Noises, noises, noises

When my children were young, I read to them a lot. One semi-favorite was called Noises, Noises, Noises, I believe. It was about an elderly couple. He complained about all the noises while she told him the solution was to eat his roast beef and wear his mittens.

Not a very interesting premise, but I could not help but think of that book while doing yoga on the deck last weekend. There were the manmade noises - airplanes and a medical helicoptor overhead, motorcycles and other traffic, the air conditioner cycling on and off, lawn mowers - and natural noises - the wind in the trees, birds (especially a wren and a hawk), Clio panting in the sun, and CICADAS in JUNE.

I have not seen any June bugs, but there is a plethora of Japanese beetles this year. The good news is they seem to be limiting their damage to the Virginia creeper. The vine is all volunteer and tolerated for its fall color. I'm not sure there will be anything left to turn red come autumn, though.

What eats Japanese beetles? According to the Web, birds like starlings, grackles, crows, robins, catbirds, cardinals, and meadowlarks. Also insects like spiders, assassin bugs, and predatory stink bugs. I wish they would come dine in my yard.

Something is skeletizing the leaves on the 'Perfect Purple' flowering crabapple as well. One online source suggests that this is caused by the apple-and-thorn skeletonizer, a.k.a. Choreutis pariana. The Midwest is not one of its usual territories, however. I may take some samples into the co-operative office and see what they say.

When I take the time to just sit and observe my yard, I see goldfinch in the beebalm and coneflower, hummingbirds tasting nectar from the blossoms on the penstemon and honeysuckle vine, young sparrows trying oh-so-hard to fly, rabbits hiding in the northern sea oats. Not very many butterflies, but for some reason dragonflies. Go figure.

Despite the weather

There has been a feeding frenzy at the bird feeders recently, mostly sparrows. I began to wonder if we are in for a rough winter, but the forecast is for mild and dry instead of cold and wet. We shall see.

We had a light frost the other night, nothing that would finish off the zinnias. I've been throwing a sheet over the coleus on the front porch when warned, but I dug up a new mother plant for next year's cuttings, just in case.

Now that the fence work is complete, I transplanted the bee balm to the south side of the house, after moving some of the remaining asters from the house side to the fence side of the same area. I'm a little confused about the aster varieties I have. What I moved looks like New England asters but are shorter. A volunteer aster has popped up in the yard as well, something I thought at first was more fleabane (which is done), then classified as a low growing aster, but then changed my mind again when I realized the plants were not low growing but floppy. Some day I may get all the asters sorted out, but not today.

I repeatedly try to capture the reddish hue of the Big Blue Stem in fall, but my pix never do it justice. This is the one that is most upright; next year I will try to prop up the others, as they look great in front of the fence.

A shrub I pretty much ignore is the coralberry. This year I made a point of checking on it periodically, because I wanted to actually see the berries. My efforts have been rewarded. I thought this shrub would get a LOT bigger, like eight feet across. This is its third season, so maybe I am being impatient.

The spicebush witch hazel is another shrub I tend to ignore, even though it looks lovely in front of the viburnum. I've yet to notice any berries on it, or blossoms either. This is its third year as well, and like the coralberry, it seems puny compared to what it should become.

Virginia creeper is one of my fall favorites, although sometimes it grows where I don't want it to, like behind the vinyl siding on my house. I'm still thinking of trying it in a container on the pergola, though. Tell me if I am nuts.

Rhubarb always surprises me with its fall color. Although I don't grow food anymore (something I have been debating lately as I never made it to a farmers market this summer and the grocery store zucchini tastes horrible), I keep my rhubarb patch for pie and dye.

I should be finishing up a few things in the front yard, but instead have been fixing up the raised beds I plan to keep, moving dirt from the defunct beds and mulching with newspaper and shredded cypress. The bee/wasp nest is still active, but once they settle down, I'll complete the transplanting of coneflower.

While searching through my blog for references to this or that, I've come to realize that there are a LOT of plants that I loved but that disappeared and were consequently forgotten. I'm making a list of ones I'd like to re-introduce to the yard, plus some new ones. This, despite my vow to downsize the garden.

Should they stay or should they go?

I planted trumpet vine in 2004, before I started this blog. Apparently, I made no note of its variety, but I did find an old post that indicated I waited five years for it to bloom, primarily because it was not getting enough sun. The idea behind planting this obnoxious vine was to obscure the chain link fence, which it never did to any satisfaction. However, it did pop up all over the place, causing much cursing and consternation.

The shade-providing silver maple is gone, as is the chain link, replaced by a privacy fence, and yet this thing still survives. I will probably regret it, but I am leaning toward letting it be, just to see if I can control it and if it can provide some nice cover for the fence. It is native, although not in Indiana.

Another pernicious vine is Virginia creeper. This corner of the yard has been cleaned up somewhat, after I ripped a mile or so of Virginia creeper off the serviceberry (while obsessively counting leaf clusters - no poison ivy). Virginia creeper turns a lovely scarlet in the fall, so I'm letting some grow on the fence. It too is native.

I think my rule of thumb going forward will be to let these vines climb the back fence (FOR NOW) because the area behind the fence is technically my property. Also, the view of the neighbor on that side is blocked by his privet. But I think I will keep the side fences clear of climbers so I don't have to worry about them encroaching on those neighbors' yards.

I've also been pulling down what I think of as wild grape vine. So far, it has been growing on the side fences but not the back fence. Unlike the others discussed here, it is not a very aggressive plant, at least not in my yard. I think it is not native, so I may continue to curtail it. My yard, my (arbitrary) rules.

I (heart) Compost

Earlier this spring, I spread a little love around my yard in the form of compost. The shrubs and perenniels are responding favorably. Compost is such a gentle but potent way to feed the soil which feeds the plants.

Another photo of the onondaga viburnum...



... which doesn't do justice to the contrasting colors of the unopened buds and the creamy flowers.

The chives are almost the same shade of lavendar...



... as the spring phlox that reappear in my yard each year.



There are a lot of mushrooms as well.



I presume the spores piggy back on the mulch.



And I presume these are not edible.

The cotoneaster is recovering from the whacking I gave it earlier this spring.



It is just starting to bloom, as are the columbine...



... and the peony.



The iris is in full swing.



No, this is not poison ivy, but virginia creeper. It got a foothold several years ago and I just let it go, to see what would happen.



Unfortunately, what is going to happen is that it will get whacked when the Florida room is replaced. Not to worry, though, as there is more growing in the back garden.