The Garden in the Morning

The morning always starts early when you have children that need to go to school.  After they're off to their world of educational bliss, it's a great time to have a walk around the garden while the birds are chirping and dew awaits the kiss of the rising sun.  It's a chance to reflect upon the day ahead and to see what progress is being achieved...  

Plant containers can be made from almost anything

I'm told that this is an air yam that will soon need to go into the ground

a few hanging baskets are created

Finally, the Clematis begins to bloom this year

This is a male Kiwi plant (no luck yet with the female Kiwis that we tried)

Repairing, Rebuilding & Re-Planting

Every year I wind up complaining about all the damage from either a hard winter or from ever-more-frequent storms, and this year was no exception. Although we've had tornado watches, and hail watches, we've actually been rather fortunate with no real damage from major events (compared to other folk)... so I should learn to temper my remarks and to realize that Spring is all about rebuilding, replanting, repairing and renewing.  Some pics:

a branch comes down with such force that it shatters my bench

getting the side deck organized

Preparing the containers (notice the re-cycled bags used as liners)

The roofing is almost done...

The lattice roof is complete; our snap beans are gonna love this roof!

Exploring the Shade Garden

I love the concept of a shade garden, a tiny niche reserved for wild and not-so-wild plants that thrive in shady conditions.  This morning was the first chance I had to see the sun peek out after a week's worth of rain, so I took a moment to explore our shade garden area.  This area, too, will require a bit of maintenance in the coming weeks (although the frogs seem to love it as is).

In the midst of a shade garden rhubarb flourishes

the first plant our son bought for his Mommy (12 yrs ago); it made her the happiest mom in the world

Ferns find a home between the rocks

A peek at our house through the deer mesh

You can't have a shade garden without hosta, and they seem to be thriving this year

Alium starts to bloom against a backdrop of ferns

The "Removing the Firewood" Party

Once the dead tree was down, Gene diligently carved the tree into manageable chunks, Matt showed off his muscle-man prowess by casually tossing the cut wood into the truck while Chauly, Sarah and Charisse picked up the smaller pieces.  Even the kids got into the act by raking up the remaining branches and twigs.

Gene, Sarah, Charisse and Chauly

Picking up a few branches

Robert and Matt pick up the wood while Gene cuts (I get to hold the camera)

The truck's not yet full yet, so Gene heads off to cut some more wood

Charisse inspects the paint job on the truck

The kids play

The Lumberjacks Arrive!

Gene and Charisse came by with Matt and Sarah to cut down a large dead tree in our lawn.  What a relief... that tree (right behind our daughter's playhouse was a scary looking thing that desperately needed to come down).  The first question to be resolved... where should it land (if we can get to fall where we want it to fall)?  We decided to let it crash onto the street, so the road was blocked off and the work began.

Right there in the center of the picture is the dead tree

An attempt is made to hand winch the tree (it didn't work... oh well)

The first cut is made

When a professional does the work, it looks as easy as slicing a pizza

and now a cut on the back side

Timberrrrrrrrr!  Great job Gene!

Hooray!  The tree is down! 

Gazebo Roof starts to take Shape

The weatherman predicted a few hours without rain, so we were prepared to take advantage of every moment.  By 6:30 in the morning I was already pulling out the tools to get the workspace ready.  Today's objective was to make sure that the roof wouldn't wobble, so we started by adding some cross pieces to make sure that everything was "square".  Then we added some lateral pieces at the top which would allow for hanging plants or for a set of florescent lights for the winter months.  Last, we started on the lattice roof cover which needed to carefully be trimmed.  That's about as far as we got, as next our friends arrived to help cut down a dead tree in the back yard.

Robert mentally prepares himself for thrill of carpentry

some lumber is added between the roof peaks so that the lattice will lay flat

next some additional bracing is added

slats are added at the top so that the lattice has something to lean upon

cross bars for hanging plants are added and the first piece of lattice goes up

The Frog in the Mint Soup

It has been so rainy lately that sometimes you just can't scramble fast enough to properly protect your plants.  So, I'll admit that we left a couple dozen tomato plants out in the recent deluge and they indeed took quite a beating (leaving me hoping that they manage to recover).  On the bright side, some of our plants actually seem to be thriving in this wetness and humidity -- in fact, our lettuce is looking quite tasty already (pics below).  But the most interesting story today comes from the front of the house where my wife had left some cuttings of mint in a small tub of water (so that they might grow some new roots).  She went to her waterlogged bowl of mint and was suddenly greeted by a small frog that decided at that minute to poke its head out of the bowl.  Pictures are below:

sorry guys... I forgot your umbrella

A hard rain brings down a batch of stuff from the trees

Lookin' good!

Keep growing!  You have a family to feed!

Wonder what that plant is over in the corner; I'll have to ask someone that knows...

The Frog in the Mint Soup

The World Ended Today, but I was too busy to notice

Got started early this morning on putting up the framing for the roof of the gazebo.  Finally, a nice day without rain (at least until 5 PM when it started again),  ...and here I thought that April was supposed to be the rainy month -- I guess they forgot to remind Mother Nature.  My son gave me a hand with the carpentry and we managed to get the essential parts of the roof finished and installed.  Afterwards we took a trip to Lowe's to pick up some balusters that we'll be needing later and some 4x8 sheets of lattice for the roof of the gazebo. 

Does that look straight?  Perhaps I should use a level.

Whooops... busted another drill bit.

Not to worry; we buy the bits by the dozen.

I just don't think that ladder is going to be tall enough

OK... maybe it is tall enough

We'll have to add some cross beams next.

Endangered Species Day

Endangered Species Day is the third Friday in May.  My wife and her friends started the morning with a celebration of this occasion (pic below).  As for me, I decided to see which endangered species make their habitat in our county.  After a bit of research I learned about the bog turtle that resides in sunlit weedy, swampy areas -- it hibernates under about six to eighteen inches of mud (and only grows to a size of about 4-1/2 inches).  This turtle is protected by Pennsylvania law, federal law, and is also protected by the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species.  I don't expect to see any bog turtles in my immediate area, but hey... you never know.

This is what the bog turtle looks like

My wife and her friends celebrating Endangered Species Day

Deer eat the plants, again

It's a spring ritual.  We put the plants into the ground; the deer come and eat them. This time they feasted on plum trees, iris, kiwi and peony.  While we complain about it, we realize that these deer were here long before there were any homes in the area.  They've managed to adapt to our presence, so I guess that we have to learn to adapt to having them in the neighborhood.  Yeah, it sounds good as a philosophical position, but I'll admit to hating the fact that our area is endemic with Lyme disease that is spread by these tick-carrying deer.

The telltale hoof prints

They just had to forage on our newly planted plum tree

This used to be a budding Iris

One bright spot in my morning walk, a baby salamander