jhugart's blog

Month-by-Month Gardening in Minnesota: January
Posted on Jan 9, 2021 11:08 PM

Introduction

One of the gardening books I find valuable here in St. Paul, Minnesota, is Month-by-Month Gardening in Minnesota, a revised edition (© 2006) by Melinda Myers. I don't know if there is a general series; it looks like this is just for Minnesota, but I bet other states have similar books. The idea is to tell you what you need to be doing every month of the year, for different categories of plants. I thought I'd start with this month as part of the blog, and talk about each section.

The book has an introductory section which covers general gardening practices, and includes a handy hardiness zones map of the state. Ramsey county, where I'm located, is firmly in Zone 4A territory, as we can get down to -30°F air temperatures in the winter.

Chapter One: Annuals

Each chapter talks about how that category of plants is used, soil requirements, care tips, and so on. I don't have any special annual plans, apart from herbs, but they are in a separate chapter. Of course, the only annuals we might grow in Minnesota in January are indoors! I have the following plants growing in my living room:

Boston Fern
Purple Heart
Spearmint
Spider Plant

I'm not worried about how they are doing. All the same, these are the sections for the January chapter:

Planning

Myers focuses on planning. Now is the time to evaluate how your garden grew last year, and decide if you want to expand or contract areas. Knowing what you want to do will help you decide what to acquire. This prevents you from ordering all the annuals that catch your eye. She goes into a lot of detail. She does suggest purchasing seeds you intend to start indoors.

Planting

This is the time to prepare a light set-up for starting plants indoors! She has a drawing of a set-up using a fluorescent fixture on a pulley system, so you can keep it six inches above the seedlings. These days, one would likely use LED systems, which use less power and and less fragile compared to fluorescent tubes.

Care

There is but one paragraph here, and it is about geraniums. If any you have stored have started growing, now is the time to plant them with your indoor lighting system.

Watering

She gives advice on watering annuals kept indoors, as well as seedlings.

Fertilizing

Indoor growing conditions require little in the way of fertilizer. She says to only fertilize plants with signs of nutrient deficiencies. My Boston Fern might benefit from a little bit of plant food, though, as it looks a little pale.

Problems

There are critters to watch for: Fungus gnats, mites, aphids, and whiteflies. She gives advice on how to deal with these pests; sometimes, she'll refer to other months' pages so she doesn't have to repeat herself.

Grooming

She advises pinching back leggy plants, to encourage branching and stouter stems.

As I said, I don't have any annuals being planned to go in the ground this spring, so I'm not starting seedlings and such. I have LED lights on a timer to make sure they get twelve hours of light every day. For the next chapters, if I'm not really doing anything, I'll just give a passing mention to the chapter.

Chapter Two: Bulbs, Corms, Rhizomes, and Tubers

Most of this chapter is devoted to Amaryllis plants, and other non-hardy bulbs. But I don't have any of those; there are some hostas from the previous owner, and ferns that pop up every year in the shady spaces. I'm not thinking of any non-hardy or non-native bulbs, so I'll pass on this.

Chapter Three: Herbs & Vegetables

My wife was in charge of our vegetables last year, here's what she planted in the raised beds:

Three different kinds of lettuce (six plants)
Three different kinds of sweet peppers (three plants)
Six broccoli plants
Nine tomato plants

She has already put some garlic into one raised bed, and we will put onions in the other raised bed; she's read about Egyptian walking onions (Allium cepa var. proliferum which are perennial in Minnesota) which can be used as scallions. We may get some "regular" onions, too.

She thinks we should get fewer lettuce, pepper, and broccoli plants, because we didn't keep up with what was growing. We just couldn't eat it fast enough, or give it away fast enough, though our new neighbors did get some fresh-off-the-stalk vegetables this past summer. We will probably move the tomato plants to the raised bed, and have fewer of them; we still have canned tomatoes from 2019 we haven't eaten!

We're considering carrots as a "new" vegetable. We've tried potatoes before, but got hit with potato bugs. My wife is also thinking about maybe trying peanuts.

