Spider season

There are spiders in the yard all season long, but it seems like they are particularly noticeable as autumn approaches. The front porch is festooned with webs, which I don't mind as long as the resident arachnids stay outside. I'll sweep them down just before Halloween.

According to this site, there are reasons spiders seem more prevalent in the fall. For one thing, the spiders that hatched in the spring are now full grown, and the males are seeking females for mating. They also may be seeking warmer quarters, like near crevices and doorways. I've had to stop a few trying to sneak inside when I'm holding the door open for the pets.

This is the first year for swamp milkweed in my rain garden. Besides them surprising me with blossoms, they are forming seed pods.

Usually, yard waste goes into a compost pile by the shed, but this year I decided the weedy stuff should go elsewhere, along with its weed seeds. I thought the city would pick it up separate from the regular trash, but I was wrong. They say to just throw it into the bins, except for leaves which they do pick up. Hmmm.

The temps have been moderate lately, making for pleasant days, but we could use some rain.

Roundup on Roundup

In the not-so-distant past, I was adamently organic. Growing all the vegetables for my family meant protecting them from the evils of herbicides and pesticides, especially Roundup. Back then, organic produce was difficult to find, and when found, prohibitively expensive. Hence, my organic garden.

Fast forward to the present day, when I no longer grow food except here and there. Instead, I have a large yard with large beds that provide room for weeds to grow. I now resort to Roundup to keep those weeds under control, especially the perennial and/or prolific ones like Canada thistle, pokeweed, trumpet vine, mulberry seedlings, etc.

Glyphosate is a systemic, non-selective herbicide that is absorbed by the plant and moves throughout the vascular system, ultimately killing the plant. Roundup used to be synomymous with glyphosate, but that is changing. Recently, Bayer announced that glyphosate would be phased out of consumer Roundup products.

So, what do I have? The product that I have been using on weeds in the mulched beds is Roundup Concentrate Plus. I dilute it with water at the heavier concentration, as I'm dealing with perennial weeds, vines, tree stubs, etc. The main ingredient is glyphosate, isopropylamine salt, with diquat dibromide added for quick burndown of the weeds. It works well. I just finished off a container of it. Should I buy more this season or wait? The formula may be different next year.

For the lawn, I use Roundup for Lawns. It targets primarily broadleaf weeds, plus crabgrass and yellow nutsedge. I posted about my nutsedge woes several weeks ago, thinking there was nothing I could do for where it grows in the lawn. Now I will have to try treating it with this product, even if it requires multiple applications. It pays to read the freakin' label! (The label does not mention mulberry seedlings, but the product works on them as well.)

One more product I use, straight from the bottle, is Ortho Groundclear Poison Ivy and Tough Brush Killer. Its main ingredients are triclopyr, triethylamine salt and diquat dibromide. Triclopyr is a systemic herbicide that affects actively growing plants by mimicking a specific type of plant growth hormone. Plants rapidly take in triclopyr through leaves and roots, which causes uncontrolled plant growth and plant death. When trying to eliminate something like yucca which keeps popping up in the middle of my 'October Skies' aster, I trim back the yucca and brush on this product so it touches only the yucca. Ditto mulberry and sumac seedlings that get beyond the seedling stage.

It may sound like I'm just covering my property with poisons, but that is not the case. Periodically, I patrol the yard, sprayer in hand, on a search-and-destroy mission. I spot treat the specific invaders. I'm careful about exposure to both myself and the pets. These products are tools that are effective and relatively safe when used in their intended manner. However, I would still not use them around food plants.

On a completely different topic, I visited Arbor Farms Nursery the other day, as their pottery was on sale for 50% off. I was looking for some new pots for some houseplants. I also checked out the ginkgo trees for future reference. The pottery was on tables near the butterfly bushes. And there were butterflies! It was all I could do to keep myself from adding a butterfly bush (or two or three) to my shopping, but I held myself in check. I admit I'm thinking of adding some to the landscape, to see if I have better luck attracting butterflies, but that can wait until next year.


I repotted two houseplants today.

