Saturday, December 6, 2008

Here Comes

The Snow Again
Falling on my head like a construction slow down
Making popsicle sticks out of ten digits
I want to balk at any hint of wind
I want to caulk more windows to
I want to dive right under warm covers
Is it snowing on you

So flakes fall on me
Like leaves used to
Freezing me
In the cabin igloo
Whine with me
If your cold too



I did find some potential cold hardy clumping bamboo. The genus Fargesias has several choices. Fargesia nitida and F. robusta look like good candidates. The Fargesia scabrida sounds like a must have.

The Eastern White Pine, Pinus strobus and the Japanese Black Pine, Pinus thunbergiana would make a nice blend of a fast growing screen and a slower growing specimen. I may need to create more sun for them though. Closer to the road, which is where I would want them they will get that extra bit of sunlight from the opening in the forest.

Bamboo and pine is a good starting point for more winter screening. Holly trees would work with that combo I think. There must be some reliably hardy to zone 5 hollies. I have seen plenty of the Ilex opaca at lower elevations.

You see, this is what I deal with way up here. This is rime (frozen fog) in action from yesterday.



What no snow for me
Has there been a brief reprieve
Still it only made it up to 36 degrees
It is still freezing me
What can I do
To a cabin that feels like an ice igloo

11 comments:

Lisa at Greenbow said...

Here too it is cold
wind is blowing
it makes me feel old
I'm glad not to be mowing

Christopher C. NC said...

Or snow blowing?
Poetic comments are a real treat!

Anonymous said...

The air above frozen like ice. The frozen fog looks nice. But hopefully they both will stay away not to complicate your life.
I'm surprised the hemlock does not do well where you are. I made a privacy "wall" with them at our place in N.C. Our drive was at a level that anyone walking or driving could see into the LR windows & the BR. I did not like that feature so I fixed it.

chuck b. said...

We rode the subway
to the Fungus Fair.
Laughing all the way,
Tacos and beer in the square.



Bamboo and conifers, plus all those native azaleas: You've got some interesting Japanese Garden slash Pacific Rim potential.

Anonymous said...

Whine oh whine
I'm glad to add
working at Semi's hill
in a snowstorm

Trying to keep
from sliding down
the frozen red clay

And get some grasses planted
to hold her slope
from slip sliding away

Frances

yes, to pines, hollies and bamboo, well I'm not so sure about the bamboo, it scares me.

F

Anonymous said...

Christopher, I don't know how tall you want your screening, but if tall grasses would work, they are the quickest screen. I love my Miscanthus sinensis 'Zebrinus.' It's supposed to be hardy to zone 5 . . . . .

Christopher C. NC said...

Y'all are such fun.

Lola the Hemlock forests in NC are dying fast. They are being killed by the Wooly adelgid. The mature trees at my place are already 60% gone.

Yes Chuck my place seems to have a natural affinity to a Japanese style landscape with the climate, elevation changes and plenty o' rock to use. Some how it will be a blend of Japanese/American naturalistic.

Frances you are a trooper. Bamboo is scary if you plant one of the runners. There is a massive stand of it down by the river that wants to cross the highway. Clumpers that stay put are the only way to go.

Kim I have enough elevation change to work with that the Miscanthus, there is some here now, might work at the top of the slope below the road if I can keep it out of the reach of the road mowing crews. Of course a few weeks ago the Kingdom of Madison's crew came along with a mower on a hydraulic arm and mowed twenty feet up the slope at the resident gardeners place. I'll face similar challenges in the utility easement. They walked through my place just below the cabin last summer spraying small trees. I may need a sign, "Garden Ahead", "End of Garden Zone".

Anonymous said...

OMW, I did not know about this. Thanks for the link Christopher. It is a shame that these beautiful trees are dying out like that. I think they are so pretty.
It's been about 14 yrs. since I had the opportunity to see these trees so they may possibly have died. If not all, some. I do know that the present owners have cut the beautiful arborvitae down that I had planted on each side of the drive entrance. What a shame.

Anonymous said...

All of your winter images do seem to ooze a cold, cold air, don't they? It's so beautiful though.

I was thinking the japanese garden thing too.

Benjamin Vogt said...

Annie Lennox would be proud....

Christopher C. NC said...

Pam it is cold cold here. Much colder than last year at least in duration. There is less warm in between.

Benjamin you think Annie would go for that? I figure it is a derivative work, so at least she won't sue me.