Thought this was supposed to be an "El Niño" Winter

Catchup post (preparing for a New Year's Resolution to start blogging again..): 

Maybe I just jumped to the conclusion that warmer temps would mean less snow.    But, so far that is not the case.  There was no snow at all until after Thanksgiving.  But then, on December 9th we got hit with about 15 inches of wet, heavy stuff.  It weighted down the white cedars and covered everything with a white blanket.  branches bowed down on nearly every tree, the pond aerator had a hard time keeping a spot open, and we had to turn on the small heater.   It was beautiful at first for sure.  The Pagoda Dogwood is particularly nice with its structure outline by the contrast between branches and the snow. 

The thick blanket may well keep the frost shallow this year, especially if we don't get a total melt down before really cold weather. 

And, looking now at the NOAA site about El Niño predictions, I find that around here for the next month or so we have "equal chances" of above and below normal temps and precipitation.  So far this year we've certainly had a mix of warm, cold, dry, wet.  What might come next?

Today, on Christmas, it is raining and 37 degrees in Green Bay where I'm staying with my Dad.  Supposed to get cold tonight, and the rain will likely change to snow before its all over. 

Haven't been here for awhile....

The blog, I mean.  I've been home a fair amount, but not writing in the blog.  And not really around the yard a whole lot.  We've gone from summer to late fall so quickly, I don't know what happened.  Oh Yeah, WLA happened.  And a lot of very rainy, gray days.  The last month has been almost entirely gray and wet and cold and dismal outside, which is not terrible since I've been confined to the inside for a variety of reasons.  But today was glorious!

The sun came out, and lasted for the entire day, almost completely uninterrupted.  I had to go to Rotary, and also to an event at FVTC in the late afternoon, but the morning and the mid-afternoon were wonderful.  Managed to rake the worst areas of leaf-fall on the lawn after Rotary. 

And also to take a few photos of the last remaining flowers.  They could be considered pitiful, but I think of them as eternal optimists.  Still blooming when all hope is done.  My goal is always to have blooms from early April until late October.  So I leave things that others might cut back, just to enjoy the last flowers.  Hardly any of these are native Wisconsin plants.  Those are smarter, and they have all set seed and died back by now.  I leave most of them standing, because the birds love the seeds.  The Juncos have arrived, and the yard is full of them and of Chickadees and Cardinals and all kinds of finches.  Most of what you see here are introductions, but some of them are hardy, either as perennials, or as ambitious re-seeding annuals. 

 

Not sure that I even recorded in the blog the Heron that took up residence in the neighborhood this fall.  He (she?) terrorized the fish in our pond and our neighbor's for a couple of weeks.  Hard to believe that a heron could even notice the tiny ponds we have, but we both lost fish (or parts of them.) 

A Season of Change for sure

It was only a week and a half ago that I thought (or behaved as though) summer might never end.  But it is amazing how fast things can change.  A couple of nights of frost and everything is different.  It is time to get the porch and deck plants ready to come in for the winter.  It was hard a couple of weeks ago to even think about the pruning back, cleaning up, digging out, and reluctant abandonment that is inevitable at this time of year. 

The frost on the first night last week was light, and since we covered most important things up we didn't lose much.  I was lulled into complacency, and even though we did cover most of the same things I didn't think we would lose the tomatoes, peppers, cannas, sweet potato vines etc.  But, the next morning had different tidings.  On the morning of Oct. 1st pretty much all of the tender plants in the back yard were frozen stiff, and as the day warmed up they drooped and wilted and blackened.  Ah, well.  It does have to happen. 

Once the shock of the death is over, we can move on to the beautiful season that is fall around here.  And, of course, to the preparation of the survivors to come in for the winter.  I moved the hanging begonia on the front porch into the garage, and am now trying to figure out where to put it for the winter. I took several cuttings, and if they root quickly I'll let the old plant go.  Before the first frost I dug up several geraniums, and will hang them in the coolest spot I can find inside.  (How I envy people who have a real root cellar!) 

I've been spraying hibiscus plants and bougainvilleas for a month or so, and hope to escape the whitefly infestation this year.  Brought in one bougainvillea today for the atrium, not sure where  to put the other.  Also brought in the red hibiscus, but not sure where the yellow one o n a standard is going to spend the winter.  It was way too intrusive last winter. 