Nuts to nutsedge

A weed is a plant that is growing where you don't want it. Yellow nutsedge is such a plant. It likes damp soil, so pops up in the lawn near the edges of the driveway. And now it is rampant in the rain garden.

It's Latin name is Cyperus esculentus. Nutsedge is also known as nut grass, chufa sedge, tiger nuts or earth almond. I've read that is is native to the Middle East and I've read that it is native to Indiana. Regardless, it has spread around the world. In some countries, it is used for livestock feed. Some people eat the tubers and/or make a drink from them. Ducks and wild turkeys feed on it.

I don't have any ducks or wild turkeys in my yard, so its value to me is minimal. I contemplated letting it grow in the rain garden, but decided that was inviting trouble. There are herbicides that target nutsedge, but they may damage turf grass and other nearby plants. I'll keep spraying it where I can, pulling it where I can't spray, and mowing it in the lawn.

All is not lost

Sometimes it is difficult to focus on the positive. I water the spray-on grass the construction crews left behind, but no grass grows. I reduce my calorie intake, but I lose no weight. I put out the oriole feeder, but no birds come. One ray of hope is the Japanese maple: while walking the dogs, I noticed another Japanese maple in the neighborhood that looks similar in species to mine also struggling. So maybe it is not a serious problem, just the weather.

Japanese maple samaras

We have not had rain for quite a while, to the point I may have to water more than the spray-on grass. The city says they will come back in the fall and redo the spray-on grass, but I found some seven-year-old grass seed in the garage, which I cast on top of the spray-on grass. Even though I doubt it will germinate, I'll water twice a day for a while. The rest of the lawn is on its own. The white clover patches look green, as does the grass that gets the most shade; the rest is turning a toasty brown. The outside faucet out front has a drip, so I let it drip under the Japanese maple.

Spurge (?) grows in my lawn

I edged around the 'Perfect Purple' flowering crab and transplanted some 'Zagreb' coreopsis there, to add to the yellow under this purple tree; 'Stella d'Oro' is blooming there right now. Using an edging tool, I put my weight on my "bad" leg and dug with the "good"; ditto with the shovel. This made sense to me, but not to my hip. The concrete-like clay soil was not helpful, either. I had to take it easy for a couple of days after that episode.

Ladybug, ladybug, welcome to my garden

Weeding anything deep-rooted is impossible right now, so I've been concentrating on some sticky things growing under the gold mop. I haven't been able to identify them. They are surprisingly shallow rooted, and grow in sun and in the shady recesses that I can't reach without putting undo strain in my hip. I may have to call in reinforcements to help me out.

Found my garden scooter

I feed the birds peanut splits, unshelled peanuts, oil sunflower seeds, and nectar. I've wondered from time to time just how dependent birds are on these feeders, and which they prefer, the free handouts or the smorgasbord available elsewhere in the yard. The other day, I watched a female hummingbird sample the nectar at the feeder, then buzz over to the nearby 'Red Husker' penstemon, where she aggressivly poked her beak into a half dozen blossoms before zipping away. I guess the nectar in the feeder may be easy pickings, but not a match for the real thing. To learn how hummingbirds see color, visit this article in the NYTimes.

Can we have a new normal?

Since the pandemic started, many (NOT ALL) of us have been wishing and waiting until we can "get back to normal". Well, that old normal was not all that great, especially for some people and some places. I try to keep politics and social issues out of my blogs - that's not why I write - but some things just cry out to be mentioned. I hope the protests lead (peacefully) to significant change, and the only way to change things for the better is to get involved however we can (money, time, letter writing, running for office, etc.) and to VOTE. If you don't vote, it looks like you don't care, and I can't believe anyone doesn't care about how we move forward from this point. (End of sermon.)

I was beginning to think that the only critters I was going to see at the hummingbird feeder were ants. I fixed that problem by applying Vaseline petroleum jelly to the metal pole holding the feeder. Soon after, I spotted a female hummer. But only one. I didn't know if that was normal (it is), so I looked up some info about hummingbirds at this site. Some friends of mine have been able to spot hummingbird nests in their trees, but my ranch house does not offer the same vantage point their 2-story home does. Caring for a hummingbird feeder is almost like having another pet - the nectar needs to be replaced every 3-4 days. It's for only a few months (she said optimistically).

