Slow Transformation

It was mid May of last year. I was dreading the thought of mowing the lawn so I hadn't done it. It wasn't that long, but it was getting there. I was online, playing World of Warcraft with friends, and there was a knock on the front door. Answering it, here stood a young man offering to do yard work. He gave me a good price and said he could mow the lawn in the next 2 hours and he would pick up tree branches and haul them away. Given that I was a bit achy from my RA, sure. After mowing the lawn, he wanted to know if I wanted him to do it every week. Well, every week, particularly in the summer, is a bit much. I had issues with the last lawn service I hired billing me for work I don't think they ever did. His price was good, plus, he trimmed around things and hauled away fallen branches.

Over the course of the past summer, Jeremy has been my landscaper. We've looked at what was overgrown and decided what needed to be handled and what I could afford.

He understands how important those milkweed plants are so he carefully trims around them and we let some sections get scruffy if the milkweed is too close to be trimmed without losing one.

One of the places he made a difference last year, was in the front.

There used to be planting beds on either side of the walk. The arbor used to stand upright. Both of those things had been lost over the course of several years.

The white cap is the clean out for the sewer line from the house to the street. Jeremy removed all the sod from here and reawakened the beds.

He dug up and replanted the arbor so it stands upright. I should get a new one, but that's way low on the list of things to buy for the yard.

There was a volunteer tree in the north bed and he dug that up. Found the few bits of statuary I had on either side.

The warning sign and the squirrel were not in the best shape and had to be discarded. The rabbit is concrete and just needed to be washed off to go back in the bed.

I didn't get things planted right away, so some weeds grew back, but there were a few flowers on both sides last year.

It can be tough to get down on the ground and weed, but it's good for the soul.

This year, I'm putting seeds in the beds. There will be sunflowers and coreopsis. I'll still fill in with a few plants, but the sunflowers I grew last year did so well, they deserve to be seen from the street. Also on the docket, will be a rehabbing of the prairie plant bed.

I want to enlarge this and add more plants. The milkweed do well, but I haven't had daisies or black-eyed susans for many years. I also want to move it about a foot away from the drive. I have a tendency, when I back in, to run over the 6 inches closest to the drive. The plants which are in the bed, purple coneflower, will simply be dug up and moved. With someone to do the initial digging, I can do the planting. Enjoying your space. That's what this is all about.

Beverage:  Hot Cocoa

Deb

What Is This?

I had to do some home inspections at the end of summer last year. These were large homes with a lot of different landscaping. I find myself mentally filing away things that work and things that don't.

One of the homeowners had this plant in pots by the garage.

It was tall, even taking into consideration it was in a pot. I would say it was probably 6 feet tall. The homeowner had put impatiens around the bottom and this was shooting up from the center.

I have no idea what this is. The husband just shrugged and said, "I dunno. My wife finds this stuff." It's so distinctive. Is it invasive? Is it self-seeding? Is it like a dahlia where I have to dig up the tubers to overwinter in my climate? I have not been able to find this in my seed and plant catalogues. I'm going to be redoing a few of my planting beds this year so I'm on the lookout for distinctive plants. The prairie plant bed is getting enlarged. I don't think this is a native prairie plant, but I could be wrong. Any reader have an idea?

Beverage:  Cranberry Tea

Deb

How to Buy Plants

Seed catalogues flooded my mailbox at the beginning of the month. There is one, from a company in Maine, which comes in the mass of mail right after Thanksgiving. I have never ordered from them and, because it comes so early, I'm not inclined to consider what I might be planting a full 6 months in the future. I have my favorite companies; Jung Seed, Park Seed and Select Seeds. I received a new catalogue this year, something from a nursery which specializes in prairie plants, which looks very intriguing. Other than these four, everything else has been thumbed through and discarded. You find companies you like and you stick with them.

The same goes for nurseries. I go to Planter's Palette. I've been going here since the place opened and have watched them grow, specialize, diversify. I know, if I have an issue, I can go to them for advice. They told me what I needed to put in the raised bed to get good plants. The guy I spoke with also said, "Don't buy our top soil. It's overpriced. Go to Wal*Mart and get some of theirs. But, you'll need to amend that with our mushroom compost; one bag of compost to one bag of top soil. Next year, mix into the box more compost. The year after that, add top soil. Keep doing this and anything you plant in the box will thrive." I appreciate that kind of honesty. I did that and I think it's one reason the sunflowers in the box were gorgeous.

