A Dog’s Delight

Our little dog Sandy, is 11 years old. For the almost 10 of those years we have had him, he did not have any interest in seeing what was outside a vehicle window while the vehicle was in motion. But he is getting to be quite adventurous. Lately he’s been testing the idea. He likes 20-30 miles per hour. Perfect for days when he accompanies us on our trips getting “lost” on this trail and that. He prefers if we keep one hand still on him while he gives his photo ops.

South Seas seeds 2021

4 years ago I harvested some pollinator created seeds from our 1 South Seas daylily. We have a very healthy set of green leaves from that harvest. No blooms yet. But I am patient. Maybe it needs a change of venue. Maybe it is waiting for me to retire. It’s a mystery.

This year we got one pod, with five seeds from the South Seas daylily.

I think those seeds, if they germinate, will have to do their plant production up in the little house garden, to the right of their 10 friends – pollinator creations from the Purple D’Oro daylilies.

But that is for next year. Sleep well, seeds.

What will we get – 2,3,4 years from now?

I do not plan any daylily crosses (yet). I let the pollinators do their thing, harvest the seeds, store them in envelopes, plant those after stratification, see what germinates, plant those in different sections of the garden, and wait. I am in year four, waiting. No blooms yet. But I am patient.

So far this year I have 32 seeds from what the pollinators accomplished on the Just Plum Happy daylilies, with about half the pods harvested. There are also pods on other daylilies – the South Seas, the Marque Moon, and the Hush Little Baby.

I collect them separately, store them in envelopes, and label the source, but no telling what we’ll get. Just for fun, for now. Maybe in future years at the little house with the big yard up north I will try my hand at crosses.

Bears and berries

At the little house we are retiring to up north, we have a bear that has been seen walking through the woods behind our neighborhood.

Over 15 years ago my Dad gave me an alpine currant bush. It got too big for my gardening area close to the house, and we needed a shrub for the garden between the garages, so I transplanted it. It did fabulously. The birds absolutely loved it. We loved it there. And we don’t have bears there, that we know of, pretty sure. Coyotes yes, but not bears.

Recently the alpine currant was removed as part of an association-wide initiative. All the shrubs between the garages were pulled and replaced with asphalt. I was bummed, but it was getting woody. It was probably going to need replacement within a few years anyway. As an experiment, I took some alpine currant rootings, and I planted them up north. They are doing really well.

Bears like berries. The alpine currant produces berries in abundance. Not thinking about bears, I planted the alpine currant pretty close to the house. Oops! It might be time to move the alpine currant.

If I put it at the back of the yard that could work. Dare I start another garden area out there?

Tender Love daylily – first year bloom

Last fall I bought a dozen daylilies to start the garden at the small house up north. Only five, however, got planted there. We were swamped with interior work and my creativity was just not flowing for the garden. I need think time sitting outside looking at an area for my garden ideas to gel. We were barely having any time out in the potential garden areas. And I was a bit nervous about the deer. So, the other 7 new daylilies got planted at the townhouse. A few came up in the townhouse gardens this year, the most exciting being the very late blooming, fragrant Tender Love.

I can already tell I will buy more. They feel like they will be like Blue Mouse Ears hostas to me. Each year I added more until I literally ran out of room in the area. I think Tender Love daylilies will be the perfect companion to the Blue Mouse Ears hostas, each shining at their own time, in the front of the garden.

An aside – Yes, that is clover in the garden. I left some for the bees and bunnies in the early years and it stayed. I pull it when it gets too much.

Back to the Tender Love daylilies Blue Mouse Ears pairing 🙂 Soon a bunch of the Blue Mouse Ears hostas will make the transfer up north. Not all, but some that need dividing and are crowded. Dare I move the Tender Love daylily too? Or splurge and order a few for up north?

The cheap in me says move it. The tender heart in me says it bloomed so perfectly right where it is, leave it. It is quite dainty. We’ll see how the remaining bud survives the landscape maintenance. That will probably be the decider.

Scope creep

A bit of scope creep has occurred in the garden at the little house up north. The garden jumped the sidewalk and started on the area between the long gutters on the back of the house. I knew this was a possibility and I did nothing to prevent it. Oh for the love of gardens!!!

I had a bunch of weigelia rootings that took so I planted them. If they survive they will need space. That area looked perfect to me!

The plan has now been nailed down to a grass path. The concrete will eventually be removed between the house and the garage and the garden can start right there. If it never expands beyond the weigelias that’s fine, but I have a feeling it will. Little by little. 4 bags of mulch and a base layer of cardboard at a time.

Deer walking through

At our little house up north, we have a deer “highway” along the side of the house. I discovered the path in the snow when we started coming up last winter. We knew they were bedding in the back yard so it wasn’t a surprise.

A couple days ago I woke up about midnight. I was reading in the living room and heard crunch crunch out the livingroom window. I suspected it was deer on the dry grass. I looked out the kitchen window and sure enough, first one big doe, and then a few minutes later another. Nice to see them as long as they are leaving my plantings alone – which they are 🙂

I wish I had a picture, but it was dark, and out the window. I can show you what our neighbors say the deer especially like. We have crabapple trees. A few days ago a few apples on the lower branches were ripening. Now I see they are … gone.

Ash “snow”

We have been keeping aware of the Greenwood fire in Northern Minnesota. There are increasing closures as the fire jumps major highways. Heavily wooded, beautiful forest areas with very old trees are being threatened, and over 20 thousand acres are on fire.

The air quality changes by the hour. Yesterday after work the air seemed clear. We went for a drive up the shore to Palisade Head (a high point along the shore of Lake Superior) and were totally taken off guard as the smoke in the air began to quickly thicken.

That’s the way it’s been – the winds change, the smoke rolls in and out, sometimes very quickly. Last night was particularly bad. It was “snowing” ash. We watched as particulates from what used to be trees just a day or so ago worked their way down from the smoke and cloud cover onto us. It is a sobering thought.

The latest weather forecast is calling for a few days with a decent chance of rain. Even so, the reports are the fire will not be fully contained until the snow flies – more than a month out.

Prayers for the fire fighters and the home and property owners.