Garden Projects #11

Karen, Love Shasta Bananas and Cream, but it is one of those patented plants that isn't allowed to be divided. Lucky for me that one just popped up near by. Now how did that happen? Bet I find a few more in the spring that appear out of nowhere. Garden Gremlins at work.

Robindog, Now that is going to be a real TIMBER moment. It looks too big to take down without the truck. I can't believe how much they charge for doing the work, but far better it falls where you want it than on your house. Good luck..

I have come down with something and am in bed, but more often in the bathroom. ugh. Too bad as my list for the garden fall chores is too long to miss a day of work. I will try to get some work done on my journal while dealing with my tummy troubles. DH is going diving for Bay Scallops as today is the first day for using the Family licenses. Commercial season starts Nov. 1. I won't be able to enjoy them feeling the way I do now which is beyond sad. I can't imagine trying to eat anything today. I ate some yogurt yesterday morning, but nothing else. I may have to get some jello. Have a better day than me. Patti

TIMBER for sure!!!

Hoping you are feeling perky soon, Patti!

Thanks, Jan. I realized I ate some crackers with peanut butter yesterday, but the brand isn't on the recall list. But I need to see if I have salmonella. Not a happy camper. Patti

ugh, well that stinks! Hope you feel better

Patti, if it's any comfort, a stomach bug is going around. Mine was really annoying for a few weeks until I succumbed yesterday. I had been blaming all sorts of things. Hope you're out and about soon.

Patti.....drink Gatorade so that you don't become dehydrated.....I thought I was fine drinking water & ginger ale....no...still got dehydrated & almost ended up in hospital...bummer that your DH gets all of the scallops!

water is the best to drink

Thanks all. It was a rough day yesterday, but I had a good night sleep and this morning I am feeling better. I drank tons of water and Gatorade. DH made me some jello for dinner, appropriately, it was green. It is raining still here therefore I couldn't have worked outside today, so I will take another rest day to recoup. I got nothing done yesterday. Even the dogs noticed that I wasn't coming out to play in the garden and they kept coming up to our bedroom to see why I was such a lump. Patti

Oh, what good babies! They know when we aren't feeling well....glad you're better this morning, Patti.......

Glad you are feeling better, Patti. Our furry friend's do KNOW many things. Amazing!

Oh, Patti, I'm sure glad your feeling better. It's really a bummer being sick when you want to get out in the gardens and get things done.

This will be my first time growing 'Bananas And Cream' shasta. It's too bad I won't be allowed to divide it and sell some when it gets bigger. Guess I'll just have to share it with friends if it gets too big.

Marilyn, that's good you're getting rid of those pines. I have one out front I'd like to get rid of. they're beautiful trees, but get too big to be close to the house and can come down too easily in a storm. They have a very soft wood. We have some gorgeous huge ones in the woods in the back.

Karen

It was sad seeing them go....Doug & I planted them 35 years ago....however, they are just too brittle to be near the house.....

Hugs, RD

Robindog, painful for sure, however it is far better that you got to enjoy them for all those years, but were sensible to take them down as they started to be a danger to your home. We have had a few trees come down in storms, but most of our pitch pines are not too close to the house so they haven't caused any damage, just sorrow to lose them.

Had a relapse today so I don't think I dare eat anything as delicious as Bay scallops tonight. Maybe a dinner of green jello. Ugh. Patti

oh I hope all feel well

Sorry you had to take them down, Marilyn.

Patti, I hope you get better soon.

Karen

Maeilyn.Remember the row of scotspines? The last one came down last year. It is a big ajustment to look at that area without dapply shade but moving the shade loving plants made it a whole new area.
Good luck with your spot.

Thanks, all.....Jo, I'm not planting anything there...it's just lawn, & a little spruce tree has started to grow there, so I'll let it.....your gardens look great where the pines had been....it was a good move....Patti, sorry you are ill again.....hoping for better days!

