Wandering about the Yard

Let's wander around my yard for a bit. Maybe something will be of interest.


This stump was a huge catalpa tree beside the walk from my driveway. The center was totally gone when the tree was cut and now with dirt in the center it makes for a great "holding pot".

If you look closely on the left side of this picture you will see my birdbath which I may have rambled about before. This is one of my most unique pieces. Made from concrete the bowl is about 2 inches thick with an outside that resembles the bark of a tree and it sits on what appears to be a concrete tree log. Another intersesting tidbit is that the bowl has a 1 inch diameter hole directly in the bottom. You plug up the hole and it holds water. I will try to post a full picture of it maybe.

This is the start of my shade garden. There was nothing growing here when I arrived except several years worth of leaves and layers of hickory nuts. Yes, I have an Old House - built in the mid-eighteen hundreds, mostly from hickory and ash logs from trees that grew on or near the site of the house and that were hewn with a broad ax -maybe I will write more about the house at a later date. Pretty neat.

The perfect front porch on which to while away the hours on a lazy afternoon. There is a swing, not seen in the picture, where my grand daughter loves to spend her time.

The cinder block has been moved.

Interesting reading.

I stumbled onto this website by way of several different blogs but this guy is great. It was his The 10 Tenets of Renegade Gardening that caught my attention but then I found lots of stuff of interest.

Plants on Steroids

Picture does not do this hen & chicks justice because it's about the size of a saucer.

The dragonsnaps seem to like were they landed. When my grandson was about four years old that was what he called snapdragons and around here that name stuck.

Moved the coralbells and astilbes this afternoon to the shade garden. The ferns are doing good. I was really concerned that they might have problems since there have been so many hickory nuts and leaves left on the ground. I suppose the tree is so large it pulls alot of moisture from the ground but when I was diggng over there it was really dry considering it's rained almost every day. The leaves apparently act like and umbrella.

Pokeweed

I just read an interesting article on pokeweed . I always have a bumper crop of this stuff regardless of what I do. I have had it grow until the stalk was well over 1.5 inches in diameter. I remember that my grandmother always said to boil three times, draining the water off each time, and then bacon grease was added along with some salt and it was cooked again. Supposedly the bacon grease would take care of any remaining poison. Seems quite "risky" to me.

Roadside lilies & spiderwort

It's very overcast this morning but no rain as yet. Hopefully it will come later today. I have this huge clump of roadside lilies that have the perfect home down by the road. Only thing is the ground is so hard to dig I need some rain. Also, there are some extra spiderwort I want to put there. These two are tough enough to survive the poor soil, hide the storm drain and help filter the water.

More Rain on the Way

Supposedly it will rain most of this week. I have a bunch of free plants that I need to get in the ground so if it is cloudy and we do get rain I'll be gardening not working in the house as I had planned, like cleaning the sunporch and painting. Those plants that have no permanent home, at this time, I will put in a holding bed. One of the things I really need to get done tomorrow is move my astibles. Since the walnut trees were removed there is very little shade and the astibles seem to be very unhappy - "Fear not, little Astilbes, I have the perfect spot over with the ferns."

Jurasic Park - Maybe

It's sunny and 85 degrees and I'm heading out to cut undergrowth, brush and whatever else is growing on my hill. If I do a little at a time eventually it will be gone. Sometimes I wonder "What's gonna crawl out of here." It's kinda like living on the edge of Jurasic Park. It is a jungle but at least I don't have carnivous plants or dinasours---I hope . "Did you hear that noise?"

Mr. Squirrel and Me

It's a beautiful day and I wanna to go play outside. I was doing OK until I had to walk across campus earlier and then I didn't want to come back inside. We have lots of squirrels here on campus and they are all well-fed. If you decide to have lunch sitting outside on a bench you better hope there's enough food for the squirrels. I'm sitting on the end of the bench and have my sandwich in hand. Mr. White Squirrel comes over to join me and promply hops up on the other end of the bench. This bench is maybe 36 inches long. Well here we sit, Me and Mr. Squirrel. I have my sandwich and in a baggie beside me I have an apple that has been sliced. He looks at me, this rodent with the bushy tail, flicks that same bushy tail, and moves over closer to the bag with the apple. I pick up the baggie and he barks at me and is no longer sitting down but seems to be in attack mode. It's like, "You WILL share that with me or I will have a bite of YOU." Have you ever looked into the eyes of angry squirrel that is less than a foot away from you? I gave him a slice of apple then headed back inside where it was safe. Wouldn't have surprised me to see him sitting outside the door banging on it with those tiny little feet with the long, long toenails.