Changes...



The newest section of lawn to bite the dust will be the unmowed portion next to the front meadow.

 We've been reducing the lawn since my husband and I moved into this house in 2004. In the top photo, the lawn sodded with St. Augustine grass extended almost to the fence. The previous owners had left some mature trees around the edges of this part of the lawn, which we now call the front meadow. We stopped mowing it because the ground was uneven and often had a large puddle in the center after a hard rain. We maintained it as a meadow for a number of years, but now we've stopped cutting it entirely and a nice assortment of oaks, sweet gums, and pines are becoming a forest. Read my post from a few years ago Reducing the Lawn in Your Landscape for a better perspective on the process and to find out why what we have is a freedom lawn.

The sprinkler head that used to be in the turf
needs an extender to spray over the vegetation.

We'd left a tongue of lawn next to the front pond and leading out to the front meadow, but recently decided to reduce it even more. My husband stopped mowing the tip of the tongue a couple of weeks ago, as you can see in the top photo.

Also, the turf used to go right to the edge of the pond, but now ferns, rushes, goldenrods edge the pond. This has meant that some adjustments to the irrigation system, which draws its water from the lake out back, were necessary. Sprinkler heads that used to be recessed in the midst of the turf, now need extenders so the spray can reach beyond the taller vegetation. In the second photo, my husband adjusts the sprinkler head's arc--this one is located to the right of the cart in the top photo.



To define the new edge of the front meadow I planted three bunches
of Elliot's love grass (Eragrostis elliottii).



After the wood chips have been added to define the border
of the lawn and to cover the cart path. The newly-laid
chips have a darker color than the ones laid the day before.

I started the project by removing the sod along new edge of the lawn creating a gentle curve so that it is easy to mow with one sweep of the mower. I planted three bunches of Elliot's love grass (Eragrostis elliottii) evenly spaced about thee feet apart to give it plenty of room to expand. What was surprising to me is how clayey the soil is here. Other parts of our landscape are quite sandy. I also left room on the pond side for a cart path that leads out to the woodchip pile. (Read my post Follow the Yellow Mulch Road.)

Another 12 feet of lawn removed, but I'm not done with this particular project. I'll remove most of the grass and weeds between the love grass and the meadow's old edge and plant some native meadow wildflowers.

A variable dancer damselfly on the native blue curls in the morning.

We have not used any general pesticides on our lawn and other areas of our property since 2004, so the populations of insects and their predators have been increasing. There seems to be a jump in populations each time we remove more lawn and plant more native plants.  We have especially noticed many more butterflies, bees, wasps and other pollinators. And we've also seen more bug predators including bluebirds, mockingbirds, wrens, and the dragonflies & damselflies.

This is a good thing!


A new USDA hardiness chart has been issued.


Finally, a new hardiness chart.

USDA has finally updated the hardiness zone map. The line between zones 8b and 9a used to run through the center of Clay County, where we live, but now that line, if you follow it northward, is at the Georgia state line.

I wonder how long it will take the seed companies to start using this map instead of the old 1990 version.

Here's a link to the USDA site:
http://planthardiness.ars.usda.gov/PHZMWeb/#

I hope you have plenty of pollinators in your yard, too.

Green Gardening Matters,
Ginny Stibolt

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Long-horned beetles (mating) on goldenrod

 

Long-horned beetles

A wonderful excursion to a private garden capped off (for me) a delightful experience at the Highlands Native Plant symposium. Great folks and an excellent native plant garden - what could be nicer! A great cause to contribute to, for sure.

A meadow visit found a couple of long-horned beetles mating - on a goldenrod inflorescence, pointed out by a biologist friend who was along on the field trip. Way cool!

 

Posted with Blogsy

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A September nocturnal symphony

Coming back from an evening walk just as night was settling in, the nocturnal symphony was cranking up.  The night-singers, especially the crickets, are still melodic (and loud). Katydids and related insects are also part of the nocturnal symphony this time of year, in late summer towards fall and the first frost.

It reminds me that the shrill calls of cicadas have largely dropped out of daytime garden sounds, although perhaps I've missed them, through inattention.  I've tried to learn more about insect songs over the years, and it's been interesting.  Here's a site associated with a great reference that I have: Songs of Insects.

I haven't spent much time recently on bird-watching, but a colleague at the Garden this morning with some friends were noticing warblers behind our visitor center complex first thing this morning.  The warblers are starting to move south, probably following the push of the cold front that's just come through, bringing us lovely temperatures this week.  Highs about 80°F, lows about 60°F with sunny skies.  Delightful (and moderate) for this time of the year.

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Hummingbirds and evening

It's been a hummingbird circus around here - there are at least three ruby-throated hummingbirds currently whizzing around the old red oak, through the porch, visiting the feeder, etc.

This evening, eating dinner on the porch, the whirr of wings was constant. 

I didn't manage to get a photo of a hummingbird, and the light was getting dim, in any case.

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Fall edibles



Newly planted fall garden next to the garage.

This bed next to the garage has been sitting fallow for the summer. I've buried kitchen scraps, as they became available, about six inches under the surface, until about four weeks ago.

On Labor Day, our unofficial beginning of fall, I planted some cool-weather crops in wide rows and some sugar snap peas at the base the three tomato cages. There was no trace of the kitchen scraps as I rearranged the bed, only good black garden loam.

