Charlyn’s Web

Now that I have talked about how difficult it is to grow trees and other things here, I thought I would highlight something that seems to be thriving. These pictures were taken just a few hours before the storm came through.

Our Canadian Hardy Climber that we got from Heirloom Roses, who specialize in roses grown on their own root stock, is doing wonderfully. .

It’s past its prime here but you can see how tall it is! Unfortunately it lost most of these remaining petals in the wind.

It’s over the roof!

I found pictures from last year so you could see the beautiful flowers.

It blooms copiously in the spring.

The other roses aren’t doing too bad, either. It seemed an extra hard winter on them but they seem to have shrugged it off. Although, the storm broke some branches, they should be fine. Here’s two:

The Graham Thomas:

The Chicago Peace:

They are pretty much safe from swathers so close to the house but the deer still like to eat on them, and obviously the wind can cause damage. We are extra careful with trimmers and mowers. The Murdered by Mower Rhubarb story is a post for another time.

When one makes light of what a catastrophe is, then one leaves oneself open to reality.

Reality hit in a lightning, thunder and wind storm yesterday afternoon.

This tree is off the side of the house and provides a great amount of afternoon shade as well as being the “best” climbing tree. This is the tree that nurtured the baby robins earlier this spring.

It missed the house, dog house and the swing set; it covers the sand box. One branch broke lose and then the other came down.

Rose bush branches were bent over and broken. The poor purple-robed locust got it too.

If it’s not poor soil, deer, gophers, pheasants, hot, cold, menacing mowers, and scathing swathers- it’s the wind out to get us. No wonder there aren’t that many trees around here.

It breaks our hearts.

The discussion came up here recently about trees- see the comments on this post. Since these things all tend to run together in my mind- wait, what mind? It got me thinking about the trees we do have on the place- lovingly planted by The Col. and cared for by all of us.

Then I got to thinking about the troubles we’ve had getting them to actually, you know, grow. I hear that is what they are supposed to do.

He planted some poplars around the property line a while back, weeds were growing up around them some but we were watering them and they were growing. Until one was mowed down by the neighbor cutting weeds. Others were chewed off by gophers.  Only one of that bunch survived due to various reasons.

The Col. put wire fencing around the baby trees when he planted more last year because of the deer issue. We watered all last summer and things looked pretty good.

Then the wind storm hit last.. when was it? winter, I think. The fencing came loose around some of the trees and banged the poor things all up. Some blew away which left the trees unprotected. This is what happened.

The deer (or something) ate the miniature peach tree down to almost nothing.

This one is a pine (I can’t remember which kind but The Col. knows.) It doesn’t look so good. You can see the wire fencing around it. It’s only about 15″ tall.

We do have quite a few trees that so far seem to be making it. Quite a few poplars because they grow fast and seem to do well here. The taller trees around the house are willows and were planted by the previous owner. We are thankful for their shade! Plus a red leafed maple, three crabapples, three cherry trees, a Mountain Ash, a locust, a weeping willow, several pines and I’m sure I’m missing some.

Catastrophe struck again this last week.

The swather got it- cage and all. Poor baby!

The baler came Friday. Such excitement!

We rushed right out to take some photos as the bales are picked up right away.

Nine bales total. We’ve had better, we’ve had worse.

We’ll have to wait for the puny second cutting to get our fix again. Until then, The Boy has his toy farm equipment out and is swathing, raking and baling all the rugs. Sure is hard work! Whew! But this year his Baby Sister is helping which helps ease the burden.

We have 5 acres. When we first bought it people asked us if we were going to get horses, which is what people around here do with their property. We said “No.” Cows then? We shake our heads and ignore the looks we get. I mean, what else would a person DO with property? Just enjoying the space isn’t good enough. Well, in some ways it isn’t. For one reason the weeds take over and they are just awful to live with- so pushy and not at all friendly. The previous owners had put in pasture grass for hay. We found a local farmer who would care for our measly four acres of grass and now we sit back and watch the show. What’s more exciting than watching grass grow? Watching the swather, tractor, rake and baler go around the field for one.

Here is a blast from the past (2004) when we ate lunch outside so we could better watch the baler. Notice The Boy’s shirt- it’s the same one that his sister wears all the time.

Last year our hay was cut for the first time on May 14th, which was early. Usually it’s cut towards the end of May or early June. This year?

It was cut yesterday. And yes, those are gray clouds up in the sky. But it hasn’t rained… so far. Today is clear and sunny with a slight breeze. Good haying weather.

Watch out! Don’t get run over!