I took care of most of the herbs that got planted this past year, which included:

Cilantro
Sweet Basil
Thyme
Flat-Leaf Parsley
Rosemary
Oregano
Chives
Spearmint

I did get some seeds from a friend for a Thai Basil plant, so I'll probably get that started this year. Otherwise, my main motivation with herbs was to have those I prefer fresh, and to grow them outside because I didn't really have any indoor space for them to get enough light. I'll likely grow the same ones as before. I might get one thyme plant instead two, this year. The oregano came back on its own last year, and the chives are perennial here. Cilantro comes back from the seed it dropped.

Chapter Four: Lawns

While we do have grass, I'm trying to reduce how much we have, not increase it. To that end, there are two big projects:

Cover the grass outside the west living room windows.
Excavate a rain garden on the north side.

Covering the grass is to kill it off, so we can plant something much more interesting there. The rain garden is to accept runoff from the downspout in the northwest corner of the roof, and the sump pump output.

In the book, most of the page for January suggests considering a lawn care company. The rest indicates that you should shovel your walks before applying deicing salt, so it stays where it should be. It also notes that you shouldn't use fertilizer, as it will not penetrate frozen ground, and will run into the drains with the first melt. It also advises you to watch for areas where snow and ice accumulate, as it can affect the lawn and possibly lead to mold growth.

The final note is that voles (I suspect our old friend the short-tailed shrew) make tunnels under the snow, and can wear paths in the grass. It may be necessary to rake and overseed those areas in the spring.

Chapter Five: Perennials & Ornamental Grasses

This is the chapter I look at most often, apart from the one on trees. It has some nice hint tables on things like plants which don't require much watering.

For January, the main idea is to review what was in the garden last year, to think about what to do in the coming growing season. What should be expanded or reduced in area? Otherwise, let snow mulch your plants. Add additional mulch only if the snow goes away. The goal of winter mulch is to prevent a premature set of above-freezing temperatures from warming the soil and getting the plants to grow too soon.

Related to this, they talk about holiday trees. We put our Christmas tree outside. It is now on its side by our feeders, and the small birds seem to enjoy resting on it and moving over, under, and through it.

It is also important to pay attention to tracks in the snow, and see what animals may be nibbling or digging around your plants. Just tonight, I noticed a pair of rabbits out there. We've had deer in the yard several times. I think my Red-Osier Dogwood has gotten nibbled, so I may wrap it to prevent that continuing.

Chapter Six: Roses

I don't have any roses planted, and don't intend to put any in. There are a few species which are native to my county which I might consider, but I have no immediate desire for it.

Chapter Seven: Shrubs

My Red-Osier Dogwood and the "Autumn Brilliance" Serviceberry are my current shrubs of choice. The January tips are as follows: Consider what plants you might want to add to your garden. Prepare your tools for the growing season by cleaning and sharpening them. Do not shake or brush frozen snow off plants; if a plant can't tolerate icy snow on its branches, be sure to protect it this coming fall for next winter. Look for signs of animal damage. Wait on pruning until the snow melts and the worst of winter has passed, so you can see what you have left to work with.

In my case, I'm hoping the Serviceberry comes back better than last year, now that it is protected behind a fence. I need to do something about the Dogwood; I want to get more this coming year. I've entertained the notion of maybe getting a pair of Blueberry bushes, but I don't know that I'll do that this year. Still, I could investigate it some, and see what the options are.

Chapter Eight: Trees

The Dogwood could count as a tree if it gets big enough, but my main plants in this category are the following:

Winterberry Holly
American Red Pine
Northern Red Oak
Colorado Blue Spruce
A couple of unidentified maples

The Winterberries didn't produce much in the way of berries last year, but I suspect dear were nibbling them. I've left old plant cages around them, but I suspect I'll need to do a more involved fence option this year, like I did with the Serviceberry. I don't plan on getting any more of these.

The Minnesota-native Red Pine is the "outside" Christmas tree, though it is getting pretty big. I could see getting another of these, to put in the northwest corner of the yard. It would give us a bit more shelter, and if we got a small enough one, it could start as a new "outside" Christmas tree that is easier to light-up.

The Red Oak is just in miserable shape. This is the time of year to prune it, but I failed to mark the dead branches in the early fall, so I'd know what to cut. I could go for the basics, such as crossed branches and such. But this tree has been eaten by deer quite often. It may not even survive the winter. We will likely have to remove it, if we do anything. I would like to have one oak on the property, if not more, but we have to plan the location well.