I want to make the north side of the house, now that all the trash stuff has been removed, a bit more exciting. It's just the bare wall, foundation and the two pine trees which had their dead branches removed with the clearing of the brush. I thought adding a ground cover and filling the area with ferns and hostas would be a cool idea. Unfortunately, the cost of ferns and hostas means this has to be a long term project, but I could start with a couple.

Well, what to start with. Planter's has an abundance, almost mind boggling, number of types of ferns and hostas. Big, little, with color, straight green, you name it. I was prepared to spend an hour wandering around the tables, looking at the varieties, reading about them, pondering, looking at what I was going to buy and deciding how much I could afford. It took me 15 minutes.

This hosta is called "Mouse Ears". You can see it, right? Here's the fern.

It's called "Godzilla".

Yes, while I was prepared to do some research and ask questions, I picked a hosta and a fern solely because they had cool names.

The ground on the north side of the house is hard and compacted. I couldn't get the holes dug as deeply as I wanted to get these planted. I also bought some pachysandra for ground cover. I watered every other day and then we got some good soaking rains so I didn't check up on the plants for about a month. When I came around the side of the house, they had been eaten down to an inch above the soil line. In October, however, the fern and the hosta had put out new bracts, which was encouraging.

Over the weekend, when I rehung the bird feeder, they were nowhere to be seen, but I think they die back. My neighbor to the south has several large cinnamon ferns and those die away completely with the first hard frost. The pachysandra was still there.

I did think that perhaps I need a raised bed on that side of the house. The creeping Charlie has taken over where I had scattered grass seed. I probably need to cover the ground with landscape fabric and let the sun's heat kill the grass and weeds under it. It's an old method of killing weeds in the soil. If I cover the creeping Charlie, that should, in theory, kill that patch and I could start anew with grass. I really wanted to put poppies on the north side of the downspout. I forgot to buy them last year. I love the look of poppies and used to have a couple plants in the front.

There will be some landscaping changes this year. I'm not retiring and moving away, yet, so I want the lawn to look better than it has in years. I was quite neglectful.

Beverage:  English Breakfast Tea

Deb

Scattered for Spring

I try, very hard, not to disturb the milkweed plants which sprout around the yard. This year, I was rewarded by the sight of 4 monarchs. It could have been the two I originally saw back in August, but I tell myself it was four separate butterflies. I would really like to enlarge that area with the rudbeckia and daisies but I need to hire someone to do that. My days of digging up my yard are limited.

Anyway, the second best thing about milkweed plants is when the seed pods open in the late fall or early winter.

The desiccated plants are easy to snap off and the pods pop open with a satisfying 'pook'. It doesn't take much to knock the main stem down and then the seeds are off with the wind.

The flight of the seeds is so pretty. A big gust can fill the air with dainty white tendrils. I remember, as a child, popping open the pods and throwing the seeds into the wind. There is something magical about their dance. On this date, the pods had opened and were just hanging around. There was no wind to toss them into the air and carry them around the neighborhood. I'm fairly certain my neighbors don't have the same admiration for milkweed that I do and consider it a nuisance.

Milkweed needs disturbed ground to settle and sprout but need nothing after that. I'm going to have a lot of the trash trees removed from the back and side yards this spring and part of that is to grind out any stumps to make sure the tree doesn't come back. That's 'disturbing' the ground for sure. There are a couple of places I think would look good planted with flowers, perennials, mostly, which will include more prairie plants. Common milkweed fits that description.

I weighed the removal of these volunteer trees and with the detritus of the winter with all the birds which seem to be in my yard now. The birds will hang around and I think, with more flowers to attract bees and butterflies, the overall attractiveness of my yard will remain high. That's the ultimate goal here. Dancing milkweeds and dancing butterflies and dancing birds.

Beverage:  Dunkin' Donuts tea

Deb

Prairie Garden

At the end of last month, I had monarchs in the prairie plants at the end of the driveway. I promised a view of those plants.

This looks south.

