Bogieblog

Iris Time 2019

Irises came out in full force last week. All pictures taken 6/12/19

Iris blooms were not the only pretty things in the yard

False Indigo

Variegated Weigela with purple Japanese Iris

Clematis - Nelly Moser

Nine Bark (could be Coppertinal or might be Cetnerglow - I have both)

The rhodies that were damaged so badly this past winter. The one on the right turned out quite beautiful if you could ignore the lack of leaves

The left one still shows a lot of damage, but there are green leaves developing in ht e"dead" areas and the bottom still bloomed very nicely

And last but not least, a butterfly feeding off a rhodie bloom - from the one that was most severely damaged.

UPDATE 11:08 am 6/16/19: Forgot to give you a picture of the garden next to the driveway:

Rocking it

Last weekend I had torn the rock wall beside the tent garage apart to aid in clearing out vines and detritus (including glass, cans and black top :0). I got the rock wall put back together - which is a lot harder than tearing it apart. The last time I messed around with large rocks, I was a lot younger and in better shape overall, so getting the rocks uphill was a challenge.

Here is a cropped picture of the original rock wall (from 2016) so you can see only the rock placement

Looks a little better organized now - definitely not a professional job, but I'm happy with it.

Then I started laying landscape rocks to hold a garden bed in front - where the poison ivy was smothered. Over the last couple of years I have gleaned free landscape rocks from CL,  but I didn't have quite enough to finish these 2 courses (past the telephone pole). Actually, I had enough for the top course, but not the bottom - fortunately the local Aubuchons had some perfect matches so I wasn't worried about it. However,

I wanted 3 rows of landscape rocks and Aubuchons did not have very many of those matches, so I was unable to put a matching white band on top. So I went to Concord to grab another color so it looks intentional that I put in different colors (as opposed to being, well, cheap).

Then I decided, 4 bands would be better and I loved the "palomino" color of the new rocks (my choices were palomino or and orangish bay) so here is what it ended up being

Now the white looks weird to me. I'm hoping that grass will soon cover it enough that it looks okay. Or, I can stain the fronts later. Or, I can take out the 4th row. I like the presence that the 4th row gives as a focal point (3 rows kind of get lost with the large rock wall behind). However, that could change whenever I get some shrubs in there so it is still fluid now.

And, last night as I got ready to come in, I found that my first iris has bloomed

Phone camera didn't quite get the focus right, but it was the end of the day and the skies have been hazy from the Canadian wildfires. Here is a picture at 7 pm on Friday that shows the effects of the smoke - way before sunset.

No more work on the yard today as I have a HOG chapter meeting later this morning, then I have to get to mowing.

Flower Pictures

I haven't posted any flower pictures since 5/11/19 because there were basically no flowers. However, everything decided the weather would never get better so is making the best of it. All these were taken 5/17/19

Blue and lavender phlox starting to fill in
Hyacinths
Hot pink phlox

The poor yucca was beaten over the winter.

Next are pictures of the crabapple taken 5/19

Then on 5/21 the lavender phlox had not only grown, but was in its glory

And these pictures were taken this morning - the white phlox is priming up beside the driveway

The phlox under the living room bay window took me by surprise since it hadn't really started blooming last weekend.

And a couple of pictures form some work I did today, moving rocks, vines, small stumps (hidden in the rock wall), and roots out by the road. The rocks were moved for access to stumps and vines and weeds. They will probably be put back in place, in a more orderly manner than they were originally.

For comparison, here is what the rock wall used to look like (picture taken almost 3 years ago)

And sadly, the Rhododendrons were severely damaged this winter from the dry winds. They usually get a lot of protection from mounded snow, but not this year. The NH Extension says to let them be and see if they come back. Holding my breath that they do!

A Tale of 3 Stumps

A couple of years ago I covered a portion of the front yard with plastic, landscape fabric and bark mulch to smother some stubborn poison ivy. A couple of weeks ago I removed the plastic, fabric and bark mulch. Today was a lovely, dry (for a change), and fairly warm day (61*), so I started working on some stumps that needed to come out.

This is a crop of a photo I took in 2016 after starting the smothering project. Note there are 3 stumps; a large one in back, a smaller one directly in front of it, and another to the right and furthest to the front.

I started by scraping away some of the soil with a hoe, but quickly ran into a tangle of roots. I decided to go right to work on the stump on the left. For a lark, I struck it with a point of the hoe blade and found that it entered the wood quite easily. To be fair, there were a lot of insect holes, and I found quickly that the wood was quite punky. Between the hoe and a shovel, I made fairly quick work of that stump. The stump to the right was not quite so easy as it wasn't as punky and I found it had grown around a decent sized rock, but I was still able to use the hoe and shovel to tear most of the stump apart. Then I grabbed the 5' crow bar and moved the rock out of the way so I could get to the part under ground.

One stump gone and the second mostly gone - the rock is still there

Both stumps and rock gone. That large stump is still quite solid, so it will be there for a while.

The rock (thankfully, just a teenage/young adult rock)

I also took out most of a small stump behind the rock wall. I didn't realize until I took this picture just a little while ago that I hadn't removed the whole thing :O . My excuse was I was being wary of the poison ivy vines that were wrapped all around, and covered the top of it. Yes, the PI has been dead a couple of years, but the oils can stay volotile for some time. I think I had filled my last bucket so started loading up the truck and figured I would get to it when I got back from the dump. Obviously I didn't .

