My tax dollars at work

Recent record rainfalls in other parts of the country got me worried about my own property.  Each spring, when the ground is saturated, the storm sewers just can't keep up and my front yard floods.  Were we to receive one of those deluges, I'm afraid my house would be underwater.  So I sent the city an email, to see what could be done.

One thing that can be done is the storm sewer casings can be removed so the engineers can see what is what.

One surprise was, while the inputs were obvious, the output was not.  My neighbor across the street had seen some storm sewer maps once upon a time and said those showed the storm sewer drained to the east.  But actually, it drains to the west.

There is a utility easement on the north side of my property - and presumably on the south side of the property to my north.  The sight line makes it look like, if any further digging must occur, it will occur on their lot, not mine.  I have shrubs planted on the easement, not always a good idea since the utility people can rip up an easement at their discretion.  Let's just home it doesn't come to that.

September vacation

My SO and I recently spent a week on the road.  I lugged both my little Canon and my new video camera around with me, but took very few pictures.  My SO is interested in old cemetaries and architecture, so he finds things to shoot almost everywhere.  I'm interested in gardening (OBVIOUSLY) but I didn't want to take pictures of the same stuff that grows in my backyard.  Yard ornaments, on the other hand, are almost always unique.

All these were found in Concord, MA.

At least something liked that hot and humid weather

This is my first year for sweet potatoes.  I planted a dozen or so slips of a bush variety (Vardeman purchased from Pinetree) in containers.  This represents about half the harvest:

I have no idea whether this is a lot or a little.  Once they are done curing in the shed, I will weigh them.  Regardless, I consider this crop a success, a sweet one in this summer of failures.  Next spring, I hope to grow my own slips.

Peekaboo!

I see you!

It's a sweet potato!

Labor Day labor

Yesterday my SO and I decided to spend our Labor Day laboring on the patio canopy.  I purchased this one from Lowes (which is a story in itself - the box weighed around 250 pounds; we let two employees wrestle it into a borrowed pickup truck, then at home unloaded the canopy piece by piece).  Fortunately, others who had purchased this unit left not only online reviews but detailed instructions on how best to anchor and assemble the structure.  (The instructions that came with were okay but not the best way to accomplish the job.)  With their virtual help, we were able to finish in five hours, and that included a trip to Home Depot and two trips to procure lunch (a lot of places are closed on Labor Day - go figure).

Since removing the silver maples and the Florida room, my west-facing patio has proven to be brutal under the afternoon sun, rendering it unusable for a good part of the day.  I dithered about what to do - pergola? awning? trees? - and finally settled on a canopy.  One thing my yard demonstrates is, I change my mind.  Frequently.  Plants get moved, gardening methods evolve, new ideas come and go with regularity.  So the canopy felt like the right way to go - quick but not prohibitively expensive, sturdy but movable.

We started around 11am with a quick trip to Home Depot, to purchase four 16"x16" cement pavers, concrete bits and anchors, 14" plastic ties, and in an semi-related purchase, 8 bags of pea gravel.

Getting started (ignore the mess)

Several reviewers recommended inserting 4"x4"x31" posts inside the vertical supports, so we did that.  (I happened to have a 4"x4" laying around, left over from a never-even-started project from about 15 years ago.)  This provided some ballast to the structure.

Maiden voyage for trailer and hitch, easier than carrying everything from garage to backyard

We followed more online advice and anchored the posts to pavers instead of directly to the patio.  For one thing, this allowed us to adjust the final placement of the posts.  For another, if I decide to relocate the structure in the future, it will be doable.  (The instructions left the anchoring as the next-to-last step and assumed one would be putting it on lawn; 16 "stakes" that look like big Allen wrenches were provided for this.  I'm not sure how well this would work.)

Measure twice, drill once

 Initial placement:  centered in front of the patio door.

So far, so good!

After this step, the instructions suggested assembling all four outside cross pieces and somehow getting them on top of the posts in one fell swoop.  Without anchoring the posts first, I think this would be really awkward.  Also, we were able to put the outside cross pieces on one at a time.  Next came the rest of the cross pieces, which are not anchored, hence the need for the plastic ties, to keep them from rattling.

Coming together

 Initially, I wondered about the stability of the structure, but the corner supports made a big difference.