At the upper level, on the front porch, I spent an hour or so yesterday digging and potting the Rex Begonia plants that were there.  I've had those for many years, and they would be way to expensive to replace.  But they do come up easily, and seem to welcome their winter comfort inside the light gardens in the basement.  They don't grow much there, but they almost all manage to come through the winter ready to welcome the spring.  I consider them an investment.  I fantasize that I could establish an ornamental plant business with the stock I have.  Probably won't happen.  But I've had the same Zebrina for more than 20 years, refreshed from cuttings each spring.  And many other long lived plants are in this house. 

Last weekend we also cut down the dogwood shrubs in the front of the house, and dug out all of the creeping juniper that was harboring hundreds of voles/moles/mice.  The entire neighborhood is complaining about the number of small rodents we have.  They are in every yard, and most of us are cleaning up the obvious places where they live.  I even found two mice in a birdhouse that was 7 feet above ground in a tree. 

There were a few late bloomers in the yard this weekend.  Some that have been blooming all along, and the the clematis on the east wall that bloomed early in the summer, seemed to nearly die with the draught, then came back and is blooming again with the new moisture we've had in the last month.

Well, that's enough for today.  Maybe it is better to write more often.

Rainy weather opportunists

Give the yard just a little rain (about an inch in the last several days) and things that have been lying in wait through the dry summer come to life.  The flying ants (not sure what they really are) that usually emerge in huge clouds in the middle of the summer were not around this year until now.  And even now, there aren’t as many of them as usual.  This is fine with me.

Also Fungi that I haven’t seen much of all year are coming up all over now.  These I tend to like, or at least find interesting and beautiful.  There is quite a variety in the yard.  Here are photos of a few that I found on my morning walk around.  

 

 

 

 

 

Turtlehead

Can you see why they call it Turtlehead?  I think this is Chelone obliqua or Red Turtlehead.  Some places it is endangered, and I don’t think it is native in Wisconsin, though it is to states all around us.  I bought my plant at a nursery.  

 

So far it has grown very well in my garden, I’ve had it at least 5 years and it gets bigger and more dependable each year.  I love the rosy color in the late summer.  

Cardinal Flower

This year I bought a young Cardinal Flower  (Lobelia cardinalis) in early spring, and just sunk the pot down into the pond in the shallow edges.  It is the first time I’ve been successful growing them, and though the flowers are coming late, they are now beginning to emerge.  I hope that I can overwinter it, and am in the process of trying to figure out the best approach to that.  

The resident hummingbirds have found the red, tubular flowers, and they visit it regularly on their way through the garden. 

Signature Plant

I consider the Jack-in-the-Pulpit (Arisaema triphyllum) to be the signature plant of this yard.  I brought over a few corms in the freezer the winter we came here.  The corms came from young plants I had grown from seeds given to me by our friend Tim the year before.  I had little hope that they would thrive, but I underestimated them.  I put a few in the ground here and there along the creek, a few next to the house.  In the years to follow they have spread to almost every corner of the garden.  Sun, shade, alone or in large clumps, they come up everywhere. 

When I want them to be somewhere new, I just have to wait until the fruits turn red in the early fall and then put a bundle of seeds where I want plants the next year.  It almost always works, and I have new “Jacks” the next spring.  This year I have moved some from near the bench at creekside out to the hosta garden we started under the birch tree in back.  Check back next spring to see if it works.

Harvest Bounty

Potatoes and onions reached the end of their likely growth, and so, on a cold damp day last Saturday we harvested them.  This is one of the things that we both really enjoy.  The adventure of digging potatoes, and marveling at how many we find, is great fun for small work.  Now, I suppose if we planted many more, and were really trying to grow enough to sustain us for the year, the work of digging them might become less of a party and more of a chore.  But, we only manage to harvest about 30 or 40 pounds, and this is likely to last us until just after the holiday season.  Then we will buy the rest that we need at the grocery store like most people do. 

