Wednesday, 13 November 2019
I wanted to capture how sparkly the azolla looked on our small pond after a night of rain.
I failed to show the sparkle. Azolla is a water “fern” that came in to my ponds on some plant or other. If we have a hard freeze, it might go away. I like it. I just scoop it out with a net and throw it on the garden bed nearby. A most interesting article in Scientific American, “Can the Fern that Cooled the Planet Do it Again?”, tells about its prehistoric history and how it might be useful against climate change. The article also states that is is edible (and tastes “like a blade of grass”). It’s a must read. Perhaps azolla should be taken off the noxious weed list, eh?
midday back garden; the hips are from Rosa moyesii
Norwood garden
We finally got two doors down to the Norwood garden to trim up the small garden beds.
Allan thought the entrance needed a bit of a trim…
…so he fixed it.
trimming lavender
before, east side (forgot the after)
west side lavender before
after
The lavenders are probably a decade old and still bloom profusely.
I fretted over the privet I cut back hard last time, to make it more shapely next year. I scraped at a stem with a fingernail and it is green underneath, so it should be fine.
Allan weeded the north bed.
We then stopped at the Depot Restaurant just to water the window boxes.
still blooming (Allan’s photo)
Long Beach
We went to Dennis Co in a quest for mulch, the quickest place to buy some bags for a south end job. They did not have what I wanted (Soil Building Compost and potting soil). How can potting soil be missing from the stock in winter? Surely people repot their house plants, at the very least. (There was one stack of potting soil bags of the fanciest and most expensive sort that is out of my league.)
However, the stop did reveal to us how terribly messy the two northernmost planters were.
Geranium ‘Rozanne’ gone all shabby
after
As I turned my attention to the planters across the street, Lezlie and I sighted each other.
Lezlie!
Just this morning, I had sent her the link to this delightful blog post with this hilarious bit about going to town: “Today we had a day trip to the big city, well a city anyway. We wore our best smocks held neatly in place with baler twine and caught the horse and trap into town.” Lezlie and I had a good laugh about it because “getting out the old mule and buckboard” is how we describe the effort it takes for her to come all the way south (about a fifteen minute drive) or for us to go all the way north to visit her in the Klipsan Beach area.
We got to pet this beautiful dog who was watching me work.
Allan’s photo
As for the second planter, if a santolina still looks good, I like to leave it till spring before trimming. But if it looks like this…
….I do this.
after
Meanwhile, Allan had sheared back a street tree garden where the BadAster has firmly insinuated itself.
While I would have liked to collect all those leaves, we did not have time.
The Planter Box
We drove on to The Planter Box for our mulch and potting soil.
autumn display
As we were leaving, Teresa asked if we could identify a plant from a customer’s phone photo. We could not. But in the course of the conversation with the customer, Heidi, we learned that her uncle was Frank Herbert (author of the Dune series, which i loved in high school). When I learned she is not on Facebook, we talked about the book I have been reading called Anti-Social Media: How Facebook Disconnects Us and Undermines Democracy. She recommended a book called The Soul of Silence. It was a fortuitous introduction. (I wish she and I could be Facebook friends.)
The Red Barn
We did a thorough weeding of the narrow garden bed and mulched it with Gardner and Bloome Soil Conditioner. I had hoped one bale would be enough, as I had other plans for the second bale. The garden bed took both.
The main weed here is the annoying creeping sorrel.
Allan’s photos:
before
our good friend, barn cat Cosmo
in our van
after
I admired the way someone had decorated one of the planters.
pineapple sage and fall decor
Diane’s garden
Next door to the barn we did more fall cutting back at Diane’s garden. We were rather anxiously racing sunset. I had been unable to remember if I had clipped back the tall sanguisorbas. My own blog’s photos of last time had showed me we had not.
The roadside garden at dusk, after clipping the sanguisorba and some other plants:
I think I can consider the roadside garden as put to bed for the winter. There will be just one more visit to Diane’s to tidy her back garden containers if we have a hard frost.
in Diane’s back garden
Allan trimmed the bed next to the house.
Sedum ‘Autumn Joy’s dried flowers will look fine through the winter.
The work board tonight:
We began the workday with our first call of the year to
The raised septic bed:
Long Beach