Overcast skies helped keep us cool

The final step was the canopy itself.  It was my decision to orient the structure so that the "rafters" ran north and south.  After we put on the canopy, though, I began to have second thoughts.  When the afternoon sun is low in the sky, a lot of light streams in through the patio door, so I thought this was the way to go.

Done!

But after ducking not once but twice in order to exit the house and cross the patio, I am having second thoughts.  Also, the canopy really blocks the view.  With a little help, we should be able to detach the top and rotate it.  Then the long ends of the canopy will provide more privacy to the south while still blocking most of the sun.  Theoretically.

4pm - time for a beer

One hope I expressed was that the dog would now consider the patio to be an extension of the house and not part of the outdoors, and stop peeing and pooping on it.  No such luck.

And what about that pea gravel?  That was for the area by the outdoor faucet, an area that is not very conducive to plants yet weed-prone, an area where I keep my bird seed bins.  It is right next to the patio and an eyesore.

After weeding, before pea gravel

 I think the area could use a few more bags, but it will do for now.

After

My SO did the heavy lifting, literally.  I will say that, given enough time (weeks?) and some clever work-arounds to make up for my lack of upper body strength, I could have done it myself (if I did not hurt myself and/or get utterly discouraged).  BUT!  The man knows his way around tools, had some good ideas for how to get things done, and stuck with the task until finished.  I'm very pleased, in more ways than one.  And grateful!  And lucky!

I lied

My kvetching about the garden results this year was premature.  For one thing, I did not get seven pounds of potatoes as previously reported, but more like twelve.  (Someday I will learn how to read my kitchen scale.)  While not a stellar crop, it's not as bad as I thought.  Neither are the tomatoes:  Friday 22 pounds became 14 pints of "juice" - instead of sorting out the salsa, paste, juice, and early tomatoes, I just threw them all into the sauce maker and stuck the jars in the freezer.  And there is a gallon of green beans in the refrigerator which I will probably cook up and eat through the week.  There are more tomatoes and green beans in the garden, too, so the harvest isn't as miserable as I thought.

I finished reading The Feast Nearby and decided to try some of the recipes Saturday:  zucchini bread, Danish cucumbers, and seffa medfouna (saffron-braised chicken with steamed vermicelli).  My initial conclusion is Robin Mather and I have different tastes in food.  For one thing, the zucchini bread is more like zucchini cake - good, but way too sweet for me.  Also, I favor whole wheat over white flour and honey over sugar.  The cucumbers are okay - I wish I had had some burpless ones from my garden because I think they would have worked better than the store-bought-but-homegrown ones I used.  Also, I think I would favor a milder marinade.  I did not try steaming vermicelli - basmati rice seemed like a perfectly good alternative - but the chicken itself was very tasty.  And yet, the amount of oil in the recipe is daunting, especially since I forgot to remove the skin on the chicken, which contributed more fat.  And the flavors were rather intense.  I had borrowed this book from the library, contemplated purchasing it, but now I'm not so sure.

The heat has abated some today as rain moves through the region, and tomorrow is supposed to be dry and cooler.  I'm looking forward to laboring in the yard.

Why sunflowers droop

I bet you thought sunflowers droop because the heads become so heavy with seed.  That may be one reason, but here is another.

What is that? you ask.  It's what's left after goldfinch dine on the seeds.

First, make your selection (and get some exercise with the effort):

Then dine al fresco:

leaving behind the shells.  The cardinals apparently are not so athletic, so they claim the sunflowers that have fallen completely over.  Isn't Mother Nature wonderful?

Goldfinch weren't the only diners in my yard today.  I have not seen much of the robins since my neighbor removed the mulberry, but someone has been enjoying the berries on the pokeweed.

How many bluebirds can you count in the next photo?

Click to make big

They were practically swarming this morning.  Now if they would only kick the sparrows out of the bluebird house and hang around all summer.

Peachy keen

I can be quite the procrastinator, but some things won't wait.  Like the half bushel of peaches I picked up last night at Huntertown Gardens.  Red Havens from Michigan.  The best.  Today I froze 6 1.5-pint jars, using a light honey syrup.  These will probably be used in smoothies.  I also froze some on cookie sheets, after a bath in Fruit Fresh.  There are still a few left, which I am going to put through my sauce maker, to make peach juice as I did last year.  Looking forward to peach martinis!

