Sunday, September 11, 2022

4000

Fifteen years and a few short months later, this is post number 4000 from Outside Clyde. Welcome to the wild cultivated gardens.












It is perhaps noticeable that I have become a bit bored with the blog. I am feeling a bit bored with the gardens too. They don't need me. This is a very good thing for my approaching decrepitude.














A comfortable routine of editing and maintenance dictated by season and a willingness to let nature be in the time of vegetation, allows for a lot of down time with garden chores. The gardens don't need me to look beautiful. An open path will do.

The gardens bones are planted. I tinker now. New interesting plants still follow me home and get added to the mix. They must compete and endure winter to survive. Vernonia lettermanii, a miniature Ironweed, decided to bloom this year. That is not always the case.














I walk through wet meadows before it rains again looking in vain for something to pull. I find Elephantopus carolinianus is self-sowing and wandering about. A pale blue mist to mark the change of season could wash through the meadows one day. The Elephant's Foot is competing. I have been transplanting seedlings further afield.














There will always be Ironweed.














With Angelica.














Four thousand posts covering fifteen years of the development and growth of the wild cultivated gardens have been sent out on the interwebs for the world to read and see. It's all in the archives.














This is Ku'ulei 'Aina at 15, as seen from the dining room window in a gentle rain, where I tinker in nature's abundance. 


4 comments:

vickie said...

But Christopher, what do you do about stiltgrass?

Christopher C. NC said...

Because the Japanese Stiltgrass was naturalized into the ecosystem when I arrived here, I mostly just observe it. I'll pull it from smothering a favored plant sometimes. I know a losing battle when I see one. The tall flower meadow does well enough rising above it and it doesn't grow in the shade of the forest very well. It seems to favor sun in disturbed ground which keeps it primarily along the scenic byway. I have sprayed it in select areas where I really don't want it with a grass only herbicide every now and again. I really should do some of that this week in the cool sunshine and dry that is coming in before it sets seed. I saw a few places where it was a bit much with the other plants it was in. Then it started raining again.

beverly said...

Fifteen years! Good grief. Congratulationsm and I have been following you all along.
I will be 10 in my new location next year, and have the same feeling about my garden rescued from rampant wisteria and other invasives. But it was the rescuing that was important. Now we can putter. Bonsai, anyone?

Christopher C. NC said...

Bonsai Beverly! I missed my Niwaki cloud pruning on the Gold Mop Chamaecyparis last year. Not a problem, since I think there has been a cloud design change.