 

 

 

I sometimes wonder what we could manage to harvest from this yard if we had to use it to sustain ourselves.  We could surely expand the growing space, and we could give up some of the ornamentals.  I could learn to grow storable vegetables, winter squash, etc.  We could can more perhaps, freeze less.  But the things like potatoes and onions that require nothing more than cool, dry storage, seem to be the most efficient. 

For Bea, my only regular reader

So, the day after you left, the flower that I so much wanted to be blooming when you came burst forth in glory.  I am amazed at how well this hardy hibiscus has done this year.  I wonder if this will make me complacent, expecting it to make it through every winter, and then losing it one year unexpectedly.  This is a plant that I have no historical knowledge of.  I really didn't ever know about them until last year.  This is the second year here, and it sure came back nicely this time with basically no protection or special treatment.  So, here's hoping that it will be a regular late summer phenomenon. 

Beautiful August

The rains we've had have sure made a difference. Everything is just soaking it up and looking beautiful.  Here is a shot of the deck planter and the coleus plant that was pretty puny when I put it out in June.  I think I'll try to pull out some other "before" and "after" photos in the next couple of posts.  I am always amazed at the change.

After the Rain, the Sun - Again

  Pretty amazing how much things take off once they get just a few inches of real rain.  Even the lawn has come mostly back.  But it has been hot and very dry since last weekend, and things are again showing signs of stress.  We could really use more rain soon - maybe tonight?

But many things a beautiful.  And many are productive.  The tomatoes are finally ripening, there are more jalapeno peppers than I can keep up with.  And the flowers are going crazy.  Here's a photo gallery.

 

 

I can't get over how beautiful the Joe Pye Weed has been this year.  It is still vibrant and luscious.  And the Caster Oil Plant that was a lark in the spring is becoming beautiful - I love the contrast against the blue stained cedar siding. 

 

I know that Dusty Miller is mundane and ordinary, but I can't help loving it.  Such a nice mixture of structure and color contrast.  for some reason, the Dahlia in the same container caught a terrible case of spider mites, and I had to cut it down and spray what was left with a little Malathion.  But the Dusty Miller, a nice coleus, and a new plant I don't really know yet have filled the entire pot nicely. 

Hot and Wet

Finally, a summer weekend.  Friday night we got lots of thunder and lightning, and 2.37 inches of rain!  That is more rain than we've had since June 1st til now.  And then Saturday another .37 inches.  Wow.  I'm being so precise because we have a new rain gauge that purports to measure to the nearest hundredth of an inch.  OK.  Thing is, we have definitely gotten enough rain for the next week.  All around the yard plants are breathing a sigh of relief, and putting on another inch or two of growth.  The Cannas suddenly realized it was time to bloom, and put forth flower stalks that have grown 6 or 7 inches in the last day. 

I took the opportunity to dig up some Hostas that were languishing under the creek overgrowth and moved them out to the new bed beneath the Birch.  Also dug some of the extra Gooseneck Loosetrife and moved it to a more prominent location along the path to the Willow.  Hope that isn't a mistake.  But they look really good there right now, and they are well behaved if checked back now and then with a little Round-Up. 

Last week there was a bat in the deck umbrella when I opened it one day.  I hoped that meant that bats had become inhabitants of this yard.  Tonight, the first hot evening of the year, I sat out on the deck through dusk until dark, and was thrilled to see at least two, maybe more, bats flying through the yard. 

The bare spots in the lawn look like they might recover with the new moisture.  I cut the lawn today, not really because it was in great need, but because I know it will spring into growth this week after the rain and with warm weather.  It's also a good time to pull w eeds, they mainly come out fairly easily.  The resisters will get a dose of WeedBeGone  once the threat of rain is gone, which will likely be after tonight. 

The fish in the pond seem to be almost as excited by the warm wet weather as I am.  I think they might be spawning.  There is certainly a lot of chasing and jumping and hovering and interacting going on. 

This is also the week when the Asiatic Lilies are in full bloom.  The Casa Blanca's at the front walkway are spectacular as usual.  And there are nice Stargazers around the yard also.  Daisies are done, for the most part.  Working on keeping the new Rhododendrons happy, so they survive the winter well.  The grasses we divided this spring are doing very well.  Been taking voice notes on my iPhone about things that need to be done this summer and fall as we prepare for Winter. 

