Front Garden Report 2025- #2

None of the gardens is completely cleaned up since I got back from NY, but the front bed is close, and it looks pretty good.

I know I show you this view over and over, but this space genuinely makes me happy. And it proves that it stays colorful all season. The light is dappled. Sorry about that, but it does give you one more "look" of that space. I'm particularly happy with the purple Heuchera near the right edge just above the middle. It's called 'Electric Plum.' Interestingly enough, the other red-to-purple Heuchera were more colorful earlier in the season, but this one seems to glow even brighter as we get into high summer.

And just above center is the white hosta with green edges, 'Loyalist.' It was damaged earlier, but it's doing well now. On the other side of the walkway is one of the large 'Krossa' Hosta. Both of those are doing great.

The white Globe Bellflowers have been blooming for well over a week. They seem to be a little later than the blue ones which are now all done. They are also a little shorter. I'm not sure I'm in love with these, but they come up and bloom, so, hey...

This is the one week a year that I don't detest the Seven Sisters Rose. Enjoy it quick.

Moving to the east end of that bed, the poor Vulcan Hosta is really struggling. I think it will survive. I'm still not sure what made it so sad.

Here's another space that is making me increasingly happy. If you want to compare, it's the first picture in the east report below. The Astilbe is blooming, although not prolifically. The Japanese Fern bit that I moved there (just left of center) is very happy. It's gained several fronds already. The 'Wiggles and Squiggles' Hosta is wonderful, and the dark purple 'Season's King' Heuchera is great. Way in the back, a 'Francee' Hosta is in bud.

Today was unbearably hot. But I got myself moving while it was still in the 70s, and got some outside stuff done. Edited before it got too hot in the house, and then went to the air-conditioned store for groceries. After that, I lolled in my chair with a book and iced tea.

Tonight it's supposed to rain, and be much cooler tomorrow. I'm hoping to get a good amount of outside work done. My energy level is good when it's in the 70s. Not so much above that. After 90, forget it!

See Front Garden West See Front Garden East

My Fav Dave

Someone came by for a visit today. Someone with long legs. Can you tell who?

Sorry in advance to all the other Daves and Davids in my life. This one is my favorite. In fact, I call him my extra kid. He's really Marie's, but he goes out of his way to be friends with me and comes up to visit whenever his family is getting together with his in-laws in West Michigan.

No, I didn't compel him into working. He just wanted to help a little bit while I was giving him the flower garden tour. His long legs made dealing with the fencing much easier!

We spent most of the day visiting, but went for a short hike in the afternoon. We went to a nearby piece of the NCT.

Very nice day.

I didn't keep my yearly hiking log up to date here while in New York. I'll add up the miles and get back on track now.

Miles hiked in 2025: 306.8. NCT miles hiked in 2025: 188.6

North Country Trail, Lake Co, Michigan. Upper Branch Bridge to 40th St and back

See The Surprise Arrives

Something New in the Garden

I'm just getting back to regular weeding of the flower beds. The rock garden is going to be a big job. The Sedum Sexangulare is trying to take over everything. But I switched up my schedule so I got outside a bit in the morning before it hit 80 degrees and that way I got a little bit done.

Meanwhile, The new Landini Lilies I showed you just starting to come up in May are going to actually bloom this year.

I thought I was going to miss the mystery yellow lily, but nope! Four flowers when I got home, and the fifth one has since opened. This is the most blooms it has ever had.

The rock garden is a big mess. The aggressive plants are overshadowing other things that are supposed to contrast. I'm working on ripping lots of those out. This space doesn't look too bad, although the Wandering Jew doesn't seem to have grown much. The white is Sedum Album.

And here we are! Two of the Landini Lilies have bloomed. The picture on the package shows them being a much darker purple, but this is OK. And they aren't very tall this year. They are supposed to get three to four feet in height and these aren't half that. As long as they are happy I can be patient.

Also, I got brave and moved a small chunk of the Japanese Painted Fern to a new space, and it is growing.

The Flicker and his mate came back to my deck today. I have put out the birdbath, but they didn't use it, just squawked a lot and then left. I'm happy to have them.

Despite the heat, I managed to accomplish more today with better management of the tasks. There are a two more days of this with it not cooling down much at night. I only have fans to regulate the inside temp, so hot nights keep me from getting a jump start on the next day.

Tomorrow has a fun promise. Stay tuned!