Robindog, bet you cave at some point. I tried to work outside for a while yesterday and again this morning, but still not up to much more than a couple of hours each day. Moved a couple more suffering Japanese maples and did more fall clean up. I took some shots today when I realized I was just to wasted to weed anymore.

DH headed up to Vt via Boston and said the traffic was awful. He was taking scallops he got yesterday again for his Aunt in Belmont who adores them. He is rowing the next couple of days down in New Haven. Then back to help me with the whacking back. Lots still blooming which is wonderful. Have a great holiday all. patti

nice patti!

Patti, all of your gardens still look great...mine are just a disaster...I was pulling out poison ivy & inkberry by the bushels.....That rose is gorgeous! My stepson, Mike, scallops occasionally...they were such a treat for my DH.....

Robindog, Thanks, PI is the worst! I am finding it popping up everywhere aside from the lush farm of it that we have in all the still wild parts of our property.

I love inkberry as it stays so pretty in the winter and is soft to bush up against. It makes a great dark green back drop for the bulbs in the spring. I have some large masses of it in some of our beds, but I think it is trying to take over the world too. I need to do some heavy pruning on it this winter. I will post a shot of it as backdrop on our deck with planters. In front of it next to a mass of Rosa rugosa which we don't cut back until March. This year it is still reblooming in a big way which is beyond odd after having it since 1983 and it not ever doing that.

That flamboyant rose is Grandiflora Rose Rock & Roll. We have a bunch more roses that are still doing well.

Bay Scallops = Sea Candy. Yummy.

Out to weed and transplant a few way too exuberant things. Feeling better today. Patti

Very nice, Patti. Glad to hear you're finally feeling better. I think Marilyn might have been talking about pokeweed when she mentioned inkberry. That giant weed with enormous roots that gets black berries. I think it's called pokeberry, also.

Going to get more weeding and planting done here today, and spread some more cow manure. It's a beautiful day out there today.

Karen

You're right, Karen.....it's pokeberry....when the town paved our road last year, my gardens in front of the fence had to come out....the paving company then backfilled with soil.....full of pokeberry & other awful weeds! And my gardens are only half their size.....I can't even get into them comfortably to weed....and although the road is narrow, hilly, & curvy, the cars speed like crazy....just too dangerous to weed out there....Patti, the yellow roses just glow this time of year....

Glad you are feeling better today, patti dear. Pretty colors

busy day - went to the dump, off to hike, and back here to clean out the veggie garden, only things left are carrots, leeks, and swiss chard. Also had a nice fire that took a while to get going with everys thing so wet. have a large basket of t's that i will can as they turn red. needed the fire to burn all the t-plants, do it every year to combat blight spores, it is a pain picking up every little leaf although worth it to keep the blight away.

Check this out for a project -http://www.boston.com/news/local/massachusetts/2012/10/05/littleton-gardening-flash-mob-proud-its-work/sqgMBcfN70d7ur2ATHWbVP/story.html

patti it is good to hear you are feeling better!

Wha, great group over in Littleton. Do they do away games?

Also great idea about burning the t-plants. We aren't so fastidious as you, but should be. You had a busy day. Fabulous day for a hike.

I worked outside for a few hours. More generally clean up and some transplanting and of course weeding. Lots still to do. But as many things are still blooming, I do it in stages. DH is coming home tomorrow so more will get done with the two of us working, though I need to get up to Boston to work in the pottery studio as I am doing the holiday show again. I have to get a mess of work done up there, so I may jump ship and head up to Boston soon now that I feel OK. Patti

Pokeberry is hard to get rid of, unless you get it when it's still small. Once established, the roots are enormous, really thick and they go down to China!

I got some weeding done today, a bit of mowing, and spread a load of manure in one bed. Got one of my sales areas cleaned up. Should have taken a before pic. Here's how it looked after.

Karen

Karen,Great picture,you look organized.
Patti, Glad you are better.
wha: You are lucky you can burn. Sounds like a good solution.