It's really just goat's beard, black-eyed Susan, purple coneflower, Rattlesnake master and common milkweed. There used to be white daisies in this, but they don't seem to have survived.

I would love to add to this, increasing the size of the planting area by at least 2 feet. There are so many other plants which would go well in this location, as well as being an attraction for monarchs or other butterflies.

Of course the issue is my ability to do the actual physical work of digging up the yard and these plants and adding top soil and peat to the area to make it a good location for plants. I have grand plans but reality can give you a swift kick to the shins.

Supposedly, monarchs have laid eggs on milkweed now and the caterpillars should be happily eating their way through their chosen food. I have not seen any eggs and, thanks to this thing called "the Internet", I know what I'm supposed to look for. I've not seen caterpillars either. Maybe I won't see anything until a chrysalis forms. That would be extremely exciting. There would be daily blog photos as the butterfly develops.

It's been a good year for the yard. I've seen hummingbirds and a very noisy blue jay for the first time in many, many years and I don't have, really, anything dedicated to them. The monarchs using the yard fill me with hope that, in spite of my shaggy garden, I'm doing something right. Here's to nature in her summer glory.

Beverage:  Water

Deb

The Last Images of Fall

In addition to providing food for monarch butterflies, the common milkweed is a photographer's joy.

Even my simple point and shoot camera can capture the wonder of the splitting open pods at the end of the season,

their contents just waiting for the right breeze to be carried about. If they survive the winter intact, I have such fun breaking open a pod and releasing the seeds into the spring air. If you've ever watched the seeds take flight, it's no wonder they were chosen to be animated in Fantasia.

There were a lot of leaves in the drive this year.

In taking the recycling can to the street, I couldn't help but scuffle through them. I should rake them up but what is fall without the sound and smell of scuffling through leaves? Maybe I'll get to it at the end of the month.

Beverage:  Berry flavored seltzer

Deb

You Don't See This Around Here

It's spring. One of the many things done in spring is the clean up of winter debris.

Farmers, taking a cue from lightning strikes, burn sections of land which renews the growth and allows wanted grasses and plants to thrive while killing off unwanted plants. I must have seen at least 3 fires burning. The one above was close to the road.

I love the smell of the smoke. It brings back a lot of memories of the burns we used to do on the farm. This kind of burning is not allowed in my area anymore. I would love to burn off the peony patch, but I can see that not everyone knows how to do this and the end result could be disastrous. Plus, the smoke contains particulates which are not good for people with lung problems.

The Sunday night news made me giggle when they reported on fire departments having to respond to burns gone awry. I remember, when I was probably 6 or 7, dad did a burn of the corn field. It started out clear and calm but, as the day wore on, the wind kicked up and the burn got out of control. We called the fire department to keep the flames away from the farm buildings. Mom kept my brother and I in the house although we were allowed once to go out to see what was going on. I remember one of the fire trucks sunk, up the axles, in the mud of a newly thawed corn field. The fire eventually burned the entire field, which is what dad wanted but also went into the woods north of the house. For the next few days, we could see, at night, little patches of glowing embers and small knots of flame. It burned itself out after going into the woods about 10 feet.

It's a different smell than the one from burning leaves. I think this has more of an earthy smell in it than burning leaves does. Doing this is renewal. I'll bet this patch thrives this year.

Beverage: Africa Rooibos tea

Deb

This will be interesting.

Sometimes, my news feed gives me interesting items. The topic to the left caught my eye this morning. A "dress" sculpture representing all 50 states? This pique's my interest.

I followed the link to the artist's blog. While a bit sparse, it has a link to her web site which details more of her art.

I find this concept intriguing and have a link at the right to keep tabs on the dress project. It's going to be interesting to see what she chooses as a medium for other states. Illinois was represented by a red dress formed from red dresses found in thrift stores. Her dress from Iowa, shown below, is made from native prairie grasses at the Wickiup Nature Center in Toddville.

Wish I'd thought of this.

Beverage: Irish Breakfast tea

Deb

Change the ph, change your color.

Carole will recognize this, sort of. She bought this hydrangea plant in 2006. In the container, it was a delicate sky blue. We were told to watch the ph of the soil to keep it blue.

Um...yes...

