Benefits of an unkept garden-
Monthly Archives: October 2017
Cosmos in the Garden
Early morning of October 7
In the barn garden
Strawberry Babies
The tractor just needs it’s driver to start skimming off this area for a strawberry patch.
The strawberries that the landscapers planted early this summer really spread. So I potted the babies for transplanting.
Still attached by a runner.
We hosted an hOUR Economy work party and potluck. About half a dozen people showed up to help us prep the bed and plant the strawberries.
The chicken wire will protect them from the chickens and the deer. It didn’t take long for weeds to sprout!
Pines Along the Road
We had 17 white pines growing along our road and the electric company comes around every few years and tops them. It looks awful so we finally took them down over three weekends.
Before
After
Before
After
September 30 – a view of our two paw paw trees on the right and a crabapple tree on the left. Pines are behind these trees.
October 14 – two weeks later. The photo is taken later in the day and season but I think you can see how it has opened up the space.
another before with the pines behind these trees
and after although not quite the same view. The trees on the left are some of our very tall pear trees.
lots of branches to shred
Our pear trees are so tall we can’t pick the fruit. Dave gathered these from the ground. I cut out the good parts to eat and they were pretty tasty.
Dave got to use his new tractor.
stumps left behind
We planted 11 red chokeberry bushes along the fence.
This one is particularly loaded with berries. These shrubs have pretty white flowers in the spring, berries form in the summer and the leaves turn bright red in the fall. Berries are edible for humans and birds though not very tasty. Even the birds leave them until late winter when other food sources are scarce. I also read that the chokeberries are a good urban shrub and don’t mind road salt. We aren’t in an urban area but we do have a school up the road so we get salted at any sign of inclement winter weather.
So nice to have this done.
The Second Half of September in the Garden
I’m very behind in posting my photos!
We had a lot of mulch left over from the landscapers so I edged this bed, weeded and mulched it. In the foreground is foxglove, then wild geranium (a favorite of mine) and the fig bush.
Another view.
These are the lantana and meadow sage I planted in a bare spot of our native garden. I know the lantana isn’t native and it is just an annual here. Not sure about the meadow sage.
Just giving an update of the landscaping we had done. This is blue mistflower. Unfortunately, the 3 other plants died so they replaced them with irises (you can see one of the irises there on the left).
On the left are coneflowers (orange or pale purple, not sure as they didn’t bloom for us yet though I know they planted both). Toward the back are strawberries and lavender is on the right.
Wild quinine
The strawberries really took off.
I love the wild geranium because it is so hardy. It’s doing great here even after being on a tarp for almost a month. It has a very shallow root system so we just raked away the mulch, scooched the geranium off the tarp, and then sprinkled it with the mulch. Two months later and it looks like it was never disturbed.
I think it was late August when the landscapers returned to plant the white wood asters under the yew tree.
An aromatic aster
I took the rest of these photos right after they returned again to plant the “chionoides” rhododendrons.
The asters bloomed profusely late September and into October. They attracted a lot of pollinators.