6-7 February: in the willow grove

Saturday, 6 February 2021

At home

At about noon, I headed out to the willow grove. Faerie did her usual plea from the south Catio.

But I could not take her to where I would be using sharp heavy tools, not to mention that I think the occasional coyote might pass by the wild south garden so I don’t want to introduce her to its tangled enticements. In the spring, I will try some supervised playtime in the civilized garden.

We’d had a bit more rain.

As I walked past the Bogsy Wood swale, I regretted, as I have several times this winter, that I stored a hose and sprinkler at the east end. It is bad for pictures but I haven’t had the oomph to wade through the muck to hide it somewhere else.

My mission was to knock down part of the mound at the east end of the willow grove, outside the south fence. Before:

Even though I had the Slayer shovel and the heavy yellow pick, my oomph was low and I had not made much progress when Allan showed up to speed the project along. I had suggested to him that he’d been “him indoors” on his computer for too many days and that he needed some exercise. It was an observation guaranteed to appeal, as he does express concern about lack of exercise during staycation.

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I switched to pulling ivy and sawing willow branches.

An hour and a half later, Allan had made a path with sharp edges that he later said was like a railway cutting.

Skooter appeared from the gear shed yard next door to try it out. (It was interesting to know that he prowls around over there.)

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A before and after of the ivy and willow branch transformation that I had wrought while Allan dug:

I also hacked out some sedge in the center area of the grove just to make access to the seasonal pond look a little more welcoming.

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Sunday, 7 February 2021

I returned to the willow grove with the idea of smoothing and softening the railway cutting. After an afternoon of enjoyable work and the addition of some ferns, shade perennials, and a Rhododendron ‘Blue Jay’ and a Ribes sanguineum (flowering currant) that were gifts from Our Kathleen, it looked more like a garden. I found some willow logs with which to make an edge and used some of the mound dirt to raise the level and planted two small box leaf honeysuckle at the end; they should get to over six feet tall and are, I think, deer resistant.

I fetched some of Allan’s wire and started to make a sort of twiggy branchy stop the eye barrier, utilizing the horizontal swoopy willow branches as the cross pieces.

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The area behind the twiggy fence will be a debris and bramble wild spot. I might go after the Himalayan blackberry in there someday, or maybe not as it certainly makes a barrier (and probably a safe home for birds and frogs). The building in the distance is At the Helm Hotel, and you can see stacks of crab pots in the parking lot as the crabbers prepare for the season. Crabbing season is starting very late this year because of toxins in the crab. Usually the fleet would be almost done by now, but instead they are starting on about February 10th.

I want to control my desire to landscape every inch and leave the seasonal pond pretty wild for critters. Adding flowers and berries for birds would be good, though. Keeping the character of the willow grove and not making the planting too fancy and colorful might prove to be a challenge. To the left, below, is a pile of dead dry branches that would make a good campfire.

I am very well chuffed with all of this.