A-grrrr-essive Plants

I finally got the pieces together (and the weather contributed its piece by not being too hot) to start mowing. Discovered that in just the time I've been gone that a grapevine decided it should own the lawnmower.

Don't think it was content with that one little tendril. Oh, no! It was already getting serious about tying down the entire engine.

Here's one of the reasons I need to get cracking on the mowing. I like the big bluestem grass in the back field, but if it gets a foothold in the lawn that will be a problem because it grows in big coarse clumps.

The grapevine is funny. The autumn olive is not. I managed to mow five swaths and realized that a front tire on the mower was completely flat and trying to come off the wheel. At least it turned out to be fairly easy to remove the wheel. That little aggressive plant cost me $45.00. One of the thorns had punctured the tire.

Also, it took time to get it fixed. So I managed to mow two lawn sections after it was repaired. Other than that, I edited and did errands and a bit of computer stuff.

Hopefullly, more mowing tomorrow.

See Also Known as Turkeyfoot

That Large Acquisition

I mentioned a large purchase a week or so ago. Well, it arrived on Tuesday.

What is lurking back there in the shadows?

It's big.

Well, the delivery guy was a young man with nothing on his mind except delivery. He was going to leave it in the middle of the driveway. "Wait a minute," I said. "You've got a pallet jack... we are at least going to put it over at the edge."

So we did that, and he was gone in a flash.

Um... what just happened here? I now have a new lawnmower, but it's not even fully assembled. It's in a crate stacked on a pallet. The wheels aren't even on the pallet. It weighs (according to the specs) 615 pounds. I don't think I'm getting this baby on the ground without help.

Friend Dan to the rescue again. He and I together were actually able to get it on the ground. He wanted to see it put together, so we assembled the disconnected pieces. It does have oil in it, but no gas. I will go get gas tomorrow. Oh, and Riley! Riley helped of course because I got a pupper fix.

Yes, this is a big deal. But I just couldn't face another summer of having a mower that didn't work more often than it did. I had gotten the former mower started, and did a little bit last week, but it was already acting up. And it just never was heavy-duty enough for what I'm trying to do here.

I did go to the retalier where I made the purchase and suggested to them that they at least warn people who order this (with the free delivery option because the store didn't have any in stock) that they are going to get something that isn't ready to run. I also mentioned that I paid the same price as I would have if this had been on their floor, ready to run and drive onto my trailer. But they didn't offer to give me any money back. No comment.

I am holding my breath until I actually have it running tomorrow, but I'm tentatively thrilled that I once again own a tractor worthy of the name. 547 cc engine. 15.7 HP, 42" deck. 18-in turning radius. Vroom, vroom!

And I am going to owe Dan bigtime. He seems to be my secret weapon for success this season.

I had high energy today and got a lot of work done outside as well as editing and other stuff. Finished the first weed-through on the rock garden for the year. I know I promised you flowers today, but the mower took priority. Flowers tomorrow!

See A Little Help from a Friend

Last Time this Year?

 Remember that I picked up the mower on Friday? Gone Saturday, too wet yesterday. Nice weather today! My goal was to try to get everything mowed once before snow comes.

I got everything around the house.

And most of what we would like to keep mowed down by the road. At any rate, I did everything I could without cutting and chopping out more autumn olive.

I know this looks like a lot of space, and many people ask why I don't let it go to native plants. So I will state again, for those who may not have seen my answer, it goes to autumn olive, spotted knapweed, and sweet pea. There is plenty of native milkweed in the field next door, and I encourage it to grow there. I wage constant war on the autumn olive. We feel like this is minimum space to mow to keep the deer, mice, woodchucks, mosquitoes, etc somewhat away from the house, and hold those invasive plants in check.

I rarely mow it ALL in one day, but today was the good weather window, so...

This was only the second mowing of the whole season. Constant lawnmower troubles (not my laxity this year), and I have a hard time paying for repairs. I may have to get a sturdier mower.