Blooming well now are the coneflowers, the Joe-Pye Weed still good, the Butterfly Weed hanging in, Swamp Milkweed still doing well, and I did see a new larvae of a Monarch today, Sunflowers are really coming on, and the Hydrangeas are beautiful.  I'm disappointed about the performance of the Hydrangeas on the east side of the house - they don't seem to be blooming as well as I expected them to. 

Another week with no rain (or very little...)

We still have been missing all of the good rainstorms here.  10 miles south they got soaked the other day.  And farther north the rain has been regular.  But the Appleton Gap has persisted, perhaps even expanded.  All of the big weather systems seem to split at about this latitude.  And we are still very dry. 

The creek is still running, and I do remember summers when it was dry by this time.  It is difficult to know if this is unusual or if dry summers are the norm for these parts.  Must consult the record, I guess.  One thing I've noticed is that there really is a "microclimate" effect.  Our yard has about a one or two week shorter growing season than the yard we had in the city.  We are low here, and we get the first and the last frosts of the season.  And there is not as much thermal mass (streets, sidewalks, roofs, etc.) to keep the heat on a close to frost night.  It's better since we have more trees.  

This week the daisies and blanket flowers are declinin g, the coneflowers are at their peak.  The hydrangeas are coming into bloom, and the hardy Hibiscus is making nice looking buds -- I hope for something spectacular in another week or so.  The Monarda are lovely, the Gooseneck Loosetrife is blooming.  The Ligularia are beginning to bloom nicely.  Dahlias all over are blooming.   The Butterfly Weed is perfect as usual, and the Joe-Pye Weed as well.  Cannas are gorgeous, though I have to water them daily and they haven't begun to flower.   Annuals are coming into full bloom and giving the yard color. 

We had the first couple of tomatoes from the garden last weekend, and we've had jalapeno  peppers for a few weeks. Raspberries are coming in strong, we've had at least a pint a day and sometimes more for the last week or so.  There is a nice looking zucchini out there, and the onions and leeks and potatoes are maturing.  We pick broccoli once or twice a week.  Summer is good.  Even though we love to ride down to the farmer's market every Saturday, there isn't much we need to buy.

Desert Dry

There has been no measurable rain here in over 7 weeks.  It is very dry.  The grass is totally brown, with a few specks of green here and there.  Most of the rest of the perennials have dried up terribly.  I water the vegetable garden, and some of the pots and gardens around the deck and front porch.  But, most things are just going down.  They will not likely die, or at least most of them won't.  But it will not be a good year for any.

The Bufo americanus tadpoles are growing, some faster than others.  They grow legs and emerge as young toads only a few at a time.  I wonder if there is some sort of pheromone or hormone in the water that the mature ones exude to keep the others immature.  In any case, they really emerged in the small rain we had this evening.  I found them all over the leaves of the floating plants in the pond.  They've been hiding in the crevices, and sometimes getting caught in a low moisture situation that is deadly to them.  There are more than a few tadpole shapes dried up on leaves of the water lily.  But tonight they are happy.  That is nice.

Plants of the (dry) Week

Just a few photos. I has been dry. Waiting for rain to release everything. The heat comes in the day, but it is still cold at night. What kind of summer is this?

 

 

 

 

It has been way too long...

I've just not gotten around to writing in the blog in the last month or so.  Here it is, July 5th, and I haven't updated since June 9th.  The likely most explosive and changing month in the year, and I haven't written anything about what's happening.  This has been the time when things have solidified, become relaxed, opened up into summer.  The spring was tenuous this year, and we never really got to the point where things grew like they trusted that it would last.  Then the heat came.  Big heat.  and no rain for a couple of weeks.  It is now high summer, and we are almost in drought conditions.  We need to water every day, and every two or three out in the vegetable garden to protect the investment in plants and to preserve the hope that we'll have fresh tomatoes in August. 

This was the 4th of July weekend, and we had three days of both of us home to really work out the neglected parts that had been ignored as we prepared for the Torch Convention.  I had ordered 8 cubic yards of bark mulch last week, and so there was that to disperse.  And the watering, and the weeding, and the edging, and the creation of a completely new chipped area behind the apple trees.