I suppose, if I did some research, I could do that. It wouldn't be that hard. It's actually quite striking of itself. It's the only thing blooming in that overgrown section of the yard so it stands out against a palette of greens. The flower head is the size of a softball, too. There are two large stems on this plant now. I should clear everything around it, should being the operative word this year.

I think we've had just enough rain for the flowers to flourish. Nature is lush and green although I've been told it's been a bit too chilly for the corn to develop properly in the fields. I didn't get my usual $100 worth of flowers for the back deck this year. I was sick and I really couldn't afford it. I might have missed out on a great growing season.

However, with the blooming of this hydrangea, I'm reminded that I can find flowers for enjoyment elsewhere. As I said before, my pseudo-prairie is blooming well this year. I have lots of stargazer lilies and phlox. The yard is more pink and white than anything else.

Yeah, things are pretty overgrown and I really don't have the energy to tackle a weeding project. Get a season behind in your weeding and you're effectively set back 5 years. Oh well. I've got a lovely habitat for crickets.

And Pam told me that bug catcher thingee in my neighbor's yard is to catch Japanese beetles. I happened to see in the paper where entomologists (not etymologists) said the Japanese beetle season is waning already and there were less this year than in several previous ones. Does that mean their won't be as many skunks digging up my yard looking for grubs or exploding at a raccoon when the breeze carries the aroma into the house?

Beverage: Root Beer

Deb

Fresh off the wire!

July sets 85-year Illinois record as coolest

CHAMPAIGN -- Last month was Illinois' coldest July since 1924.

Preliminary data gathered by researchers at the University of Illinois in Urbana-Champaign shows the average temperature last month was 70.4 degrees. That's 5.3 degrees below normal.

Climatologist Jim Angel says the previous record, set 85 years ago, was 71.5 degrees.
Angel says most parts of the state haven't had any days with temperatures in the 90s. Usually there are at least five days that hot.

Researchers say the cooldown resulted in lower energy demand and poor growing conditions for some farmers.

Meanwhile, statewide precipitation was 1.1 inches above normal in July, at 4.9 inches.

-- Associated Press

Well, duh. Although the above flowers in my mini prairie planting are the best they have looked in 3 years, I ran the furnace twice, count it, 2 times in July to take the chill and damp out of the house. There is a rumor that August will be hot, in about 2 weeks, just as kids go back to school.

I come from an age where air conditioning was advertised on the front of restaurants. Not every place had it and those that did had a small unit in the back that dripped water down the front, usually the right, corner. The air that came out was icy, icy cold, like being dropped onto an Arctic iceflow in your shorts and a tee shirt.

Generally, you didn't want to sit at the table adjacent to the AC unit. When it kicked on, there was a fine spray of water released in the front. Now days, we would be very up in arms over what germs would be in that spray. I remember my mother not being real thrilled with it either. In the winter, those units weren't removed because they were built into the wall. The back side was supposed to be covered to protect the unit from the elements, but many weren't. So, in the summer, when they ran, the water drip would be rusty as well as semi-stagnant from sitting inside the unit.

My prairie plants have enjoyed the weather and benefited from being mowed with the first mowing of the year. Rattlesnake master, purple coneflower, black-eyed Susan and shasta daisy make up the corner plot. Queen Anne's Lace, a European import, is also in the plot but it adds some elegance so I'll leave it, for now. I'd like to enlarge the plot and add some other prairie-style plants but I have no energy for digging. Where's a high-school student when you need one?

The only side effect of the damper and cooler than normal weather is an abundance of the rain-water mosquito. West Nile Virus has been in the area for 5 years now. That mosquito prefers hot conditions to breed and there has been nothing hot about July. I think I have killed 3 or 4 mosquitos inside but you go outside at dusk and they will carry you off. Budget cuts have forced communities to scale back their spraying. That's good for the butterflies as the spray got to some of them in spite of the switch to a less butterfly toxic mosquito killer.

I'm rather looking forward to some hot, steamy weather. I'm rather fond of four distinct seasons and July was sort of like late April misplaced. I still have not taken down the top on the Jeep yet as I want to take it down when there are more than 1.5 days in a row slated to be nice. This "potential for rain every other day" business is nuts. As my grandfather used to say in the 1960's, "Must be those danged Russians controlling our weather."

Beverage: I'm out! Time to get lunch anyway.

Deb