The Colorado blue Spruce trees are the giants in our yard. They came with the house. But they were planted by the original owner in the 1930s, and they're hitting their lifetime. We've already lost two in the last fifteen years. I would enjoy planting more tall trees, and I mind find another Minnesota evergreen to provide some variety with the Red Pine.

The maple trees are in the northeast and northwest corners of the yard. I don't know the exact species, but they seem to be the same. I'm content leaving them, because I think they are a native species. They are also in a good space and don't require much in the way of pruning. That said, there may be low branches on the northeastern maple that need removal to protect the roof of the house, and the northwestern maple has a sick branch where there used to be a pulley anchored.

The book advises planning locations that can handle a tree when it is fully grown. Sharpen your tools. Shovel snow before you use deicing salts. Oaks should be pruned in winter to reduce disease problems. Trees in general can be pruned when dormant, since it lets you see the branch structure clearly.

Chapter Nine: Vines & Groundcovers

My main vine is the grape vine, and we saw how well that did. However, it should be pruned back this winter, before the sap starts to flow. I have thought of a type of clematis, native to Minnesota, that would grow in more alkaline soil, and I have a place in mind for that.

I do want to get some groundcover and some spring "ephemerals" that will provide blooms for insects early in the year.

On a related note, my wife would like some piece of statuary to go in front of our northern bedroom window.

And That's It!

So, this gives you an idea of the things you can be thinking about, or doing, while the snow is on the ground and freezing temperatures prevail.

[ Permalink | no comments ]

And a Happy New Year
Posted on Jan 4, 2021 1:47 PM

I'm Back

And I'm probably better than I have been for several years. My second try at the Mayo Clinic seems to have worked, but I don't have the official follow-up until late February.

So let's take a look at what's been going on in the yard.

We had a White Christmas

But it was a close thing. Here's the Red Pine we have in the front yard. We put lights on it, but we were slow in 2020, didn't get them on until December. Here it is with the lights on around 10:00 AM on December 23rd:

And then, after the snowstorm hit, here is the same tree that night, around 9:45 PM:

Incidentally, the lights are twistie-tied onto the branches, with enough slack so that the tree can bend in the wind.

We have been doing the Project Feederwatch bird-counting activities this season, and our yard shows it (sorry for the wacky angle, I was staring at the Cardinal at the nearby feeder):

As a reminder, I'm doing a lot of work in the yards in order to encourage more wildlife, including birds especially, to show up. We've done a number of things, many of which you can see in that yard photo.

Birdfeeders

We have a bunch of birdfeeders in the yard, with different foods, to encourage several different kinds of birds. The dark areas under the feeders are where seeds with shells have been knocked to the ground. I should probably replace them all with a "no mess" mix, because those shells can provide growth for stuff which can harm the birds.

Water

It is behind the feeder on which the Cardinal sits, but there is a basin on the ground with a heating element in it, so that the various animals have drinking water that won't freeze, and won't require body heat to melt. I even saw Robins at the bird bath last month; one day, we had a half-dozen Robins on the ground around the bird bath.

Suitable Plantings

The birds love perching in the hydrangea plants on the right side of the picture, so I won't remove all of them. But I want to replace many of them with Red Osier Dogwood, and you can see a small specimen in the foreground, the twigs are red against the snow. A year ago, deer (I think) munched it down to the snowline. It grew back in the spring, but no berries showed up on the new growth. I'm hoping these stems will hang around this time.

There is a pruned "Autumn Brilliance" Serviceberry in the middle of the yard. This got nibbled, I think by rabbits, so I put a fence around it (for pictures, see the "Pruning the Serviceberry" section in a previous blog entry). The snow within the fence has been largely untracked, so I'm hopeful that the existing stems will continue to grow this spring. Again, old growth should have flowers and berries, which should attract the birds.

In the background, surrounded by wire metal cages, are some Winterberry holly bushes that I hope to protect from deer. I think I'll have to do the same kind of fencing I did on the Serviceberry, though.

That Retired Christmas Tree

You'll notice that leaning evergreen? That's our Christmas tree -- we got a live one this year -- which is perched in a box of scrap lumber I have screwed into the stump of an old Blue Spruce that used to be in that area. That's why the Winterberry holly bushes are there: it is a fairly acidic area as a result of decades of needles dropping from the old spruce.

