rewrap

I re-skinned my little greenhouse. 

Not sure why as I haven't been using it, which is the reason it sat with a panel completely missing from one short side, half the back torn, and most of the roof. It tore from age and weather, and I just hadn't had the motivation to go out and fix it. But with more possibility of rain in the coming months, I didn't want it to get into disrepair. Some of the smaller wood pieces are starting to rot, but most of it is still in fair condition, standing up and staying dry. It was satisfying to see the temperature immediately swing up to over a hundred degrees in there, once I had all the wrap fastened on!

I used medium weight mildew-resistant clear plastic shower liners again. I didn't get it on as straight and wrinkle-free as usual, and had to patch some gaps with tape. Also the support up across back of the roof panel came off, and I lazily just held it back in place with duct tape instead of going to find a screw and screwdriver in the garage. I can work more on it later.

sidetracked

Today I went out intending to straighten another line of bricks on the garden edging, some are still wonky. But I got distracted by doing things with plants instead! I guess that's a good sign of my interest reviving. I cleared grass and spreading bugleweed from the stone edge on the side bed in the backyard, pulled most of the violets out of the front bed, yanked out all the 'autumn joy' sedums in that area (they look diseased), dug and planted in their spot a few lungwort babies, cleared some weeds and sensitive fern (dying back) from around the young arborvitae on the sunny sideyard, pulled up the milkweed over there (it looks sickly too, and I still don't have any monarchs visiting), turned part of the leaf mulch pile and mulched all of the front bed. Whew! 

I wore my skating knee pads while doing the work. It really saves some aches.

My canna lilies died this past winter too. They had never flowered, so I don't feel that's too much loss.

The beautyberry are looking fantastic! I should get some photos (might edit to add later). Even the young ones I dug up and transplanted few years ago, are looking nice (though not making decorative berries yet). I have one in the front bed and am really looking forward to how showy that will be someday soon.

reckoning

There's a lot to re-evaluate as I start working in the garden again. I found out which plants can't survive the winter without extra mulch and care. I've lost my potted figs, chocolate mint, green onions, tarragon, some stinking hellebores, the hyssop, winter savory and probably more that I can't remember now. Or have forgotten their names. 

I was surprised to find that both rosemary plants are still alive- doing better when I ignored them. My shady sideyard has been overwhelmed by the joe pye weed and black-and-blue salvia (which pleases me). The salvia crowded out the lamb's ears and gladiolas. Somehow I don't mind loosing some glads- I'm not as fond of them anymore- but I do miss the lamb's ears. Mabye I will try to move them to a different spot, because I love seeing the blue salvia thrive. I even saw two hummingbirds fighting over the space this week! 

I find I'm not too keen on the yellow salvia under my trees anymore, or the sensitive fern that looks terrible half the year, or the 'autumn joy' sedums that the deer munch on so they don't look great and have very few blooms. My lilac appears to be suffering, some branches have died, and my lavender is much reduced in size, but I cut out a lot of dead stems and hope it will grow back.

Today I pulled out a ton of mock strawberry in and around some garden beds, and straightened out one whole brick row of edging, on bed 4. I thought I was lining the bricks up straight enough, but then when I got to the end the last brick wouldn't meet the corner one square. So I took them all off again and ran a string line from one end to the other. Redid it- much straighter! Packed the clay soil in tight underneath and hopefully I won't have to re-do this one for several years (the clay gets pretty solid). I'm pleased because this bed has always had a crooked edge where the stump of an old tree never came out. I finally broke up and removed most of that. Then planted some calamint (nepitella) along the edge- which I'd pulled up when trimming in the front bed. Stems had rooted where they trailed on the ground. Easy to move and put in more areas. Such a bright, sharp scent.

The lovage there at the end wasn't doing too great but a few weeks ago I cut out yellowing foliage, weeded around it, mulched and watered. It's perking up a little bit.

In bed 1, I yanked out all the mock strawberry but left half a dozen of this plant that's growing there as volunteer (or weed) also. I've always left a few of these around the yard, they seem to get eaten more by the insects - so I view it as a decoy or trap plant. I still don't know what it is!

I was also pleased to see that the little broken stone "mowing strip" I dug in along the outside base of bed 1, is mostly still in place! There were some weeds in the cracks but once I pulled those up, it was far easier to make this a clean edge when mowing. Encourages me to continue with that project (I have a lot of rocks stacked on my bench intended for this). There are more edging bricks to straighten too (as visible on the left).

