The duck people have arrived

The year after we moved into the townhouse we drove down to TX and adopted an Irish Terrier rescue. Darby got to keep his rescue name. It so suited him. An Irish guy 😊

Darby experienced ducks for the first time here that spring. He did not care for them. Not one bit. And he let everyone in the area know. “Some duck people have arrived. Be on high alert!” In dog language, of course.

Every year since then, the first time we see the ducks fly in to the green space, we say “the duck people have arrived!”

They “arrived” the other day, very early in the morning. I saw three fly in barely at dawn. Later that morning they came back. Sandy was very aware and concerned. But he was glad they at least weren’t up on the roof top. Whew! Dodged that one. The last time they did that, Darby was in charge, and alerting for that type of “invasion”. Would have been very big shoes to fill.

The second rain garden

At the historic mansion site, the second rain garden is also a registered butterfly sanctuary. I had seen it on my personal walk-through a week ago. Yesterday it was confirmed as both the south rain garden and the butterfly sanctuary.

I spent hours yesterday evening pouring over a treasure – the schematics from the initial planting of the rain gardens, as well as the initial inventory/buy list. That was done in 2005, when the city took over the site, a new roof was put on the mansion, and the parking lot was put in. Makes sense – add a parking lot, offset runoff of that hard surface and potential chemicals, with rain gardens.

What went into the rain gardens was, as I expected, a lot of sedge and grasses. Other things too – honeysuckle, daylilies … From outward appearances it looks like the sedge and grasses have been very successful. Some research on sedge and other grasses yielded information that it is not just nectar that is needed in a butterfly garden. Caterpillars use the sedge and grasses environment. I need to dive a bit deeper on that to understand – should I then trim the sedge and grasses? They do seem a bit voluminous, but then maybe that is exactly what the caterpillars thrive on.

I fought myself on where to start, as the south rain garden/butterfly sanctuary is the closest to the entrance, but I really do want to see what survived in there for the butterflies before I start trimming there. It also looks like a lot of daylilies might be in there.

So the north rain garden gets a haircut first. The goal will be to start on the edges and gradually move in.

This will be a long-haul project, with layers of understanding and discovery. Perfect!

Rain garden thoughts

The house that we raised our children in had a pretty big back yard. There was definitely enough for me to have full and wide border gardens and still have room to, say, pitch a full-sized tipi and have room to play all around. Which we (humans and two big dogs) did.

In the far back corner, I called that my “wildflower garden”. It was the area of the yard that pitched down, and I quickly learned that all that sod we laid in the back yard was easy to mow everywhere but there. There it rutted up from the mower wheels, which was not the look I was going for. I decided to, yes, pull the sod out, turn it upside down where I didn’t plant things, plant daylilies and daffodils and multiple seed packets of coneflowers, and cover it with wood chips (I didn’t do mulch back then because I thought it decomposed too quickly). Oh, and the backdrop was a hedge I planted of cotoneasters. The bees loved that garden, and goodness knows I loved standing up on the deck and looking at that garden in its various bloom seasons. I knew nothing about rain gardens then, but now, researching rain gardens, my “wildflower garden” sure looked a lot like that. Admittedly, nothing grass-y though.

I am excited, and a little nervous, about working on the rain gardens at the historic mansion. The one I saw looks like this. She is expansive, and I am feeling a little like a kid on Christmas Eve, waiting for spring santa to show me what’s in there. I have had another garden experience like that, where I didn’t know what was “in there” and the discoveries were so fun! Work, but fun.

I am not very good at knowing grasses, sedge, wild ground cover, so I need to, I think, go little by little, making sure anything historic that needs to be preserved is identified, and then eek away at over-growth and gradually tame it – a bit. But carefully. Thinking no weed whippers. Thinking hand trimming. Thinking cool day for clean-up. Definitely tick spray. But wow what great potential!

Confirmed there is another rain garden as well, and I will meet with the garden committee members to get a tour and identify that area. Plus, they have a system for where garden waste goes, which is nice. Last garden I worked on that looked similar, I ended up hauling that away. But that is a different story.

Very excited to have a project like this. I will definitely have plenty to think about and plan and execute and maintain. It may be multi-year to work through. But what an honor to have the opportunity. These sites always awe-inspire me.

12 to go

I have been busy putting coffee grounds around all the daylilies and hostas that are coming up. Wow! Reality check that the workout we now do at the Y really is pretty much aerobic. Gardening muscles are a very different workout.