Anyway, I saw a post by a Canadian nature group, suggesting using an old Christmas tree in the yard as winter habitat. It might do better on its side on the ground, though; I put it where I did to provide some extra landing spots for the birds, but they have been using something, literally, closer-to-home.

The Woodpile

I've talked about this before, because we had some small rodent visitors to it. We've noticed mice in there at night since the snow fell. But it also gets the mid-day sun (when there is sun), and as it has some shelter from the prevailing northwest winds, the birds like to hang out there:

That picture is from a particularly cold day, and the Mourning Doves decided they needed to perch there. I've noticed the House Sparrows and Dark-Eyed Juncos hanging out there as well. Sometimes, they will fly in to the area under the drain pipe, or go into the openings under the log on the left: it is propped up on smaller log wedges to provide little chambers, which are filled with dried leaves.

Perhaps I should stick the old Christmas tree next to this, on its side. Or maybe it would be better as a second woodpile.

Thinking About the Future

There are three big things I have on my mind about this year's growing season.

A Rain Garden

Since our basement drainage trench was installed, we have an outlet going off to the north (in the direction of the Red Pine, actually). I'd like to turn this area into a rain garden, and put in some appropriate native plants there. It gets enough sun in the summer for this.

Plantings by the Winterberries

Part of the idea of mulching around the Winterberries was to keep the weeds down, so we could plant something else there. I was thinking of a ground cover, perhaps with some early spring plants that might pop up. I need to research these ideas some more.

Looking a Gift Horse in the Mouth

I received a Secret Santa gift from someone who knew of my interest in native wildflowers:

However, the bag doesn't indicate the species of the plants involved. And many of the generic names on there have invasive as well as native species, so it would be good to know what they have. Unfortunately, the web site for the company doesn't give any more information. I wrote them on their contact form, and haven't heard back from them yet. I confess that my inclination is to burn this, rather than increase the number of invasive plants out there.

[ Permalink | no comments ]

FINALLY!
Posted on Oct 10, 2020 8:31 PM

Weeding Progress

The weather was good, and my body cooperated, so I was actually able to get outside and do some weeding on the East Bed! Here's the before:

And here is the after:

I had to switch to a bigger bucket for all these little weeds. There is, of course, more weeding to be done in other beds. But it felt good to get this cleaned up significantly.

Transient Bird

We saw a number of birds today, including this one:

I am no expert on birds, but from the investigation I made trying to determine if it was a Hermit Thrush or another kind, I settled on the Swainson's Thrush. The marker is that the Hermit Thrush has a brown back and a contrasting red tail. The Swainson's Thrush has reddish and olive morphs, with no tail distinction. So I'm going with Swainson's Thrush.

Swainson's Thrush spends the summer months in Canada, and the winters in Central America. It is basically only in my part of Minnesota when it is migrating, so I don't know how long it will be around.

When I first saw it, I was sitting in one of our garden swings, and it walked out from under the dogwood, hopping on occasion. It is the size of an American Robin, and my first thought was that it might be a Fox Sparrow, but it didn't have the head crest. It made its way to our bird bath and had a drink. (Our local short-tailed shrew also was stealing quick drinks when it could!) Then it went under the hydrangea bushes. I got the close-up photo when it came out by our fly-through feeder near the dining room windows.

In looking in my bird-tracking app, Audubon, Swainson has a hawk and a warbler named for him; it turns out he has a lot more animals bearing his name. William Swainson was an early 19th-century English naturalist, who apparently got his fame through early use of colored lithographic prints for his publications.

Swainson's Thrush wasn't the only bird I saw today. Amongst the more common denizens, I saw a Bald Eagle gliding high in the sky; the size and coloring are distinctive, of course. That's not a bird I see every month, let alone every day!

