Organic gardener growing food and flowers, lovin' pollinators and birds.

Take Cover!


It's dangerous to walk through the back garden these days, and the above photo is the reason why. The squirrels are pillaging the black walnut trees, causing most of the nuts to come crashing to the ground. Sometimes there's a brief warning of the following onslaught if the hulls hit the roof of the garage first, but then they often ricochet into the yard. (The trees are too tall for me to take the hulls down myself.)

This box of black walnuts was collected earlier this week, but the yard is already filled with more. I'm trying to be diligent about collecting these hulls so the juglone that they contain does not leach into the soil. (I wrote more about black walnut trees earlier this year.) Random stems, leaves and these nut hulls are being put into the trash and not being composted.


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Lovely anemone


Fall-blooming anemones definitely make my list of flowers I love. They spread fairly easily by self-seeding.  While other gardeners might view them as thugs, I don't mind when they pop up all over the garden. These flowers keep the garden looking pretty as fall begins.

Above is a darker pink one that has spread into multiple beds out front. I also have white and light pink ones. (The light pink ones seem to bloom first.)
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The black swallowtails are back!


Look who I found on the carrot tops this evening when I went outside to gather food for the bunnies! More black swallowtail caterpillars! I snipped the stems and brought them inside. We've had two very chilly nights this week, so I'm glad they are still doing well. (Good thing I didn't get to put away that aquarium yet!)

I wonder if they are the babies of the butterflies I raised this summer...
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Final days of summer


The fall equinox is Sunday, but the sun has already realigned itself in the sky behind the trees in the back garden. It formed the loveliest rays of sun this morning, just peaking through the trees. (I actually had to go get my iPhone to take this photo because my camera lens had just "too much" lens to capture the entire beams of light.)

As sad as I am to see summer go, it is nice to have slightly cooler weather that allows me to leave the windows open at night. And soon the leaves on the trees will turn color, which will bring a kaleidoscope of colors to our back windows. It still feels a little bittersweet.
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Kieffer pears



I am still trying to figure out the proper time to pick these Kieffer pears. I've heard in passing that since these pears are of an Asian variety, they can ripen on the tree. However, Stark Bro's recommends picking them while still firm and then allowing them to ripen indoors. (The site also says they should be ready by mid-October in Zone 5.)

I plan on picking one today to see how long it takes to ripen indoors.

They look pretty, don't they?
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I had a fight with the lawn

Sometime iPhone cameras work in a pinch. Like today, when I declared war on the (remainder) of my front lawn.
Maybe it was the lawn mower that sealed the lawn's fate. It's been chugging along all summer, and the last time I tried to fire it up last week, it wheezed, it cried, and then no longer would start.*

Or it could have been that stone path I was daydreaming about since last summer that would meander across the front garden like a lovely stream.

Or maybe I just really hate the lawn (or weedy lawn) that much.

Ultimately, I drove to my local garden center today with the intent of buying mulch. Lots of it. I grabbed the leftover cardboard that I've been accumulating along the side of the garage. There was even some garden fabric left in the shed that I brought out front as well.

And then, the lawn was smothered. The photo above shows the result of four (4) three cubic foot bags of cedar mulch.

I need to purchase a few more bags to connect this path to the driveway, but boy, did I feel better after!

*Luckily our aunt lives across the street and I was able to use her fancy self-propelled mower to cut the lawn.
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