I also managed to dry laundry outside. Yeah, I know the lines are sagging. Not much point in tightening them until spring, at this point.

Also got in some time editing.

See Climbing the Stupidity Ladder

Climbing the Stupidity Ladder

 So, I got a text today that the lawnmower was ready to be picked up. I was given a choice of ANY time to do so today. I chose 3 pm. Stupid. The pickup is exactly across from a school on a four-corner intersection.

There were buses and cars coming from the south. There was a large truck hauling a trailer with a backhoe coming from the north, and a line of vehicles backed up behind it. There was all the usual traffic on the highway. I was sitting in a driveway crosswise to the side street with the mower on the trailer.

Let's just say I had time to call Marie and chat before I got out on the road.

Got home. It started right up. Couldn't get it in gear. Checked the lever you need to move to drive vs. push it. It was fine. Darn thing wouldn't go in gear. Felt like an idiot. Texted the fixit guy. Parking brake was on. OK... in the three years I've owned this mower, I've never yet been able to get the parking brake to work. Got it released. Put the mower away. Still can't get the brake on. Do I feel dumb?

Everything is too wet to mow any today, but I am pretty sure I'll be able to mow one more time before the snow hits, which is my goal. Yeah!

I'm feeling smarter about plants. I'm almost done with the 2010 Flower Show pictures. With all the plants in my database, I have about 210 genera so far, and about 360 different plants. I have to say "about" because I'm not quite done with the Flower Show, and I could identify a few more than that. I have that many for sure.

Sound like a lot? Ha! There are over 2000 plant genera, and the estimate for the number of species is 391,000 with 2000 new ones being described every year (mostly in underexplored places of the world).

No, I'll never remember all of them. Hopefully, the ones that I see most often (in addition to the plants I own or are native here).

I'll show you three that look similar- succulents with thick overlapping leaves that aren't related at all. The first is Haworthia viscosa. Native to South Africa.

Then a hybrid called 'Buddha's Temple.' It is a Crassula, otherwise generally known as a jade plant. This was created in 1959 by plant tinkerers. You won't find it in the wild.

I'll bet some of you have heard of this one. It's Monkey Puzzle Tree, Araucaria araucana. Native to Chile and Argentina.

Closer to home, The bloody cranesbill geranium is still bringing some late-season joy.

Edited, worked on projects. No writing for the book... am working out a plot monkey puzzle in my head.

See Once More Unto the Breach

Once More Unto the Breach, Dear Friends

 "Once more unto the breach, dear friends." George V was a mighty warrior in the Hundred Years War.

Hopefully I'm a mighty warrior in the lawmower wars. It seems as if an awful lot of posts have to do with keeping a mower running.

Today's victory is that I successfully took the mower to the mower hospital. I really need a more heavy-duty machine. Meanwhile, I'd like to mow once more before the snow arrives.

As Shakespeare continued that speech to the end, "Cry 'God for Harry, England, and Saint George!'" Of course, I always picture it being delivered by the aging actor in the Fantastiks, not by a rousing King Henry.

I unloaded the wood that was on the trailer so I could use the trailer, pinched a finger, did a lot of editing, and wrote chapter 27: 1051 words in Vacation from Dead Mule Swamp.

We had the door open today, it was so nice out. Probably rain tomorrow, but still warm.

See Small but Surprisingly Satisfactory

Young Volunteers

 This morning, I went out to share a little bit about the North Country Trail with two crews of youth volunteers that were working on the Spirit of the Woods' section of trail. One crew came from Saginaw and is sponsored by the DNR. (they are bundled up against the mosquitoes!)

These pictures are candid, but I haven't yet been sent the actual group shot. Most of the people you see in this picture are part of the Eco-Seeds group who have worked with us before.

Put together, it was practically an army of young and willing hands and muscles!

Our big project this year was to build 184 feet of raised turnpike through a perched wetland that is always a muddy mess. These crews got it done in practically no time.

