Bonsai Apple Tree Is Getting Friends

Today was dentist for last check on implant before the new tooth can be installed. Two hours, 30 minutes of driving for a 10 minute appointment.

I couldn't let the fact that I was within range of other garden centers be ignored. So, the first plant I bought was not a commitment to a new garden... it could go in my front bed. But then I found another one. When I find plants that were already on the wish list but for half to 2/3 the price, and I can actually see the plant I'm getting...

I have now moved beyond dreaming. This will be a years-long project, but that gives me something to do as I get old, right?

Back to the beginning. Yes, it's an apple tree. No, it's not been trained as a bonsai, but it's so asymmetrical and melodic that I like to think of it that way. It's been featured fairly often by itself- link below has three different "moods" of the apple tree. It's also a giant pain in the patootie to mow around. I've thought about cutting it down more than once.

Instead, I'm putting a garden around it. This will be a moon garden. Those feature plants with white flowers and silver/white foliage that glow in the night. Fragrant plants are also important. Here's the tree with a few scattered pots of things. I also see it's sending out some suckers that need to be trimmed, so I guess that will make it a bonsai!

The first thing I did was mark the area of deepest shade with some spray paint. The entire area has both sun and shade, so that allows me a nice variety of plants.

I used all my dead hoses and pieces of hoses to roughly define the edge, and then the pathways. I'd already worked some of this out on graph paper, but I really wanted to see if those dimensions worked on the ground.

Laid out some of the pieces of broken concrete blocks and bricks I still have to start envisioning the paths. I'm going to be looking for people who want to give up piles of broken blocks or old bricks. I will come get them.

There will be a bench. This isn't it, but it's roughly the same size as what I want, so it makes a good placeholder.

The layout on the graph paper is basically a starting point. If I think things look better a different way as I progress, I can just change 'em. But it would be nice to have the structural things more or less stay put.

Now for the commitment. I actually started digging dirt for a while this afternoon. This always goes slowly- digging up grass for the first time. But I was pleased to discover that the soil underneath isn't too bad. I'm putting in a few things I got today and locating them near each other. None of these will ultimately be in this location, but for now it will at least be the beginning of a grouping. Some of these are annuals. 50% off by this time of year! I'll show and tell when at least this bunch is planted.

Found one plant for the rock garden. You'll see it soon. Pet peeve of the day- garden centers that don't label plants, and when they do, many of them are wrong. Nevertheless, I'm pretty sure I know what plants I actually bought. I asked the person what kind of plant one of them was. She said, "Sedum." I tried not to roll my eyes. Apparently she doesn't know there are hundreds of sedums. OK, I just looked it up to be accurate. There are between 400 and 500 different sedums.

I did not do any work on editing or other projects. If I don't get to those in the morning, by afternoon, I'm just itching to get outside, especially since most of this morning was spent in the car. Had to get moving earlier than I like again this morning.

Tomorrow, I work. That may require all my energy. We'll see.

Should I have started this? I dunno. I probably shouldn't be spending money on plants. I probably should be working harder on house repairs and sorting stuff. But I gave in to temptation today.

See Three Tales of a Tree

Driveway Bed 1- Report #1- 2026

Since it was cloudy/rainy all day today I was able to get a picture of this cleaned-up garden space while it is all in the same light.

Just for comparison, here is that space in June of last year.



And in June of 2024 when I first started cleaning it up and seeing if I could do something with it without spending money. I did sketch out a plan and used flagging tape to deliniate some spaces (you can see that in the picture above). I've mostly been sticking with that general idea.

Some serious progress has been made. I've spent $1 on one plant that is alive, and $10 on another that is dead. That was my own fault. I really thought it was not hardy here, but the tag said it was, so I gave it another shot. Nope. Dead in spring. Everything else has been free.

The orange stakes are holding two wire cages in place. They are protecting (I hope) wild orpine which has only managed to bloom for me twice because the deer ate it down to nothing. Perhaps it will live long enough to flower now that it's in prison.

This is where the purple iris bloomed this spring, and a bunch of daffodils. It's where the deep purple meadow sage is. Partly by design and partly because it's what I have, the primary color in this garden is going to be blues and purples. Right now, three plants in that scheme are blooming at the same time. I moved some of the blue globe campanula over here. I thought they would like more sun. Not sure if they do, but three of them are blooming. In this shot there is one on the right, with a stalk of the deep purple meadow sage, and a tall stalk of the viper's bugloss with the lighter blue. As I often say, it's just a "weed," but I love it.

The Variegated Artemesia is spreading like crazy, as it does. If the patch gets too aggressive, it's not hard to rip out. It's supposed to get really tall, but mine never does. In fact, I put a few sprigs in the top of the rock garden a couple of weeks ago. The bright yellow on the leaves lightens the area.

I put five of the plants Betsy brought me in here. I'll just share two of those today. She raised them from seed.

This will get quite a lot larger. It's Lemon Balm Melissa officinalis. Native. Can be used to make tea or used as an herb.

And this is Monarda punctata, Horsemint. I'm tickled to have this because it's a native plant I love.

Here's what it will look like when grown.

I'll save the other three. One of them might not make it. Something has already dug it up twice. Now it's got a wire cage.

In other news: It did rain today-- not very much, but enough to keep everything wet. I did a little bit of garden puttering, editing, projects, had a great phone conversation with a friend I don't hear from much.

And spent some time dreaming and making drawings for a garden I'd love to have, but I sure can't make this one happen for nearly free. So far, dreaming, looking at plants on line, and fooling around are free (except for the time). We shall see what happens beyond that.