My current read is a book called The Feast Nearyby, by Robin Mather (which I would link to but the stupid Amazon Associates widget is not cooperating).  The book is part memoir, part how-to-put-food-by, and part recipe book.  One of the philosophies the author arrived at is, local trumps organic, and I have to agree in part.  As important as I think it is to eat organic, just because something is organic doesn't mean it will taste good or be as nutritious as locally grown produce, especially if it is shipped across the country.  I find it difficult to find fruit (especially peaches) that is organically grown AND local AND of high quality regarding freshness and taste.  And then there is the cost.  I do expect to pay more for organic produce, but sometimes it feels like I'm being gouged.  I counter those feelings by telling myself that buying organic is an investment in my health. 

And I try to grow my own, although this year has not been stellar in that department.  For example, I planted 5 pounds of seed potatoes and harvested 7 pounds, not a very good return on my investment, especially considering all the effort we went through to enclose the potato bed in hardware cloth, to protect the crop from voles.  By the way, while the hardware cloth did keep the voles away, it was difficult to harvest the crop, especially because some of the potatoes grew beneath the hardware cloth.

Unlike Robin Mather, I am fortunate to have a local source of milk.  Today I made mozzarella cheese, using Ricki Carroll's 30-minute mozzarella recipe.  It really did take just 30 minutes and it really does taste like mozzarella.  My experience was a little different than what was described, but that may have been because I was using fresh, raw milk instead of pasteurized.  Now that I (kind of) know what I am doing, maybe next time I will take photos.

Not my fault

The lousy results in the garden this year were weighing on my green thumb, so I was relieved to discover that other people experiencing the hot-and-dry this summer also have zucchini with only male blossoms, beanless bean plants, and few tomatoes.  The plants are too stressed to set vegetables.  I don't know how to combat this in the future, though, assuming hot-and-dry is here to stay.  Shade cloth?

This past weekend, my SO and I left the garden to fend for itself and visited Milwaukee (details here).  One home we visited merits mention here, because despite it's postage stamp size, the yard was not only full of plants but also boasted a koi pond and a patio canopy, the latter from Target.  After the heart-stopping estimate for an aluminum pergola, I have been looking at alternatives, including Coolaroos (thanks, ErinFromIowa, for the idea!) and patio canopies at Lowes (which was my SO's original idea for shading the patio), so it was helpful to be able to quiz someone about their personal experience with one.

Today, while watering (no rain fell while we were gone) I spotted a few bag worms on the arborvitae.  Not the infestation from several years ago, but I'm glad I noticed them before any damage was done.  I also found a winter squash growing on the vine in the meadow, a nice surprise.  And the sweet potatoes and Meyer lemon tree are still very happy with the weather so far this summer.  Good for them.

Speaking of the meadow, I am rethinking it.  In its current incarnation, it is just too much work to maintain, even with the help of my SO, so I am contemplating reducing it to two 4'x8' beds near the patio (the better to photograph butterflies, my dear).  Then I will turn the space into an orchard.  Maybe.  It will be something to meditate upon this winter.

This year's BIG home improvement project

One reason I was rather dejected over the estimate for a new pergola is because I already had a boatload of money earmarked for a new driveway.  No before pictures, but some during and after.

The rusty basketball hoop by the driveway really bothered the concrete guy, so when he offered to haul it away, I said, Sure.  The old sidewalk ran along the castleblock in front.  This also bothered him.

So he suggested adding a swoosh - no extra charge.  At the time, I thought, Whatever.  But I really like the results.

Another bed to fill with plants!  And to weed!

My old driveway was 50 feet of concrete plus an asphalt apron to the street. 

Now it is 70+ feet of shiny new concrete.

One reason the old concrete driveway crumbled was water sat on it after spring/fall rains, freezing and thawing until the low areas looks more like gravel than concrete.

A little drain tile on either side of the driveway will help prevent that in the future.

 What  a wonderful (and wonderfully expensive) facelift to the property!

AND I had contacted the city about the lakefront view I have each spring.  AND someone actually came to the house today to discuss it.  Not that anything will happen in the near future, but this is more than I expected.  You know what they say:  If you keep your expectations low enough, you will never be disappointed.