The sugar snap pea seeds are old, so
I planted three at the base of each leg.

The sugar snap peas are four years old, so I planted three at the base of each leg of the cages to make sure we'll have enough. Ultimately, I hope to grow twelve vines. There is a small swale at the base of each cage to capture more water--both rain and irrigation.

On the far end of this bed is my stand of Egyptian walking onions, a couple of plants of garlic chives, and some native meadow garlic, which is to the right of the walking onions and is still dormant at this time. It should be coming up in the next few weeks.

To the right of the onion bed, behind the garage, there are three rain barrels on a four-foot high platform. You can see the PVC spigot in the top photo. I use a hose, which drains from all three barrels, to hand water these vegetable beds. Very handy and so much easier on my back than lugging watering cans from my other rain barrels.

Across the path are three solar heat tomatoes, which I planted as seedlings a month ago and have just starting blooming. It would be nice to have a good fall tomato crop. The butternut squash, which roamed all over this bed, is done for the season and I'll harvest all the squashes tomorrow when I'll also prepare that bed, except where the tomatoes are growing, for more fall crops.

The butternut squash is done for the season between its leaves being eaten and attacked by some type of wilt. I'll harvest the squash tomorrow and begin to prepare this bed for cool-weather crops.

Aren't gardeners a little like "The Gambler"?

Instead of:

"You got to know when to hold 'em, know when to fold 'em,
Know when to walk away and know when to run."

gardeners chant this:

You got to know when to grow 'em, know when to yank 'em,
'Cause they're not gonna fruit for ya and know when they're done
You got to make room for more crops, know when to dig 'em,
Know when to plant away and know when to mulch.

And then there were the bell peppers...

In the beds behind the house:


Bell peppers: wilted in the morning after a good rain--not good.

 Early last week, I decided to pull out my bell pepper plants. I had gotten a late start on my spring gardening, so I bought four Bonnie bell peppers at Home Depot and planted them in May. They produced fewer than 20 peppers total--not nearly as prolific as other years with my seed-grown peppers.

Not surprisingly, when I pulled them, their roots were totally encrusted with root-knot nematode damage.  What was surprising to me is that their roots never expanded past their original peat pot volume even though I'd peeled the pots away.

I posted a photo of these peppers in my post, "Okra Swales," where I talked about how I'd also planted these peppers around a swale with some kitchen waste buried in the middle of the swale. Looking at these roots, the peppers never found that stash of extra nutrients waiting for them. By the way, the okra, which I'd planted by seed, is now approaching seven feet tall and producing like crazy!


The roots never expanded beyond the size of their peat pots.

The roots were totally encrusted with nematode damage.



The back of the house beds.

Most of the bed next to the house where the peppers were growing has been fallow over both the winter and summer months. I added a couple of wheelbarrow loads of compost and worked it in. I also buried a bucket of kitchen scraps between the rows that are now planted with broccoli and the "Lollo Rosso" lettuce. The broccoli roots will probably find this trench compost, but the shallow-rooted lettuce probably will not.

I'll plant garlic in the last row of this garden to scare away the nematodes. It works for vampires, right? Why not for these tiny little worms?

I hope you've begun your cool-weather vegetables.
If not, it's not too late to get started. Just do it!

For more details on my planting methods, see "Wide-row planting and trench composting in the vegetable garden."
For more details on my rain barrels, see "Three More Rain Barrels."

Green Gardening Matters,

Ginny Stibolt

P.S.: News about my new book, "Organic Methods for Vegetable Gardening in Florida":
I'd asked my editor when we'd see the cover design and the designer replied with this:

"I am finishing up the typesetting and about to work on the cover. The book is excellent! I'm learning a lot and spending too much time reading it.

The color section was crowded in 32 pages, Lynn saw we could add more pages and keep it in budget, so it is now 48 pages.

Larry

I have to say that this is really nice to hear. It's due to be released in Feb. 2013. I can hardly wait!

Ginny

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Native Plant Issues: The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly

This is a fall round up of current issues relating to native plants. They highlight some of the issues that native plant enthusiasts should address to move forward in our goal of more regionally appropriate natives being planted more widely.

I. USDA:

Good: USDA is sponsoring the first ever National Planting Day on Saturday September 8th where they urge Americans to plant native plants. They also explain how a community garden can earn the designation of a ‘People’s Garden.’ They further urge people to get involved by planting natives “in a highly visible location in your community. This garden can be a demonstration garden, promoting the beauty and function of native plants to your neighbors.” I hope you can participate in the festivities.

Bad: The person who wrote this post on National Planting Day, apparently does not know what a native plant is...

Read the rest of my post over on the Native Plants & Wildlife Gardens blog...

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Garden vignettes

At this time of the year, I'm concentrating on harvesting (and preserving) vegetables, sowing seeds for fall veggies, worrying about getting the rest of the garden in shape (yikes! it's a lot of work!) and enjoying the unexpected pleasures of the garden.

Here are a few images that I enjoyed this morning in the mountains.

Geraniums, Aquilegium, and stones

Hypericum fruits and Helenium flowers

Sedum bed, Sept. 2, 2012

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