Mow, mow, mow your yard

The weather is a bit iffy, but one can tell it is spring by the sounds of lawn mowers, mine included. I fertilized the front yard with compost and spot treated the dandelions, but otherwise leave it to its own devices. The wild strawberries are starting to bloom there, as well as an errant grape hyacinth or two.

I (finally) fenced off access to the north and south sides of the house by the dogs. The north side is relatively unscathed; it's where the hosta bed is. The south side, alas, has multiple holes dug along the foundation, presumably done in the pursuit of chipmunks. People say chipmunks ruin foundations, but I am thinking it is whatever is pursuing the chipmunks that does the damage.

I was going to just dig up this whole area and move in ornamental grasses, but there are still some remnants of the prairie sampler I planted there several years ago, mostly asters of one sort or another, and little blue stem and probably some other stuff. I can still move in the grasses while I decide what to do with the rest; one of the grasses is northern sea oats, which will spread to fill in any gaps I make.

The mystery shrub from several weeks ago has a cousin growing in the hosta bed, so it must not be the spice bush I was hoping had survived. Mulberries pop up here and there, in an unending succession, but I think this might be a silver maple? I welcome all guesses. This particular speciman will have to go, as it is too close to the house. The other one I may let go for a bit, as it is located in a gap between the service berry and high bush cranberry. I eliminated all the silver maples from my yard many years ago, but sometimes regret that I did not keep one that grew at the back of the property, as it would provide a significant amount of shade by now. I'm not a fan of silver maples, but they are native and they grow fast.

Speaking of growing fast, I am very impressed with the Triumph elm tree I planted in 2016. It looks like it is almost as tall as the tulip tree planted in 2009 (?). It's growth habit is more vertical and is leafing out much more than the tulip. I simply love it.

My SO and I managed to catch a nice day and spent it at Spring Lake Woods and Bog. There were not a lot of spring flowers yet besides hepatica, but it wasn't too boggy, so we had a nice stroll.

Jack-in-the-pulpit

Fungi of some sort

Indiana is in the midst of a slow reopening. I have appointments for a dental cleaning, a haircut, and a massage this week... fingers crossed. Each site has protocols in place to make it as safe as possible, for employees and clients. I was able to visit a local nursery this past week, to get some coleus and a few other annuals. We'll see how it goes. Strange times.

The trials of March

"Sheltering in place" does not mean one cannot go out in the yard and work on spring clean up chores. The front yard looks relatively tidy, so I've been concentrating on the backyard. If I lived in the country, I would just do a controlled burn to get rid of all the dead plant material, but alas, I am a suburbanite and must abide by local laws.

The dogs have been inordinately interested in the garden shed and now I know why: something (I'm guessing a woodchuck, hence the name of this blog) has managed to breech the hardware cloth barrier I oh-so-carefully-but-apparently-not-carefully-enough skirted the shed with last fall. Some of this damage may have been inflicted by the dogs, though. There are days when I wonder why-oh-why did I adopt these knuckleheads?

My SO suggested we cut up some plastic trellis and use that instead of the hardware cloth. I agreed but have this sinking feeling that an animal that can chew through hardware cloth will have no trouble with plastic.

While a construction crew toils away resolving the neighborhood-wide drainage issue (getting us high and dry must be an essential service), I have drainage issues in my own backyard. The clay soil does not help. Yesterday the ground wasn't too bad, but of course today it is raining AGAIN.

I like to get a pic of the few remaining crocus blooms before rabbits eat them. The snowdrops and snow crocus are already gone, and it occurred to me that perhaps they *have* bloomed before this year, but I didn't notice because they haven't created clumps yet, so come and go without much fanfare.

Last summer I thought I had eradicated the cocklebur, but apparently not. The dogs come in with these things stuck to their collars, then they stick to whatever I am wearing, like Velcro.

I looked through previous March blog posts, to see if this year is different, but no. March is the limbo between winter and spring. Last year my hip was a good excuse for not keeping up. This year, thankfully, that is not a problem anymore. Time to get crackin' - if it ever stops raining.

Lazy Fair

I confess I sometimes take a laissez faire approach to my yard, which is usually NOT a good thing. Plants get out of control, or worse, they die. The place starts to look like a jungle and becomes overwhelming in a very short time.

Topped cherry trees

Maybe it is the orchard and its requirements for severe pruning, but this summer I have been turning a critical eye toward the shrubbery and trees. That critical eye is frequently followed by a limb saw and/or lopper and/or snipper of one sort or another.

Topped apple trees

If I were more on top of things, I would have taken before and after photos. I might not have even taken these shots, but I'm reacquainting myself with an older, more compact camera, to take on the Garden Fling in Minneapolis come July. The light was not the best in most of these cases, but I think the camera itself will do.

Trimmed up redbud tree

The redbud tree closest to the deck was blocking my view of the backyard, so it was one of the first to get trimmed up. The other two received similar treatment. A plus to trimming up is it is easier to reach the base of the trees, which in this case allows me to keep the cardinal vine plants watered.

Trimmed up viburnum and redbud tree

Another plus to pruning is it keeps one shrub from impinging too much on its neighbor. This is a real problem with my forsythia, which are planted too close to the arborvitae. I've taken to whacking them severely.

Trimmed up arrowwood viburnums

Trimming up also allows more light to reach the bed underneath, inviting contemplation of what to plant as understory plants.

Trimmed up purple smoke tree

I have been more diligent about weeding. The other day it was the Canada thistle under attack, as the plants were starting to form buds. Yesterday it was something I don't know the name of but that is particularly prolific. Today I pulled errant northern sea oats from behind the rhododendron. (For more about battling weeds, see gardeninacity's post. What he said.)

Volunteer oak tree

More diligent weeding has uncovered some surprises: the baby oak tree above and the volunteer elm tree below. I plan to let the elm continue to grow in situ, between the Viburnum prunifolium and a Rose of Sharon shrub; it will break of the monotony of a row of bushes. If I keep the oak, it will have to move away from the house and into the yard, then survive absent minded mowing.

Volunteer elm tree

Regarding the gayfeather mentioned recently, I did move it, to the prairie sampler bed on the south side of the house. Initially, it is pouting - no one likes to relocate - but I think it will be very happy there, eventually.

Moping gayfeather

In sadder news, something got to the broccoli plants.

Bitten broccoli

I took a tour of the garden fence and discovered this breach.

Animal incursion

Previously, I had reinforced this corner with additional poultry netting, as little bunnies were squeezing in and out of there. Apparently, that did not stop something bigger (woodchuck? rabbit?) from bypassing my effort. Sometimes I wonder why I bother to grow edibles at all.