I've given the milkweed patch in my garden a few years to start attracting swarms of monarch butterflies, and because this is common milkweed (Asclepias syriaca) which spreads from its roots...
There is much bamboo work to do this spring. Much is normal maintenance: pruning, cleaning. The dry fall and harsh winter have created an extra amount of damage that needs to be removed too, but I also skipped some tasks the last year or two and am paying for it now -- mainly rhizome pruning and therefore having to wrangle a few back under control.
The other day when the temperature reached 82ºF (28ºC) I knew I had to take advantage of it and get something done in the garden. But what? Where to start? Actually, the answer was pretty easy: the veggie garden!
After many hours of effort, much downloading, re-downloading, checking and double-checking, some headaches and discoveries...
As you probably have noticed, I've been going long stretches this summer without posting -- sometimes only one post a week (or less)! Mainly this is due to a busy schedule that leaves little time for gardening, but it's also due to the weather, as it's just been a very hot summer. Until now that is.
Emboldened by Peter's recent post about the less attractive parts of his garden, I'm going to share with you the three "nightmare" areas of my garden. Today's is actually the oldest part of my garden: the large raised planter box below the deck.
My Indocalamus tessellatus bamboo has such large leaves, it's really a standout even among so many other bamboos. Unfortunately it gets bitten by winter quite easily and the new leaves emerge relatively late. So in the spring when everything is fresh and new (right now), this plant looks tattered and tired.
Limited garden time and relatively small weather windows (times when it's not raining or sopping wet) means that my spring garden cleaning happens a little differently this year.
Although the warm weather has left, it was clear and dry this weekend. With a long list of bamboo-related chores to get done, I decided to tackle one on Sunday that was overdue.
One of my biggest springtime garden tasks is cleaning up the bamboos. Sometimes this means thinning and tidying the big, arborescent bamboos, but it also means pruning or mowing the groundcover and shrubby bamboos.
Did you miss part 1 of my pond makeover? Monday started with more bailing, and this is when it started getting really, well, crappy.
Yesterday I mentioned that the sight of my pond stopped me from continuing with my spring garden cleanup, and teased that today I would reveal what nastiness I enjoyed next.
Our warm weather has not only put me in a mood for some garden cleanup, but it's given me some extra time to do it too. Logically that doesn't make sense, as early spring seems like it should mean less time for cleanup, but for some reason I feel like I am getting an early start, so more time.
Now that Thanksgiving is in the past, I'm no longer working long, long days at the bakery. It's amazing how many people want pies for that holiday (and how many people show up or call on the 23rd trying to order a pie!), but things are back to normal now. We peeled so many apples, it's crazy. Since the organics bins were filled to the top, I brought home four big boxes of peels on Tuesday (or was it Monday?):
It's been a few months since I noticed the tears in the pond liner, keeping the water level so much lower than normal. I've been putting off doing something about it because I knew it was going to be a terrible task not so much because of the repair, but because of the maintenance needed on the pond itself -- the water quality was terrible this summer.
As I mentioned recently, I've had some time to spend in the garden finally, and this post is a look at some of what I accomplished. It may not be the most inspiring of posts, but it makes me good to share my progress.
It's the time of year that I have mixed feelings about: bamboo chopping time. It's a happy time because it means that spring is here and the bamboos are pushing out new growth, but it's also a sad time as it means that all of that lovely foliage will be gone for a few weeks or more.
I've been in the garden cleaning things up for the past week. After a day off yesterday because of an unexpected snow, I should finish up the bulk of the work today. I've been collecting little tidbits as I went, so here are a few of them collected.
The title of this post is a bit misleading, as I don't see the subject as really a "problem" -- not a big one at least. It's my beautiful Fargesia 'Rufa' clumping bamboo:
The other day after cutting down the bananas and preparing them for winter I decided it was also time to remove the pond netting.
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