Everlasting strawflowers, birds, etc.

This is the first year I have grown strawflowers, also known as everlastings. One of its everlasting character traits is the ability to withstand a hard frost. So now I am thinking they might be a good substitute for the ubiquitous hardy mums that spontaneously generate each autumn. Just something to keep in mind for next year.

Try as I might, I just can't capture the reds in my yard. That doesn't stop me from trying. This pic has been edited to warm the colors and deepen the shadows and it still does not come close to the real thing. Of course, the skill (or lack thereof) the the photographer has a lot to do with this failure.

Silver grass

I read somewhere that sparrows really love cracked corn, so providing it may limit their ravaging the more expensive birdseed. Toward that end, I bought some cracked corn, which required another feeder, which lead me to also purchasing meal worms and a feeder for those. (I know that the meal worms are dead, but because they are also dehydrated, they shift around easily inside the bag, which makes them look all squirmy - ugh.) So now I am feeding black sunflower seeds, striped sunflower seeds, peanut splits, peanuts in the shell, thistle seed, cracked corn, suet (which always seems to contain corn, probably as a binder), and meal worms.

While I continue to try to outfox the sparrows, I think I have won the squirrel wars. I have not seen a rodent in the feeders since the last adjustment of the baffles. I do see them in the yard, though, or running along the fence or the telephone wire or laying on the shed roof. It looks like they are trying to figure out how to leap from one perch or another to the feeders. If the dogs spot them, much chasing and barking ensues.

The coneflower and rudbeckia look dead, dead, dead, but the goldfinch still find something to eat in their dried seed heads. There are titmice and nuthatches and at least one flicker who are regulars, but so far no cardinals this year. And occasionally a Cooper's hawk makes an appearance, not for birdseed but for birds.

Locally, we gardeners have been encouraged to not put dead annuals in the trash, but to either compost them or chop them up and leave the leavings on the soil. So that is what I have been doing, with the coleus and zinnias. The perennials will be left standing until spring. Instead of thinking of their desiccated presence as "weedy", I will view them through the lens of "winter interest".

Last mow, first snow

I had almost talked myself into waiting until today to pick up dog poop and mow leaves. The winter weather advisory changed my mind. Yesterday was a nice fall day, today a winter wonderland.

After yesterday's chores, I did hobble about a bit, camera in hand. I'm glad I captured this silver grass in its upright position; today it is severely slumped over.

This is the trunk of one of my redbud trees. I assume the damage was caused by the extremely wet spring we had and hope that the tree will recover. This one is next to the deck and quite useful shadewise.

The common milkweed pods are exploding. I'm contemplating just letting it take over one corner of the yard. I didn't notice very many monarchs this summer, but then I wasn't out and about in the yard much.

I am very impressed with how rubust my Triumph elm is. Once the leaves dropped, a nest appeared. I hope this tree continues to thrive.

The still tiny Prairie Fire crabapple insists on fruiting. First year sleep, second year creep, third (next) year leap - I hope. The Perfect Purple crab in the front yard isn't looking very robust, so I'm hoping it takes off soon, too.

Some shrubs still have fruit on them while others have been stripped bare already. The hawthorn tree in the front yard is loaded with orange berries; the robins will find them in late winter. Last year they did not eat all of them, so I plan to harvest some for dyeing yarn.

My SO came over Saturday and cleaned out the poison ivy patch under the gold mop. I've sprayed the poison ivy several times and it looks like it is finally finished off. May it never return!

A gift of silvergrass

After removing the tractor tire, I decided to move the rhubarb that was inside the tractor tire. The tractor tire was once a sandbox (and probably a convenient outdoor bathroom for the outdoor cat), so despite my efforts over the years, the soil is still pretty sandy there. I was going to let the area return to lawn, but my SO offered me a clump of his silvergrass, which I have long admired. His soil is very sandy, so I figured it would do well in this spot.

You can't really see them in the photo below, but the silvergrass has been joined by two butterflyweed plants that miraculously survived last summer's assault by the "other milkweed caterpillar", larva for the milkweed tussock moth. One of these caterpillars was already starting in on one of these plants, but I deposited said caterpillar near some common milkweed, ironically the very ones they denuded last summer.

There is a variety of butterflyweed that grows well in clay soil, but these are not that. These are Asciepias tuberosa, which I hope will thrive here. I have no idea what the variety of silvergrass is, if anything special.

They come and they go

While dividing and transplanting the 'Autumn Joy' Sedum, I found some old plant markers from previous attempts to fill the bed by the front walk. This discovery led me to comb through my blog, looking for references of what other plants I have loved and lost. The list is mournfully long.

Whatever happened to the lovely Hibiscus 'Luna Red'? Or the equally red crocosmia? Some plants just succumb, but others meet their demise because of my never ending need to move things around which results in my losing track of them. So now I am trying to catalog everything that is currently growing in my yard AND mark their location so they won't be forgotten.

Here are two examples of plants that need tracking collars. The Heuchera 'Zipper' above and the Japanese painted fern below are easy to forget about. I added the former to the hosta bed last year, the latter two years ago. I have faith that 'Zipper' will grow big and strong and fulfill its destiny to provide some contrast to the two other heurcheras that flank it. The fern has survived despite being located next to the dryer vent, but I think it could do better elsewhere, if I don't forget it altogether.

Without some kind of system, I will also continue to make the mistake of calling something one thing when it is something else entirely. Take the grass below, which I have been referring to as big blue stem, even though it looks nothing like big blue stem, especially its plume-like seed heads. My SO commented in passing how it looks similar to his silver grass but not quite.

After scrolling through my blog, I now think it is maiden hair grass, a.k.a. Chinese silver grass. I planted some in the yard once upon a time and don't know what happened to it. I think this plant (which I moved to its current location last fall) might be it.

How do you maintain your garden census?