What could be finer than a full load of woodchips delivered right where you want it? And these crazy people give the stuff away for free. I thought a small donation would help them remember me.
So the roadside vegetable garden is getting a nice weed suppressing, water holding, nutrient adding top dressing. I figure this makes me carbon neutral now for rototilling the soil and burning up the dried remnants of last years perennials.
I love it when the universe co-operates.
Because that gives me more time to wander aimlessly around a wakening mountain to see what I will see.
This is new. Like most things here it grows in a patch. Nature works that way. Plants often grow in colonies. It may have been introduced by the resident gardeners, but as is generally the case, nature is left in charge. I am thinking it is a Delphinium and am searching for a match now.
( Frances at Faire Garden has sent me to the corect ID. It is Corydalis solida, Fumewort. )
A small colony of the Muscari latifolium is adding to the increasing numbers of small blue dots covering the ridge top garden.
The Viola rotundifolia is gaining in numbers as well. This colony of yellow violets is on an east facing slope above the creek.
This warmish sunny weather is having an effect on many things. All of a sudden I have all kinds of garden chores that need doing. My poor wall has been neglected for the last two weeks it seems.
The first of the Eremurus, Foxtail Lily in the front bed by the road has come up.
The Tulips from Elizabeth in the bed along the driveway should actually bloom. Hopefully the tracks in the wet ground I keep seeing up there belong to the coyote and not some stinking rabbit, drooling while I work so hard.
Now this has me just a bit worried. I am not sure if it is an Azalea or a Rhododendron. It has small glossy, evergreen leaves and I would say slightly smaller flowers than most Azaleas and Rhododendrons that I have seen or that I recall. It has been a while since I have really seen them bloom up close. It is in full bloom. I hope this is supposed to be an early bloomer.
( Frances looks to be right again. A early blooming 'PJM' Rhododendron hybrid. )
I don't know what normal is up here. Getting to know normal will take some time.
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8 comments:
You were going to dump your trash in the river?
HA to chuck b., that is what it sounded like but I know you meant you were adding your plant refuse to the mulching pile? The delphinum thingy may be a corydalis of some kind. The rhodie looks like one called PJM, smaller and earlier, usually that color. What a great back saver to have that mulch brought to you. The drivers also like food, cookies are always good.
I like the statue too.
I dump my trash BY the river, not in it. There is no such thing as trash service outside Clyde. On one side of the Pigeon River is the trash/recycling center and on the other is where the tree trimmers dump their mulch. I drive my trash to town instead of tossing it over a steep side of the mountain like a few folks here still do.
Dang those unclear, misplaced modifiers. That is part of what caused some of the heavy edit on my recently published article.
Thanks for the possible ID's Frances. I'll check them out.
That's my little Kahuna guardian Lisa.
Our "free mulches" around here are available at the landfill complex. Alas they are ALWAYS full of shredded poison ivy, which renders them unusable for us.
Urushiol remains viable for weeks in the mulch and leads to a house of misery.
I do not "know" about the free mulch first-hand, but have heard horror stories from more than one source.
Bummer.
But congrats on your free mulch, anyways, Chris. Nice one.
People here who live in the county, not the city, dump unbelievable stuff in gulleys or low areas on their or other's properties, and think nothing of it. As you say, there is no trash pick up out there. For the bad stuff, like roofing shingles, they are supposed to go to the dump, but the fee is high and they are all scotsmen and notorious penny pinchers. I too am of the same blood lines and hate to waste anything. I was horrified when we had our house in Kingsport reroofed to find that they were going to take the old material to one of the fellow's dad's place and add it to the already toxic pile. But there was no stopping them, it is what was the common practice there.
Thingfish in this neck of the woods Poison Ivy is a real possible addition to my pile of small contribution mulch. Fortunately I am blessed with little or no allergic reaction to most things, a blessing of my long line of peasant's blood.
Frances I pick up the trash along our section of highway routinely. There are dump sites just past our property lines on both sides of us.
Way to mulch! Glad you mentioned the poison ivy...I was going to look into free wood chips from our county, but I'm very allergic. Sure would hate to find THAT out the hard way!
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