Here's the few herbs I have: parsley, thyme and chives. All bought as starts from the nursery months ago, I didn't do anything from seed this year. With my cat Eliza in the window.

She was meowing at me.

I had basil and mint also, but they died. I forget to water sometimes, still. I've removed and dumped the soil from the planter boxes that hung on my deck railings. One was badly cracked and spilled- I'd fixed it with duct tape years ago but it wasn't holding and looked awful. Another was warped, and all four the plastic really faded and discolored. Not sure yet if I will replace those or use them somewhere else. 

It's a lot of work but I'm trying to just do a little bit at a time. Mostly focused on rebuilding and fixing structures in the garden, improving the soil again (when I pulled off the bricks, nice to see the soil was still dark and healthy-looking under the dried crusty top inches), and getting rid of weeds. Have to figure out a fencing solution too, or the rabbits will just eat everything I grow. Oddly, I have not seen many squirrels in my yard this year. We do have red-tailed hawks, an owl and foxes that come through regularly, I wonder if they have just reduced the numbers. Or if they don't have as many nuts to bury, or if they aren't interested in digging in my garden because the soil got so hard and compacted without me working and amending it.

tiny frog

The garden is still neglected, though I have begun to work in it again. Clearing weeds, spreading some light mulch, hauling extra dirt in from a neighbor. It's mostly clay so I mixed in some old potting soil and a handful of compost with live worms, per bag, letting it sit for a while. One bag didn't get the compost. Will see if it breaks down and improves a bit over the next few months (I'm not ready to spread it yet, going to straighten some of the garden edging and maybe transplant a few things out first).

Nicotiana and borage are still self-seeding, and the plant I think is shiso but never confirmed.

I looked over the railing the other day and saw something on a leaf. 

Went down and looked closer: a tiny tree frog. The size of my thumbnail. 

So cute. Of course it kept hopping away from us, but I called my kid down to see and we took pictures and got it to sit on our hands a moment. (Washed them well afterwards).

four years

That's how long I've had Tucker.

I think it's the longest I've kept any paradise fish. He's the only fish I have now. With lots of snails.

I think he looks pretty good.

I think my cats

are best buddies now. They have two cat beds side-by-side, but try to fit in the same one together. It's snug!

Mabel wouldn't look at me when I squeaked to get them both facing the camera. 

baby snake

Found along the edge of garden bed, when I was trimming back the grass. After spending hours out there (or so it felt like) pulling the weeds from the beds. I saw this wriggle away and thought it was a large earthworm, but it moved differently. I actually saw three of them- and caught one (gently) just to take a picture.

Tiny Northern brown snake! (my best guess at identifying). I am fairly sure it is the same species I saw years ago as adult- I'm glad to know they're thriving in my yard. This one so small it's the width of my wedding ring. Literally.

I show nothing of the garden yet because it's in such terrible shape. But there are a few flowers lingering even though the heat- from a mixed packet my sister sent me last year. (I don't know which these are)

little celosias

It's started to come back- my desire to work in the yard and garden. I just woke up one day and felt like going out there and doing stuff. Maybe the malaise from TBI is finally lifting. Yesterday I actually went out and cleared all the weeds and dead plants from the garden beds- it's still rather untidy with leggy going-to-seed nicotiana and some other flowers leaning all over the place. But looks a bit cared for now. I also weeded out the front bed, which is full of gaps and alarming empty spaces since I cut back the boxwoods severely months ago and it is so slow to regrow (but showing some progress now). My next task is to dig out the bottom of the leaf pile and spread mulch here. And then plant something. Not more boxwood (one of them has died). Maybe a beautyberry, or an azalea.

But what really was my first move into doing plant stuff again was for someone else. Or a bunch of someones. I'd weeded the mailbox spot when trimming edges for mowing again, and there were a lot of little celosia seedlings growing up in the grass just outside the bed. I felt bad to keep just mowing their tops off, so I pulled most of them, potted up, and gave away via the online neighborhood group. At least half a dozen people came and took some. 

They were so sad when first potted up!

So spent a few days in my mini greenhouse to recover with some extra humidity. It was nice to put the greenhouse to use again. 

Part of the roof panel had torn off from the wind, so I fastened on some temporary plastic sheeting. On one short side, the plastic shower liner has started to tear. I taped it up. It's the section that was already used when I put it on here- the liner that I bought new shows no signs of wear yet. A year for that is pretty good I think, and if the new-bought one last two or three years, even better. It was only five dollars. Ten bucks every few years to re-skin my greenhouse is great.

