Squirrels

The kousa berries are turning more of a purple color. When I picked one, it squashed in my hands. And surprise! The pulp tastes sweet now!

For several days I have watched this eastern gray squirrel, sciurus carolinensis, helping himself to kousa berries.




The gray squirrels are as common here as anywhere else on the East Coast. They have been getting fat on acorns in the back yard this month.

We also have red squirrels, tamiasciurus hudsonicus.




These guys primarily eat conifer seeds, but that didn’t stop this one from raiding the suet birdfeeder last winter. Unlike the jovial gray squirrels, these pretty little things are solitary and feisty. They are highly territorial and want nothing to do with other squirrels or humans. During the winter I watched this one chase a gray squirrel almost twice his size away from the suet feeder, and I realized he was still living in our yard this past week when he scolded me, quite loudly, for being out on the deck.

Hey bub, the deck is my territory!

To stake or not to stake

Whether to stake or not? Or give it the Tracy Chop.
This is our so-called big border, with in the centre of the pic, the plant that everyone always asks about. It is a form of Eupatorium fistulosum, originally from North Carolina. It always grows to 3.4m every year and never blows over or flops - wonderful architectural plant. But the Sanguisorba tenuifolia to the left is embarassingly over - which it always does, and did in the last garden too. I have decided that it is one of those things for whom border conditions are simply too good, and it grows too well and cannot support its own weight. This winter I intend to dig it up and move into the meadow and see what happens; I assume competition will reduce its growth and height and it should stay upright.
The sanguisorba is probably not a candidate for the Tracy (DiSabato Aust) chop, as I think it would just produce lots of flower heads lower down and look a mess. The infamous flopper Campanula lactiflora however has done very well with a Tracy chop, bushing out and flowering for more than 2 months. But the rain will have helped.

Ever wonder why?

Why? Have you ever seen a plant growing in a garden that you used to grow years ago? Do you ever wonder "why aren't I growing it now"?

In my very first, very beginner-like garden I grew a large patch of Chelone. I'm pretty sure I didn't know how to pronounce it back then since I'm still not sure of how to say it today. The nick name around here is false turtle head.

Back to the story, I had this big clump of Chelone. I thought I was the best gardener in the world because it was just thriving! Then I tried to dig a piece out of the ground. It had roots like I'd never seen before, they just twisted and turned and went all over the place. I was freaked out by those roots and have never grown it again.

How silly is that?

Last week when we visited Stonecrop I saw this nice clump of Chelone. Oooohhh, I wish I had a nice clump of Chelone in my garden. Look how lovely it looks even now in early fall.

I do have the white variety in my garden, it doesn't seem to be as fast growing as the pink variety. In fact, I don't remember seeing it bloom this summer but I was away much of July. It will be interesting to see if come spring I've matured enough to get past those weird roots and buy a pot of the pink Chelone 'Hot Lips'.

Visiting Photographer

Jen Gordy took this picture in our backyard earlier this month.




Meanwhile I took this picture of Jen taking her picture. This is what a serious photographer looks like!

Tragically Beautiful

What a lovely shrub this is.



It’s a shame that we have to kill it. This is the poison sumac, Toxicodendron Vernix, that hangs over the back lawn. I toyed with the notion of keeping it as a beneficial plant for the wildlife, because the berries fed the birds all last winter. But now that we have friends who bring their small children to visit, and our own child who will be mobile in another year, it has become an obvious threat. The bush hangs where visitors could easily touch it, and nothing about this plant looks remotely dangerous.









Right now the plant is somewhat distinctive because it has drupes of white berries, and the foliage is turning a beautiful range of yellow, red, and purple. But during the rest of the year it is deceptively plain and green. Nobody - and I do mean nobody! - knows how to identify this plant. Which is why, I suspect, the previous owners let it grow next to their lawn to begin with. They must have suffered from many mysterious rashes.

Although I have read nothing to suggest this is true, I suspect poison sumac comes in a male and female variety, because there is a second tree that appears to be poison sumac beside this one, but it has not produced berries. I wasn’t sure that the second tree was poison sumac at all, because it is much taller than this one – a good thirty feet, in fact. Poison sumac isn’t supposed to get more than ten or fifteen feet tall.

I’ll know for sure when I test it, assuming I can work up the nerve to test it.

It’s Terrible – Taste It!

I have been inviting everyone to taste the Japanese dogwood fruit. It’s amazing how many people will eagerly taste something when you tell them that it tastes bad.

Here is little Grayson’s reaction.





The neighborhood kids decided a more fitting name for the kousa fruits was “dingleberries”. For the uninitiated, “dingleberry” is slang for poo that’s left hanging from the fur of the rear end of a cat.

Marna suspects that the fruits simply aren’t ripe yet. I hope she is right!