Speaking of critters, my dog Clio managed to mangle her muzzle and ear, presumably in the torn hardware cloth skirting the shed. That lead to a bacterial infection AND a fungal infection. She was a mess, had to visit the vet, and now wears the cone of shame.

My SO helped me update the skirting around the shed with some plastic trellis. Since I didn't want to lie awake at night, worrying about whether we trapped a nest of baby bunnies under the shed and they were slowly starving to death, we left a gap for critters to come and go. Only later did it occur to me that Finn, my inside/outside cat, could also come and go. Finn was a stray who developed a taste for baby bunnies - he eats them, doesn't torture them - so I decided that was okay. Maybe someday there will be NO critters under the shed.

In my effort to downsize the garden, I moved some of the raised bed frames so that they surround the clumps of big bluestem and rattlesnake master plants near the back of the yard. The idea is to offer the dogs a visual clue so that they don't trample the plants - they like to run along the fence. I, the Toro jockey, will also have a visual clue and will be able to mow that area without damaging said plants. I plan to move some coneflower and rudbekia to those beds as well.

So now I have four islands of weeds in the middle of the garden. The weeds look rather grasslike - I'm guessing it's mostly quack grass. Ugh. I am not looking forward to dealing with that.

Meanwhile, up on the deck, the strawflowers are blooming. The plants aren't very tall, so maybe I will add something to the pot...

...like some zinnias. The seedlings are popping up. Zinnias and sunflowers are some of my favorite annuals. And marigolds, but I skipped them this year.

I was looking through some of my photos out on flickr the other day and marveling over how much better they look than the ones I take now. Back then, I was making more of an effort to take good pics, now I am barely documenting what is going on in the yard, and then only as a reminder because I suffer from CRS (Can't Remember Sh*t). Maybe I'll do better once things get under control (HAHAHAHA).

HOT

The weather is not cooperating with my goal of getting all the plants transplanted by June 1. Yesterday the rest of the 'Torch' Mexican sunflowers and all of the 'Scarlet-Red' zinnias went in. The latter mostly filled the edges of the madder bed. I planted madder for its roots, which are used to dye fiber red, but it is not much to look at. Hence, the red zinnias. The balance of the zinnias and Mexican sunflowers went into a raised bed along with the surviving dyer's knotweed. Trays of seedlings have been sitting on the deck for about a month, undisturbed by the dogs, until one of them decided the chew up half the dyer's knotweed, plus a few empty seedling pots.

I have also been weeding. Instead of clearing a whole bed at one time, my MO is to pursue eradicating a particular weed all around the yard. Today, until the heat and humidity drove me inside, it was Canada thistle. This strategy is helpful in areas where I am growing something I am not that familiar with, at it helps prevent me from yanking the wrong plant. For example, while working in the "prairie" area, I was able to identify some lance-leaf coreopsis and asters that I might have pulled had I not been scouting for the thistle. Another easy to spot and remove "weed" is volunteer wheat that pops up where I have mulched with straw.

Speaking of mulch, the pile is shrinking. Despite piling it on thick, some plants like pokeberry and milkweed are breaking through. I let some of the pokeberry survive because I want to use the berries for eco-dyeing. The milkweed I have mixed feelings about. Part of me wants to limit it to the milkweed patch, but I hope the more I have, the more likely I will get monarchs that will lay eggs.

Yesterday I heard a wren singing in the neighbors yard, so I made a point to clean out and hang my two wren houses. Today a male wren started building a nest in one, loudly advertising his endeavors. Such a big voice from such a tiny bird!

For every weed there is a season

Today was a perfect day for weeding. The soil was saturated with recent rains, the sky was overcast, the temperature in the low 70's. I spent two hours on the front of the house and another hour under the 'Limelight' hydrangea before my back said, "ENOUGH!" Both areas had been weeded earlier this year, yet they were full of more but different weeds.

