This spring, there is more blooming garlic mustard all over the property than I've seen in years. I've been pretty diligent in keeping it pulled out in the Woodland Garden, and last year I was congratulating myself that it seemed to be coming under control. Well, not this year. It's everywhere and it's thriving. HUGE plants full of flowers. It's just now setting seed, so I'm trying to yank it out wherever and whenever I get a chance. So far, I've cleared it out of the Stumpery and the newest of the Asian Garden area. It's even coming up in beds and borders that never had it...I suspect the hens or wild birds eat the seeds and then spread them. Even in the veg! Why it's so prevalent this year is beyond me...could be the very cold winter weather we had?
Moved a couple of young Kousa dogwood up to the newest garden area, along the northwest corner of the property. This area has become a real surprise. I got in there to do "a little" clearing of brambles during the winter when I was bored, but it opened up amazingly fast because there were several areas that were literally blanketed with dead wild rose bushes and, once they came out, ta-da! Wide open spaces. I've already planted several forsythia near the fence line, a couple of very nicely grown Amelanchiers, and now the Kousas. I didn't really intend to move the Kousas right now, but I was cleaning out around the greenhouse and found them in pots hidden under a mass of forsythia. Nice big 3-4 foot tall youngsters.
My fern bed in the Asian Garden is really coming along nicely this year. Those big ostrich ferns take a year or two to get their feet under them, but once they do, look out. I don't care how they multiply up there, I want the area carpeted. I'm going to try to get some Mayapple (native) up there as well. I have a couple of clumps in the garden that I will try to lift and divide before the weather gets too hot. I'd love to introduce some winterberry bushes up there and some teaberry (Gaultheria procumbens) as well. My goal is to try to replace the horrid himalyan blackberrys and the smothering Japanese honeysuckle with some native plants to provide wildlife food.
When I look back 34 years to when we first came here, it's really amazing how Nature can recover given a little help and mostly just left alone. The whole area that I'm talking about was a commercial apple orchard. The shade from young "wild seeded" trees is killing off the Monster Grass. It's very interesting to see how different species of plants colonize areas as the conditions change. For instance, this year, Chickweed is rampant. Thick lush carpets of it all over the place. Because I am not interested in have a groomed garden up there, I'm leaving it. The ferns, lilies, miniature comfrey, etc. are growing up nicely through it and I know it provides some food to wildlife. The Chickweed is replacing the truly rampant wild perennial sunflowers that used to cover the area with 6 foot tall clumps. As the shade increases, those are dying out. I've been trying to gently harness the pokeweed as well, but I always want to leave some for the berries and that spectacular fall color. I'm seeing a lot more violets up there too, and I suspect that as the chickweed fades out in even deeper shade, the violets will start to carpet the ground.
I really want to get back to work on the Folly Wall. Now that our garbage collection company has issued new cans, I've got a couple of nice plastic garbage cans that I'm not using. I think I'll move them up to the Dark Garden to store mortar, tools, etc. That's been a big problem: it's very (VERY) heavy work just getting bags of mortar up the long hill to the Folly Wall, and it would be nice if I could store unused product in a watertight container instead of having to haul it back down to the shed to store it. Once up that hill with a 80-pound bag in the wheelbarrow is enough for me to call it a day right there! *LOL* I regret so much that when we started out we never once considered any sort of vehicle access to the upper acre. It would be so great to have some sort of lane running from the curve in the road up to the top of the hill. No way to do that now without utter destruction of a lot of things.
I still havent rented a saw to deal with those downed trees. Out of sight out of mind. The one that's snagged into a neighboring tree is going to be very tricky. It's just big enough to be dangerous. We may need to get a third person to help us get it down. At least it's securely wedged into the other tree, so I know it wont' just suddenly drop.
***
Vanishing act. The two foster kittens are now 5 weeks old and thriving. Last night, as I was getting ready to go to bed, I realized the little girl (Goldie) was missing. Her brother was passed out on the sofa with R, glutted on baby food and warm milk. But no Goldie. We looked everywhere. I swear to god, every room, every drawer, every closet, shelf, bookcase, under every piece of furniture, even tossed seat cushion around...nothing. We were frantic. We considered she might have slipped outside with another of the cats, and even crawled around the house perimeter, under the deck, under the porch. It was horrible. Finally at 1 a.m. I fell into bed, exhausted and sure that she must have slipped outside and god only know. A half hour later, I couldn't sleep, had this horrible feelign that if she's outside, I must go look for her. Went to the bathroom, noticed the t.p. was about out, went to the hall closet to get more. Turned around, there's Goldie in the hallway, stretching and yawning. What the ..,..?? I have a friend who swears cats can time warp across alternate universes and I guess that's what Goldie did. *LOL* I got about 4 hours total sleep last night, hence this long and rambling post. I'm going to take a nap.
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