Bogieblog

Vegies from 7/3 until 7/10

I think I had mentioned I planted a couple of tomatoes, some peppers and basil inside the fenced in area. On 7/3, they were looking really good

On 7/6, I discovered I have vegetables (or fruits for you purists).

This is a mildly spicy pepper - no, I'm not going to run outside and figure out the names of any of them :)

Roma type tomato

Teeny-tiny bell pepper with a good look at some of the basil behind it

Meduim sized slicing tomato

Yesterday I noticed the tomato plants were nearly to the top of the 6' fence, with one runner at the top :O

Today, 7/11, that tallest one is several inches above the fence. It is reaching for the skies!

Flowers from Week of 7/6/20

Lots of Day Lilies doing their thing.

Little Business is a shorter day lily and is in the front boarder of the shrub garden

Purple D' Oro in the driveway garden

This bright, vibrant, tall and HUGE yellow day lily is in the shade garden. I forget it is there every year until it DEMANDs attention. Unfortunately I never knew its name, or the tag was lost.

This is another day lily that I don't know the name to. I do know that I got it from a gal that I know thru the FHC forum - so I just call it Molly's flower :) . Althoguh the plant itself is not overly huge, the flowers are almost as huge as the yellow day lily.

I've shown one of these in an earlier post, but couldn't find the name. Now that this flower popped today, I discovered it is Night Beacon, planted under the windmill in the driveway garden

Sombrero Baja Burgundy Echinacea in the roadside garden

And these little surprises re-seeded from a purple penstemon that I planted, not expecting it to survive the winter (it didn't). But, I was delighted to find them growing behind the largest False Indigo.

Hope these beauties made people smile.

Birds and Breakage

Yesterday I kept myself busy by mowing both the neighbor's and my yards. I hadn't mowed the neighbor's in 3+ weeks because of the rain shortage. I had mowed parts of my yard once in that time, the parts in the shade and wetter parts of the yard. The sod I laid on June 16, having been watered daily to ensure it survived until roots took hold of the ground, got its first mowing.

In between mowing the two yards, I took a short break and managed to do this. I don't know how, I wasn't manhandling them, just picked them up off the counter, walked outside, put them up to my eyes and put my hand out there to stabalize.

Argh, I've had those for what seems like forever. I don't remember if Cop Car gave them to me before or after I moved to NH (I think after), but they are at least 30 years old. I don't use them every day, but on a regular basis so will need to find a replacement soon.

Another thing I don't use often, but semi-regularly, is my camera. An actual camera and not my phone. I usually only use it for the ability to zoom. A flash of white in the yard of the apartment building next door is what led me to using my camera (after breaking my binoculars).

I haven't seen a white pigeon in the area before and really wanted to find out if it was albino, or just a different color than I'm used to seeing

Although it is hard to tell because the neck area is reddish, I concluded it is just a color variation. And bonus, I didn't realize until I downloaded the pictures that I got a 3-fer in this shot.

I am always impressed with this cheap little Powershot camera when I do long distance shots. In this case it is over 150' (I know, that isn't long distance to many people that have better equipment)

So, after I got the neighbor's lawn mowed (remember, I was mowing at the beginning of this post), I took a shower (the 4th shower between 5 am Friday and 11 am Saturday) I got in the Explorer and headed 38 miles, and 50 minutes away, to pick up pellets that I had found on CL A ton of pellets for $125 was something I couldn't turn down, even adding in the $8-10 in gas I used. When I got on CL early yesterday morning, it wasn't to look for pellets, but I happened to search for them and there was an ad that had been put up the night before. Fortunately I could get to their location using mostly back roads, so I wouldn't have to push the loaded truck too hard to get back home.

I really didn't have room in the basement, but I made room in front of the P61a. I'll have to move them before heating season starts, but for now, they are fine.

Yeah, after all the hard work, I pretty much read the rest of the day.

Playing in the Thorns

Last January, I had taken a day to go out and trim back some of the invasive roses trying to cross over the drainage from the swamp (see Invasive Rose Control). It was difficult as I had the fence behind me and very little ground (snow) to stand on without plunging into the stream. Indeed, that was most of the impetus to take down that fence last month. With the fence down, I could see there were several things I needed to take care of; Roses Gone Wild and rose clumps in the middle of the drainage (bad enough if they give a bridge to my yard, but could also cause damming of the stream).

Yesterday it was nice and cool in the low 70's. Unfortunately the humidity was 78%, but there was no sun so I donned long-sleeved shirt, my trusty thick gloves and thick jeans to take care of some of the thorny issues. A picture is worth a thousand words, so here is the before and after comparison (click to get full picture).

Three clumps of roses I dug out from the middle of the drainage area

Piles of brush. Doesn't look like much until you imagine that the piles were rolled into tight masses (like hay bales) before being stuffed into the back of the Explorer - which was completely filled.

Now, I can see the onslaught of poison ivy - the green stuff in the middle and right.

After taking all the thorn brush to the dump, I took a very thorough shower since some of the branched I cut had 20' whips on them that dragged thru the PI as I was pulling them to my side. After the shower, I went to take a look at what was blooming;

Here is a volunteer butterfly weed in the driveway garden (mama is in next tier up) that has nestled up to the smaller of the two baptisia (false indigo).

This day lily is in the tier above mama butterfly weed (part of which can be seen as the orange flowers)

Voodoo Sedum, planted on 6/14/20m is starting to show some color in the roadside garden

The native day lilies aren't putting on as nice a show as usual, probably from the drought stress, but still look nice in front of the house.

More native day lilies next to the willow stump. The Sweet Autumn Clematis has completely covered the obelisk I put up for it this spring (I diligently trained it). I should have found something 10' tall. There are several tendrils going thru the lilies, and it should be quite the show when it blooms in another month or two.

