You Can See the House Now

Okay, now that the ash is gone and it's spring with summer approaching, what would be the next, somewhat logical, step in yard upgrades?

You know, I could take care of this mess.

We we moved into this house, along the downspout were flowering bushes. I don't even remember what they were but they were really invasive and had spread. So, I spent a lot of time digging those up. Along the foundation of the house in the back are tiger lilies. Did you know they are ridiculously hard to kill? I found oven cleaner works. (Yes, there is a story behind that.) To the right of the ash stump, there used to be French lilacs. They are nice, but I prefer Persian lilacs, which have that deep, lilac scent, even though it lasts for roughly a week. The French ones didn't have that much of a smell.

The patch in the center photo used to have a large Persian lilac in it. Buckthorn, a horrible, invasive European import, has taken over all these patches. Along the north side of the house, it was just a mass of, what I call, trash trees. You can see this, clearly, in this photo from the post below.

All that stuff was encroaching on the north side of the yard, crowding out the grass. There was an abundance of branches and it was difficult to clean in there. But, and this was huge for me, I had attracted a wealth of birds to the yard because they had a place to hide. If you're going to feed them, it's important to have a place they can fly to if they felt threatened. A lot of this stuff was insect laden which appealed to the insect eaters. While I had to take down the ash as it was a safety hazard, I, technically, didn't have to remove this stuff. It wasn't doing any real harm. It was just unsightly and encroaching on the lawn.

I wrestled with this all winter and into spring. I loved seeing flickers and thrushes and several birds I couldn't identify, in this brush. But, it came down to what did I want from my yard. I want to clean it up and that means getting rid of this stuff. So, I hired Evergreen again.

Here they are clearing the area where the lilac used to be. I thought there was a lilac still amongst the brush but, in looking closely, it had been overtaken by the buckthorn. So that whole patch was cleaned out. They also ground out the stumps.

Once they left, I set out another block of squirrel and bird food. Here's the end result.

The tufts of green to the right are tiger lilies. With the brush gone, they have spread toward the ash. On the east side of the house, opposite where I'm standing, there is lily of the valley which exploded this spring, moving to the left into the area vacated by brush around the pine trees. Evergreen removed all the dead pine branches and the branches which touched the roof of the house. I have discarded ancient storm windows which I now have to slowly put out with the trash. I bought Round-Up and have sprayed all the trunks they couldn't grind around the pine trees because it would kill the pines. Yes, I know Round-Up is not a great herbicide to have in your house, but it does kill brush trunks and I need to not have those things resprout or all this money is wasted. You see another stand of brush near their truck. That's a lilac. I need to prune it back this summer. With this area opened up, I think it will flower more next year. There weren't many bracts on it this year and it's a Persian variety, the kind I love to smell.

I added topsoil and mushroom compost to the area around the downspout. As I'm going through my deck pots and planting for this year's growing season, old soil is being dumped here, too. I rake it all together. There will be more posts about yard rehabilitation. There's been a lot in my RA news feed about how being outside helps with fatigue and depression. Having come through a late winter, early to mid-spring depressive episode, I need to make my outdoor space inviting so I will want to be outside. It will help me and the girls like to come out when I'm out. I'm sure it helps them, too.

Stay tuned.

Beverage:  Dr Pepper

Deb

Images of Spring

A collection of photos showing off spring.

 

Just now the lilac is in bloom,
All before my little room;
And in my flower-beds, I think,
Smile the carnation and the pink...
(Rupert Brooke) 

 Beverage:  Darjeeling Tea

Deb

5 1/2 Weeks

Zeke, the guy who mows my lawn, is taking some horticultural classes at College of DuPage. He was told by one of his instructors, that flowering and blooming plants are 5 1/2 weeks ahead of where they would be normally. I can see it now.

The lilacs are done. I spent part of last Saturday just smelling them. I see where Hallmark has a lilac candle available for Mother's Day. I wonder how close it is. And, I need to make a distinction here. The late blooming lilacs, the small flower clusters on an equally small plant, are Miss Kim version. They have a spicy scent which is okay, but I prefer the Persian lilac version. The white ones are called "Abraham Lincoln". I need to spend some time over the summer, pruning my lilacs back. They only blossom on old stalks and pruning all the suckers they make leads to more sturdy plants and more flowers. More flowers is very good.