Back to the plants- they all perked up and looked fine by the time I set them out for giveaways. It felt satisfying to get my hands a little dirty again.

this plant

is a good indicator of how off my mental state has been since the concussion. It's an American beautyberry- a plant I snatched up with delight at the last plant swap. I'd neglected to actually put it in the ground so it was waiting for cooler weather again. I should have been devastated (or at least sad, disappointed?) to find it wilted and looking dead after the heat wave we had, when I forgot to water most of my outdoor potted plants. I looked at its folded dry leaves and felt nothing. I didn't care. I wondered if I would ever care about plants and gardening again.

But I watered it, and all the other things, and most of them revived- my ginger mint is putting up a few new leaves again, the geraniums pulled through. Chives appear to be completely dead, but that one is no biggie- easy to start or buy more in spring. The beautyberry revived! It put out a lot of new leaves and looks good as ever now.

Weird thing is, I don't feel thrilled about this. I should be glad. I'm pleased, but in a way that feels remote. It's just such an odd thing, to not care much about what was once my passion.

Another sad aspect of this is, I looked back at what else I brought home from that plant swap. Most of them didn't make it. The mountain mint, sweetspire, St. John's wort, aster, bergamot and shining sumac are all dead. I am disappointed about the sumac. The rosemary is looking pretty terrible- most of it ended up afflicted by some insect and I cut it back and just a few stems are regrowing. I am not sure about the elephant's food and the sedum- will have to look next time I'm outside. And of the houseplants, I still only have the Haworthia. But do I feel sad about all this? No, just rather- indifferent. Which in itself is sad.

our two kitties

are starting to get along! Just a few weeks ago, I would have never seen them relaxing together like this. They still have plenty of spats and swat at or chase each other, but also do friendly greetings, nose bumps and I've even caught Eliza briefly licking Mabel's head, or giving her eye-squints. Good signs!

my tucker fish

 has great color again- better than it shows in this photo. He seems to love the heat wave we've been having. 

I'd somewhat neglected his tank lately, but this week have got it cleaned up again. Did a water change, scraped algae off the glass, dosed with a bit of plant fertilizer, and replaced the airstone in one of the sponge filters. Will try to get a full tank shot soon too.

ditched the acorns

What happened with the end of that project. I got to the step of leaching the tannins out. Had all the ground acorns 

in three containers of water in the fridge. Poured off, stirred up and poured off again, and refreshed with new water every day. For over two weeks it felt like (I lost track). Just never seemed to get clear. Pictures of one container, several days apart each image:

Really dark with tannins at the beginning

Started to get lighter after just a few days

but then seemed to go on forever never getting clearer than this:

I finally stopped. I think it just went on too long- the ground acorns seemed to be spoiling in the fridge. Had that same unpleasant, slightly-pink greyish color as many of the nutmeats I'd tossed out when shelling them, because I thought they were bad.

So either all those acorns I saved in the freezer went bad, or they went bad from taking so long to leach the tannins out, or I'd thrown away masses of them at the beginning, that I didn't need to. I just don't know which it is.

Either way, I did taste a tiny bit of the acorn 'granola' (that's what it looked like) and it was very bland. Not soured or rancid, but not nutty and sweet either. 

So I never cooked with them at all. I think next time I collect acorn mast to keep the deer from hanging out in my yard all winter, I'll just throw them in the woods.

this blog

has kinda gone defunct, because I had various health problems and injuries one after another, and simply didn't plant a garden last season, or this. It's all weeds out there plus some self-seeded and perennial herbs, a few flowers. Borage, nicotiana. I still have the mints, the figs, the geraniums (for now). The chives died in the heat this week, but perhaps will revive with some watering. . . 

I don't know if I'll get the garden going again, but did want to make note of some changes.

One: we got a new cat!

two, actually-

The first one is quite a little beast. Sweet at times, but definitely has her own mind. And she likes to chomp on plants. Has eaten my big spider plant- all the foliage shorter, with shredded ends. Well, now I will be glad of all the babies to start new ones with! (I used to constantly give them away)

I had to give away and re-home a ton of houseplants that would make her sick (or outright kill her) if she nibbled on them. And I'm so glad I did, because she shows no signs of stopping. My Pilea peperomioides has bite marks in all the leaves. And the second cat we adopted, the tortie- she likes to dig in the dirt of my parlor palm. I'm sweeping up and replacing dirt in there all the time.

I kept only a few of the toxic plants- heartleaf philodendron, velvet philodendron, zebrina and pothos 'cebu blue'-

they are on very high shelves she can't reach, or hung from the ceiling.

