal pieces to width. I took a break from the brackets after that to make the trim for the living room door, which I've been avoiding doing until we found a new Arts and Crafts style door, but funds don't allow that at the moment, so I'm going to just paint the inside of the existing 15 light French door so it matches the rest of the trim and leave it at that for now. I'll paint and install the trim tomorrow, then paint the door during the week. After I get done with the door trim, it's time to play with the drill press for a while, drilling the insets for the buttons and countersinks in the pieces of the brackets, then predrilling all the screw holes. Then I'll prime all the pieces and then assemble them. I'll finish paint them before I install them. This is coming together well, in spite of interruptions. I will have the door painted, door trim installed and the shelf brackets and ledger strips mounted next weekend, then it's time to start on the shelves. I'm going to use three quarter birch ply with an edge strip for some added strength, those books and albums weigh a ton. After the July 4th weekend, I'll start on the library ladder so we can reach everything. I was really wanting one of those rolling jobs, but there's not enough uninterrupted space under the shelves to warrant the effort and expense. I think I might try one of these -

Looks easy enough to knock off once I figure out the folding mechanism. But that's for another day.
Time to kick back with a few brews before dinner, Mrs. SOG has some tasty smelling steaks going on Grillzilla...

sow what you will...

2009-05-16T12:11:00.000-07:00

the kitchen door garden...

click to enlarge

sow what you will...

2009-05-16T10:47:00.000-07:00

perfect timing...
It just started pouring and I just finished planting some more flowers in the kitchen door garden. I finally finish painted the new siding I put on the bay window last year (yeah, I know, these things take time...). I dug out all the cactus under the window last year and it's been bare ever since, so today I planted a dozen seed grown Rocky Mountain Scarlet Geraniums, which are now about ten inches tall and were outgrowing their bedding pots. I also picked up three Asparagus densiflorus 'Sprengeri', commonly known as Asparagus Fern and potted them in a twelve inch container that will work nicely to transfer them into the reading nook off the kitchen when the weather turns too cold for them in the fall. My Father's mom, "Nana Toot", had a huge three foot tall by about two foot wide Arts and Crafts urn on her sun porch with an Asparagus Fern that had taken on a fantastic proportion, it reached the ceiling and draped almost all the way down to the floor. It was in a windowed corner and served as a backdrop for a beautiful Arts and Crafts gaming table, with an inlaid chess board, on which we played marathons of checkers, cheating and laughing for hours. She and my Grandfather, "Pop", lived in a beautiful Craftsman bungalow about two blocks from the Raritan Bay front in Middletown, NJ. The front yard had two huge Black Spruce trees and the front grounds were covered with Irish Ivy, which, never until just now, I realize is exactly what grows in the front yard of Stately Sad Old Goth Manor. How about that. Their property was edged with nicely shaped hedges of privet, sheared traditionally, narrow at the top and wide at the bottom. Their side flower garden, which was built in a circular pattern, contained a tall lattice-work obelisk, on which grew the ever present Morning Glories, surrounded by Shasta Daisey's, many different varieties of Ferns, green and white variegated Hosta and the perimeter was surrounded by huge chunks of sharp-edged "rocks" of split glass, which were tailings my Grandfather mined from the banks of Delaware Bay in Cape May, NJ, where there used to be a glass factory in the 19th Century. They would dump the left over crucibles of molten glass into the water and it would solidify and fracture into strange and interesting shapes. The glass "rocks" were all shades of pink and green and blue and crystal clear and were a fantastic sight when struck by the sunlight. Their driveway was the typical "twenties" style, two strips of poured concrete, with a strip of grass between them, bordered on the side closest to the house by perennial gardens containing Lupine, Foxglove, Delphinium and the old style single Hollyhock. Around their feet grew a tangle of Nasturtium that would sometimes twine up around the flower stalks. Their back yard was dominated by a huge Weeping Willow, a Salix babylonica, it's pendulous branches sweeping the ground and affording a wonderfully dark and cool sitting area on hot summer days and nights. One of my most precious memories is sitting under that tree with them, watching a summer full moon rise into the clearest of night skies, smelling the drifting scent of the flowers mingled with a hint of salt water, carried on the barest of breezes off the bay, and mixing with the odor of the damp earth under the tree and the green smell of the leaves. No one spoke, the only sound was the shrill calling of the night-time insects and the swishing sound of the willow branches as they slowly moved in the zephyr... the only thing that could have made that scene more complete was someone strumming "Lazy Moon" slowly on a ukulele...
But I digress... and the sun has come back out to play, so I'm going to go tidy up some things and take some pictures for later.
Enjoy your day.

