I did not plant this abundance

Up at the camping land there is a whole lot I did not plant and I do not need to keep cultured. Of particular wonder are thousands and thousands of wildflowers.

It wasn’t always that way. If fact, the first year we owned the land, we showed up one night to a shock – the trail in and the whole campsite was wall-to-wall ferns. It had grown to 4′ tall in a few weeks. It was 1:30 in the morning. We went to bed and dealt with it the next day.

I remember back then we hadn’t even brought a mower yet. The ferns have very strong stems so we used the brush saw. That, however, was arduous, so not too long afterward, a weekend’s rental of a brush mower to work on all the trails followed. It was a dramatic difference. We were concerned for a bit that we had gone too far. But 1/2 hour after cleaning the trails, the trailcams showed deer eating again. They loved it.

The trails now are not at all fern covered. If left unmowed they are wall-to-wall wildflowers. The deer can be seen going side to side, back and forth, eating dandelions early in the season, and then wildflowers.

The ferns are still in the woods – over 4′ tall and lush.

Sad

All morning long while weeding I had been seeing a feather here, a feather there. Then I went over by the linden and got sad. Something obviously got a bird.

We regularly see a tan and cream cat prowling the landscaping around the townhouse in the evening while we are sitting out on the patio after our walk. It looks like a domestic cat, nice coat and well fed. At our previous home we had a neighbor who let her cat out to mouse at night. Instead of mousing (we were in a subdivision not a farm community) it would go around emptying songbird nests.

I hope that is not what is occuring here. Very sad.

Time to weed

Up north, at the camping land, we had a bit of a “project”. It had been a while since we were there so we knew the trails would be overgrown. We expected it to be 4′ tall, and we were pretty close. The trail was 3 1/2′ foot tall, and the ferns as the trail starts to join the woods was over 4′ tall. Literally, my husband went and got the mower and mowed a path for me to get out of the truck and start helping.

Yes, there are wood ticks in all that tall growth. We permethrine our clothes and tennis shoes and spray down with deep woods off to keep the ticks off. We have both gotten tick borne illnesses and had to take antibiotics, so we know – be careful!!!

Our dog has his preventative treatment and shots too. Not playing games.

So we worked our way to a mowed trail in, and a mowed campsite. We still couldn’t see the raised garden beds though. Eventually we mowed strip by strip and found them. I think I have some weeding to do!!!

The good news is – I think the asparagus survived. We will see about anything else. And outside of the raised beds, where I planted tulips, daffodils, and iris? Probably won’t know if those took. By the looks of the trail cam pics of the deer eating the dandelions, I would suspect no. Maybe after we weed whip that area I will be able to make out something like iris or tulip leaves. You never know.

Bunimous has decided

Bunimous (named because he is dinosaur sized as rabbits go – haha 😂) decided which Asian lily blooms I should have in a vase. He must have started his munching but then left a broken stalk for me. Thanks Bunimous!

In the background is the daylily seeds result for this year – one for sure. I think the other two are grass – I think. Those two will go up to the camping land in a spot that gets enough sun and does not totally dry out. If they surprise me, AWESOME! If not, they will be in good company. More to come on that and change of seed soil in future blogs.

The asian lily below just bloomed. That plant is one that fell in the category of “tulip” syndrome. It bloomed strong year one, faded year two, and is now “iffy,” for blooming each year. Like the faded tulips, I leave it in the ground just to see if it will do anything. And it provides early greens when the garden is first coming up in spring.

The clematis could be trimmed, but hey! It covers the boring bare rock 🙂

Are those scapes?

It took forever this year to get the first scapes on the daylilies! That matched perfectly with so many other things I have needed to be patient on recently. It seems to be a theme …

Anyway, the first daylily scapes are here!!!

Fittingly, the first ones (I saw at least) are on the South Seas daylily – yes, my favorite.

Another very close favorite is the Purple D’Oro, and that has a few new scapes too.

The most surprising of all is the peach daylily that had the smooshing and breakage from the roof project now has a scape! Hurray!!!