This is the season of what I think of as farm weeds: lamb's quarters, purslane, plantain, smartweed, bindweed, thistle, etc. Then there are the so-called weeds, native plants I will allow in the backyard in limited quantities but not the front yard, like pokeweed and goldenrod. The wild strawberry is okay in the lawn but not the flower beds. The volunteer violets and columbine and milkweed can stay. Several weeds I don't know the names of have to go. Let's not forget the poison ivy, destined to be sprayed.

In the past, I just tossed all weeds onto the compost pile, which never got hot enough to kill weed seeds. No wonder the weeds seemed to be taking over. Now the weeds go into yard waste bags for pickup by the city. (I still have a compost bin the for kitchen scraps and other non-weed discards.) I've also been mulching more, over sheets of newspaper, and mowing and/or weed whacking where I haven't been able to actually pull weeds.

I think my strategy is working. There is less Canada thistle, one of the worst offenders, and even the mulberry appears to be giving up. The Queen Anne's lace is under control - the last of it is destined for the dye pot, as it produces some lovely colors. Even the mint, catnip, and lemon balm that I planted oh-so-many years ago is surprisingly sparse.

My current nemesis is creeping Charlie. Success with the other weeds is giving me hope, though, that even this pesky weed can be conquered.

What are your worst weed nightmares?

Still spring

The temperatures have cooled a bit, which is a plus for the spring bloomers. My SO and I and Watson (the dog) went for a wildflower walk at Bicentennial Woods a couple of weeks ago. No pics but we (the dog and/or I) did bring home a couple of ticks. Ugh. Last Thursday we stopped at Foster Park between rain showers, to view the tulips. Again, no pics, except for this redbud tree.

I wish I knew the history of this old thing. I've seen redbuds with thick trunks, but nothing like this convoluted writhing mass of limbs. I'm surprised the uniqueness was not pruned out of it a long time ago.

On the home front, my SO and I spent hours in the backyard yesterday, trying to get things under control. He does the heavy lifting, literally. I keep reconfiguring the raised beds - this time, doubling the height of the concrete block ones - which I would not be able to manage on my own. He also cut down the 'Wichita Blue' junipers, two of which turned incredibly ugly, two of which never grew larger. I joke that he makes my gardening dreams come true, which really is not a joke at all. His help keeps me from succumbing to gardener's despair.

We both tackled weeds, weeds, and more weeds, mostly this creeping crud that is able to leap raised beds in a single bound and spread across the top of mulch, rooting all the way. I don't like to use herbicides, but am wondering if spraying along the fence will send the poison spreading through this carpet of crap like a computer virus through a LAN. It would be an interesting experiment. (Oh, wait. I just looked up some info on ground ivy, a.k.a. creeping Charlie. It says it is not affected by broadleaf herbicides except dicamba. Hmmm.)

Inside, I have been starting seeds, better late than never. At least I'm late enough that many can spend time outside almost immediately. Less mess in the house.

We saw plants, too

It occurred to me that I have posted very few photos of plants from the Garden Bloggers Fling. Believe me, we saw LOTS of plants, from acres of daylilies to native cactus. I didn't photograph many, just the ones to remind me of this or that.

These orange lilies remind me of the "ditch" daylilies growing in my yard, but in color only. They are Turk's Cap Lilies, a native wildflower. The blossoms perch on long stems. They can spread to form large colonies, but usually not in cultivation, where growing conditions may be less than ideal (like my claybound yard).

At the Eloise Butler Wildfower Garden

This plant is growing in my blueberry bed, among the milkweed. I did not plant it, nor could I figure out what it might be. Now I know: it's Indian Hemp. It's the kind of cannabis one makes fiber with, not the kind one smokes. It's related to both Dogbane and Milkweed. It's also poisonous.

At the Eloise Butler Wildfower Garden

This plant is also in my yard. I did plant it and I do know that it is Blue False Indigo. I did not know it would get so big. So now I am thinking I need to move it to a location more accommodating to its future size.