Sad but glad

In the corner of my neighbor's lot stood a clump of mulberry trees.  On the one hand, the robins love mulberries and could be seen swooping into the berry buffet all day long.  On the other hand, baby mulberry trees sprout like weeds on my property.  And those robins?  Dive bombing purple stain makers, that's what they are.

Before

Said neighbor decided to have the mulberries removed along with a dead apple tree.  The elm gets to stay. 

After

The removal of the mulberries opens up that corner of my yard to more light, which is a good thing for the garden.  My compost pile is on the other side of my shed.  I was planning to clear that area out and plant hostas, but now will need something more tolerant of sunshine.

Now if the neighbor would also take down the silver maple in the middle of his backyard that rains whirly birds onto my backyard, life would be, well, not perfect, but improved.

Speaking of sunshine, a pergola guy came by Friday to give me an estimate for an aluminum pergola over my patio.  $$$$$  More than twice what I expected it to cost.  I want something maintenance-free, but gah.  I will definitely have to look into alternative (and hopefully cheaper) materials.

Meanwhile, on the other side of the house, I am having my driveway and front sidewalks replaced.  It is funny how one day something that has been sitting there all along suddenly looks horrible.  I think it is because the lawn looks horrible as well - the combination of crumbling driveway and weedy lawn with dead grass makes the house look abandoned.

Whew!

FINALLY.  A break from the heat.  We had 22 days in July where the temperature reached 90 or above. 

And FINALLY some tomatoes!

These are from the Early Girl, although the salsa tomatoes are catching up.  And that is what I have been eating lately:  salsa, made with garlic and onions from the garden.  The Georgia Fire is supposed to be good for salsa, but I'm using up the damaged garlic bulbs first, and I did not keep track of which was which.  In my book, all garlic is good.

Earlier this summer I contemplated purchasing a picnic table, primarily so I would have some place for tomatoes to sun themselves.  I never got around to pulling the trigger on that purchase, but a neighbor left this table by the street, free for the taking.

The only problem is the patio gets so brutally hot in the afternoon that the tomatoes actually cooked.  I really need a pergola.

This is the time of year I see the most goldfinch.  They love the coneflowers and the sunflowers.

I have hung finch feeders outside in the winter, but rarely do any birds show interest.  The other day, I found out why:  niger thistle gets stale.  I purchased mine from a pet food store several years ago, and since the birds would not eat it, it never ran out.  (What is the definition of insanity?  Doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results.)  Now I will discard the old and get some fresh, but only a little bit at a time.

This is the first year I have planted sunflowers with abandon, as in previous years they would get nibbled on by rabbits.  But now my yard is rabbit free.  Or WAS.  Last night my SO spotted a baby one near this sunflower.  It looked almost too little to be out of the nest, which is probably why it was able to squeeze into my yard.  Now what?!?

Almost everything in my yard is girded by poultry netting, even the tulip tree.  I'm glad I take that extra precaution, because this tree is starting to look like a TREE, a giver of shade.

A nursery man once tole me NOT to plant a tulip tree because the bark is soft and it won't flower for years.  But the tulip is not only our state tree (at least, for now - I think my son told me they are contemplating changing that), it also serves as a host plant for the tiger swallowtail butterfly and the promethea moth yet is ignored by other insects.  And it is a fast grower.  C'mon, shade tree!

It took a while, but now that the Brown Eyed Susans are established, they are popping up in areas beyond the meadow.

East side of the fence

 The columbine is spreading, too.  Both plants complement just about anything they are near.

West side of the fence

This one is hiding the 'Love Pat' hosta, a hosta I plan on moving, once I get a round tuit.

Discouraged gardener

I'm currently reading The Bad Tempered Gardener.  Anne Wareham, who readily admits she doesn't deadhead, sometimes hates gardening, and in other ways does not fit into the "normal" gardening world, is a woman after my own heart.  While I am not inclined to create a garden such as hers - the amount of pruning required would do me in - it is refreshing to read a contrarian viewpoint.

Lately I have been the discouraged gardener, especially when measuring the produce the vegetable garden is producing this year.  Three out of four garlic varieties did fine, but the onion harvest was disappointing, many of the bulbs barely bigger than the sets I planted.  I thought the soil, a heavy clay, would be okay, but I did not count on the relentlessly hot, rainless weather, which has turned that clay to concrete.  I needed a shovel to separate the onions from the soil, and even then, had to jump on the shovel with both feet to gain any purchase.  Bah.