I'm struck by the dearth in color now. We've got typical spring weather; upper 50's to 60's during the day, upper 30's and 40's with the occasional frost warning at night. This would be the time where tulips would be everywhere. Nothing much is left. We were all thrilled with the exceptionally warm March, but now the color that is missing reminds me unseasonable isn't always exciting.

I spent Friday in the city on a project. The building where I was at has this amazing side garden. The tulips there are the end of the season tulips and were at peak.

 I loved the look. They have pink...

white with pink stripes...

and Queen of the Night tulips.

I love the dark juxtaposed with the light colors. I see this and think, you know what would be an incredible sight, Queen of the Night tulips with late season yellow. Yes, it would be my Iowa black and gold, in my yard. Doing that means actually getting my strength to a point where I can dig up a section and plant tulips in September. Not sure that's going to happen, but this display inspires me.

As the weather warms, I'll be filling pots and growing flowers. Maybe, mid-May, a trip to a plant center could be in order to add color to the yard. Right now, while the green is lovely, I'm really missing the scattered color you'd normally have at this time. Maybe Mother Nature did this so I wouldn't be so anxious for a change of season. I like this quote from Robin Williams, or at least attributed to him, "Spring is nature's way of saying, 'Let's party!'". I'm wishing the party hadn't been so early.

Beverage:  Lipton tea

Deb

Way Early

The lilacs are in bloom.

Normally, I would be overjoyed. I love lilacs. It's my all-time favorite flower and scent. The smell takes me back to my childhood and conjures a time of ease and peace. It's a shame they are in bloom for only a couple of weeks, but that makes their time all the more delicious when it is here.

But, it's early April and they are more than a month early. My late season tulips are blooming along with the lilacs. We still have a month of dicey weather to get through before I can reasonably decide to fill the pots with fresh soil and hope for flowers. This is moderately depressing.

The lilacs blooming has gotten earlier every year that I've lived in the house. It was after May 15th at first. Then it got to be Mother's Day and, just recently, it's been around the first of May. March's unseasonably warm weather has through nature into a tizzy. It doesn't know what season it really is. I have to bring the geraniums I put out on the deck into the house tonight. We're having 'normal' April weather over the next few days.

So, I'm going to have to relish these blooms now, while I can. May is going to seem empty of scents without the usual lilacs. If you need me, I'm in the bush, smelling the flowers.

Beverage:  English Breakfast tea

Deb

I remember that.

Last week, when I was working those horrendous hours in an attempt to get this project done, we had a spate of warm, even hot, weather. I had to run to the photo store around 4:30 p.m. When I came out of the office, where I'd been since 8:00, there was a smell that stopped me in my tracks.

I've blogged about smells before; the memory of lilacs outside my bedroom window, for instance. I had not smelled this smell in decades and instantly, I was transported to my grandmother's back yard in Cedar Rapids, Iowa. I smelled Penick and Ford.

To someone outside of the immediate Cedar Rapids, Marion, Iowa City, Hiawatha, Robins area, that name probably doesn't ring a bell. To those who lived in this section of Iowa, that name conjures up the smell of sugar and starch cooking at the plant along the banks of the Cedar River between 4th and 16th Avenues, southeast of downtown. When the wind was right, the whole north side of the river had an aroma, sometimes foul, but you could easily identify it as coming from the processing plant. Molasses, corn syrup, corn starch, corn sugar and animal feed was made in Cedar Rapids. Quaker Oats also has a processing plant to the immediate northwest of downtown. That's a completely different smell, trust me on this.

Now why the suburban Chicago air should smell of corn syrup is beyond me. The wind was out of the west but there's nothing remotely near the office which would produce such a smell. I found myself standing next to my car inhaling the air, the smell and longing for a simpler time when I hadn't been yelled at to get an impossible project done in a day.

Later in the week, I had another memory check as I drove to Iowa for a weekend. When I left Wheaton, it was 88 degrees. The wind was out of the south southwest at a brisk 30-35 miles per hour. As I drove through the country side, the smell of the harvest arrived on the wind.

