Pick Up Sticks

I picked up branches and sticks from the big blow for a bit over an hour in the ridge top garden until I was tired of picking up sticks. You can't really tell the difference in the stick world I currently inhabit, but it feels better.



I can easily spend another couple of hours picking up sticks from the big blow in the ridge top garden. Another day perhaps.



If you don't pick up sticks and logs, the gardens could easily begin to look like this. It is on my list to pick up these sticks one day when a path that runs along the small creek is created. This slope opposite the cabin and driveway will be dedicated to a predominantly native garden. I sowed seeds of the plant that dare not speak its name through here this fall.



It will be nice to enjoy what nature has to offer without all the clutter distracting from the experience. One day.



I wandered over to my place contemplating the notion of picking up my own sticks. There was even a possibility that the chainsaw could be revved up and I could begin the process of creating another whole supply of sticks to pick up. I just contemplated instead. Cold slows things down.

A tour of the gardens to be that shows the lay of the land sounds easier.

This is near the top of the garden to be partly down the slope below the driveway. The open space in the foreground will contain a path that runs just below the scenic byway. On the right side is where some evergreen screening will be placed when some of the sticks have been thinned out and picked up.



Looking more to the right and back uphill a bit, the path will come through the trees to the right of the one with the orange tag marked for removal. A grouping of rhododendrons will be planted in the center of this space. Already hosta, helleborus, astilbe, ginger and hakonecloa have been planted along the margins of the future clump of rhododendrons. There is even one rhododendron in there now. Exbury type deciduous azaleas have been planted up slope a bit as you exit this group of trees.



Looking straight ahead along the slope just below the scenic byway some thinning is needed to create a bit more sun for some more evergreen screening. The open space I am standing in is for the utility lines overhead.



Looking back to where we just came from it is easy to see how a nice path will run right along the bottom of this slope. I can't plant too close to the road or the long armed hydraulic mowers will hack my plantings. There is also the other utility line that comes from the roadside vegetable garden and runs through here at an angle to cross the road. If you plant anything tall under there it will be hacked and dropped and there will be more sticks to pick up.



This is standing just off the property line looking back in, the same place as the picture above was taken. All that open space in the center is where the septic drain field is. No big trees and no bamboo can go in there. Perennials and smaller shrubs will be fine. Considering how this drain field system works I don't see what if anything would prevent the existing trees from sending major roots into it in search of water and nutrients. If that's how they do things here I am not going to worry about it to much.



From the same spot we are now looking through the trees out over the sunny utility valley towards the cozy cabin. There is a lot of undulating ground to plant. First I must chop down and pick up a lot of sticks to make room for the garden to be.



Now we are just below the cozy cabin at the edge of the sunny utility valley. Looking back up is where the tour began on the other side of the grouping of trees at the top of the slope in the center of the picture.



Between the cabin and road is about three quarters of an acre. It will keep me busy for many years to come. That will always include the chore of picking up sticks after a big blow.