I tried succession planting the beans, and the first 10-foot row is fine, the second not-so-fine, the third barely germinated, and I didn't even bother with the fourth.  Next year I will plant them all at once.  It's not like there is nothing else to eat during that time.

I've already lamented about the tomatoes, although finally, FINALLY I have some red ones off the Early Girl.  It's been too hot for the peppers to set fruit, the zucchini seems determined to produce only male blossoms, and the cucumber plants just sit there looking sad.  Today I plan to dig up the potatoes.  Please, PLEASE, let there be some!

On a bright note, the marigolds, zinnias, and sunflowers look great.

I was seriously contemplating abandoning vegetable gardening when I picked up a copy of Square Foot Gardening from the library.  Not only did this book revive me, it made me want to start the garden all over from scratch.  Friday evening I spent a fun hour or two, plotting out my garden in this square foot arrangement and discovered I could squeeze a lot more out of my 30x40 patch than I was, even sweet corn.  Of course, the soil must be in better shape, which is where Lasagna Gardening fits in, and my new manure-hauling trailer.  Toward that end, Saturday my SO and I purchased enough cedar boards from Menards (they were on sale, I had a gift card, AND they are offering an 11% rebate this week) for six 4x8 beds.  I'm excited again.

Last week I decided to mow the yard.  The grass is dormant, but the weeds needed topping.  While I was trudging across the front lawn, my next door neighbor stopped by to joke with me that Neighborhood Code Enforcement had been by to look at my lawn, but the ground was too hard for him to post a warning sign, so he gave up.  At least, I think my neighbor was joking, but it got me thinking about the meadow.

The backyard is mostly private, with privet along the west side and shrubs on the north and south, in part to spare my neighbors the sight of my backyard experiments.  Technically, the city could tell me to mow the meadow because the "weeds" there are more than 9" tall.  They allow scraggly rain gardens, though, so I probably could get a reprieve.  But along with the vegetable garden, I was wondering whether the effort was worth it.

Another book I picked up at the library was Bringing Nature Home.  If insect pictures make you squirmish, beware, but I found the photography to be absolutely gorgeous.  Insects feed birds, so you want them in your yard.  You also want to not only attract insects like butterflies with food sources, but also provide host plants so there will be more insects like butterflies.  Many of the butterfly-attracting plants featured in garden catalogs do not provide habitat; an example is the butterfly bush.  Better to plant milkweed, Joe Pye, and butterfly weed.  I think one reason my vegetable garden does not have many pests is they prefer the meadow and the weeds.  Without the meadow, I might be battling Mexican bean beetles, Japanese beetles, flea beetles, etc. to a greater degree than I do.  So this book also revived my flagging garden enthusiasm.

Then there is the front lawn, which is an absolute mess from a suburban sward of grass perspective.  On the one hand, I do like the look of a well-tended lawn.  On the other, I lost my previous dog to cancer which I blame on the lawn products I was using at the time, plus every time I contemplate doing a weed 'n feed, I feel guilty about how detrimental lawncare products are to the environment.  But quite frankly, the front yard is doing nothing for the curb appeal of my property.  I plan to replace the driveway this summer, and I think after that I will do something about the lawn, like a fall feeding and a weed 'n feed next spring.  But I will limit it to the front yard, where the dog doesn't go, and let the backyard be what it is, although at the rate I am going, there will be no grass in the backyard after a while.  And that's okay.

It is going to be another hot one today, but I'm going to spend at least part of it out in the yard, hose and garden fork in hand.  I let the weather forecasters scare me inside, which is one reason the weeds are so out of control.  Don't worry, I'll take it easy, and come in during the worst of it.  Thank god for AC!

I drive a hard bargain

This cart showed up in a local front yard a few weeks ago.  Isn't that cute? I thought to myself.  I wonder if it is for sale?  There was no sign on it, so I assumed not.  A few days later, a "For Sale" sign did appear, with the price set at $150.  I was tempted, but not enough to knock on their door.  This past weekend, the household had a garage sale.  Surely someone will buy that cart, I thought, but when I walked past yesterday morning, I saw the sign now said "$150 OBO" - or best offer.  As I rounded the block on my final lap, I stopped to further inspect the cart, lingering long enough that the man of the house spotted me.