Karen, Your sales area looks wonderful and what great looking plants. I am impressed.

That was a good example about the use of common names in describing a plant such as American Pokeweed, Inkberry, Pidgeonberry, Pokeberry or in Latin Phytolacca americana while the the plant that I thought you were talking about is the shrub, Ilex glabra or as we know it, Inkberry. It has other common names too, none of which I ever heard used here on Nantucket but found in the DG Plantfiles. Gallberry, Inkberry, Bitter Gallberry, Evergreen Winterberry, Inkberry Holly, Appalachian Tea 'Green Magic'.

I agree about the kind you are trying to get rid of as we grow it too, not intentionally, though as a kid in Okla I remember neighbors eating Poke greens in the spring. I never tried them as the family I knew who ate them had to our family "strange" eating habits. I should have have been more adventurous as I'll bet they are good. I know the birds love it, but it is impossible to get rid of so I just keep cutting it back to the ground when I see it, which is far to often and try never to let it get to the point where it is a bird food. I might try pouring some vinegar on it to see if that works. It gives me a mild rash when it is in bloom so I am pretty diligent to pull any that I find before the stems turn that pretty purple.

I'll bet Wha burned his T-plants in his screen covered Fire Pit while enjoying a brewski or two, but maybe he just has a big old burn pile. We can't burn until winter and only with a permit which they strictly enforce.

About to head out for another day of work. Had some nice rain yesterday evening which was great as I hadn't watered in my transplants. Have a good one all. Hard to believe it is Columbus day weekend.

DH's yellow pumpkin.....not sure what it is but it is a gorgeous color. Patti

no screen just in the open fire pit in back - also burnt up a granny smith apple tree and a plum tree that i dug up. After 6/7 years i never even got a apple blossom so out it went (neighbors have 6 trees right next to it so there should have been plenty of blooms/apples). And the plum was just unruley. Now there will be more room for a couple a jm's :)

I am not surprised Bill.

Good job, Karen....the sales area looks terrific....Bill, I need someone to come & burn....huge pile....but firemen are picky about issuing a permit....I have an apple that has never produced....it's surrounded by many other apple trees, so no excuse....I should cut it down but my Dad gave it to me.......Patti, have fun in the studio.....would love to see photos when you are ready to display your pots.....

what is a fire permit? :)

Have not got one in years - not a big deal here

Wha, if they showed up at your house you have a life time arsenal of rocks to chuck at them if they pester you for a permit. Perhaps you need to build a Trebuchet. . It would look cool in the garden and you could chuck pumpkins from it in the fall too.

I did a tad amount of work outside, but it has been drizzling on and off all day, so I made cookies instead. DH is staying up in Vt for another night as he is into brush cutting and fall clean up. The lawn mower started after not being used for 2 years on the first pull. While the the construction was going on they covered up all the grass with trucks, trailers and dumpsters so nothing needed mowing. I will go up next week end after DH rows in the Head of the Charles race.

Here are a few more shots from today. Patti

OMG....the orange flower looks like Little Shop of Horrors....name? Sounds like DH is having a good time in VT, & with his rowing......great way to keep in shape...

Robin, Leonotis menthifolia 'Savannah Sunset'. It is tender so it goes into the gh and will get 5 feet tall or so they say.

DH just sits in it and steers and yells alot. He plays hockey and gardens to stay in shape. Patti

Quite a plant...have never seen one before....have to remember to get my canna lilies & elephant ear into the basement for the winter.....

Those pokeweeds drive me crazy! Usually growing where I have to climb into and under pine/spruce and getting poked and jabbed while trying to pull it out...maybe that's why they call it poke weed!!

went to do some planting, planted 3 plants in 1 garden and went to do about 6 more in another but realized I need to split the Siberian Iris in that bed before planting anything else

No blooms but thought I'd share these pictures I took yesterday at the shoreline. Lots of ducks and geese but only one pair of swans. The foliage is past peak but still pretty.