Stone Troughs - Part Two - Germany

This past summer I was lucky enough to spend two glorious weeks touring Germany with my mom. We have quite a large family in Germany so rather than see the big tourist sites, we also got to see small places that only the locals know about.

My cousin Ingrid took us to the most amazing place. I don't know what town it is in, I do know it's an easy drive from Frankfurt. The place was a mill stone museum and they had a charming restaurant and hotel by the name of Hotel Wambacher Muhle. If you are visiting Germany, I think this would be a great place to spend a day or two. Bring some hiking shoes as I understand there's some spectacular trails that start at this hotel.

At first I wasn't sure I wanted to visit a mill stone museum, then I saw that they also collected troughs. These troughs were real ones, carved out of stone, not the new light weight ones.

Here you can see how they were interspersed through out the mill stone display.

Germany was going through a cool, wet season while we were there so everything was amazingly lush and green. I really loved the way these troughs looked. Here you can see a spot where the stream was diverted through a channel alongside the hotel.

Resting over the channel in various spots were these beautiful troughs. You can see how different they feel as opposed to the dry barren troughs in my previous posts (taken in New York). I think both styles are fantastic.


This trough was filled with a Sedum that was at peak bloom. I don't have the name of the Sedum but it could have easily been Sedum 'Acre'.

Now we'll see some troughs with stones in them too. How about a dward hardy Geranium in the planting scheme? I love it!

Don't have any troughs near you? No worries, how about a big old wash basin? I know they sell them here at the hardware stores and they aren't terribly expensive.


I had to throw in a landscape shot showing the hotel in the backdrop. Oh if only I had a good pair of walking shoes with me.

This wash basin was filled with perennials, and yes, there are daylilies in it too.

Another trough, so lush and full. I think the different stone arrangements inside the troughs add great charachter.

As a last shot, I give you a tantalizing view of one of the walkways. This one was easy to navigate so I went down to the water. I can only imagine how lovely the walkways that went up into the mountains and woods must be.

Not really a gravel garden but a load of subsoil covered in gravel

Looking towards the Pavilion, across the so-called gravel garden. This was quite a nice gravel garden, installed by the previous owner, until the builders trashed it. Trouble is though, it had been installed over terrible heavy subsoil and a variety of weeds (horsetail, creeping thistle, bindweed). A classic example of ‘instant garden design’ – cover soil with geotextile, plant through holes, send in invoice, scarper. The weeds won’t appear for a year, and not become a real problem for 2 years. Which is when we bought the place.

It’s a slow process re-making a garden here. I’ve decided to rely on self-seeding. Stipa tenuissima just about does it, Verbena bonariensis does a great deal, Deschampsia cespitosa comes up from the soil seed bank (classic Welsh borderlands). California poppy does well, Knautia macedonica. Lot of other plants here just linger. So, I don’t really know how it’ll turn out. A case of slowly working with what works, if you know what I mean.

Weekend Critters

I got a better photo of mister groundhog when I took the screen off of the bedroom window.




There were many chipmunks about. This one lets me get within ten feet.

Japanese Plants in our Garden

Our blog-friend Hero, who lives in Japan, inspired me to find out what plants in our garden are from Japan.

Acer Palmatum, Japanese Maple.



I have fond childhood memories of a Japanese maple. These trees have such lovely color!

I would like to trim the branches so that the tree looks more like a bonsai. Also so that I can get to the spigot without hitting my head.


Pachysandra terminalis, Pachysandra



This ground-cover grows where little else will: under our deck!


Hosta





Deer love to eat hosta, but so far they have only nibbled at our hostas a little.


Cornus Kousa, Kousa Dogwood







The flowers were lovely earlier in the year. Now the strange red fruits are even lovelier. They look like katamari. And they are edible! But alas, they have an uninteresting flavor, somewhat bitter, and the texture is unpleasant – rubbery on the outside, and like a gritty orange custard inside. Perhaps the flavor can be improved by cooking.

But I am happy to have yet another edible plant in the yard, even though I don’t like the taste. Perhaps the birds will enjoy the fruit.

Stone Troughs - Part One

The main focus at Stonecrop is their alpine collection. While I think spring is their peak season, we certainly had many wonderful things to see now in September.

This collection of stone troughs was set perfectly. I really liked how every now and then a specimen from the trough was also planted at the foot of the trough as if it escaped.

Here you can see how the different textures play against one another. Another thing I noticed is that they had no fear about leaving empty spaces. In my own garden I tend to cram in as much as possible but these troughs were very restful feeling.

This was my favorite of the rectangular troughs. I would really like to do something similar in my own garden.

This one was a very close runner up and I know I have these types of rocks around here. I think that this would be a fun project to do with children.

Be still my heart, when I came upon this type of planter I thought I had died and went to heaven. Kim and I both desperately want to make one of these now.

