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Yesterday afternoon i was out of sorts. Initially it was likely due to parental care disappointments: my presence did not facilitate the intended walk or bathing, and it discouraged mom from attending to bio-needs.
Outside intentions were not well aligned: sun was still on the garden so working the beds was not happening. I wanted to listen to Christine's show, so motor equipment was out. I hand pulled some of the unidentified nettle that has shown up near the edge of the woods near the very common false nettle. My current identification for the plant, made while i was sulking from transferring sting to my arm and neck from my gloves (to which the leaves clung), turns out to be for an endangered species. It's unlikely i am making the right identification. Ha, it's not opposite leaves, so it's not an Urtica species. I dunno what it is.
Ha, this says nettle "is rarely eaten by castles and rabbits." Cattle, i'm sure.
After the sting I scattered lime and bone meal in the garden, somewhat impatiently. I mourn the crickets who scattered with the white powder on their shiny black shells. If there was some warning horn to tell critters to vacate the garden. Of course , i might use it all the time to expel the critters who are devouring my tomatoes.
Anyhow, i've managed to procrastinate the morning away just like i did Friday. Inhale, exhale.
I went in after that to salve the sting and washed up, and poked at identification (spending too long thinking about the flower and leaf and not about the branching pattern, apparently).
I am all about ordering the plants right now. Yellow daffodil bulbs for early, mid, and late spring (because all my daffs are fancy and not just the straightforward classic daffodils of my youth). I managed not to get dozens of crocus and a flock of tulips. I don't have the spoons to plant that many bulbs at this point, especially with the many bulbs (glads, irises, and daylillies) i would like to remove from deer pressure (and poor locations). I ordered a horehound plant and cutting celery (which doesn't need the challenging conditions of stalk celery) plus the native swamp milkweed and a hybrid bluestar i mentioned yesterday. The European sweetly scented violets and the Turkish rocket. And now i am left with the trees and shrubs, most of which will come from a nearby native plant nursery. I am pondering improved hazelnuts -- the native nursery offers species presumably not selected for nuts.
I noticed how the lovely dogwood next to the house and my herb garden is failing, likely the Anthracnose blight. I need to cut back a great deal.
On Saturday i noticed two of the yellow pines have died. One is far from any concerns if it falls, so i almost welcome the snag as a woodpecker feeder. The second can easily hit power lines, fall across our drive or the main road. It's close enough to the driveway that the power company won't need to cut a road to it, but i don't know how they can fell it without making me sad about the plants underneath. I'm thinking we should cut it before the power company does, so we can leave a snag at a height that the only thing at risk will be our driveway when it finally falls. That is a long time away, though, and it could also feed many birds before then. The worry is that there is something killing the trees. I want to believe it's just natural thinning. The woods are full of fallen trees from various periods: it doesn't seem to be an epidemic.
Outside intentions were not well aligned: sun was still on the garden so working the beds was not happening. I wanted to listen to Christine's show, so motor equipment was out. I hand pulled some of the unidentified nettle that has shown up near the edge of the woods near the very common false nettle. My current identification for the plant, made while i was sulking from transferring sting to my arm and neck from my gloves (to which the leaves clung), turns out to be for an endangered species. It's unlikely i am making the right identification. Ha, it's not opposite leaves, so it's not an Urtica species. I dunno what it is.
Ha, this says nettle "is rarely eaten by castles and rabbits." Cattle, i'm sure.
After the sting I scattered lime and bone meal in the garden, somewhat impatiently. I mourn the crickets who scattered with the white powder on their shiny black shells. If there was some warning horn to tell critters to vacate the garden. Of course , i might use it all the time to expel the critters who are devouring my tomatoes.
Anyhow, i've managed to procrastinate the morning away just like i did Friday. Inhale, exhale.
I went in after that to salve the sting and washed up, and poked at identification (spending too long thinking about the flower and leaf and not about the branching pattern, apparently).
I am all about ordering the plants right now. Yellow daffodil bulbs for early, mid, and late spring (because all my daffs are fancy and not just the straightforward classic daffodils of my youth). I managed not to get dozens of crocus and a flock of tulips. I don't have the spoons to plant that many bulbs at this point, especially with the many bulbs (glads, irises, and daylillies) i would like to remove from deer pressure (and poor locations). I ordered a horehound plant and cutting celery (which doesn't need the challenging conditions of stalk celery) plus the native swamp milkweed and a hybrid bluestar i mentioned yesterday. The European sweetly scented violets and the Turkish rocket. And now i am left with the trees and shrubs, most of which will come from a nearby native plant nursery. I am pondering improved hazelnuts -- the native nursery offers species presumably not selected for nuts.
I noticed how the lovely dogwood next to the house and my herb garden is failing, likely the Anthracnose blight. I need to cut back a great deal.
On Saturday i noticed two of the yellow pines have died. One is far from any concerns if it falls, so i almost welcome the snag as a woodpecker feeder. The second can easily hit power lines, fall across our drive or the main road. It's close enough to the driveway that the power company won't need to cut a road to it, but i don't know how they can fell it without making me sad about the plants underneath. I'm thinking we should cut it before the power company does, so we can leave a snag at a height that the only thing at risk will be our driveway when it finally falls. That is a long time away, though, and it could also feed many birds before then. The worry is that there is something killing the trees. I want to believe it's just natural thinning. The woods are full of fallen trees from various periods: it doesn't seem to be an epidemic.
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