"I'll let you have that trailer for $125," said he.  I was going to offer you $100, I countered.  "It's yours!"  Now all I have to do is install the brake lights, transfer the title, register and insure it, AND get a hitch for my CRV.  THEN I can use it to haul manure.  My neighbor said I could use his pickup truck for manure, but I was reluctant because 1) I would feel compelled to get a whole truckload at a time and that is a lot of shit to shovel, and 2) I would also feel compelled to not just wash the truck but try to remove every molecule of odor from it - I happen to like the smell of horse manure, but some people find it offensive, and it does tend to linger.

The need for manure for the garden has become paramount.  After the soil tests I did this spring revealed my soil was low in nitrogen, I tried to amend that by adding blood meal and bone meal to some of the beds.  The paste tomatoes now look leggy and seem less productive than last year.  The Irish potatoes grew awfully tall as well.  So I am returning to my root (heh) philosophy that one should feed the soil and then the soil will feed the plants.  Hence, the manure.  I found a free source of it, too.  All I have to do is shovel it.  Sounds like a good job for my SO to help with.  I will turn that river rat into a farmer yet.

Speaking of tomatoes, the only ones ripening are the paste ones, and they are suffering from blossom end rot.  As I recall, BER was a problem with this variety last year.  I thought maybe I overwatered them, so this year I was trying to be more moderate with the hose.  Apparently that is not the key to success.  The tomato plants growing in sacks of MiracleGro look wonderful, are loaded with fruit, but the 'maters just won't ripen. Yesterday I did the unthinkable:  I PURCHASED tomatoes, albeit home grown ones that were grown in someone else's garden.  I did get a handful of green beans from my garden yesterday, though, and I am enjoying some garlic and peppers and overgrown scallions in my omelets these days.

Friday we received a blessed half-inch of rain, but it is still hot and humid.  There is supposed to be a break tomorrow, though, and while the hot will return later in the week, it is supposed to be drier.  I, for one, am tired of feeling trapped indoors.

No end in sight

I cannot believe how hot it was, is, and will be for the foreseeable future.  And the humidity!  This morning I went out to check the plants on the patio while it was still cool enough to breathe out there, and even though I did not move around enough to break a sweat, my t-shirt was soaked from the moisture in the air.  Very tropical.

I'm still tomato-less.  There are tomatoes out there, lots of them, but none with even a hint of red.  I don't understand what the problem is.  I have enjoyed a Wenk's pepper from the plant I wintered over, plus I scrounged up a potato that was very tasty.  I hope there are more spuds under all that straw.  Maybe next week the zucchini will make an appearance.

Sometimes I wonder whether conventional gardening wisdom is based on scientific fact or old gardeners tales, and I contemplate running some experiments myself.  I accidentally performed one such experiment with the garlic.

Can you tell which bulb did not have the scape removed?  Onions are next, some of which have seed heads on them.  We'll check them out, too.

This little fellow sitting in the cotoneaster came to visit Princess Fern, who loves to watch birds.  The parents were less than happy, but the window pane held despite the cat's pawing at it.

I think this was the same baby that scared the bejesus out of me while I was watering the neighbor's porch plants later in the day.

The coneflower is a bit past its prime and starting to form seeds.  These are in the meadow, and there is a patch by the patio as well, for up close and personal dining by goldfinch.

The Rose of Sharon is in full bloom now, and the hibiscus is just starting.  The meadow is still a bit weedy despite my SO's attentions, but it is just too dang hot to do anything about it right now.

Ruint! and eggplant squee!

I've been drinking raw milk for several weeks now.  A very refreshing way to consume it is iced cafe au lait. The other day I went to make myself just such a drink, but because I wanted to skim the cream off my latest share of milk, I used some ultra pasturized milk instead.  OMG, did that stuff taste HORRID!  I'm also getting spoiled by grass fed beef and pastured pork and free range chickens.  I can't help but wonder if part of this country's obesity problem isn't due to "real" food being so tasteless that it cannot compete with food-like products.  What we are truly hungry for is nutrition and flavor, but we aren't getting it at the grocery store.

Second topic:  Look what I found on the patio today:

Itsy bitsy teeny weeny eggplants!

I hope they grow faster than the Meyer lemons are projected to.