Observations

Overall, it was a gorgeous day. I should mention that this month marks the 30th anniversary of my marriage to my wife; we actually got married on a day very much like this one back in 1990. We sat outside and admired the fall colors we could see from our own yard:

We talked for a while, sitting on a garden swing, and then she went off to work on some of her garden projects (mostly composting old tomato plants and spreading finished compost where those plants had been, so it would be ready for next year). I did my weeding. While walking around, I was struck by the colors of some of the native grasses I planted last year:

For those who are curious:

Switch Grass, Panicum virgatum, is in the back. However, the three older plants are tall and golden, while the newest is smaller, still green, on the right end. I think it must be a different variety (it is Shenandoah, as I noted it when I bought it this year), but I don't recall the variety I originally planted. I may still have the plastic tags, and will have to check.
Little Bluestem, Schizachyrium scoparium, are the darker pair on the left end. I believe they must be different varieties, but I don't recall what they are! Another thing i'll have to check.
Prairie Dropseed, Sporobolus heterolepis, are the small mounds in the foreground of this section. Those were all bought at the same time, and are supposed to end up much larger.

In regarding what I have planted, I find myself wishing that I had combined plants that would bloom in different times, but be the same size, so they would have more support, and there would be more changing visual interest. I think I'll have to pay closer attention to the soil and water conditions for future plantings, to see how much of that I could accomplish.

What's Next?

Continue weeding, of course. Whatever I can clobber now is one less weed to cope with next year.

I need to make sure my metal labels are positioned properly, and at a reasonable height for I'll see them when the snow falls. I don't want to step on them by accident. Maybe it would be better to push them down as much as possible, instead!

I think I also need to take documentary photos of the plants and their setting, so when the spring comes, I'll be certain of what is coming up where.

We will need to turn off the water to the hose bib on the side of the house, so it doesn't freeze. Even though we have a frost-proof valve, it is no protection against the low temperatures we can get; air temperatures below -20 °F (-28.9 °C) are not uncommon. This fact always amuses me when I watch Gardner's World when they talk of harvesting veg for Christmas, or about plants which can be left outside over the winter.

My wife is already making plans for what she'll plant, and where, next spring; I still have my thoughts on the rain garden section.

We will see how it all goes!

[ Permalink | no comments ]

Reflections so Far
Posted on Oct 4, 2020 11:25 AM

No Pictures, Just Text

As I'm having trouble uploading pictures from my iPhone, I thought I'd spend some time talking about thoughts I've had recently concerning the garden.

First of all, I'm very happy with how things are going. Not all of my plants came back, but most of them did. I got a lot more performance out of them than I had last year. So I'm very happy with that.

I'm also very happy with my labelling project. When I've been ill, my wife has been able to figure out what to water based on how things are labeled. I need to make some more yet, because one thing I noticed this spring is that when plants come up, I don't know for sure what they are. I intend to move my labels to be closer to the plants, and label each plant, so that I have no doubt what is coming in where next spring. I should also take good pictures to lock in locations now, while I can still see the ground.

If anything I might change on my labels, it would be adding a soil type, or coming up with a different moisture indicator. Being able to look at an area and know what soil is involved there would be useful when it comes to planning additions.

One big thing I wish I had done differently is made larger areas of single plants. I have two or three plants of a given species, but I wish I had at least double that. When I look at how much insects or birds are enjoying a given plant, I want there to be more plants. I also think a larger area of a given flower would look more attractive.

I wish I knew better how different native plants co-exist. I could see a wildflower garden, for instance, that is a random mix of things which typically grow together. I don't mind the more orderly look, but they almost feel too small and monotonous.

Speaking of native plants, I'm so happy that I'm growing those for the wildlife! It means I don't have to engage in things like dead-heading, or pruning out old stems. Birds want the seeds from the flowers throughout the winter, and insects of different types will hibernate in the stems. It cuts down on the maintenance I have to do. It may not have that groomed look throughout the fall, but that isn't my purpose in having a garden.

I have much more respect for people who get a lot done in their gardens. We have been doing the work ourselves, and it takes a lot of effort to keep up, let alone clear the new beds for planting.

Bird Stuff

We've started seeing the fall birds return. The White-Throated Sparrows are back, and my wife saw the first Dark-Eyed Junco of the fall only yesterday. I like that I can now tell that these are seasonal birds, and that I can tell different species of sparrows apart.

I bought a new feeder to hold peanut pick-outs; these are the nuts of the peanut, without the shell, and some birds prefer them to in-the-shell peanuts. The old one was a type of tall-but-narrow hopper, but it didn't drain, so the lower peanuts got mushy. The new one is a metal mesh cylinder, the birds are supposed to be able to pick out the nuts. I haven't seen it happen yet, but I only put it up yesterday.