At Vera's Garden

I used to have the tall reddish plant in my yard (if it is Red Husker Penstemon - I need to replace it), but that is not why I took this picture. Below it grows what I have always considered a weed. And of course, I can't confirm it's identity, but it is some kind of mallow or althea. We were shocked that it is deliberately allowed into the garden, along with other "weeds" like mullein (said the gardener spreading fleabane seeds all about).

At Vera's Garden

I was impressed with this tall specimen of what turned out to be Queen of the Prairie. It prefers moist soil, but so does Joe Pye and it grows in my yard, albeit through the deck. I bet I could get this going, too.

In the garden of "Ruth," a member of Wild Ones. At least, I think that is where I took this pic.

This is bent grass, the same kind of grass used on golf courses. Separating garden beds, it looks like a smooth green carpet. The owners said it was there when they bought the house, in the 1930's. It takes some special care, which made me remove it from my list of must-haves, but it still was a spectacular contrast to the lush garden beds.

At the garden of Lee and Jerry Shannon

My front yard is made up of primarily purple and yellow plants of one sort or another, but mostly purple. When I saw this Sunkist Arborvitae, I immediately pictured it as an anchor plant in my front yard.

At Bailey's Display Garden

Ditto this Golden Spirit Smokebush.

At Bailey's Display Garden

My Blue Muffin Viburnum refuses to produce the profusion of blue berries it is named for, so when I saw one lush with fruit, I had to snap it just to prove to myself that it is me, not the plant.

At Bailey's Display Garden

And finally, we have this echinops. I thought it might be some kind of rattlesnake master, but it is actually a kind of globe thistle. The pollinators *loved* it.

At Squire House Gardens

The Garden Bloggers Fling has filled my head with so many ideas, I barely know where to start. But hopefully I will at least keep in mind the plants above that I want to add to my yard.

The Third Plate and a shifting paradigm

After hearing an interview with Dan Barber on the Splendid Table, I picked up his book, The Third Plate, at the library. Although written from a chef's perspective, this book is opening my eyes to a whole new way of seeing my yard and garden. I consider myself somewhat knowledgeable about organic gardening in the backyard, but now I realize I am "old school".

I am only partway through the book, but already I am newly excited about things like weeds. Yes, weeds. Not to eat, not to eradicate, not to hate, but to use as a means of truly SEEING the soil in my garden. As an example, one of my worst enemies is Canada thistle. No matter how hard I try to beat it into submission, it keeps coming back, stronger and stronger every year. Why? Because the heavy clay beneath my raised beds is the epitome of compaction. To get rid of thistle, I need to do something about the compaction, specifically plant cover crops like spelt and red clover; both aerate the soil and suppress weeds while the latter also fixes nitrogen. Winter rye suppresses weeds as well.

Healthy soil produces healthy plants which are naturally less appealing to pests and diseases. I saw that this year, when the zucchini just went on and on (and ON). In previous years, the plants would succumb to squash beetles and/or mildew about mid-season. Ditto pumpkin and butternut, neither of which I have successfully grown before. All that horse manure paid off. Unfortunately, it is also the reason behind the proliferation of certain other weeds.

My gardening mantra has been "Feed the soil and the soil will feed the plants" but there is more to healthy soil than what I have been doing. Different parts of my yard have different weed problems. I'm anxious to get a good weed reference and identify and correct those problems. Fun stuff!

Additional references:
Listen to Your Weeds
Cover Crop Planting Specification Guide

Progress report

You know how you say, "I'm going to do this or that when I retire"? During the month of June, leading up to my retirement date, I looked at much of what needed attention in the yard and garden and said, "I'll take care of that in July, after I retire." Now it is July, and after one week of retirement, I'm exhausted!