We live in a unique area. It’s is a ‘sovereign nation’ all to itself, really. And you thought I lived in the United States, well, we do it’s just an island unto itself. Our little island has decided to follow EPA air quality standards. Never mind that the whole county around us does not and that we live in a rural area with not much industrialization/pollution. It’s what they decided and that is that! We can’t burn all summer, it’s pretty much universal that from a randomly picked day in June to an equally random date in September; no burning is allowed. Doesn’t matter how much rain we get it’s the dates, stupid! Anyway, now that we are technically allowed to burn we have to call to see if it will be allowed for our air quality. To be honest there are times we get an inversion, where the cold air gets trapped on the ground- held down by a higher pressure on top. It’s foggy and cold and miserable. On those days, I understand why it would not be a good idea to burn- it would all hang around for days on end. Other days, I just don’t get it. We were checking quite often to see if we could burn but they just were not allowing it. Finally, yesterday for the narrow window of 12 -3 PM, we could burn.

So The Col. came home about 1:30 and started the wanton burning. We raked up weeds, tumbleweeds, from the fences and ditches, lighting piles as we went. We were in a hurry! We had limited time. He was burning the ditches along the driveway when a bit of the grass field next door started burning. Ah well, it won’t go far. We finished up one side of the driveway and looked back. Oh, oh. The fire wasn’t going out and was making it’s way into the field. We sent HP for a shovel but he seemed to be taking his time, not understanding the urgency. The Col. tried the rake on it but that seemed to stir it up. Plus it was looking… largish. So he ran back to the house and filled up the sprayer tank with water. The sprayer tank holds quite a bit of water and is pulled by the garden tractor. I started raking away some of the dead material in the thin areas. Visions of California flashed through my mind. We had been pushing the time limit a mite and I kept thinking “don’t let the fire department show up!” You see, out here in our sovereign little island we have to PAY when the fire trucks show up. Yep, our local taxes don’t go to that. But you, dear federal tax payer, get to support it. Thank you! Except we get to pay a hefty fee if ever they actually have to come fight a fire for us. Isn’t it glorious? Fortunately, the little sprayer worked like a charm and put it out easily.

It really wasn’t too bad, the field was not harmed (probably did it some good) and it wasn’t close to any structures. But it was a tad worrisome for a bit. Yep, us pyros burning everything in sight.

There probably will not be another burn day until May. Shucks.

As you may know from a previous post, we’re not exactly on good speaking terms with the pheasants that are ravaging our garden. In fact, I resorted to borrowing a certain loud “dissuader” from a friend of mine. The tool makes a loud noise when discharged, propels small metal pellets rapidly through the air, and its name rhymes with “not fun.”

Except that it is. Particularly when you’ve just caught the perpetrators in their wanton act of criminal destruction, they’ve attempted to make their rapid getaway, a loud bang resounds, and one of them suddenly drops from view into the 10′ high scotch thistle patch in the corner of a neighboring field. I’ll admit that this doesn’t happen very often. I’m a newbie with this instrument, having grown up with rifles and pistols instead. Although I’m learning, my percentage is rather dismal.

Of course, all three children insist on being involved with the patrol efforts, but it rather surprised me when KJ wanted to examine one of the corpses, and was not in the least fazed by the blood-stained body of the feathered felon.

So, we were late on our way to an evening service at church, and not letting any grass grow under the tires of our van, when about a mile or so up the road, a close relative of one of our garden gangsters ran out in front of the vehicle. It was pretty close anyway, and as we were in quite a hurry, I didn’t make any effort to take evasive action. There was a thud down low, a body and feathers flew up through the air, and it was all over.

“What was that?” came the queries from the back seat.

A pheasant.

“Good job, Papa!” the cheery, encouraging voice of KJ replied.

I guess when you’re as bad a shot as I am, you need all the encouragement you can get.

Gardening is a particular challenge in our part of the world. The combination of a western semi-arid climate, relatively high pH soils, and aggressive wildlife spell disaster for most crops.

Our typical last frost date here is May 10 – 14, when sensitive plants can be finally planted outdoors. Our first killing frost of the autumn usually comes around September 20 – 25. This leaves us a scant 4 months with which to grow most tender vegetation. Unfortunately this “growing season” is fraught with other difficulties, not the least of which is daily temperature extremes. It is fairly usual to have differences in temperature of 50° to 55° F (28° – 31° C) between the daytime high and the nighttime low. Thus, on a day reaching 100° F (38° C), an overnight low of 45° F (7° C) is not uncommon. For the last few years — including this one — we’ve had near-freezing temperatures occurring even in early August. Most plants will not thrive under such conditions, and blooms on plants such as tomatoes and peppers will not set fruit except for on those occasional nights with much warmer temperatures.

