Wood pile again

I did finish moving and stacking the firewood and spreading the mulch.

From TTH20081231

From TTH20081231

Hedginess

I love the woods in winter because you can see in and through them. When they're leafed out in the summer they're just a solid mass. My back yard is planted all around with trees and shrubs, some with winter berries, some with colored stems.

Red twig dogwood (Cornus sericea 'Cardinal')

From TTH200812

I planted these first around the base of my big pine tree. They didn't do well, maybe because the tree sucked all the moisture out of the soil. I moved a few to the back yard hedge and gave these to my neighbor. They're planted along our joint lot line. He was surprised to find that they grew about 8 feet in one year and is eyeing them nervously. I told him if he gives up on them to let me dig them and give them to a friend who is planning hedge in a wooded area.

She has some dreadful neighbors who actually cut down a mass of trees and laid out a road on my friend's property. They've erected a fence and now want to plant it thickly with fast growing shrubs. These are incredibly easy to propagate. In the late winter, just as the buds begin to swell, you cut a bunch of long stems, bundle them into fascines and bury them in trenches. They sprout all along the length of the stem. These are supposed to be great for erosion control on stream and pond banks. I suggested that she include plenty of pokeweed so the birds will eat the berries and then poop purple all over the neighbors' house.


Viburnum trilobum (Cranberrybush viburnum) and more Red twig dogwood

From TTH200812

I have three kinds of viburnums in this back hedge. The dentatum berries are gorgeous, gun metal blue, and get eaten as fast as they ripen. Th nudum are beautiful when they are ripening, shading through green, pink and dark blue. They dry to raisins that hang on and get eaten slowly. The trilobums are the showiest, starting out bright red, freezing to a rust color and hanging on through the winter. They'r a food of last resort for the birds and get eaten by the returning flocks in late winter.

Viburnum trilobum

From TTH200812

Ilex verticillata (Winterberry Holly)
I think I love winterberry the best of all. I have at least half a dozen cultivars. This one was a surprise with its pale orange berries. Only the female plants set berries and there are two major groupings with different bloom times. You have to have male plants with bloom times that match. The Forest Farm hard copy catalog has a very helpful chart. Request one here.

From TTH200812

From TTH200812

From TTH200812

Compost hump

I've moved the black compost bins behind the new shed and piled the extra in a hump. When I have a minute I will cover the hump with burlap, InterBay mulch style. The moist dark is supposed to promote the growth of micro-organisms and the barrier protects your larger wormy things from predators. I gave it a try last year and it did produce lovely compost.

From TTH200812

Pruning

I have one huge old apple tree in my back yard and have planted a variety of smaller fruit trees. The apple kept growing out and over the porch roof, threatening to damage the shingles and clogging the gutter.
Last summer the peach tree was so loaded with peaches the weight nearly tore it apart. I had an arborist come out to see if my storm-damaged elm could be saved and had him give me an estimate on pruning everything that needed it. They came yesterday and I took the morning off to watch and try to learn. He was great about explaining what he was doing and encouraged me to give it a try on the smaller trees next year. I have a couple of books on pruning but had remained pretty timid about it. It really helped to see a live human perform on live trees.

After Pruning shots

Peach tree

From TTH200812

Apple tree

From TTH200812

From TTH200812

The tree guys cut up the big branches for me so I now have three baskets of applewood chunks for smoking. I think they give the best flavor of any smoking wood.

From TTH200812

My old electric smoker finally burnt out with a bang and a shower of sparks. I bought this cabinet style smoker to replace it. I have an irrational fear of propane that dates back to Girl Scout camp and old Coleman stoves and lanterns which were notorious for blowing up in your face. Maybe next summer I will get up my nerve to buy a gas canister and try the smoker.

From TTH200812

Firewood

I have a woodstove in the basement that I light when I'm working down there. It's also the only back-up heat for my all-electric house. I have burned up almost all of the wood I had on hand and couldn't find anyone who would deliver less than a cord. A cord is a lot of wood when it's piled in the driveway. I've moved about a third of it to the back yard now and will pick at the pile as the weather permits.

From TTH200812

A small amount is stacked right outside the back porch door so I can grab it and drop it down into the stairwell.

From TTH200812

The rest has to go behind the new shed.

From TTH200812

Minou the mighty hunter regularly patrols my neighbor's woodpile so I told her she was to have her very own. She spent one entire afternoon staking out a spot in the bed on my side of the fence with his woodpile on the other. I don't know what she was hunting and don't know if she caught it but she was very absorbed in the enterprise.

From TTH200812

Cat, Interrupted

From TTH200812

Mulching

It took about 4 hours to spread mulch on the newly planted front foundation bed and the bed of blueberries at the end of the house. I was OK while I was working but my back and legs seized up that evening. I went over to a friend's house for dinner and didn't think I was going to make it out of the car and up her walk. A scotch and some wine helped.

From TTH200811

From TTH200811

From TTH200811

From TTH200811

November

It's looking more and more wintry. The bright colors have faded to tans and grays, punctuated by some red berries and stems.

From TTH200811

From TTH200811