Another One Bites the Dust

December 30, 2014December 30, 2014 / handmadebyjo / 5 Comments

The road in front of the house in Rowe was lined with trees for hundreds of years – hundreds. These stately sugar maples provided shade from the western sun in the summer keeping the house quite cool. They provided places for hammocks and swings and places for children to climb. Big birds also nested and fed themselves from those trees – pileated woodpeckers and barred owls plus all of the usual smaller birds and squirrels. When you looked out of the upstairs bedrooms you felt as though you were in a treehouse. It was a great view.

It’s been 10 or 15 years since the last one came down in front of the house. The rooms upstairs are hot in the summer. There are a lot of trees across the road but they are all beginning to go as well. Early this morning another was cut down. It needed to come down, there were very few branches that had leaves any more. One of its neighbors had fallen not more than 6 months ago.

The video doesn’t do the act of cutting down a tree this size justice. The snap and shudder, the crashing to the ground, the silence. The house shook like witnessing a small explosion.

There are trees all around that I want to cut down, to improve the view or let more sun into my garden. Those decisions don’t come lightly though. I always consider what will be lost with the removal of any tree, also what will be gained. When it’s weighed out the decision is made. Some take very little consideration but others, the maples, are more difficult to cut down. They are beautiful in every season, they are strong, stately. They belong.

There is one such maple along the side of the garden. It’s grown quite large over the past 10 years my garden has been in that spot and now shades a good part of it for most of the morning. The vegetables aren’t fond of that much shade. We have cut everything around it and in doing so it has thrived. That wasn’t the intention, it was on the list to go.

After watching the old maple go down today I’ve decided I will move a good deal of my garden this year. I want it to stand there shading the yard for a good long time to come. A place for the orioles and bluebird to perch on the way to the feeder and bird bath. Barred owls perch there at night and talk to their mates and chicks. Those are things I’m not willing to give up and it really is an easy decision.

Fleeting Fall

October 10, 2014October 10, 2014 / handmadebyjo / 2 Comments

I hear on the news just now that people should take their fill of the leaves this weekend (a long one here), they are at their peak. With all of the rain and wind the past few days the leaves here are on their way out. There are still enough to photograph but not in the wide panoramas that other years have offered.

This has to be one of my favorite spots in autumn. I love the color of the pears as well as the leaves. That chair is the perfect spot to overlook a large swath of the property, especially the parts newly cleared. The bonus is it faces west so you can sit there in the late afternoon and have the sun warm you, breathing in the smell of fall. Little gifts.

Preserving

August 17, 2014 / handmadebyjo / 6 Comments

Even though the garden is nowhere near what it should be right now I have spent the majority of the day putting up what has been taken out of it. I had a large basket of tomatoes ripen on the counter that I wanted taken care of before the fruit flies were out of control. I picked more to ripen this morning but have a feeling piccalilli is in my future (not that I mind, I haven’t made it in a few years).

I canned what few green beans I have harvested this year. The yellows should be coming in mid-week. They’re a month behind – mind you I had to plant them 3 times this year due to cold weather. You can’t always go by the calendar when it comes to gardening.

I also dug some potatoes and it would appear that this will be one of my best years ever for those.

With the spoils of the garden waiting on the counter I decided to make a five mile meal. Shepherd’s Pie made with fresh dug potatoes, newly pulled onions, fresh corn, newly cured garlic and beef grown in Heath by our good friend Russell. Now I know Shepherd’s Pie is sometimes considered a lowly meal but is a favorite of some of my family members and making it with ingredients this fresh takes it to heights never achieved with corn coming out of a can. It’s five miles to the corn stand, hence the name.

I also made backyard sauce and canned that as well. Everything grown here – even the herbs. Heaven.

There’s something about the feeling you get knowing you have grown everything you are eating. There’s a sense of pride and a feeling of security that grows a little each year. I can also send food home with family and friends and know they’ll eat and enjoy not only something good, healthy and local but also made with love.

The Volunteers

August 9, 2014August 9, 2014 / handmadebyjo / 4 Comments

I have a large mulch pile where I throw a lot of stuff over the course of the seasons. I usually turn it over a number of times throughout the year with the tractor. This year there were recognizable plants growing in the spring so I just left it.

There are now potatoes in blossom and the biggest squash plant I have ever grown. I think it is actually a long pie pumpkin. There were blossoms in profusion (and still are) earlier in the summer but no fruit. Yesterday I took a closer look and there it was. Looks like a giant zucchini but will ripen off of the vine to a wonderful, orange, thick skinned pumpkin. An excellent keeper and awesome pie pumpkin.

Every year there are volunteers in my garden. This year there were potato plants which I expect since I don’t always get all of the potatoes when I dig them. There are also a couple of tomatoes and sunflowers. It always amazes me that something grows, I till the plot multiple times before it’s planted each year.

It’s the mulch pile stuff that always fascinates me. Things that are rotten and intentionally cast off grow and bloom into something more spectacular than is ever grown in the garden. Maybe next year I’ll just toss my seeds over the bank and hope for the best, it certainly is working this year.