See Flowers and Weeds

A New Silene

Silene is a genus of about 600 plants. There are several common ones that grow in waste places and poor ground. There are some ornamental varieties. Common names often applied to the plants are Catch-Fly or Lychnis. The word Silene is a feminine form of Silenus, a Greek deity who hung around with Dionysus. Lychnis is also the genus name for some of these plants, but taxonomy seems to be moving them to Silene. They are all closely related.

Turns out I know a few, but don't have pictures of many. I saw a new one to me in the Adirondacks. You know that made my day!

This is called Ragged Robin, Silene flos-cuculi. Sadly, alien. But it's pretty.

There's another one just past its prime all over my (unmowed) yard. This is easy to identify with its inflated calyx. Silene vulgaris, called bladder campion. Also alien, but the leaves are edibile. The petals are white and flare out from the front of the bladder, but the petals have already wilted on these.

Also common here are two similar white campions: Night-Flowering Catchfly and Evening Lychnis. Both also alien. They are hard to tell apart. The catchfly has three stamens and the lychnis has five, but I can never remember this without looking it up. They are rather straggly plants with branching stems and few flowers.

I once had a red one in a garden, but it died. It was also straggly. I don't miss it.

However, here's a stunning native Silene that you will see often in Ohio. The common name is Fire Pink which is confusing, as common names often are. Pinks are usually Dianthus, although they are all in the same family, Caryophyllaceae. This is Silene virginica.



Not a lot was accomplished today. I'm pretty hot, and my energy melts when the temps go up. Did editing, computer stuff and a little bit of sorting.

See Red and Purple

What We Did in the Adirondacks

Today I finished adding numbers to all the inventory items from the Adirondacks. I came out at 272 entries, but that's not 100% accurate. I may have recorded items that the NCTA doesn't need, and they may want to count some that I didn't number. For example, is a rocky ford of a stream that never had a bridge a "missing bridge," or is it "nothing?" Or... all the really muddy places that never had puncheon don't really count in an inventory. Does a board someone stole from another place and threw down in the mud count as puncheon or not?

Anyway, we recorded a lot. That is an average of 27 items a day. I went into this thinking it would be more like 15 per day. That was my pre-trip estimate. Only about half of what was out there!

We were recording GPS tracks of the trail on 3 different apps: Avenza, OnX Backcountry, and an Apple watch. Then we added a waypoint for every item, and some things that weren't "items" like fords or mud. Here's what that looks like in OnX Backcountry. The light blue dashed line is the track we took up the east side of Jones Hill.

The green balloons are the waypoints. I marked them in OnX, Bill took a photo with NavCam on his phone which embeds the location and time in the picture. Bill recorded info about the item and condition in Avenza, and I filled out a paper sheet with that info as well, in case the digital data went belly-up. I also took pictures with my camera. Hopefully, between the two of us we got pictures and info about almost everything. Occasionally I forgot to take a picture. I lost two pieces of track. Bill lost one. We tried to come back with duplicate data for everything.

We did manage to streamline the process a bit, but nevertheless, the whole thing was tedious. It was a joyous thing to me at the same time, because we were collecting data that NO ONE had previously compiled. Next week we are meeting with Matt Rowbotham, NCTA GIS specialist, to get it all in a format that is consistent with the current maps and inventory data. Having 3 tracks means that the line that ends up on the map will be more accurate. There are always inconsistencies between tracks on various apps.

A group called GPS Rangers will take our tracks and go through again adding to info we may have missed and taking yet another track. They can verify our inventory and improve photos that don't capture just what the NCTA needs to know.

In general, I would like to say that Adirondack trails are generally in much worse condition than the NCT standards. This is true for a combination of reasons. The attitude toward backcountry trails in the northeast tends to be more toward embracing the suck because it is more "real." They also don't have enough volunteers to maintain them. That is going to continue to be true of the NCT there, similar to the way it is on the Border Route section in Minnesota. There aren't very many people who live close by to go out and work easily.

Bridges ranged from non-existent or broken to brand new. I shared some of the broken ones, and the missing one that we declined to ford. Here is a brand new one with beautiful rockwork approaches. Occasionally infrastructure does get fixed. Supposedly the missing bridge is going to be rebuilt next year. But no one knows when the broken one we skootched across will be repaired.

We took numerous pictures of signs. The familiar brown and gold Adirondack signs are plentiful, and usually in the right places, although mileages are notoriously off. Some are in great shape, some are not.

This is typical, and also in average condition with the trail marker disc missing on the top sign. Trails have red, yellow, or blue discs which may or may not be present in sufficient quantity to actually follow the trail.

