Let it Snow...?

My husband and I trade off on the weekends to be the one to get up with the kids, and let the other stay in dreamland just a little (glorious) bit longer. Today was my turn to "sleep-in". When I was kid-free it wasn't uncommon to wake up in the afternoon on a weekend. Now, if I snooze til 8, it's sleeping late. And if I'm feeling really decadent, maybe I'll let hubbs handle the kiddies till 9. However, my sleep was fouled by the base rumble of the plow-guy seemingly trying to take up a little bit of asphalt with the snow he was plowing just outside my window. I think I was more annoyed by the realization that it had snowed enough for a plowing, and not that I missed out on sleeping until 8:30. Since the ice storm December 13th, it seems like every fifth day we're getting another wallop of the white stuff.

In hilly Pepperell, we have 2-feet in a few places. To give you a sense of the depth, I took a photo of snowfall outside our living room, where it's about 15". I put the pillow in the frame to give a depth perspective.

A few weeks ago, I read in the Boston Globe's 'Ask the handyman' column a suggestion about using your leaf blower to clear light dusty snowfall instead of pulling out the snowblower or, horrors, the shovel. At the time I thought, gee that sounds like a great idea, and I shared it with my resident snow handler. I am pleased to report that it works very nicely with the fluffy stuff, (heavy wet stuff, not so much) and lately it's been so cold that that the good skiing snow is th only kind we've gotten. Knock wood. Hubby with the bad back now prefers this snow removal method above all others. Here he is clearing the walk today. Hardworking and a snappy dresser too. I'm a lucky girl.

I am pleased to report that I took the first steps toward the basement grow room today. I cleaned it. Taa Daa. Here is what I hope will be my "before" photo. I have to share that the local hardware store people laughed (after we left of course) when we asked if they stocked seed-growing-kits. And I quote, "Uh, it's January. We don't typically stock that stuff 'tul Spring", in the unmistakable tone of; 'you Idiot.'

I can't help it, I can't wait.

My 'To Do' List for 2009

I do have all kinds of plans - it might be premature to call them a 'to-do' list. A plan seems so much more innocuous. So here are my plans for my (and my hubbs) spare time this year.

1. Clear the scraggly brush in the front yard, open it up to more sunlight.
1.a. Consider the area for a veggie garden.

2. Pick up the leaves, spread the remainder of the mulch from last year. Order more.

3. Take the cut tree detritus in the wooded lot to the dump.

4. Put up a screen in the side yard *combination vegetation and fencing.

5. Widen the front walk beds.

6. Start annuals from seed in the basement.

7. Direct sow annuals from seed *based on cultivar tolerance.

8. Finish the floating deck.8.a. Lay out a patio at the base.

9. Move the playset.

10. Research the best time to move dogwood trees. Move the trees.

11. Create a rainwater collection system.

12. Clean up the compost area and use it more often.

13. Fix the parking area, layout with crushed stone.

14. Create walk from driveway to front porch.

15. Move the evergreen shrub from the front bed.

16. Grow the shade beds.

Of course there are the non-gardening plans that surround getting in shape and losing that baby weight, but I won't bore you with all that crud. Gardening and home improvements seem so much easier and controllable. As for the controllable stuff, I'm sure this is just the tip of the iceberg, and I'm sure there will be more to come.

Next...adventures in seed. I'm determined; plan item #6 is soon to be checked off.

I Will Buy Local

It's January 3rd, the ground is snowcovered, and below that, frozen solid to a depth of at least 12 inches, with a bitter windchill (think zero) in the air. Yet here I am thinking about my gardens. My thoughts are fueled by two of my favorite idea generators; the White Flower Farm Spring Catalog and the March 2009 issue of Horticulture Magazine. The latter comes with a cover article entitled, "Ready for Spring". To which I reply, "Hell, Yes" followed by an even louder, "Hell, NO!"

Hell, Yes. I am ready to see green, not white, although technically we only began winter just over 10 days ago. And Hell, NO. I am not ready, because I have planned little and prepared even less.

Last year I went a little nuts between January and March, ordering, ordering, ordering from several catalogs. When the plants started flowing in the spring it was fun, but I have to admit when the seventh box of plants arrived in as many days, I was a little daunted when my husband turned to me and said, "um, where are you going to put all this stuff?" My answer, "I dunno. I'll find homes for everything" didn't really thrill him. My attitude is there are never too many gardens and there is always too much lawn. But what he heard in my response was a weekend of watching the kids while I garden. And he was wrong; it was more like two weekends.
This year, I have vowed to stay away from mail order despite the temptation and buy local instead. Come April and May, (seems a long time from now) I'm hoping to check out The Nashoba Valley Garden Center in Pepperell, Littleton's Cataldo Nursery, various Hollis, NH farm stands, and the Pepperell Garden Club's annual sale. I also am hoping to stay more on task and make a list of the plants that I need to fill in, instead of the "that looks cool" bug that I fall prey to every time I walk through the door of one of these fabulous places.

I have also realized (duh, as mentioned in other posts, the realtor's description was 'wooded lot') that I have a shade-heavy property, and yet, I am drawn to buy every more full sun plants. Which leads to ever more lawn shrinkage - again, a bad thing? naa - but I tend to ignore our vast tracts of shade and leave them just that; green and shady. Not this year I say! If ever there was a resolution I could follow, it is this; I will buy 2 shade plants for every one full sun plant that I fork $ over for. That way I can actually enjoy some color in my back yard, instead of having to traverse to the front of the house for a sighting of pink, yellow, or crimson.

Next...a to-do list.