In an attempt to protect the broccoli, I shifted a cage from the strawberry bed to the brassica bed, only to find the whole thing caved in, presumably by a big fat woodchuck. Everything that stuck through the collapsed fencing was eaten, plus whatever sweet potatoes poked through the poultry netting I had draped over them haphazardly. This past week, my SO finished lining the wood fence with poultry netting; we may replace the floppy chicken wire around the top with sturdier hardware cloth bent at a 90 degree angle. I've also been tossing dog poop around the shed where critters have created entrances. Maybe I should jack up the shed to discourage its use as a good hiding place?

My SO has also been helping with the weeding, him in the back, me on the public sides of the house. I continue to move plants from the patio beds, now to the south side of the house: crocosmia, catmint/nip, shasta daisy, monarda, coneflower, hysop, etc. Once upon a time, I tried to have a meadow-like area in the backyard, for birds, bees, and butterflies (3B), but it was too large to maintain. So I tried having two large beds by the patio, but they did not get enough sun. I was going to try using the south side of the house for blueberries but changed my mind, so now that area will be the new 3B area. One of many nice things about gardening is, except for large bushes and trees, you can somewhat easily change things around if they don't work out.

In the vegetable garden, the pumpkin and winter squash continue to take over, making the paths almost impassable. (Must research bush varieties.) The pole beans finally germinated and are climbing the corn as anticipated. I cleaned out the failed broccoli bed and plan to use that for root crops, as the squares I used for roots are now obscured by the winter squash. The cukes are climbing the trellis and blooming and almost ready to bear; the zukes have been finding their way into stir fries and salads. The onions and garlic look great, should be ready for harvest one of these days. The tomatoes plants are HUGE and fruit is starting to form, the potatoes blooming which means I could start feeling around for new potatoes if I get the urge.

I cleaned out the pea patches, which besides being ravaged by the birds had been overtaken with weeds. Usually, the weeds are not such a problem with the peas, but this year they were overwhelming. Still, I harvested a kitchen strainer full of pea pods, which was a surprise - the weeds had hidden them all away - so the crop was not a total failure. No snap peas whatsoever, though.

I always plant some flowers in the vegetable garden: marigolds, sunflowers, zinnias, and this year something called bee's friend. The marigolds have been overwhelmed and the germination of the sunflowers and bee's friend spotty, but there will be zinnias. They benefited from being started in pots. I'm becoming convinced that, even if you don't want to start plants early, germinating them in pots when possible is a better way to ensure consistent germination than direct sowing.

I've been gardening off and on for about forty years. You'd think I'd be an expert by now, but there is always something new to try, a different method to experiment with. Every year there are some failures and some successes, some due to the gardener, some because of things beyond one's control (weather, I'm talking to YOU). Rarely is it not a challenge.

Cheaper than therapy

The gardener's day involves going out in the yard with nothing to do, and several hours later, you still aren't done. That happened to me today. It all started with hauling bales of peat and bags of compost from the garage to the backyard, and ended with a lot of weed pulling.

This morning, it looked like an indoor day: gray sky and sprinkles and an uncomfortably cool breeze. Potting up some of the transplants kept me gardeningly engaged. Eventually, the clouds broke up and the sun warmed things a bit.

Even though I planted some herb seeds inside yesterday, I also purchased a replacement rosemary and some new basil, so they needed to be transplanted. Yesterday I mowed, picking up grass clippings; today I artfully arranged them around the onions and recently transplanted broccoli plants. Some watering also occurred.

And then there are the weeds. The weather has been less than inviting for much of this spring, but the thistle, creeping Charlie, and quack grass are oblivious. I see evidence of bindweed and spearmint about to explode, too. I tackled several beds yesterday, a couple more today. Once the garden plants are established and more mulch applied, it shouldn't be quite so bad. At least, that is what I keep telling myself.

The new clematis made it through the winter, but when I tried to show it to my SO last night, we discovered it had been decimated, presumably by a rabbit. I circled the remaining tiny stalk with chicken wire - hope it recovers - and double checked the chicken wire around the newly planted blueberry bushes on the south side of the house. Where is Finn when you need him?

Sometimes I wonder WHY I garden. Despite the labor and the setbacks, I do enjoy mucking about in the dirt. And I *love* walking out the backdoor and harvesting my lunch right from the good earth.