I was thrilled to find at least minimal NCT signage on most of the off-road sections of trail (which was all we inventoried). Here is one of the junctions with the Northville-Lake Placid Trail. The NPT goes N-S and the NCT E-W. They cross and are concurrent for a short way near West Canada Lake

Just yesterday, on an Adirondack Trails Facebook page, someone posted a picture of one of the NCT emblems and a blue blaze. They were asking what new trail this was- what those markers meant. This is awesome. New hikers getting acquainted with the North Country Trail.

And the mud. To be honest, we did not see any real solutions to Adirondack mud. It is essentially peat, and it can be 18 inches or more deep at certain times of year. It holds water like a sponge, and once a trail section gets churned up it never really drains. Serious water diversion tactics can be deployed, but then they wash out in heavy rains. We inventoried more damaged culverts than functional ones. Here is an example of serious puncheon that at least stayed in place. These are squared logs about 12" x 14". But someone had to drag those babies in there. That is labor intensive.

I know that when they rebuilt the Sacandaga River Bridge in 2022 the pieces were dragged in on sledges by horses. A lot of work. Many of these locations are far from any kind of road access.

The Adirondackers are in love with their lean-tos, as is almost every trail person. The typical three-sided shelter is, after all, called an Adirondack shelter. I think these are maintained and rebuilt preferentially over actual trail.

The Adirondacks has had a special place in my heart forever. I think I was seven the first time I was inside the "blue line," but my first serious hiking there was in 1966 with my friend Paul.

I've been thrilled to help build NCT trail in a couple of places there in 2020 and 2021, and now to be able to participate in this mapping and inventory project really brings me a ton of satisfaction. We still have the data work to do with Matt, but a date for that is scheduled. There will soon be accurate NCT maps for the Adirondacks!

I mostly did computer work again today. Back to some editing. Did laundry and managed a few minutes in the flower beds. One step at a time!

See Low to High

Flicker Behavior

Flickers are woodpeckers that you usually see on the ground. Today, one landed on my deck railing and stayed there a while.

I'm not going to apologize for the less-than-crisp photos through a screen curtain, because I was just happy to catch such an interesting behavior.

At first it kept spreading one wing as if to dry it off. This makes sense, except there are no nearby puddles or bird baths (I didn't set mine out to just be empty while I was away).

You can see some yellow coloration on the wing. This is the eastern "yellow-shafted" flicker. The wing and tail feathers have bright yellow shafts.

Then it turned around and spread both wings. You can really see the yellow shafts in this view.

I can't find any specific answer on woodpeckers doing this. Territorial mating display is a possibility, although this bird didn't appear to be acting aggresive. Perhaps it was just sunbathing. It may have been sunning itself to help remove parasites. Thermoregulation is another possibility, but that's more common in water-fowl, and this was still morning when it wasn't super hot.

At any rate, I thought it was really interesting.

I kept my word and did very little that required energy today. I worked on the computer to collate data from the Adirondack trip.

See Flicker

Around the Venue

Another Lakeshore Arts Festival is in the books. I'm not sure I'll do it next year. It is expensive. It's two days. It's outside so you have to deal with the weather. The event runs for a full 8 hours each day. Last year I did not cover expenses. This year I just barely broke even.

Anyway, here was my canopy partner for this weekend. Lori Hudson, fellow author. We've known each other for a lot of years, but I'd never been right next to her before. We had a good time getting acquainted. We have a lot more in common than writing books.

I am beyond jaded with vendor events. I'm not much of a shopper anyway, and I see tons of beautiful artisan and fine art stuff all the time at these venues. I did see some pottery I liked- blue patterns.

This was creative. If you can't even keep succulents alive, you can have a garden of stained glass ones.

As usual, the fancy lawn sprinklers were right across from us. They are mesmerizing to watch. They always sell a lot of them despite being pricy.

It was hot. I am beat. Feeling slightly crabby. Sorry... I know that's not quality. I am NOT setting an alarm clock for tomorrow morning. That will help relieve the crabbiness!

See Jean's Hobbies

Jean's Hobbies

Day one of the Lakeshore Art Fair is complete. As I often do for this event, I'm spending the night with author friend Jean.

See link below if you don't remember Jean. She often takes a chicken to events. She mainly writes Sci-Fi, but she now has three children's books about chickens.

She has quite a menagerie at her house. This is Jack the India Runner Duck. If you are friends with Jean, you might remember when handsome Jack was just a fluffy duckling.