Lost another tree

We lost a tree during the summer during one of those heavy thunderstorms that peppered August. It fell unnoticed for two days into our 'wooded lot' on the side of the house. But then, last weekend, during the overnight rainstorm, we lost another. Both of them were big Maples, the first a Nordic maple and the second an older maple of indeterminate heritage. Well as you can imagine, one, no big deal, but a second fall made me take a closer, more suspicious look at the big beautiful behemoths that ring our house.

In the front right on our property line, and right on the street we have an enormous maple that must be 100 years old if its a day, and from the front it looks fine, but from the back it is completely eaten away with rot, and is littered with huge mushrooms.

On the size bordering our neighbors we have three fifty+ year old Oaks and they seem ok, but I've heard Oaks indicate poor health first at the top, and if that's the case, we may be seeing early signs of decline. I'm not worrying about the Oaks yet though, they haven't dropped any big limbs while we've been here.

On the hill in the back, we've got several mid-size maples, and I'm sad to report none of them are particularly healthy. It could be their proximity to our septic tank (circa 1968 say no more). For the second one down, it could be that it was in a tight stand of trees and was weak due to weathering in a group. It could be it was their time. Or it could be it was infested with some bug. It could be all of the above.

I admit was already hot to chop down some trees to 'take back' a bit more usable space for our family, but now I'm thinking I should do it with an eye towards increasing the health of the trees that we keep. I'll keep you posted on what we end up doing.

I'm home for Halloween with the kids, but my eldest didn't want to miss the mask parade at daycare, so I need to go pick him up now that the festivities are coming to a close. Our festivities are just starting though... Happy Halloween everyone!

Holy Hydrangeas

So my sister, always generous with her plants and cuttings, has gifted me with a hydrangea. H. Paniculata Tardiva to be precise. Click this link to see more about the variety: http://www.hydrangeashydrangeas.com/tardiva.html In the first moments after our latest round of rains stopped, I was out and planting a number of plants that dear sister gave me. I plunked 'tardiva' in a shady spot next to the new deck where it will get morning sun, but will largely be in shade. That's what I understood hydrangeas wanted. Then I go online (after I've cleaned up and showered mind you...) and find that this bugger wants alot of sun. 'Several hours of sun actually...Crud. Alot of sun I do not have. Shade I have a-plenty. I might lit it lie where it is for the winter, but then again I might get adventurous and move it to a sunnier spot farther from the house. I'll keep you posted (pun intended).

Setting Seed

Two posts in two days - ok don't hyperventilate... I have to share that my sister has jumped on in to the blogosphere here at http://swampgardener.blogspot.com/ and has discussed her successess with starting from seed. I, on the other hand, have not been so brave. Yet. However, that is all about to change. I received the most recent Horticulture magazine e-newsletter. The pink and melon tones of carribean cocktail nasturtium called to me from their 'Plants we love' section, so much so that I just had to have them. See the article here: http://www.hortmag.com/article/caribbeancocktailnasturtium/ I immediately jumped over to Pine Hill Gardens (http://www.superseeds.com/) and had to 'git me sum.' And so I did. I've shared the picture that started it all as lifted from Hortmag.com. (aren't they pretty?!) I'll keep you posted on my experience with ordering from Pine Hill Gardens as well as my foray into seed-ery. Wish me luck!

Where did the summer go...?

I am a terrible blogger. There, I admit it.

I might even be a terrible gardener. During the summer, when I had a spare moment, it was after dark. As a result, I only just got back into my garden 3 weekends ago. When I did wade into it, the front border was more a weedgarden - the crabgrass had all but taken over. All I can say is Thank-god for hardy perennials and plant sales.

I can't blame my 8-month or four-year old for the neglect. Not this time. Why not? A woman who blogs on gardening not in her garden?? The answer: We built a deck. To be precise, I had very little to do with the actual building of it -- my husband did the heavy lifting -- 80 40-lb bags of concrete to be specific. And that with a bad back (understatement). Many others contributed as well - thanks go to Dad, brother and brother-in-law, for (at the very least) 6 4-foot posts dug, three lifts of that door in the photo below, and 800 lbs of construction detritus removed respectively. I stand by the "We" though, since without me to make sure our two little darlings did not, either, A) slice off a digit (or worse) on one of daddy's power tools, or B)stand too close to a swinging hammer, the deck would not have gotten done. I removed said offspring every weekend, almost all weekend, which was reflected by the garden. Here is what our back yard looked like before....

and what it looks like now...

And the side view before (jeez, it almost looks like we had grass back there)...

...and after...

How did we get heyah from theyah? From the end of July until this past weekend we lived in a construction zone, but it was worth it. We extended our living area (during 2 seasons) by 300 square feet. We moved the gas grill from the front porch - with our cooking schedule on display to the neighborhood - to the relative privacy of the back yard. The living room is now opened up literally and figuratively, which expands the view of the Nashua river that we fell in love with when we bought the house. It changes (in a good way) the air flow when the door/windows are open. All in all, it brings our 1870s farmhouse into the 21st century. The bad news is, now I want more...changes, modernity, etc. We are talking about paint next year - but that's another post.

The deck also brings new gardening challenges. It's on the North side of the house so plants by the stairs (unless they are tall) will get little direct sunlight, but containers on the deck itself will get full sun for much of the day. Nevertheless, I can't wait to plant stuff out there!!! I bought some mums today, and while I'm not a huge fan of mums, they are dependable and colorful for the season. It also makes me want to move the playset, but that is another post too... Stay tuned, on my next post I will return to blogging about my lovelies that didn't get killed despite (in spite of?) my neglect.