JustMe’s help in preparing, planting, weeding and watering the garden this year has been instrumental in making it look the best it ever has. As we receive almost no rain all summer long, just keeping things irrigated can be a big job on our acreage. The potatoes and onions were looking fantastic, leaf lettuce was growing nice and lush, zucchini doing great, and some other vegetables struggling along, but mostly surviving.

Now we expect deer to be destructive, so I put a motion-sensor “scarecrow” impact sprinkler in one corner of the garden to keep the deer moving along. Unfortunately, the scarecrow isn’t supposed to be out when it will freeze, so our early season crops were picked over until mid-May when the deterrent could be permanently placed. Since that time it has proven to be an expensive device that seems like a good idea, even if the current implementation has definite room for refinement and enhancement. In the end, I think our strategically placed dog (tied up in the vicinity of the garden) has proven to be more effective than the scarecrow.

We have gophers, too. They have destroyed some of our young trees in the past, so their presence was anticipated. I placed another modern technological marvel in the soil of the garden, a battery-operated “sonic” probe that is supposed to dissuade ground-dwelling rodents from burrowing in its proximity. Within a week after the gopher chaser went in the ground, we had new mounds appearing in the garden. …sigh…

But, to be honest, the deer and gopher problem has paled in comparison to a much greater menace. This menace has decimated all of our leaf lettuce, damaged radishes, zucchini, onions, and tomatoes (some of the few fruits that had actually appeared). It has stripped ears of corn, damaged a few canteloupe fruits that were barely growing, and — get this — dug up and destroyed many potatoes! What on earth could cause all of this devastation, and prevent us from enjoying the fruits of our labors?

Pheasants.

Yes, pheasants! Amazingly they sneak in, peck most anything they can, and they are *very* destructive. In all fairness, we think they are more after the moisture in the fruits and vegetables, particularly the potatoes, but the end result is the same.

We’ve tried being nice. We even spent some more money putting in a bird bath in another part of the yard where they could enjoy some water. Bird baths are not cheap, you know. Do they use it? No. Apparently the garden is much more attractive.

Of course you realize, this means war!

Those of you who know us, know that we do not move at a very fast pace. After we moved in to this manufactured home plopped down in the middle of a grass field, we had big plans for the yard. Then The Big Guy got a job and we found out we were to be parents. Life gave us a detour and the yard suffered.

There were a few young trees here that are looking nice and providing shade now, which we are grateful for. A few years ago we planted some more trees and some have survived. There are hazards here, like the neighbor mowing the weeds in his field and mowing off our tree, then spraying the next one we put in. Plus deer and gophers eating things and the soil not being very good. This year more have gone in so it will be very nice around here one of these days.

The Big Guy likes roses so we have some planted along one side of the house. They have been doing well. We have a bank or berm along the edge of the property to protect us from the near by creek (billabong) that sometimes floods. We had planted some roses and other plants there but it has proved to be to hard to maintain. The weeds have a good hold there and with the plants there, we could not spray or keep it mowed. This year, the roses have been transplanted to a new bed and the bank isn’t covered with thistles because it’s being mowed. It’s wonderful.

We have actually planted a garden this year. It’s a dream of The Big Guy to have one and it just hasn’t been working out. We had the outline of one tilled up but haven’t planted in the last three years at least. This year we tilled it up and added “stuff” to help improve the soil. We planted mostly seed from 2005 but some is coming up! We often have grand plans that don’t turn out- hence the old seed.

We looked at some plants the other day in town but decided we should not overwhelm ourselves and stick with what we already had- some of it was not in the ground yet. It’s easy to go gung ho but restraint is not a bad thing. We need to be able to maintain what we have and since so much new stuff has already gone in- we need to be able to keep up with it before continuing. Plus other projects need to be done.

This spring has been a dry one. I have been watering for quite a few weeks already. That is pretty unusual as our springs are usually wet. I am not good at spacial stuff so getting the sprinklers all set up to cover the area the best has been difficult for me. But with the new impact sprinklers, things have been working out well. They have been set up in spots that cover a lot of ground and don’t have to be moved. Then I come along with a little sprinkler to get the missed areas. Today it has been raining a soft, soaking rain. It’s great since more transplanting went on last night. We really needed the rain. Thank you Lord!

Enough of the boring “Yard and Garden” post. I’ll keep you updated on the garden harvest.