Jack is friends with Lucy Goose.

The big excitement of the day is that her chicken Laya, who often goes to shows, has been sitting on eggs. Two of them hatched this morning. This one may be an "ordinary" chicken.

This one will be a Silkie, with the naked neck and a sort of pom-pom hairdo.

Jean also has a flower bed she is trying to reclaim. These huge hostas got weeded, and they gained a woven fence since a tree came down earlier this year thanks to the wind.

And this border looks good. It's a huge job to reclaim a garden on a hill that hasn't been cleaned in a while. I know!

Tomorrow we go sell books again. I thought you'd rather see this than more pictures of vendor tents. I certainly don't find those very exciting any more.

See Bring Your Chicken to Work Day

Flowers and Weeds

I expected the gardens to be in much worse condition than they are, so that is good news. Also, I expected to miss the blooming of several flowers that I really enjoy. Turns out, I didn't miss much.

However, the weeding will need to begin in earnest after the weekend.

Here is a shot the length of the front garden bed.

The blue and white Globe Bellflower are in bloom. The white ones have too many weeds to show up nicely right now. But the blue ones are great.

The rock garden is colorful, but it's really overrun by weeds and overly aggressive plants. For sure, I'll start on that on Monday.

Right now the Sedum sexangulare is in full bloom and dominating the look (along with some other yellow-flowering sedums). There are other bloomers, but they need cleaning up to be very visible.

The biggest surprise was the Wood Sage and Viper's Bugloss in full bloom in the driveway bed. There's also a blue bellflower in there. I hadn't planned that would be a blue garden, but right now, it's making a fine impersonation of one!

You'll see more details as I get areas cleaned up.

The car is unpacked and repacked. Some stuff is put away. I didn't exert myself to strongly today. Just trying to guarantee that I'll be ready for two days of being upbeat to talk to people and sell books. Muskegon Lakeshore Art Festival this weekend. I have to leave at 6:30 am.

I used to give myself 2-3 days after a major hike to recouperate. Not happening this time! I don't think I'm getting tougher as I get older, so maybe I'll need to give myself a real break next week.

See Flower Bed Reports

A Very Special Snail

I'm home safe and sound. Haven't done much for the rest of today. Chilling. Getting energy stored up for tomorrow when I will need to get moving again. Meanwhile...

I got to see something at the Paleontological Research Institute that I thought I NEVER would have the chance to observe.

First of all you need to see Chittenango Falls. This is in Central New York.

The North Country Trail doesn't go as close to it as I would like. It used to be on the road just above the falls. Now it's in the woods east of the falls. You would need to take a spur trail for about 1/2 mile to see the waterfall. Of course New York is stuffed with falls, but it's a really pretty one.

There is an interpretive sign at the falls about a unique creature. If I have a picture of that sign (which I thought I did), I can't find it. The critter is a snail. The Chittenango Ovate Amber Snail, Novisuccinea chittenangoensis. It's only found one place in the world, and it's in the spray on one side of this waterfall. There are 50-75 snails in the wild. It's hard to get an accurate population count.

There are also several captive populations at research facilities. People are trying to learn about what makes these snails happy without reducing the wild population.

So, on Tuesday, I saw a terrarium stuffed with dead leaves. I wondered if it housed a snake of some kind or a small mammal. I asked. Warren started talking about the Chittenango Snail and was shocked that I actually knew about it! I was equally shocked that they had some.

This one wanted his-her picture taken. It's sitting on a romaine lettuce leaf. Apparently individuals can be recognized by the pattern on their shells!

For one thing, I thought they were tiny, tiny snails. Not so. They are about 3/4 of an inch long!

An article in the Journal of Molluscan Studies says they only like romaine lettuce when they are getting ready to mate, even though it's a standard diet for most captive snails. The article does give some leaves that have been found to be preferred by Chitt (the nickname for this snail). They like some hickory and walnut. Cherry and oak in certain stages of decomposition are highly preferred. Seems this is a gourmand snail. Very fussy eater. There is a long list of leaves they won't even nibble.

Now for reproduction. Snails and slugs are hermaphrodites. Each individual is both sexes. Remember hearing about the snails' "love dart?" One snail shoots a projectile into another snail which stimulates the desire to reproduce. They bond for 10-15 hours and exchange packets of sperm. Then each snail lays eggs.

I am beyond pleased that I got to see these little critters!

Tomorrow I have to get my tush in gear.

See Paleontological Research Institute