I managed good activity until 3 pm. Then I crashed. So I guess my body insisted on 1 1/2 crash days even though I tried for one.

BONUS SECTION: I hate engines

The other accomplishment of the day is that I got someone over here to get the mower going. It just takes me too long to fool around with engines. So, he cleaned everything off, checked the oil (fine), checked the air filter (fine), added some "Seafoam" additive to the gas (which was new this year), got on it and... you know what happened. It started right up. Eye roll. But I'll take it! So I did mow one section of yard. The grass and weeds are at full height, of course, by this time of the summer. I went over it twice and it looks better than I expected. Still a lot to go, but I'll get it done. I did the part where the clothesline is first. I'll bet you can guess one of my upcoming tasks!

Some people have suggested I get rid of the lawn and plant native plants. I'd never be able to keep that up. There is too much spotted knapweed, and the autumn olive saplings I keep having to dig out. In probably 2 years it would be a nightmare jungle of invasives. Mowing also helps keep the mosquitoes down a bit and suggests to the deer that they don't own every single square inch.

See Eco Seeds group August 2023 See Mowing last August

Small but Surprisingly Satisfactory Victory

One of the recurring themes on this blog is lawnmower woes. No woes today. The wonderful (OK, it may seem small to you, but it feels huge to me) victory is that all of the lawn is mowed at one time (defined as within just a few days so that it's more or less all the same length).

That has not happened since 2021, and before that... I'm not sure. Keeping the grass mowed here is a major task. Mostly because there are continuous lawnmower problems, but also because I go away a lot. And if it goes even half a season without mowing, I have to dig out autumn olive shrubs before I can mow again.

Here's the back yard.

And the part down by the road.

The truth is this mower isn't quite heavy-duty enough for this rough yard, but the one I'd like costs $2500. That's not happening. This one will probably be beaten to a pulp in a couple more years, though.

These pictures make the space mowed look vast. It's pretty big, but not quite the expanse the pictures imply. People have said I should stop mowing and let it grow up in native plants. It's an appealing idea, but I'd never keep up with it. The autumn olive and the spotted knapweed would require constant attention. Actually, there is a large patch out back of big bluestem, and that is native and would probably be happy to spread, but it forms clumps so thick and tall it would obscure everything.

I spent the day working on the program for tomorrow night. In between hours of that, I mowed. I'll have to work on it more tomorrow, maybe a little this evening, but I'm in good shape to have it ready.

See When I got this Mower

Rock Garden Report 4

I am here to tell you that this much of the rock garden has not been weeded since 2009. I made brief attempts to recover it in 2014 and 2020, but neither time did I get very far.

There are now about 55 of about 80 numbered spaces weeded. I have put in stakes to keep track of the numbers. It looks tacky, but some of the rocks have gotten covered with dirt (I'm lifting them as I figure out where they are), and it's not as easy to look at my map and find the places. Also, the plants that defined the spaces have died or moved, so this is really helping me locate the spaces and make a new plant list. I'm taking these long shot pictures from the same angle each time, so you can more easily judge the progress. There are other angles from the deck and farther away that are also nice. I'll share those another time.

The western edge is not yet weeded- and there are spaces there that never got numbered. Totally new territory except I had rocks in place. The western 2/3 of the top set of spaces is still overrun by the Bloody Cranesbill. But, there are great open niches in which to put plants.

Here are a few of the new additions:

This is one I bought. It's Sedum takesimense 'Atlantis.' There are a lot of new hybrids and cultivars that are hardy. I stumbled over this one, which is quite unusual because of its light-color "flashy" leaves. I like it a lot.

And what's in front of it? That's what Dave did for me yesterday. Right at the bottom of the garden I had three chunks of mulberry tree that made a sort of retaining wall. Two of those were rotted out to the point that they were totally useless. Another friend gave me a couple of chunks of oak that had funky knots, making them less desirable to split for firewood. But they have nice interest for this location. Maybe I'll even plant something in the knots. So Dave dug out the old rotten logs and put these in their place. I have a little dirt work to do in front, but that's no big deal.