sow what you will...

2009-05-10T11:57:00.000-07:00

Planting time...
Even though today had steady winds of 15 to 20 miles per hour, with higher gusts, I spent four hours planting all my annuals and herbs. One flat of orange Marigolds, to flats of deep Burgundy Petunias, three Lobelias, a few annual golden Sedum, a Citronella plant, some Moon flowers for the trellis, some Rosemary and a few more grape tomatoes. I converted the bed where the Day lilies were to a kitchen herb garden, lots of sun and it's up against a South facing wall, so they should do well, and I added a few rows of the Marigolds, just to try to keep the bunnies away.

Golden Sedum - click to enlarge...

The Iris are on the verge of flowering and the Rhododendron is starting to flower. I purchased it because the tag said it had white flowers, but they're the magenta variety. So be it, they're still pretty. No buds on my Azalea yet, though. Lots and lots of new growth, but no buds.
The perennial mums are growing like mad, I pinched them back this morning to start them growing into a mound before they get too tall. I hope I didn't wait too long to start doing that, they're shooting up like crazy.
The Rose Campion is doing well, I love their little rose pink flowers and interesting seed capsules, that look like little urns with frilly edges. They self seed well, they've been growing in the back door garden for about fifteen years. I have to move them sometimes, since they sprout up everywhere, but the suffer transplanting well and, being biennial, they grow into nice, fuzzy ground hugging rosettes, then the next year they send up flowering stalks. Very light and airy plants, the also hold up pretty good in the wind.

Rose Campion - click to enlarge...

Campion seed capsules - click to enlarge...

The rest of the evergreens in the foundation planting I did last year are doing good, the yews are almost twice the size as when I planted them.
I also did the first official mowing of the grounds yesterday, the past few times I just topped it, but this time I did a full scale cutting and it looks great. All the new grass I put in last year is nice and full. The area where the pool used to be is looking less like a crop circle than it did last year.
Well, it's time to get ready to go out to dinner over a friend's house for Mother's Day with Mrs. SOG.
Be well.

sow what you will...

2009-05-02T11:52:00.000-07:00

it's Handy Goth..!
I was really hoping to be able to work in the yard today, but it's been raining off and on for past two days and will again tomorrow, so I whipped up this little compost sifter out of some old lumber I had in the shed and a piece of 1/2" galvanized hardware cloth I had hanging around. The sifter part feet wide and three feet long and the outer frame fits nicely over my big wheelbarrow, but it can be made any size you want. Here's some pictures and a little demo movie.

I'm going to put a few coats of linseed oil on it tomorrow to protect it from moisture and when it dries, I'll rub the two rails the screen rides on the the bottom sides of the screen with a paraffin candle to make it slide easier, then it's ready to go.

Have a good one.

sow what you will...

2009-04-29T16:52:00.000-07:00

spring has sprung...
around Stately Sad Old Goth Manor over the past few days. About a week ago, I cleaned out all the perennial beds, the shrubbery and the new hedges, fed everything and top dressed the beds with some freshly screen composte. Things were starting to look alive then, but, with the little heat wave we just had and the ample rain, things have popped overnight, or so it seems. The Crape Myrtle in the kitchen door bed had nothing on Sunday, today it is full of little leaves. The perennial mums have shot up from little green buds poking up out of the ground to softball size mounds in a matter of a few days. The Iris are sending up tall flower stalks already, the Pink Campion are really perking up, the scarlet Dianthus is already blooming. The yucca and the Hens and Chicks I potted up in the big planter by the back door are all green and full of moisture. The red maple in the side yard is all leafed out. It's amazing. Even the Creeping Jenny (Lysimachia Aurea), that I propogated from a little clump a few years ago, and has all but covered the sunny end of the kitchen door bed has filled out overnight.
I don't know what's gotten into everything, but it's great!

sow what you will...