It's hard to describe what that smell is. There is a crispness about it as well as a slightly burnt tinge. The corn and soybeans are ready to be harvested and the smell is almost of burned paper. One could say the heat of these early fall days, when you're reminded that summer is past, roasts the corn and soybeans on the plants. It's a hot smell, but so very, very Iowa.

As I drove west, I ran into a line of rain. I could see it on the horizon, dark clouds with tendrils of rain. I skirted 90% of it but ran into it about 30 minutes from my mother's. Combine the smell of hot soybeans and corn with the earthy smell of an early fall rain which will drop the temperatures about 40 degrees in 2 hours and it's a heady mix. Again, I found myself inhaling deeply and not being able to come up with adequate words to describe what I smelled. I remembered the fall days on the farm as the harvest was coming in.

Of course, everything now is viewed through a prism of nostalgia. Life was just as hard as it is today. We had less creature comforts, but just as much stress, albeit, of a different sort. I remembered sitting on my grandmother's patio on warm summer evenings, watching the fireflies illuminate the back yard. I remembered walking through the freshly harvested corn fields while pulling my red wagon picking up the stray ears and tossing them in the wagon to be fed later to the pigs. Dad paid a penny an ear, which doesn't seem like much, but an hour's work could yield 50 to 75 cents, a goodly amount to an 8 year-old back when candy bars were a nickel.

The smells, as disparate and unifying as they were, reminded me that no matter how stressed I was, standing and smelling brought a peace to my troubled soul.

Beverage: Scottish Blend tea

Deb

Fleurs Préférées

Starting your week with a little French...

A couple of my favorite flowers are in bloom at this time of year and they are in my garden. I've mentioned before that my absolute favorite flower is the lilac. Never mind that, technically, it's a flowering shrub. Those are flowers and they smell and I love that smell. But you can't really walk into a florist and ask to send me a dozen lilacs.

I'm not that fond of roses. They are pretty but too many times I had roses sent to me when there should have been an apology offered. In talking with other women, that's a theme. A guy thinks he can avoid dealing with the problem if he sends a dozen roses. We silly women fall for it a lot of times, too, and the problem goes unresolved. So, roses aren't one of my favorite flowers.

I would have to say after lilacs, I like to receive Stargazer Lilies.

This fine specimen is in the front garden by the mailbox. I don't remember when I planted it. Some years, it looks kind of straggly. This year, it's beautiful.

I have always loved the dramatic colors on this Asiatic lily. I also like the scent. It's quite spicy. I think it smells like Noxema face cleanser, a bit of a menthol tinge to it.

I possibly would melt at a half dozen of these delivered, but I'm thrilled they like my yard.

My next favorite flower is the daisy. These Shasta Daisies are interspersed in the pseudo prairie.

We had daisies on the farm when I where I grew up. We mowed them once in the spring and then mom made sure we left them alone the rest of the year. We always had cut daisy bouquets on the table. When I got married, I had daisies in the bouquets.

A guy I used to know asked me what my favorite flower was. I made him guess because no one guesses any of my top three. I was floored when he said, "You like daisies." I had not told him. He said it just fit with who I am. I'm not sure I understand but it's a nice thought. I should cut some of my daisies for the kitchen table.

I come home and I see these flowers and I smile. Every life should have flowers in it.

Beverage: English Breakfast tea

Deb

Front Door Smiles

Soon, the real thing will blossom.

When I was growing up, below my bedroom window was one of two huge Persian lilac bushes. They usually bloomed right before Memorial Day, right after school let out, just as the days and nights took on a summer tone. The heady fragrance of lilacs would fill my bedroom at night. I would take my pillow and dooze on the windowsill, just breathing in that scent. To this day, lilacs remain my favorite flower and favorite scent. I will go out of my way in May to smell a lilac bush. I don't care for the Miss Kim variety of lilacs as their scent is too spicy. Give me an old-fashioned Persian lilac's intoxicating fragrance.

There are times when I wish one could get lilacs to bloom all year 'round and you could walk into a florist in December an purchase a branch with blossoms on it. But that would make it as ordinary as anything else a florist sells. By keeping lilacs a 2 week explosion in May, Mother Nature assures me they are rare and meant to be smelled when they do show up.

There are buds on the bushes in my yard. Blossoms are coming.

Beverage: Ginger Ale

Deb