Here is a sedum that Betsy gave me. Sedum hybrid, 'Thundercloud.' It's very similar to one called 'Mongolian Stardust,' but that one trails instead of standing up straight, so this may be the first one. This clump had good roots, so it went directly in the garden. Another clump is in a pot having a chance to improve its root system. This one gets about 8-10" tall. Except for some plants at the very top, that's about as big as I want anything, but I like it in front of that rock.

Here's another I bought. I'm learning that the Sunsparkler series- a proprietary line of Sedum hybrids- has an awful lot of gorgeous choices that are hardy. This one is called 'Dazzleberry,' and in late summer it has raspberry-red blossoms. I'm not sure it will bloom this year, but let's hope it survives. These all should. The wimpiest one is supposedly hardy to -10 degrees, but it's one from Betsy and she's had it for years, so it should be fine here.

I'm here to tell you that you can order some of these more interesting plants, but a tiny puddle like this is all you get. And... I thought I was ordering two varieties from the same seller to save postage, but I guess not. This better end up being one of my favorites since it cost more than I usually spend.

This space is mixed bag. I bought a pot of these huge maroon Sempervivum at Meijer for half price becuase some of the leaves were damaged. Now, this is how I like to get plants. The pot was stuffed. Two of these huge rosettes and a bunch of babies. I've spread those around the garden.

And the yellow-green sprigs in the crack behind it is Sedum sarmentosum. I got the original plants from Marie... some of the earliest in the rock garden, and one of the most successful. But it was almost all gone when I weeded this year. It really likes to be out in the sun, so I'm wondering if all the years of tall grass just shaded it out. Anyway, Betsy gave me some more. I can move some of what's here later, and I also have more in a pot to get new roots. It looks great when it gets established, filling in cracks everywhere, so I'm glad to have some more.

Here's another one Betsy gave me. This one trails all over the place, but the flower stalks are tall, so I put it against the retaining wall. I also have another clump in a pot. This is Sedum rupestre 'Angelina.'

Finally, here's one of the hardiest of the survivors. This is everywhere! It's Sedum reflexum 'Blue Spruce' because the leaf stalks look like tiny blue spruce branches. Some of them are even blooming this year. The flower stalks snake all over the place and then have a flat cluster of yellow flowers.

Betsy gave me about eight different kinds of plants, so I haven't shown you all of them yet, but this is surely enough for one day. All this goes to show how a garden this size just swallows plants. Now that I've committed to this, I hope I'll continue to work hard to keep it weeded so the plants can begin to fill in again.

BONUS SECTION: Mowing

Remember the strange phenomenon of some critter eating the gas can?

After I got most of the upper yard mowed on June 17, nothing else had been done until today. I disovered that something chewed holes in the nozzle of the newer can. Yes, it can be replaced for $10 for another plastic one just like it to fit the plastic can that something with itching teeth also chews on. Well, there hasn't been enough rain for the lawn to grow or the parts that didn't get mowed to get any worse. So, I rummaged around this week and found our old metal can. It even has a metal spout. Perfect. I checked it over and the inside was clean and the seams were sound. Why did I ever stop using this can? No clue.

Today I mowed the rest of the upper yard and threw away yet another plastic gas "can." No more of those for me.

See Rock Garden Report 3

Better than Expected

Apparently the last year I got the front flower bed weeded was 2020. Sigh. But I couldn't resist seeing what is left, and aparently the wire covers over the plants have protected them pretty well. About half of it is weeded and generally cleaned up. Most of the hosta clumps have actually grown.

I thinned the daffodils. I cut to the ground that rose I mostly hate. It will be back anyway, but it was so out of control I needed to just get it out of the way.

There are a couple of successes I'll show in more detail another day, but with the ground dark from a nice afternoon watering, it almost looks like a garden!