2009-04-10T10:01:00.000-07:00

whew...
I got outside early this morning, intending to try working the soil in the new bed where I'm going to transplant my daylilies, but the soil is still far to wet to work, and, with rain on the way, I decided it would be a good thing to feed my evergreen beds and the Thuja planting across the front of the property and turn the mulch and do a general tidying up. So, three hours later, I'm bushed. (slightly humorous play on words there... very slight...).
The new foundation shrubbery on the west side of The Manor seems to have been invaded by wild onions, they've grown up right through the weed barrier and the mulch I put down last year when I planted the bed. I can't dig them out without removing all the mulch and barrier, so I just ripped the tops off them for now. Anyone know of something I can use to kill them without effecting the junipers, azaleas and rhoddys I put in?
I also cleaned out, fed and turned the mulch on the Thuja, all one hundred or so feet of them, across the front. We chose Thuja occidentalis "Green Giants" because of it's rapid growth habit and every time I look that them, I think they don't seem to be doing anything, but I went back and dug out a photo I took last May 5th, when I had just finished planting them and had laid in the soaker hose irrigation.
This is what they looked like then:

Skinny little things, just a foot high, if that, all trunk and hardly any side growth.
Here's what they look like today, less than a year later:

They're now all about thirty inches tall, and filling out nicely. I guess they're kind of like kids, in a way. One minute, they're vulnerable little things that you fret over and worry over and then, before you know it, they're grown and doing fine on their own, and life moves on. I think that's what I like about gardening so much, it's constant growth and change and challenges, rewards come only by your hard work and care, but what rewards they are.

Oh, and if you're interested in Thuja or any other evergreen or tree stock, I highly recommend Thuja Gardens. Roy is a wonder to work with, his stock is fantastic and he's a hell of a nice guy to talk to. About the best prices and fast delivery, too.

Well, I'm going to kick back a bit, it looks like the promised rain is almost here, so it's good I got everything fertilized when I did.
Enjoy your weekend.

sow what you will...

2009-03-28T04:40:00.000-07:00

rain and more rain...
I can't catch a break here. It's going to be raining all weekend again. I really need to divide and replant my daylilies before much longer, they're already almost a foot tall. It's been too wet to dig and till the new bed, so that's that.
We're going to decide where the new raised beds are going this weekend. I'm thinking eight 6 x 6 beds, with 36" between them should do it. That will allow for adequate crop rotation and large enough for semi intensive growing of produce that can be easily preserved. At least I can head out and look for some cedar planking today and the hardware I need to erect them. This is probably going to be more expensive then I'm imagining, but I don't want to use treated lumber, I don't care how safe they say it is these days.
I'll let you know where we finally decide to situate them, once we stop arguing and I give in, as usual! :)
Later.

sow what you will...

2009-03-15T09:53:00.000-07:00

glug, glug...
It was supposed to be dry, sunny and close to sixty today. It's drizzly, cloudy and chilly. No yard work today. I've got to create a new bed out by the brook for some of my daylilies, they're choking themselves to death in their bed right now, but it's not a real nice day for that sort of task, so maybe next weekend. Speaking of the brook, it started to back up on me last weekend after a few heavy rains. After it run across my property, it goes underground into a culvert that runs about two hundred feet under the old railroad property next door and exits about thirty feet from a larger brook, which drains it away to an even bigger brook that ends up in a large lake about four miles away. The exit end of the culvert was fouled, I had to dig it out get things moving again this morning, it seems to be doing the trick, my end of the brook is now running, instead of just sitting there.
I've been doing some research on raised bed gardening, I think I'm going to go that route this year instead of the traditional in the ground beds, lots less work in the long run and high yields, from what my reading tells me. I'm resistant to change like that, but I'm also becoming a fan of working less and getting more. I'm not aging gracefully...

sow what you will...