The raspberries needed to be weeded, preparing for the harvest in the next couple of weeks.  And the area around the pond needed weeding and tending, to make it pretty for the rest of the summer season.  The lilac was totally overgrown, creating a problem for both Lee and me when we mowed the space between our yards.  And there were spent spring blossoms everywhere, as well as yellowed tulip and daffodil foliage.  Lots of sprouted tree seedlings, and other weeds everywhere.  And it was time to do a major weeding in the vege garden and then lay down the straw mulch for summer.  Had to water first, then weed, then remove the walking boards that kept me from tramping down the roto-tilled earth, then finally, spreading the straw.  Again this year I believe I have been careful about not letting too many sunflowers grow, but time will tell.

The deck has finally been cleared of all of the nursery functions, and the only non-ornamental plant left there is a single remaining Christmas Amaryllis.  The leaves keep living on, and I keep watering it.  Soon I must stop, let them die, and hope for a beautiful show next Christmas when I start watering again in October.  Most of the plants around the deck are doing OK, but progress is slow this year.  A nice surprise jumped up in the last week or so, I planted them years ago, and never know where they will come, never can count on them, but there they are.   

Another Major Cold Rain

This year has just not really warmed up yet.  And we have had two periods of dry weather, lasting too long, and then two periods of cold rain, excessive rain.  Today is the third day of rainy weather, with temps failing to get out of the 50's.  So far the gauge near the pond says 2 1/2 inches.  Out at the compost, the older gauge says only 2 inches.  either way, that's a good rain.  The weeds are growing well, but so are all of the newly planted annuals.  I finished planting everything late last week, so now it is all about hoping that it matures nicely. 

The Cannas are coming slowly, but there  are new shoots every couple of days.  I think they will survive at least, and I hope they become dramatic as usual.  This year I didn't plant them inside and get the growing before transplanting outside.  It is scary, given that each plant of the beautiful orange striped variety I have cost about $20 if I had to replace them.  Now, I only bought one.  And now I must have 10 or 15 of them.  But still, I would hate to go backwards.  The ti ny shoots are poking up from the planter south of the deck, and from the bed below there are shoots of my older, larger, red flowered green leaved variety.  We put the extra rhizomes in a couple of places around the yard, and if any of them survive I will be thrilled.  But the ones around the deck I am counting upon.

There is one water lily flower that has been blooming for almost a week, and at least three more that I can see just below the surface.  The tadpoles have slowed down, it is just too cold!  Everything that was in full glory last Friday is now sort of drooping, because the rain has weighed it down.  The Bridal Wreath will likely not come back to fu ll beauty 'til next spring.  The alliums are all hanging down to the ground.  The Iris's are blooming, but wet and hard to see.

But all in all, the rain is, as usual, good.  We did need to get everything firmed into its place

Early June

It is interesting that no matter what the weather has been like, warm, cool, dry, wet, certain plants just always arrive at the same place at the same time.  Irises bloom in the first few days of June, maybe half a week variation.  The Bridal Wreath Spirea always comes into full bloom in June.  A little sign of blossoms opening in late May, but full glory on June 1st.  There are so many things in glorious bloom now it is hard to spotlight anything.  And I'm out in the garden so much I don't have much time to write in the blog.  But that's OK. 

 

This is the time of year when Bill's insistence on keeping the Columbine is hard to refute.  I know that in a couple of weeks I will want to remove them, and I will cut them back to the ground.  But this year they are quite lovely, and I must be sure that some survive.  The alliums are in full bloom, but once the blooms start the leaves begin to yellow, and they are so large that they detract from the surroundings.  I spent some time today cutting them back and leaving the flower stalks, which may mean that they don't do as well next year, but I can live with that. 

 

The newly expanded pond is doing very well.  The water lily has taken over almost the entire surface and the first bloom is at the surface and ready to open.  The Bufo americanus (American toads) that mated earlier and laid eggs everywhere have disappeared, but here are thousands of tadpoles swimming purposefully here and there everywhere.  Side plantings are doing well also, and I think it will be nice all year.