Gardening 2023

[maeve]

Dug out twenty years of a purple Siberian iris- likely 'Caesar's Brother'.   It took nearly two hours, but each heavy root-and-leaf clump is  out, excess soil shaken off, and stacken on the hillside from whence they came.  I plan to line the east side of the driveway with them  as the start of another rain garden,  both to protect vulnerable plants further down from snow shoveling/plowing, and to filter out excess water and any pollutants from rain and snowmelt.

They can lie in their 6'x8'x 3' pile until tomorrow, when I'll need to clean away weeds, further divide, trim the leaves, dig new holes, plant, water, and mulch.   Might be some extra to share.

Edited to add:  Well, I did go out at dusk to plant 8 or so clumps along the driveway.  We'll go out this morning to see if we like that placement, before I proceed further.

[maeve]

The iris lineup having been approved, I shall continue with it.  

When anyone asks why we garden the way we do, I can now simply show three phtos taken this week.  Haven't posted photos for a while, so here are information links instead.:

1. One of several species of Fritillary butterfly sipping New England aster nectar- I learnt they lay single eggs on or near violet plants, of which we have many

2. The little tan Spring peeper that just appeared as I cleared the spent stalks of fireweed- likely hunting slugs.

3. The small, seldom-seen 8" long Red-bellied snake found curled up under a terracotta saucer bird bath, several empty snail shells discarded beside it.

[maeve]

Managed to move the 5  x 5 x 6 foot former chicken pen- an octagonal shed with wire sides- out of the mud where a "helper" put it (having been asked to not put it there).  It's been sinking into the soft clay soil since last autumn, along with my unusable garden shed. I managed to lever the octagon out of the soil and used big pipes from the greenhouse frame to roll and push it up onto a couple of pallets for the winter. I want to turn it into a small propagation shed for seedlings, etc. next year. Now to work out a way to lift my garden shed and stabilize it before it is ruined. Also figuring how to safely store all my greenhouse supplies for the winter- the huge whte tarp I used on the greenhouse frame last winter is polluting the area with minute bits of white plastic, so it has to go.

[maeve]

We were able to have 12 cubic yards of crushed gravel delivered, and today we spread most of it in a low driveway end. My part was directing traffic while my husband used the tractor bucket to first remove the sod and built-up earth from the very end by the road, piling it beside (and on- can't see the bucket in that position!) the road-front garden and again while he shoved the stone around with the tractor. Beyond that, once out of traffic's way I moved most of the sod to an area where I'm building a raised bed for the tree peonies that need moving (layers of sod, grass faces together to rot down faster). What was left of stone-filled earth and sod bits went into the old drive, where the old house remains have had the ground there sinking, year after year. Hoping to level it out with crushed gravel at some point(all grass now, making for awkward mowing).

[ragdall]

Hello Maeve, The irises will look beautiful along the driveway as they do their jobs of protecting and filtering.

It's always wonderful to see butterflies fluttering around in a garden. Frogs and snakes that like to dine on slugs would be very welcome in my garden where the slugs have free run with no predators.

Well done, managing to free the former chicken pen from the mud. Great thinking using greenhouse frame pipes as rollers to move it to a safer place.
Were you able to raise and stabilize the garden shed? Is your tractor large enough to use the bucket to lift one corner or side of the building a bit at a time?
What a shame the white plastic tarp has been breaking up and has become a problem. Have you been able to find a suitable material to replace it to cover the greenhouse frame?

Good that you were there to direct the tractor when your husband couldn't see the bucket. 12 cubic yards is a lot of crushed gravel to move around, and I expect that you preferred that soil and sod wasn't being dumped on the road-front garden. I hope that the sod will cooperate and compost down quickly for you to use it when you're ready to work on the raised bed for the tree peonies.

[maeve]

The garden shed is more than I can manage. It's somewhere around 8' x 12' or so- a heavy, former chicken barn built in the 1930's. It needs the sills replaced and a center underpinning beam attached. This was a lovely gift from a woman I met once, and who is now gone. We jacked it up and moved it here years ago on a neigh bor's trailer. I asked that it be set properly, with gravel-filled footings topped with cement piers. Didn't happen. I need it, and I need the greenhouse. Neither one is likely to be possible.

The greenhouse tarp was costly, so I can't replace it. I will have to take the tarp off, add it to the little bit of rubbish we produce, and get as much of my greenhouse equipment under cover any way possible. Some smaller pots are in plastic totes already; some will fit into another shed on the property, and the rest... who knows?

First frost last night.

I had asked a friend to help move the peonies, but she has backed out. I'll manage it alone, or I won 't.

[ragdall]

Maeve,
You sound very tired and discouraged, understandably so. I'm very sorry that there are more problems than solutions. Will the peonies be okay if they must stay where they are, for now?

[maeve]

Thanks, rags. I am and it is often so- but I keep on.

The peonies are engulfed with terrible goutweed. Fall is the time to move the four tree peonies, and I must get the goutweed contained now before it invades the new beds and the rest of that area. The tree peonies would have to wait another year so I aim to do my best to get them out, de-weeded, and replanted if I can. The herbaceous peonies, Siberian iris and roses would move OK in very early spring, but again, I need to contain that whole bed- the goutweed is already escaping into the lawn. We shall see.

[ragdall]

Maeve, I hope that the weather will be good to you and that you'll have the time and the energy to be able to accomplish at least the minimum that needs to be done before winter sets in.

The temperature here dipped to below 20 F (-9C), two nights ago. The last of my summer flowers froze. I'm hoping the weather will warm enough for the soil to thaw enough for me to be able to remove and compost the dead plants. The forecast for the next two weeks doesn't look promising.

I'm hoping that the cold will have stopped all wasp activity beside my compost boxes and I'll be able to repair the section of fence behind them that a bear (or two?) broke, climbing over it. I'm also hoping that the cold will prompt the bears to head back out to the "wilderness" to den up for winter and that we won't find bears happily curled up in our gardens for the months ahead.