I'm going to have to put out the bird-bath heater, soon. This morning the temperature was in the mid 30s °F. Freezing temperatures aren't far away. Not only birds, but deer drink from the birdbath: I can tell from the droppings. I don't mind having a water station for them outside. Of course, my indoor/outdoor cat, Smokey, will also drink from there when he's outside.

What's Happened Since Last Time?

The bees are continuing to enjoy the New England Aster and the Blue Giant Hyssop. I really need to plant more things that flower in the late summer and fall, because that's when the bees need it the most, I think.

We finally harvested all the peppers we had in the vegetable beds, and I'm going to make a roasted vegetable side today that will use many of them. I also plan to make stuffed bell peppers for dinner tomorrow!

My wife acquired some garlic, and put it in the vegetable beds, so we can have fresh garlic next spring.

What's Next?

I need to put proper fencing around my Winterberry Holly bushes. The deer are eating through the openings in the tomato cages I put around them. This is something I should do before the snow flies, so the plants have a chance over the winter, and the spring growth gets a good start next year. I do want these bushes for the animals, but I also want them to get a little bigger!

I looked it up, and February is apparently a great time to prune oak trees. Therefore, I need to mark which branches have to go now, when I can see that they don't have leaves, so I can do that pruning later. I thought of marking the branches to keep, but realized if my markings vanish or are removed, I'll remove good stuff.

And one of my winter projects will be figuring out what to do for our rain garden where the sump pump outlet is. That will likely be the big spring activity.

[ Permalink | no comments ]

Recovery and Activity
Posted on Sep 19, 2020 4:33 PM

It's Been a Long Time

My last entry was on the 25th of August! Obviously I'm overdue. Let's fix that.

Recovery

First, my health. It continues to improve. However, I have had nine events or attacks since my last blog post. These aren't dangerous in themselves, but they make me sit down and rest. Generally, these have been short-lived events, which is good. But it has meant that when the weather and such is right for me to get out...I haven't been able to get out. I've lost count of the times I've gotten ready to go out and do something in the yard, only to have a flare-up and have to go rest.

Animal Visitors

We have had a number of interesting visitors to the yard. First, let's talk about Chester the Chipmunk (my wife decided it needed a name):

He's perched on the wood pile we created just to attract smaller animals. He showed up for several days in a row, but I haven't seen him in a while, so he may have moved on. Or, he may be responsible for a tunnel we found in our herb garden:

I also discovered that honeybees have been eating the grape jelly put out for Baltimore Orioles. I haven't seen the birds since last month; now I know what the jelly goes away:

By the way, when I saw those Orioles, they were going for the hummingbird feeders!

When I was getting ready to prune the serviceberry (see below), I found an old spiderweb in the top, dead branches. I was able to get a picture:

The local red squirrel dropped by for some corn (this is an occasional visitor, as we normally have the gray squirrels):

And our New England Aster started blooming this past week. A couple days later, I say this first pollinator visitor:

These next visitors get movies. These are on my flickr account, as garden.org doesn't handle movies.

First, the hummingbirds discovered the Blue Giant Hyssop plants. (You can ignore the sound, a timer was going off.) I was close enough and had a camera with an optical zoom when I saw it, so this is a reasonable movie. It is amazing seeing how they move. At one point, another hummingbird came and drove one off; I noticed one had a beak with some white on it, and the other didn't.

We also had a Cooper's Hawk come and visit. Now, this one surprised it. We heard it calling for a few days before we actually saw it. My wife noticed it moving from branch to branch in one tree, then it hopped to the tree in the movie where we could get a reasonable shot at it. We haven't seen this bird before this year; Red-tailed Hawks are much more common in our area. But this Cooper's likes to eat little birdies at suburban feeders; sure enough, we saw some feathers on the ground after this, maybe it got a mourning dove.

Overall, I'm very happy with all our visitors. We've even seen the scat of deer and something else. Wildlife is coming to the yard, which is one of my goals in doing all this!