A Burning Question

August 7, 2014 / handmadebyjo / 6 Comments

This is driving me a little crazy. The little yellow things on the ground normally cover the nectar holes on this hummingbird feeder. I have three feeders around my yard. Every day something has pulled these things off and they are lying on the ground as shown. The feeder is about 3 feet off of the ground. Any ideas what might be doing this? Inquiring minds want to know.

Garden Bounty

August 6, 2014 / handmadebyjo / 6 Comments

My vegetable garden has been somewhat of a disappointment this year. The tomatoes have blight, the cucumbers are slow, everything is 2 to 3 weeks behind because of the cool temperatures and copious amounts of rain we have had. The things that are doing great are my perennials.

The cooler temperatures have allowed me to begin a long, long overdue garden rehab project. Yes, new gardens are going in but one of the reasons for the new gardens is that there are so many things that need division in the old gardens. I have to say that it has taken me by surprise. One iris, planted about 5 years ago, yielded a garden full of new ones.

I’m never one to complain about free plants mind you but this is a little concerning to me when I look at what I have to divide. I dug up three plants yesterday, an iris, a balloon flower and a Stella di Oro lily. The iris yielded about 30 usable rhizomes, the balloon flower maybe three separate plants and the lily went from one larger clump to six good size plants.

The distressing part for me is the fact that I haven’t even begun to dig up the garden that needs to be redone. I’m not one to throw plants over the bank but foresee that happening. How many haphazard gardens are there from plants being pitched when the gardens are redone? (You gardeners out there know what I’m talking about). I have two of those right here. Daffodils come up all over the place now where they were thrown purposefully or accidentally over the years. Hostas, myrtle, daylilies, even Jack in the Pulpits. I prefer to refer to those haphazard messes as reserves for the day when I need them.

Yesterday I gave away half of the iris to a friend that was here in the morning. I didn’t give him a choice – I told him he could pitch them over his bank, I would never know.

This is how friendship gardens happen. Someone is dividing up their plants in order to have them be healthier and bloom better, they are overwhelmed with the number of unexpected plants they end up with, they force them onto their friends and family. That gives me a whole new perspective on a couple of the gardens that I always thought of as “friendship” gardens. Maybe all those special plants are really things that were being cast off and rescued by my mother, similar to things that have happened to me recently.

Regardless of how the plants have ended up in my garden I love most of them. Even if some were cast off from another’s garden renovation I look upon them fondly. Some of them have been here since 1968 when we moved here and my mother began gardening in earnest. To identify certain specimens with certain people in an aspect that I love.

So as the garden renovation continues I will be giving away a lot of things and hope that some years from now someone will say, “Oh I got that from Joanne in 2014 during the big dig”. For that reason I’m careful what I give away and make sure it is weed free. The last thing I want is someone cursing me out for some invasive species that I introduced to their garden. Although at this point irises are feeling a little invasive.

That Special Dog

July 30, 2014July 30, 2014 / handmadebyjo / 4 Comments

I opened my computer this morning not knowing what I would write about and looked at the photo above which is my current desktop pic. Kids and dogs, kids and this dog.

I haven’t written much lately about Chester. He doesn’t currently live in Rowe with me, rather than stay in the freedom of country life he would rather be at the shop with Bill. Apparently there isn’t enough social interaction here. He just really loves Bill and always wants to go everywhere with him so . . . I pretend I’m okay with it.

Weekends are a different story. He plays a lot. Goes swimming at least once a day and when we do take out the boat he is very happy to go with us. It’s all about the games. There are tennis balls and frisbees on the boat and he knows it. He will be playing fetch for hours, not just minutes.

We had company a couple of weekends ago that he loved more than anything. An eleven year old boy who seemed to be pretty committed to the game as well. Hours upon hours of fetch – on dry land and in the lake.

Watching these two you realize how great life can be, how great it should be. They were so happy in each other’s company.

Chester seeks out children. He loves them. He is the most gentle animal and seems to be able to sense exactly what game will work with whatever age the child is. If they are scared or nervous he gently helps them to warm up to him. His goal in life is to make every kid want a dog. I have had to tell more than one parent that not all dogs are like him, he’s special. He has been this way since he came to us.

I told a friend of mine whose business is training dogs that I have never had a dog quite like him. He told me I had found my lifetime dog (he was still waiting for his). He is right. I’ve had a few dogs, there is a hierarchy in remembering them – from the best to the worst. I loved them all but wow, Chester is it, there will never be another.

Birds, Bees and Butterflies

July 29, 2014 / handmadebyjo / 9 Comments

This garden was one we put in about 3 years ago (time all melds together at this point – maybe it was four years, maybe two). It is pretty spectacular this year. All of the plants have matured and I put in a few annuals that Bill brought up. The best part about this garden is its attraction to hummingbirds, bees and butterflies.

If you are within sight of this garden you can see it is a hub of activity.

I was thrilled to see honey bees on a lot of my flowering plants this year, it’s been a while.