There are 12 plants to go, that haven’t popped up yet, that still need coffee grounds. They are mostly hostas and the Asian lily clumps. I am not optimistic about the Asian lilies by the linden, along the left side of the little path, as they have been fading the past two years. I will miss them if they fail. They are the ones on my blog front picture. But if they fail, why a nice replacement in the form of a pollinator created daylily seedling could fill that space, in a pinch, if needed 😊

That’s cool!

I had some 2 year old lavender seeds that I planted in soil that was from a beautiful cyclamen 2 years ago. I was not sure the seeds would still be good, but I thought I may as well try. They definitely were not going to sprout in the envelope.

It worked! So far! A whole lot are coming up! I am still not overly optimistic because I have not had overwhelming success with lavender before, but if they succeed, wherever should I put them? Lots ‘o choices now 😊 and maybe early here and then plant elsewhere. I think the seeds I had are perennial to this zone.

5/28/2023 – Time to go outside – getting leggy.

Lots of history, right here

In a recent post I shared a volunteer opportunity that came up through work, and one I still REALLY want to do, but is quite a distance to drive.

Something else came up last week as well.

I have a friend who regularly invites me to historic site events, and I finally went to one this week. The lure was a presentation of historic pictures of local sites.

I knew the event was part of a historical society meeting, and I knew there were probably volunteer opportunities. I say I “finally” went, because it was a “peace with this decision” moment.

We have done historic reenacting, with our kids, albeit a different era than this local site, have travelled around to some very serious reenactments – ones where a camp inventory with pictures is required to apply to stay in camp. We have toured historic homes and of course, sites. We have toured and camped as participants, in our tipi, cut our own tipi poles, my husband peeled them by hand, and I used the bark in my garden for mulch. Later we changed to a wall tent, and, truth be told, we still have it. Haven’t used it in over 10 years, but we’re hoping to do it again, someday. And in my office still sits my camp kitchen – that I bought at a reenactment and took home and sanded and poly-d and will not let my husband bring up north, yet. Memories. I feel so good being outside at historic sites. I am not sure what it is, but IT IS. But I was not sure I was ready to jump back in, yet.

I was looking for “something bigger garden”, but not necessarily connected to historic. And, of course, at the meeting a call went out for garden volunteers.

I am proud of myself. I did not sign up to be a member right at the meeting. I took overnight to soul search, because I knew I would dive deep. At the end of the next day, after work, I filled out my form and brought my dues over to my friend. It was a happy moment. I am approaching it respectfully, thoughtfully, and very excitedly.

I am not really a serious historic food gardener. EATING, oh yah! Fry bread, yes please! But they do have other gardens – even a “rain garden”. Yes, I too immediately thought, “Were rain gardens a thing in the mid-1800s?” I looked it up. They officially became a thing in the early 1990s. Not 1890s, but that is still super cool they have one. When a tree fails after an ice and snow storm, as the Amur maple out in the front of our townhome did, and as two historic trees at that site did, (same storm), you don’t get out your hand saw and then haul the fallen trees away in a horse cart. So a rain garden benefits the site, is an awesome solution to purify water runoff, and no one is “tending” the rain garden right now (I am told). So there is that. I need to sit with the garden committee and see if there is any documentation on the history, what is in there … so I can do it justice.

Additionally, and not any less anticipated, will be more dedicated garden time at another historic site – the historic cemetery I have mentioned in some of my posts. My husband and I have both been there a number of times to visit events. That was the site that had the goats in the woods a couple years ago. And when we came into a bunch of daffodils and other bulbs a couple years ago that a new neighbor of our son and daughter-in-law was digging out, those bulbs went to the cemetery. We have been there clearing branches, resetting pavers … It is a GOOD place.

Today I went over to the cemetery with new eyes. What could be done there with my surplus plants, seedlings, fall divisions? For sure, my friend already said the tulips from the blog a couple days ago. And we have been talking about what to do with the area between the retaining wall and the fence. I thought it was a planter. It is not. So it will be safe for daylily planting. Maybe a daylily seedling trial? My mind is full of ideas for that site, and I know I can do those things with much less research, right away.

So a good development. A long available set of options, but now in its time. The scope is right, and the commitment is right-sized and a match with the full “me”.

And it is sooooo keeping my mind off having the front Amur maple tree gone 😔