The other big news is that Loren stopped by to help me get the mower on the trailer! Of course that turned out to be trickier than expected, but we got it done. It's delivered to be repaired. If it's going to cost too much, it may not be worth it... we shall see. An awful lot of big ticket needs lately.

I was going to take a hilly hike, but the day got away from me. I did get an appointment to get the car exhaust looked at, and I got the headlight fixed. Finally, I decided to walk to Betty's with some of the daffodil bulbs I promised her. Not very hilly, but not dead flat. Anyway, at least I took a 5-mile walk.

See More Garden Fun- 2017 See $10,000 Plan, $20 Budget - 2020

The Culprit? and a Surprise

The primary focus of my day was the lawnmower. I am really, really tired of working on lawnmowers. And I don't have this problem solved yet.

This is the PTO switch. You pull it up to make the blades rotate. It may be bad. Or not. It's a likely suspect. Just getting it out of the mower was an education (because I've never done this or seen it done before, but I figured it out). I watched videos of how to test it with a multimeter to see if it has gone bad. Hmmm. This switch has 6 prongs, and all the newer ones have 8. So, I'm not sure if I'm testing it correctly or not. There are no 6-prong replacements. They are all 8-prong with matching numbers. So that seems like it would be OK, but I'm not sure how it can be all right to add two prongs. The socket has 9 slots so it would fit. 6.8.9. Seems a bit random to me.

I may have to get someone who knows more about this than I do. If it's not the switch or just wires, it's the solenoid. I haven't even found where the solenoid is yet. The old mower just had a lever which mecanically engaged the belts to drive the blades.

The surprise? Well, despite how many times I've declared that I'm done trying to keep a flower garden here with the lousy soil and too many hungry critters, each year I can't seem to stop myself from playing in the dirt.

So, I'm cleaning out the flower bed in front of the house. This little ground cover is sometimes called Creeping Charlie. (Several other plants are also called that.) This is Glechoma hederacea. It often grows wild in lawns. It's supposed to be a nuisance plant that forms dense mounds. Ha! All it's ever done in my gardens is creep all over, one skinny tentacle at a time, never looking nice. I'd be thrilled to see a dense mound of it.

But the surprise is that it bloomed this year. I don't think I've ever seen the blossoms- on my plants, anyway. It's a member of the mint family, and has a nice spicy scent when crushed.

Another surprise is that there are a few plants in my front garden that are still alive. So there is potentially a reason to weed that bed.

A final suprise wasn't so great. There is a patch of moss phlox growing in the yard, and I thought I'd dig it up and plop it into a space in that "lost" rock garden. I put in the shovel and pulled up a clod of dirt. Instantly there were about 5 biting ants on my hands. Ugh. Guess I'll leave that alone for a while!

Anyway, I did do several things I was supposed to today, even if I can't say that anything is done.

See Mower and More

Getting Acquainted

  By afternoon, in spite of the chilly temperature, the grass had dried out, so I decided to get acquainted with the "new" mower. As expected, there are some things about this one that are better than my old one, and some not as good. But it was definitely a great deal for me.

Mostly, I concentrated on getting comfortable with where the various controls are. I'd had the old one so long I didn't even have to think about how to make it do what I wanted. Not quite there with this one yet.

As you can imagine, by this late in the spring, the yard looked more like a hayfield. But I got the part down by the road hacked off. Now it looks like a short hayfield. That's about half of what I mow.

Before I could even start this, I had to go pop out a bunch of autumn olive saplings. 27 of them, to be exact. They are the worst thing about the years I don't manage to keep things mowed. They just sprout overnight. It seems that way, anyway.

In other news: I had a headache this morning, but mangaged to putter at some bookkeeping kinds of things. Got groceries in the late afternoon. You can tell it's a holiday weekend in a tourist town. Traffic was nuts. One major disappointment- I did not get a book award that I thought I had a good shot at. O well.

Tomorrow is a vendor event.

See Mower and More