Pruning the Serviceberry

So I planted an "Autumn Brilliance" serviceberry, Amelanchier x grandiflora. It did very well last year, even produced berries, which were promptly gobbled up. However, this spring I noticed that there was bark damage to the trunks -- it had four nice trunks -- and I put up a fence but it was too late. The existing stems produced new side shoots, but the old wood was dead. Later, I noticed some white on the upper leaves. Today, I decided to actually prune this. Here is the before picture:

One of my challenges was getting near it! I put up the fencing in the spring, to keep out the rabbits which (I guessed) were the source of the bark chewing. But I didn't make any sort of gate, I kept it simple. So now I had to use a ladder to get myself inside!

I'd cleaned my pruner beforehand, and worked my way through, cutting below the affected leaves, removing the dead wood, eliminating crossovers, and trying to prune so that I'd get new upward growth, rather than outward. However, given the rabbit damage, I decided to leave it a little bushier for now:

I found an interesting thing, though. When I was working through the new suckers, one had grown out practically sideways into the mulch, then turned upward. When I pruned it away, it had roots! So, I figured, let's see if it will keep growing if I give it a pot:

My Wife's Plants

My wife has been getting out and getting things done. First, her tomato plants were giving her great results:

She actually had two or three harvests like that. She normally cans them, but -- as this is 2020 -- she ran out of canning lids and couldn't get any more. She read online that it is likely because so many people are getting into it this year, there's a shortage! So she's putting them into the deep-freeze instead.

She also moved some plants from the garage-end of the Driveway Bed into a weedy area by the compost bins. This is where we had parked her dad's truck for several months when it didn't have up-to-date tags. But she did a very good job in reclaiming the area:

(I don't know why the image has that jarring exposure change; it is fine on flickr.)

The Weed Bin

Remember the big, black bin for weeds? The idea being that cooking in the sun like that should kill the seeds? This is what it looked like August 17th:

And this is what it looked like September 6th:

The hope is that the heat and enclosure (no light getting in) should have killed the seeds. I added these to the compost, and we'll see what happens! If you look at the second picture, you'll see some of the spider webs that also got in there.

Sick Plants

So, this is a bit of a puzzler. A few of my plants have been having problems with dead sections, even entire plants. Look at the following and let me know what you think is going on.

The Gray-Headed Coneflowers were two plants that came up this spring. However, you'll see the right plant pretty much just died. At the time, it went limp, and I thought it lacked water, but it never recovered. I hope we see it in the spring:

The Dwarf Joe-Pye Weed came in strong this spring, generating multiple stems where last year there had only been one. But the one further from the path (on the right in the image) had most of its stems die:

The New England Aster had a branch die, you can see it in the photo. I have no idea why just one branch would do this:

So, could it be an animal chewing up certain parts? I'd expect the stems to fall. Maybe a disease? Why isn't it spreading to other parts of a plant? And why isn't it affecting other species?

Repotting and Transportation

And lastly, the mint plant is doing very well, but I don't think it will survive outside in a pot. I've brought it inside to be with the Boston Fern and the Purple Heart. Here are pictures of the mint and purple heart:

What's Next?

So, it is time to think about next year. We're not doing any new plantings now. We just have to wait for the weather to turn colder.

One thing we'll plan relates to some basement drainage tile that got installed with a sump pump. The pump currently has an outlet pipe going to the north of the house. We're thinking of putting in a rain garden there, and we need to research what to get and where it can go in the area.

My younger daughter is talking about making concrete steps again! If she does, then we can place them.

I have to remember that, when the plants begin to die down, I should move the metal markers so they are high and right by the center of the plants. This way, I know where they are under the snow, and I can identify the plants coming up in the spring.

There's also a chance that I might win a lottery my state is doing, to encourage people to remove lawns in favor of native plants that attract pollinators. I entered for the spring, but didn't win; I was automatically entered for the fall drawing. So if that happens, I might get up to $350 back from whatever I spend on such a project.

Oh, and something everyone should consider, if you like watching birds: Project Feederwatch starts in November. This is a citizen-science activity, counting birds at your feeders for two days out of every week over the winter. if you can keep your feeders stocked, and are willing to tally up the number of birds you see at one time, this can be a valuable activity for science. You will also learn a lot more about the different species that visit your yard! You do pay to participate, but this is a worthy cause. Take a look and give it a thought!

[ Permalink | no comments ]

» View jhugart's profile

Member Login:

Username or email

Password

( No account? Join now! )