It was difficult to part with so many, but many went to my brother-in-law's girlfriend, a woman just as passionate about plants, and when I visit her home I will see them thriving. The giant dracanea flowered again the week after she took it home!

Photos of our big schefflera, the only houseplant we'd named (Bob), right before I gave it away.

I had recently cut it back severely. There were plenty of new baby leaves growing

Some stem pieces I had cut and dipped in rooting hormone, the leaves all dropped off and I thought they were done for, but I pulled one out and after weeks and weeks, there were roots finally growing at the base of the cutting. So I was looking forward to see if those finally sprouted new leaves. Maybe they will and I will see someday.

I was most sad, to part with my angelwing begonias. These were cuttings I'd just started of the narrow-leaved one (forget the variety name at the moment)

And all my different coleus. They're planted outside in the front beds or in pots now, but I won't be bringing cuttings inside to keep over winter again. Toxic. I can't even name now, all the ones that are gone- but it was well over half my collection. Two-thirds or even three-quarters of it.

I do still have most of the semi-succulents, the creeping charlie (sweedish ivy), boston fern (shabby but regrowing), most of my african violets, and the zygo cactus. That's about it. For now.

Someone had just offered me cuttings of her zz plant, one I'd always wanted to have, but I had to decline. That one's toxic too. It's just not worth the risk. I know I'll never teach this cat not to chew on plants when she's bored (or antsy that dinner's not getting served fast enough). But we already love the kitties too much, they are more to me than plants right now.

how's my Tucker

doing, fine. Better color now again-

though hard to get it in a photo (as usual) because he starts zooming back and forth when I'm near. So most pics a blur or simply backlit-

or he lurks in the large anubias corner. 

Got this decent pic from the short side of the tank.

Something's still going wrong when I do the water changes. I admit it had been too long between them again, and I had never done a very thorough cleaning since the time away on vacation. Yesterday attempted to remedy that- siphoned the gravel, but only on one side of the tank because thought I ought not overdo it and put him into shock.

But then I continued with trimming plants and decided to move a few, and cut down or pulled out all the rotalas in the back (a lot of them dying, looking shabby) and trimmed some bolbitis fern off the log, tied onto stones to put in the background, etc. It ended up being too much change. So I thought. Except, the fish looked relatively calm until I started pouring the new water in, then he clamped up, hung at the surface, barely moving, curving his body. Looked alarmingly like the symptoms my minnows died of.

Prime doesn't expire. Nitrates were low already. My best guesses are: the city is using chloramine or added excess chlorine (but Prime is supposed to nullify that anyway) or I released ammonia into the water column when pulling some plants up (but the fish looked okay at that point) or, the new water caused a pH jump. I think it's the latter. Must test before and after next time.

He looked shocky all that evening and I was worried. But this morning seems completely fine, so phew.

our old man cat

went to his final rest yesterday. We miss him so much. 

He was a great cat. Super friendly, handsome and confident-

Loved to be with his people. He would sleep on your lap for hours. Keep you company if you were sick. Greet anybody walking by our house (unless they had a dog). This photo taken years ago by one of my kids with a toy camera.

When they weren't at my house for a week, he'd go around looking for them, and sleep on their beds. 

Same if my husband traveled.

His favorite foods were tuna, chicken heart, greenies, or anything he caught himself (except the chipmunks and voles). Squirrel, mouse, bird, rabbit . . .  Many apologies to the small wildlife on his behalf (though I don't think he was one bit sorry) I always did feel bad about that. 

Sadly, in his last few days had no interest in the tasty morsels we offered. (He could be picky, but in this case it was because he was ill).

He liked boxes.

Especially if somebody's clothes were in there

Great at relaxing (aren't all cats?)

Yes, look at all the pictures of my cat sleeping-

this pic from years ago when we had two cats (turned out he didn't like sharing his household with another feline) I always though it looked like he was going to melt off the chair-

He was a big fan of the outdoors, and a superlative hunter, as noted above. I won't show again the evidence of his skill.

Dear Irwin, we loved you so much. Best cat I've ever known.

 Nineteen and a half years of a very good life.

Bonus: video my husband took, playing "let's knock the pen off the desk" game. Which became annoying later- the cat would use this to get our attention if we ignored his demands, knocking all sorts of things off the counters in the kitchen! Now it's funny and endearing in memory.

(All the photos on here that you haven't seen before, were taken by my husband, one of my kids, or my stepson.)