2009-03-15T07:37:00.000-07:00

what the fuck..?
The mfcs Commies in Congress are working toward making small farming operations, organic farms, backyard gardeners, vineyard, small animals raised for food all illegal under this effort...
If this passes, the states will no longer have regulatory powers over any or all food production, no matter how large or small. The Government will have the power to not only confiscate and destroy your backyard produce, but you will forefit your property as a result of a successful prosecution. Welcome to Amerika, Comrades. What was is Lenin said? "If you control the oil, you control the country. If you control the food, you control the people."
Well, any asshole that tries to fuck with me and my garden will get a full dose of my Second Amendment rights before I go down.
Get in touch with your so called representatives in Washington and let them know that this needs to stop, now. Right now.

sow what you will...

2009-03-07T10:10:00.000-08:00

spring is sprung...
sort of... it's in the high fifties right now, breezy and high clouds. Perfect weather for yard work. I raked and cleaned up the Western side of the grounds proper, cleaned out the kitchen yard annual beds and the foundation plantings. I also pruned the Crape Myrtles, getting rid of all the suckers and inward growing branches and pruned off all the growth up to about five feet high so they form a canopy this year and I can put some solar lighting under them to accent their form. They have a wonderful peeling bark that looks nice and the pruning will open up the area underneath for some base plantings.
The Autumn Sedum, Bearded Iris, Daffodils and the Day Lilies are all poking up, checking things out. My Coral Bells seem to have survived another winter. The Acuba have suffered a little winter burn, as have some of the new Thuja plantings across the front of the property, but nothing that will stunt them, I'm sure.
Tomorrow its more pruning, I have to lift the canopy of some Hemlocks that line the drive so the Mock Orange hedges get a little more light and airflow.
I love this time of year, it's unpredictable, and a tease, but it sets my green thumb to throbbing and I just have to get out and play in the soil.

sow what you will...

2008-10-19T16:09:00.000-07:00

YAY..!
My Purple Hyacinth Beans have finally started blooming!

I think I'll go back to Morning Glories and Moonflowers next year.

sow what you will...

2008-10-18T11:40:00.000-07:00

endless...
just endless...
I just finished a six hour marathon of raking and hauling leaves from the grounds around Stately Sad Old Goth Manor and it's already covered with a fresh coating of leaves. It's a good thing I enjoy raking, I guess. And, it's a beautiful fall day, just barely in the sixties, a steady, moderate breeze from the Northeast and big puffy clouds. My closest neighbor on my side of the road, who is about two hundred feet away, has his wood stove going and it's scenting my yard. I love that smell. It's primal and reassuring, mysterious and friendly at the same time. Before we switched over to coal (yes, how very non-green of us, huh? I support the mining industry, what can I say?) we used to have a Vermont Castings Vigilant wood stove in our dining room and a small Jotul in the living room and during the winter, the house was filled with that wonderful wood fire smell. It was really great to come inside from the cold and cozy up the to stove. On holidays, I'd open the doors on the Vigilant and put the screen in and we'd enjoy an open fire. Nothing like it.
Coal is ok, it's cheaper and much less labor intensive, for me, anyway and it burns a long time and gives off a nice steady heat. It's the better choice for sustained heating, but gives off a horrible sulfur odor when you open the door to stoke it or feed it. Not very pleasant, but the benefits outweigh the occasional scent of Hades. The living room stove is on the way out, I'm adding an extra heating duct, with a thermostat driven fan to help draw air from the furnace into the room and I'm putting electric radiant heating under the new flooring, so I won't need it anymore. I think I'll move it to the workshop, if and when that ever gets built.
Well, I'm going to have a bottle of Sam Adams Black Lager and a few smokes and kick back for a while. Tomorrow is redoing the outside of our living room bay window. I'm redoing the trim and cladding under the window to give it a more traditional look that better fits the house. Gotta get stuff like that done while the weather cooperates.
I think if the wind dies down a bit tonight, I might get a fire going in the fire pit and spend my birthday eve with pipe and flagon and the waning moon.
Later, friends.

sow what you will...