There is always something to watch.

I originally planted this for the color it would give our view of the back forty. When I sit in the Adirondack chairs and look over this garden I realize I planted the perfect wildlife garden. There’s a hummingbird feeder that I have to fill every few days and I have seen finches in and out of it all day long.

There are also a critters that I could do without – chipmunks, red squirrels and woodchucks. Although, truth be told, I love watching them too. They don’t really bother anything, they do dig holes all over the place. If and when they get into the vegetable garden I might have a change of heart but for now I’ll share this beautiful space with anyone that wants to visit.

Digging Sod

July 24, 2014July 24, 2014 / handmadebyjo / 2 Comments

I have been thinking about expanding this garden for a couple of years now. I blame the weather for my lack of commitment to the project. It’s been too hot during the window I have every summer to move things around.

An opportunity presented itself in the past week or so that has pushed me to do this. A lifetime gardening mentor is dismantling her perennial gardens and I am the recipient of a lot of her plants. This is a mixed blessing. I’ve written before about how I feel about plants in my garden that come from friends and family, they hold a special place in my heart. For the most part perennials last more than a lifetime, that’s the reason you often see flowers blooming in odd places. They are very often in spots where homes once existed that are long gone. I have many, many plants that I can tell you came from people I love. Friendship gardening.

The difficulty in this particular gardening adventure is that I have been visiting Mabel’s gardens for decades. They were spectacular in design and there were always new and unusual plants in them. I learned a lot about the gardening of perennials from her. There are many reasons why she has decided to dismantle her gardens but for me to go there and dig plants out of it seems so wrong to me. They are part of how I think of her and it seems so sad to me to know that I will not be visiting an amazing array of plantings and have the narrative to go with it. And it’s not that I visited often but it was just knowing it was there.

At the same time I will be taking a piece of her for my yard. My sister and I walked her gardens over the weekend with her and she made a mental list of who was taking what. There were tips on how to dig up certain things and where they might go. There was also the excitement of having practically a ready-made garden for the moving.

Then comes the hard work. I have been digging out the sod for a couple of days. I finished yesterday early in the morning and have been thinking about other spots that should be dug up. Plants will be moved in the next week or two to various spots around the house, some love sun, some shade. It has also forced me to do things that I haven’t done in the past. I had to remove the forks from the tractor and put on the bucket – I’ve been shown once but never actually did it. As you can see that was a success.

All in all this project has given me perspective on my physical capabilities. It’s easy to say I’m too old and out of shape to be digging this much space by hand but honestly it feels so good doing it. Pace yourself I keep saying, stay hydrated my brain reminds me. Focus remains a bit of a problem, I want to dig up all sorts of places and know that I could get myself into some trouble with the amount I’ve taken on.

I came in for another large glass of water the other day and my father said, “You know this place once had the most beautiful gardens in town”. That, my friends, is something to aspire to.

The Coop – Some Thoughts

July 23, 2014 / handmadebyjo / 13 Comments

I finished the coop today. This journey began June 18 so it took a little over a month to complete. I have to say that I am pleased with how it came out and the chickens really love their new home. They aren’t old enough to go outdoors yet but the ladder is ready when they are.

Building this taught me a lot of things, some of them about building. The huge lesson I learned is that I can’t do everything myself. I physically just can’t do it. I was pretty disappointed to find that out. For some reason I thought I could have this pretty much done in a couple of weeks – I’ve built things before. I didn’t take into consideration the weight of a sheet of plywood and how high I was going to have to lift it. I want you to know that I can barely drag one across the floor.

Bill was here to help on weekends and had a 12 day vacation where this was THE project. For the most part it was much more enjoyable having help build it and I admire Bill’s ability to just tackle anything. It wouldn’t have been quite as pressing if I had actually waited to get the chicks until AFTER the coop was build. I didn’t expect them to be escaping their initial enclosure at 2 weeks old, they grow fast! As it was they were moved into it before any trim was done.

Building a shelter is one of those things that has been on my bucket list forever. I always thought it would be a cabin in the back forty (and that could happen at some point). Getting chickens was really just an excuse to build their shelter. I had been looking at coop plans for a really long time and this one popped up into a search just a month or so before coming to Rowe permanently. Yeah, I could have built just some little shack of unpainted plywood that I moved from place to place but I wanted something that looked good, something that spoke to the whole whimsy of having birds in the first place. One would think having chickens is serious business but it really isn’t. At some point their egg production may be important to me but for now I’m just watching my once fuzzy little chicks rapidly grow into adult hens. The coop provides them with as much protection as I can get from a building and it looks good in the landscape.

I took this photo the first night the chicks spent out in the coop – they had been in a room off of the shed up until that point. Their heat lamp is glowing nicely inside and they were all settled into their cozy wood chips with water and food. I worried though, was I sending them out there too soon? Later that night I woke up to the sound of foxes in the back forty, I got up and looked out my bedroom window to see their snug little home with the glowing red lamp. For now they are as safe as they can be.

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