And last, a couple of blooms from today - a day lily behind mama butterfly weed

Day lily close up

Say Goodnight Second Raised Bed

The afternoon after I posted "Transplanting a NInebark"  I continued work on removing the raised bed. And Voila, it is gone

Most of the excess soil went into leveling areas around the sodded areas although there were other large divots that were filled.

The view from the back door is so much better - even if there is a lot of bare dirt (see Side Yard Transformation from June 14 for "before" pictures).

And as if Mother Nature was just waiting for there to be a bunch of loose soil, Sunday night she let loose with some much needed downpours

Pic taken 6/29/20 at 5:40 am

Pic taken 6/30/20 at 3:05 pm. 1" of that was delivered between 2:30 pm and 3, while I was hosting a virtual meeting. The thunder was drowningly loud and the house was literally shaking fro m the deep booms.

Pic taken 7/1/20 at 6:03 am

We needed the moisture badly and we continued to have minor showers thru the rest of the week. My rain totals seem to have been better than most in the area as the local TV station was reporting that Hillsboro had gotten 1.7" of rain in those 3 days (I'm unsure where their official site is in my town). Surprisingly, the dirt that I had leveled and smoothed stayed unscathed by run-off and I didn't have to do any repair work.

Transplanting a Ninebark

The ninebark in the left raised bed finally quit flowering so I could transplant that nine bark and continue deconstruction. I was just trying to figure out where to place it. Then I posted pictures of what I called Sunshine in the Sunshine. The first picture is in the backyard, and the second in the shadegarden under the crabapple

What do these cheerful flowers have in common with transplanting a ninebark? Well, a FB friend commented that she wished she had some as she remembered her past husband giving her some at her previous house. I offered her some and before she even saw the post I went out and dug some up from under the crabapple.

Looking at the hole, aha, I have something to place there. I had started digging out around the pot before I thought to take pictures.

The shrub had massive roots and I ended up haveing to chop off 3 tap roots. Figured out that the ninebark had been in that holding bed since 2015, so it was well established.

Its new spot is fairly shady so it shouldn't get stressed by being in too much sun while the roots regenerate. Gave it and the surrounding area (that was dry for the 2 feet I dug down) a good drink both before and after planting.

Hope it does well and is happy there. It is the "bushiest" of all the ninebarks I have. Naturally I'll have to keep it well watered while it adjusts to its new home.

Flowers From Week of 6/21/20

White foxglove in the wood line, don't have any idea where it came from, but it was thirsty so hooked up hose for that side of the house and gave it (and others) a drink

Couldn't even see the viewer when I took this picture from the ground

A couple of feet away I found this. Looked it up and it seems to be a red campion (yeah, I know, it is pink). Would never have guessed it was a campion since it doesn't look anything like my rose campion.

This ninebark has outstanding red flowers. Second picture is to highlight  some of the gold in the new leaves

I spied something that started with a P and an I behind the forsythia. Can't say I'm happy about it

But I was happy to see the clematis winding its way thru the repurposed lighthouse birdfeeder. You can see a tendril coming thru the middle hole

Still looking for rain. Got about 5 minutes of Friday but it wasn't enough to move the gauge. Heck, the ground was still dusty. The only way I could tell it wasn't my imagination is that the driveway was wet as well as under the dripline on the ramp. Maybe next week.

Another Peony

Here is Felix Crouse, the second type of peony that I planted last year in the roadside garden. It is somewhat darker than Madame Debatane and the scent is much less pronounced, and of a more floral bouquet.

The Rose Campion is very happy with the dry weather we have had the last 3 weeks (1/4" of rain in that time). Apparently the rogue foxglove likes it too, as it is still in bloom.

Those, and the wild, invasive roses in the swamp are about the only things in bloom right now. Well, I mislead with that statement; the clematis and ninebark are still in bloom or just finishing. It looks like the butterfly weed should be blooming soon though as well as some of the dayliliies, so oranges will be on display in the near future.

Peonies, Foxglove and Clematis

Peoniew aren't supposed to bloom the first year after transplanting, and sometimes not until 3 years later. Someone forgot to tell Madame Emile Debatene that. Both of those as well as Felix Crouse are blooming (Felix does not have open buds so isn't pictured). Madame smells as good as she looks and I cut a couple of blooms for the house.

A couple more iris deigned to bloom

A foxglove hid amognst some rogue rose campions, I don't even know where it came from. It picked a good spot as I have been mowing around the rose campions even though they are outside the landscape timbers of the stairway bed.

Two different Clematis vines, situated about 5 feet apart but they have blooms on opposite sides of the pillars.

And last, a Baptisia (false indigo) with a bumble bee

I cropped up the picture so the bee is in the very center

I should get some Felix peony blooms this week to capture, although they look much like Madame's, the size and foliage is a bit different.

Who Knew Mower Blades are a Precious Commodity?

I got my money out of this mower blade - from my Craftsman mower. Yeah, I know it is bad for grass to run them this bad, but I not only hate grass (funny since I just planted some), both lawns I mow are mostly weeds anyway.


 

Pretty proud of myself - first time I've changed one of those suckers. Hardest part was finding a 22" blade. TSC - nope only had blades for riders. Hardware Store - nope, no blades at all. HD 30 miles away - again, only rider blades. Lowes in same city as closest HD - nope, nothing at all. And that was it for my search last weekend. To be fair, the stores that only had blades for riders had big empty spots where push mower blades would have been.

This past Thursday I was out in ManchVegas for Dentist and eye appointments and stopped at the HD that is normally 40 miles away from me (but only adds a couple of miles to my trip from Manch if I take highway home). Finally, scored a generic 3 in 1 blade there. Had about a billion adapters with it, and surprise, surprise, one of them fit