2008-10-09T15:45:00.000-07:00

you never know...

what you're going to find when you go mushroom hunting at night...

sow what you will...

2008-10-05T10:01:00.000-07:00

out and about...

I'm going to be spending the day working on the current Albatross, the living room remodeling project, putting up furring strips to I can add a false sheet rock ceiling between the exposed, hand hewn beams that support the upstairs floor. But before I get started, I thought I'd wander around the grounds and see what was happening...

Mushrooms abound again...

The birds will have plenty of wild rose hips to snack on this winter...

He watches over the kitchen garden...

And our little Hobbit porch light, with pine cone wreath for the squirrels to munch on...

Couldn't you see that hanging beside the front door of Bag End..?

Well, to work, to work.
Enjoy your day.

sow what you will...

2008-10-04T14:44:00.000-07:00

raking leaves...

I just got finished raking about a third of the grounds. It took me almost as long as it used to take me to do the whole property ten years ago. I'm not moving as fast as I used to, I guess. I think that's less do to age than it is to do with a different attitude toward that particular task, now that I'm a bit older. I used to attack that task as a necessary evil when I was younger, something that got in the way of doing other things, time wasted, energy wasted. I'd stew over things while I raked, getting into a bad mood that made the job seem longer and harder than it really was. As I've gotten older, though, it's become an opportunity for me to get outside, spend some time with the Autumn sun on my back and the breeze in my face. I'm a little more wont to observe things when I rake, stopping to look at the swelling hips in the rose hedges, wondering what's living in that new little hole on the edge of the kitchen garden, listening to the birds and the bugs while I casually rake away. I now look around the grounds and see how much I've accomplished with my old rake, rather than looking at what still needs to be done. Right now, the lawn is clean and the grass, which really needs another mowing, is laying in a pattern that traces where and how I raked. By tomorrow morning, it will probably be covered again and I'll probably go out and rake some more, but not with any urgency or haste. I've realized it's not a contest, it's just one more thing that you do in life because it needs to be done and it's fun to do. I might even chance burning a small pile tomorrow, rather than carting them away to the huge, ever evolving pile that borders one side of the wooded lot in back, my wild compost pile that takes care of itself. I miss the smell of burning leaves. When I was a kid, there was an old fellow who lived down the road who would rake piles of Sycamore leaves into the dirt road, light them up and stand there, resting his hands and his chin on the handle of his rake and just watch them burn. When I'd smell them, I'd wander down there to say hi and enjoy that special time with him. He was very old and always wore bib overalls and a green cap, both threadbare and stained, more a part of him than just clothing. He'd always say, "hey, there, young fella", and that was about it. I'd sit on his front lawn and watch the curls of smoke and bask in that delightful odor, while he'd just stand there, absorbed in his own thoughts. I didn't intrude. I guess I'm getting to be a bit like him. As I get closer to the end of my times, I make more of my times. I think I learned a lot from him, even though we hardly ever talked.

sow what you will...

2008-09-28T15:30:00.000-07:00

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...

2008-09-22T00:01:00.000-07:00

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...

2008-09-21T12:55:00.000-07:00

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...

2008-09-20T11:47:00.000-07:00

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...

2008-09-15T15:59:00.000-07:00

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...

2008-09-14T16:04:00.000-07:00

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...

2008-09-13T17:40:00.000-07:00

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...

2008-09-11T16:18:00.001-07:00

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...

2008-09-07T17:34:00.000-07:00

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...

2008-09-07T17:32:00.001-07:00

storm damage...

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

sow what you will...

2008-09-06T08:19:00.000-07:00

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...

2008-09-02T13:00:00.000-07:00

"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...

2008-09-01T16:47:00.000-07:00

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

sow what you will...

2008-09-01T16:15:00.000-07:00

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...