Here's a close up shot. Not much more than a jumble of rocks, just enough thought put into the placement to keep it from falling apart and yet loose enough to feel totally natural.

For those of you who have a shady corner that you can't get anything to grow in, you have to try one of these. Another pile of rocks but this time planted with shade plants. Ferns, miniature Epimediums, moss, mini Hosta, I can imagine all kinds of goodies to plant in these nooks and crannies.

Finally, another type of man made rock garden, these were on a larger scale. I bet you could even use broken up concrete from construction sites to make these cool beds.

These types of garden are not for the "flower" lover although most of these plants will flower at one time. Yet, I find they tug on my heart in a totally different way. Kind of a call to my wanderlust soul.

I titled this post as "part one" because I also have a wonderful set of photos of trough gardens that I shot in Germany this summer. They'll be popping up here some time this week.

Off to look at the stones in my garden,

Melanie

Close Encounter of the Deer Kind

Today while Gabe napped I did some weeding out back. I had my back turned to the woods, and I was thinking to myself “wouldn’t it be wacky if the deer snuck up behind me right now?” I wondered if such an encounter would be a bubbly Disney moment, or something more like a creepy horror movie. Attack of the Killer Deer! And I’m not making this up: moments later there was a noise of something bashing its way through the leaves, and our resident fawn walked out of the woods thirty feet away from me.

His mother wasn’t with him this time, from what I could tell. But it is about time he left her, anyway; he is as big as her, and his spots are almost gone. I think he is in his rebellious teenager stage.

So, our rebellious Bambi looked long and hard at me – and walked closer, one hesitant step at a time. He got as far as the swing, which was about twenty feet from me. I crouched down to look less scary, and turned my head to the side so that I would look less like a predator. The only thing between us was my bucket of weeds. Bambi watched me, and nibbled the grass, and watched me some more.

I thought of chasing him off, to teach him to be properly fearful of humans. After all, I have seen both a deer hunting perch and a bow hunter both within a few miles. But. . . I’m greedy. I had this amazing encounter all to myself! I didn’t want to give that up. So I went back to pulling weeds, all the while peeking at the skittish yearling who couldn’t seem to quite make up his mind if I was safe enough to graze near.

After a few minutes, Gabe’s cry came over the baby monitor, and I shot to my feet out of habit. Bambi gave what sounded like an annoyed snort, and he leapt back into the cover of the trees. But he stopped there and looked at me some more. Figuring it wouldn’t hurt at that point to see how he reacted to my voice, I said “you’re beautiful”. Surprisingly – though not much was surprising to me by then - he didn’t bolt. But as soon as I moved, he took off at a leisurely trot. I watched him fade into the swamp.

The encounter was closer to a Disney moment than a horror-movie clip, as it turns out, but thankfully there was no singing.

Our resident groundhog continues to forage near the swing, as well. But he wants nothing to do with humanity, which may have something to do with being caught in our trap. He dives under the porch with silent ninja speed when he hears anyone get close. I have been thinking of transplanting ferns around the porch specifically to give him more cover.

This is the best photo I have of him so far. I took it from the kitchen window.




It turns out that “woodchuck” is just another name for “groundhog”.

Our bunnies continue to be brazen! This young one was grazing right by the front door.

Stonecrop - An Overview

This past Tuesday I went on a trip with my garden club to Stonecrop gardens in Cold Spring, New York. My friend Kim and I have been waiting for this trip for years now so we were really excited to finally be on our way.

Today I just have time to share some landscape shots and give a quick overview.

My favorite part of the garden was the flower and vegetable garden area and this opening photo is my new screen saver on my computer.

Dahlia's were used in many places to accent the various color schemes. They weren't planted in groups, instead they used individual cultivars as focal points and they were stunning.

Grasses and Boltonia swayed with the most gentle breeze. What a delightful spot to stand and listen to our charming tour guide Michael.

I didn't get a chance to look up the name of the purple flower here. We were given highly detailed maps and plant lists but I tucked them in my backpack right away so I'd be free to shoot photos.

How's this for a glorious early fall grouping?

Interspersed through out the perennials were a wealth of tender plants too. Look in the top left corner and you'll see the leaves of a Banana peaking out. One plant I noticed quite a bit and have put on my wish list is Angelica. I've grown Angelica before in my herb bed but here it was a wonderful accent in the flower gardens.

Another thing I noticed quickly was that the purple perilla was allowed to naturalize in many locations where its dark foliage was just what was needed.

A photographer who likes to take landscape shots would have a field day at this lovely garden. Every time you turned around there was a spectacular view just begging to be photographed.

This bridge was aptly named the Flintstone bridge. I was disappointed that our group wasn't led across it.

A final shot from the inside of the Wisteria Pavilion.

As soon as I have the time I'll be posting about the most well known feature of Stonecrop, the trough and stone gardens that were just amazing.