I took all that to the dump then started raking leaves over by the swamp. Although it had been raining most of the week, it was never heavy so it wasn't too wet over there. After 2 more trips to the dump for disposing of leaves and, branches and dead stalks, I'd had enough.

But, I did take time to enjoy the beauty of some phlox along the rock wall by the garage. That is a hosta growing up thru the plants.

It was a productive, enjoyable day. There was enough breeze to keep the bugs mostly away and keep me cool while working in the sun. Tomorrow we are back to dreary, heavily overcast, rain and high temps in the 40's & 50's that will last for the next 5-6 days. Same stuff we have been seeing for a month.

Meltage!

We had a couple of fairly warm days and meltage has been pretty good. Picture taken afternoon of 3/15.

Of course with that meltage, and frozen ground (or totally saturated ground where the sun hits areas that are kept clear of snow), that means the water has a hard time finding someplace to go.

Since Friday the temps have gotten cooler and melting has slowed. Next week the lows will be back in the teens so it will still be a while before it actually looks like spring around here. However, I did see some green from creeping phlox (evergreen plants) along the retaining wasll next to the driveway.

Oh yeah, a flock of redwinged blackbirds has made its spring pilgrimage and are camped out in trees 1-2 blocks behind my backyard. I've heard them since Thursday evening.

Spring officially starts in a couple of days, can't wait for consistently warmer days.

Thanksgiving Cactus

My Thanksgiving cactus bloomer right on time (who knew that there are Christmas, easter and Thanksgiving cactus?)

I don't do anything special with this plant and it bloomed 3-4 times this year. It is in the living room bay window and I water it about every two weeks. Looking online, you are supposed to keep them moist - ha, this one should ever be so lucky. Actually, if I keep it moist it starts looking a bit shabby, so I let it dry out on a regular basis. It also gets full sun - although with our rainy and snowy fall, there has been little sun, so it has experienced a lot of unintentional darkness. And, the bay window is cool during the winter since I keep the drapes closed to conserve heat - but none of that explains it blooming at other times of the year. Oh well, I enjoy the blooms and that is all that counts.

I had to take a lot of pictures before I could get the ones posted above. Some of the other pictures:

Last of the Fall Color

On 11/3, shortly after noon I snapped a couple more pictures of the October Glory Maple.

Good thing I got those pictures as a couple of hours later both it and the burning bush were bare of leaves from strong winds.

The next day I snapped these photos of the yard - how it has looked pretty much since September (besides the leaves)

The side of the yard by the swamp is also under water. I didn't bother taking pictures as there are so many leaves on top, it isn't obvious in pictures. Sunday afternoon I scooped all the leaves out of the culvert between my yard and the trailer to help the pond there drain. The culvert wasn't clgged and was running well, but I figured that being proactive wasn't a bad thing.

Previously, on Sunday morning, I had been driving to Concord to attend a HOG meetig and turned around to take these pictures.

It is not unusual for the High Tide to flood during the spring when the Contoocook River runs high from rains and snow melt. But it rarely floods during the fall. On my way back home, going over the bridge on Rt 149, I saw the river was nearly as high as I'd ever seen it and close to lapping over the stone wall that some apartments are built on. Those apartments are in an old mill building that was designed to let flood water thru, so there was no danger there, but was startling to see.

NH is still very fortunate that we aren't in drought and dealing with fires, nor is there much true, life-altering flooding, and my basement has stayed dry, so all is good. The biggest danger is we've had high winds for the last couple of days, which can take trees down because of soil saturation not allowing the tree roots to hold itself in place.

 

Trees of Color

The October Glory Maple is really looking good (all pics taken a couple of minutes ago)

The Autumn Blaze is starting to show that it wants in on the action

Comparison of the two trees. October Glory is down below, Autumn Blaze is in foreground, and the red behind the AB is still the burning bush, which I think arrested its change a couple of weeks ago - right after I took the last picture.

Oh, and the real comparison is the scrub maples.

Two weeks ago I could barely see the garage, could not see the cars, and certainly couldn't see the blue house across the road.

The Seasons are Slowly Turning

First, a picture os Spot - she loves to lay on the stuffed tiger above the desk when I am on the computer.

Next, some fall pictures taken last Sunday

Penstemon

Burning bush

October Glory maple starting to turn

Yesterday the October Glory looked like this

Good thing I placed a water loving tree in that spot - it has been constantly flooded for the last couple of months. This summer I have felt I've been transported to Seattle with all the rain and dark, gloomy skies we've had. That happens some years, but is not the norm. This week will be a shock as the moring temps will be in the low 30's. So far we have had mostly warm, 50's and 60's, mornings. the days may not have gotten much warmer than that, but we haven't really experienced much cold.

Weed-proofing

We;;, as close as one can get anyway. I hate weed wacking even more than mowing, so since last year the area next to the garage wall has been covered with landscape fabric to kill off most of the weeds there. I've had the rock and sand for several weeks and today I decided to do the deed. I ripped up the old fabric, stripped off the sod, dug in for the edging and put it in place. Installed a new double layer of landscape fabric, then rock. The sand went to the outside of the edging.

Naturally I ended up a couple of bags short of rocks

With a storm coming I cleaned up everything and called it a day - just in time too.