Oh, I did buy two on-sale annuals to put in a planter with the geranium Betsy brought me. I put that together this morning. You'll see it some time. The geranium isn't blooming yet.

See Driveway Bed 1- Report #1 2025

Only Took 20+ Years

This is a monumental day for the Spirit of the Woods Chapter of the NCTA. Let me tell you why.

Approximately 20 years ago (I have to look up the exact year) our chapter started to prepare to put two register boxes out along our section of the trail. The chapter south of us has them. The chapter north of us has them. Chapters all along the entire 4800 miles of trail have them. But, until today, we did not.

I won't go into all the reasons why, but it all began with a political decision by someone higher up the food chain in the Forest Service who decided we couldn't do this. We've been negotiating ever since. Seriously, the volunteer who made the boxes has even died! Van, if you are watching, I hope you are happy to see your beautiful cedar boxes finally appear along the trail.

Pete and Bill are installing the box on the post. And Pete added the baffle to try to keep critters out (mice love to chew up the books and make nests).

This was actually the third thing we accomplished on this trail work day. The second part was getting the "Private Property" signs up on the section of the trail I talked about in the link below. The family officially has signed paperwork allowing the trail passage, and these great signs provided by the National Park Service hopefully help people to understand that they should stay on the trail and respect our privilege to pass through.

And before that... we spent a bit over 2 hours working with some Forest Service staff to remove invasive species. We are now approved to do so without their direct supervision. Dan is weilding our new and violent brush cutter. It can take out things almost up to 3" in diameter. Here, he's working on a Tatarian Honeysuckle.

We cut stuff and painted the cut stumps with herbicide. You've seen me doing a lot of this at my house.

There were 7 of us working for those two hours. Even so, it's slow going. One has to find all the trees and shrubs, big or small, cut them off really near the ground, treat the cut ends, move the branches off the trail. We tried to get everything within 10 feet of the trail. But walking back, we found even more that we missed. This is just one pile of cut brush.

I left home at 7 am, and got home just in time to shower and make it to a meeting in Ludington at 3 pm.

Nothing else happened today. This was plenty, and I'm going to go lie down very soon.

I tried to estimate the total walking and separate it from the walking on the actual NCT. We had to carry the posts and the digger a fair distance for the 2nd and 3rd projects. Dan left us after the second part and went off a different place to mow a section of trail. It takes a lot of work to keep a trail in nice shape.

Total miles walked 4.6, with 3.0 of them being NCT in various places.

Miles walked in 2026: 186.6
NCT Hike 100 Challenge: 63

See Slightly Out of Focus

Tiny Flowers

Some of the things blooming in the rock garden right now have very tiny flowers.

I'll lead off with one of the brand new sedums. I'm very happy with it, but it may not be hardy. I'm going to leave some out for the winter and bring another pot inside to be sure I'll have some come spring. I think I do need to buy a grow light. I suspect my poor luck with overwintering is related to poor light.

This is the 'Little Missy' Sedum. The flowers are extra-tiny. The leaves are only about a quarter inch long.

Here's one I've shared off and on. This is one of the Sedum hispanicum varieties. I have 'Blue Carpet,' and 'Pinkie.' They tend to move themselves around and pop up who knows where. I expect they also get promiscuous. But my guess is this is 'Pinkie.' Betsy just gave me another clump, too, that seems to be neither blue nor pink.

Can you even see the flower on this one? Unlike the Creeping Thyme that gets covered with blossoms, this is Thyme 'Sparkling Bright.' It's taller and the foliage looks more white from a distance. But it does get tiny light purple flowers.

This is the Creeping Speedwell 'Georgia Blue.'

Finally, here is a really, really tiny one. I won't tell you what this is today, but it will be featured again.

In other news: The ground squirrel must be slipping under the fence. He's doing some damage. I put out repellant. Lets' hope he doesn't like it.

In the morning, I worked my little part-time summer job and weeded the driveway flower bed in the afternoon. I finished the big section of that and was going to show you, but the light is all dappled now, and pictures are no good. So that will be another day.

Tomorrow, I'll be doing trail work. Have to get up earlier than I like, but I can do it. And if I'm home in time, I have a meeting in the afternoon.

See Sorting Out Sedums

Icing the Ice Plants

For some reason, ice plants just don't do well for me. The rock garden appear to have everything they should like, but it's a no-go. Or at least a no-thrive.

Here is 'Red Mountain Flame' this year. It's the one I've had the longest- about 4 years. It's also the happiest. (with a weed I missed pulling)

At some times of the day, the way the sun hits it, it seems to sparkle!

The other one that is just barely hanging in there is 'Granita.'



This is the 'Ocean Sunset' that I really liked. Here it is in 2024. That one died.



So I bought another one last year. Want to see what it looks like this year?

Yeah. Well, apparently there are some varieties that are tougher. The yellow one- 'Cooper's - is supposed to be really tough. But I have a ton of yellow in the summer and don't really want that. There is an orange one called 'Fire Spinner' that's supposed to be more hardy, and 'Dancing Embers' is sort of a pink-orange. The descriptions of all of them say they are OK in my zone, so who knows.

I'm tired of buying new ones and having them do poorly. Probably no more ice plants.

In other news: I edited. I finished my column for the Daily News. I finished weeding the rock garden and worked a little in the other gardens, and finished mowing the lawn. I'm beat, but it's all good!

Funny story from last night. I forgot to close the fencing at the bottom of the rock garden. I was looking off the deck and darned if that little 13-lined ground squirrel wasn't digging in the bottom of the garden. I clapped and yelled and he got himself back to his hole. He was digging where there are some bulbs, but I don't think he got anything. Fence is now closed. You can believe that!

See Ice Plants