The Death of Joe Pye

A unitary meme?

Annie, the Joe Pye Weed is very true to color in its cinematic debut. It is a blush pink tone. There are much darker colors of Joe Pye and Eupatorium maculatum and E. purpureum are species that may be more in the nursery trade than the wild E. fistulosum I have growing here.

But this blush pink is not the only color of the wild Joe Pye.

There is one a tone darker in the pink of the flower and with a purplish red tint to the stems that is compared to the ones here and coveted by the resident gardeners. It is on the far side of the stream at the bottom of the mountain by Ferguson's gas mart, grocery, fish and tackle, trout farm, U-haul, storage, split rail, farm supply, bait and fried chicken diner.















Most of the Joe Pye up here are a tone lighter, almost white. They pale in comparison. Joe Pye Weed-The Movie is a deep as it gets for us.















These pale, almost white Joe Pye have failed to impress and fall short for some reason with the resident gardeners. In a sea of white Fleabane, White Wood Aster, newly emerging white Frost Aster, Ox-Eye Daisy, Yarrow, Snakeroot, and white Hydrangea it is a bit puzzling, but most of the Joe Pye Weed, except for the star of our movie was beheaded today, before it could set seed and spread all over the place.



















There is a better Joe Pye out there.















And all of these must be stopped.

Something I would like to nominate for ruthless eradication is this gorgeous Virgin's Bower, Clematis virginiana. It is the dominant plant in the bed I need to clear on the left side of my driveway. It seeds quite prolifically and ends up twining into every thing. It looks fantastic driving down the highway and is just beginning to come into bloom, however one of them may be one to many.

I do not get to make these decisions. I will always only be the international observer in the garden next door.















The carcass of Cacophony was hiding under a leaf.














And today there was power attached to my pole.




















This thing that is rising from the yellowish orange saprolite soil filled with potatoes on a bit of a slope is just a tad disconcerting. At first I was reminded of Planet of the Apes and the totems placed at the entry to the Forbidden Zone. It has since taken on a Mad Maxx or Waterworld quality. The batter boards are here to find level, parallel and straight. Simple enough one would think, but my contractor is older, retired and spent his career in the flat sands of Florida, not the mountains of North Carolina.

My slope, slopes in two directions. It falls to the west and rises to the south. The north west corner of my cabin will be close to seven feet above the ground. The front porch on the south east will be about two steps above the ground.















This strange construction is being done to help stabilize the tubes that will become the concrete and steel posts of my super enhanced earthquake and hurricane proof foundation during the filling process.















Five of these tubes will be stood up and filled with concrete on top of each of two 27'4" long, 16" wide cement slab footings. Each footing and five post section will be one connected unit. Upon these ten posts I will build my cabin.

Did I mention the heat wave has made it to the top of the mountain. The rain has stopped. The sun is blazing and it has reached 86 degrees up here, while I dig level trenches in saprolite that has turned to dust.















But I am sure you are all far more interested in Iron Weed, Veronia noveboracensis coming soon to a blog near you.