Radogast's Non-420 Garden Creation Thread

I had a few leaves full on Saturday :rofl::rofl:


With few leaves left on the trees, I took a leaf blower to the paths.

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Mark saw your photos and loves how the house backs up to the woods. We love that. The leaves have not fallen from our trees yet. They have started to turn and redbuds are losing leaves. Our Live Oaks shed in April. This year when the leaves do fall, I am definitely raking them. There is a lot of work to do...

I miss the 420 community. It seems nobody posts very much any more.
 
gardenfaerie said:
Mark saw your photos and loves how the house backs up to the woods. We love that. The leaves have not fallen from our trees yet. They have started to turn and redbuds are losing leaves. Our Live Oaks shed in April. This year when the leaves do fall, I am definitely raking them. There is a lot of work to do...

I miss the 420 community. It seems nobody posts very much any more.
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I love that we have woods on two sides :)
We are the house at the end of the lane at the edge of town.
With more evergreen planting we could screen all houses from view.

Some more of the trees on the island that is our backyard will be coming down in the next few weeks.
To create our vision of bushes and flowers to share with the animals, we need more sunlight.:icon_cool:

I'm working towards a quiet time on :420: I spend more time on the boards than actual gardening.

Thanks for posting here. The yard takes time, but taken together, our first year shows a lot of progress.
 
I just started perusing this thread and intend to continue later. I've been jumping back and forth between this and gardenfaerie's back yard, so I'm still on page 1 of yours, but I just wanted to say how impressed I was with the uncovering of the thread. I'm looking forward to watching the refuge develop. Already your love of the process is evident.

Susan :Namaste:
 
Radogast said:
Gunnera - never heard of that one. GIGANTIC:green_heart:

That's for sharing your loveBird story :) :Love:

Those big green leaves are Eastern Skunk Cabbage. I am surrounded by acres of it.

Skunk Cabbage is a perennial herb growing visible 4 seasons (although it pulls back underground to show just leaf tips in the winter.)
Notable for:
Skunky, earthy smell.
It finds puddles and builds them into swamps.
Natively invasive/top species in shaded wetlands.
Creates it's own heat in winter.
Variously medicinal herb.

The ONLY herbal remedy I have tried is as a topical analgesic.
After blooming, we cut a spadix in half and rubbed on skin to suppress Posion ivy itch.
Within 5 minutes, pain was suppressed. Lasted from the afternoon until at least bedtime.

Swamp Cabbage Spadix

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I had to jump in here with a great holistic treatment for poison ivy. Jewel weed. It grows along streams, so you may be lucky enough to find some on your property. You rip the stalk open and rub the juices on the affected area, similar to aloe. It not only cuts the itch immediately, it will cut the spread of the irritating poison. Google it.
 
gardenfaerie said:
That is also my kind of day. Back when I could garden all day, Mark would come out to check up on me and if I was covered in dirt (which I usually am when gardening) he loved it! He's even said his favorite vision of me is when I'm covered in dirt and garden gear!

I have to battle my Virginia Creeper, also. I have it growing in one area which also covers the fence. I want it on the fence even though it will eventually tear that fence down. I like the privacy, but it creeps along into the bed and I have my brand new 10 ferns to plant over there in that shade bed. Right now the mosquitoes are simply torturous.

JOF
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I loved our Virginia creeper so much that I had a small section of a vine in silhouette tattooed on my lower right calf, next to a clover and Queen Anne's lace. I've always been a sucker for the spontaneous vegetation. It got us hauled before a magistrate once. He told us to pay our fine and cut it down or move to the country. That Virginia creeper was a challenge to contain, but I loved everything about the plant.
 
Sweetsue said:
I had to jump in here with a great holistic treatment for poison ivy. Jewel weed. It grows along streams, so you may be lucky enough to find some on your property. You rip the stalk open and rub the juices on the affected area, similar to aloe. It not only cuts the itch immediately, it will cut the spread of the irritating poison. Google it.
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Yep. I loves the Jewel weed. This was the second our third plant "new" plant we identified. We have a large clump growing out by the mailbox and I have helped establish two more clumps, one by the garbage can and another by the brook side of the house.

Unlike the calamine lotions and other pharmacy treatments, scratching the poison ivy itch with a jewel weed stick attacks the poison in the bloodstream. Knocks the "poison" right out.

The poison ivy crops up now and then in unnoticed areas, but where I have uprooted the vines, they have not returned with vigor.

Virginia creeper is still an issue, but is retreating in area. It is a lovely plant, I enjoy seeing it overgrow the stone wall near the dressage area on my morning commute. I prefer to enjoy it from afar :)
 
Thinned out 7 more trees this weekend. The idea is to create a back meadow by allowing sunlight to reach the ground.



Beyond the firewood pile, 7 trees were removed.

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Poles are potential pergola building material. Cut logs are next winter's firewood.
Long, well-formed sticks are for fence weaving. The remainder is front yard "hugelkulture" mulch.

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I admire the way you try to use every bit of each tree that gets sacrificed for the greater good. Great stewardship of your little slice of the forest. I've so enjoyed walking through your bit of paradise. It's come so far from where you started.

We've been stuck in the city (although stuck is such a harsh way to put it) for so many years now. When Dale married me he asked if I would move to the forest and my answer was an emphatic "YES". Life just didn't play along. I'm pretty adaptable and he'll follow my lead, so we've made the best of it. Reading through this thread makes me feel like I'm there. I can hear the wind in the trees, feel the crunch of the leaves underfoot and smell the change of seasons. Thank you so much for sharing.
 
Thanks Sweetsue :)

I've been a city boy all my life, so this is really new to me.

I'm not heading the spirits of the land literally talk to me, but I feel influenced by them.

On my birthday, oct 24th, near pagan New year (Halloween) when the spirits walk loose, signs and portents abound.

In 24 hours:
I heard geese flying and honking at night (witchy sign of a thinning of the veil between worlds.)
I saw a one horned stag in the yard (druidy.) He was a big boy compared to the usual lady and children deer. And the first with antlers.
The first tree I cut went the wrong way and smashed our fairy altar (fairy like.) The end of the year death to be followed by rebirth. (Need to build a new altar next month.)
A psychic told me the native American spirits on the land are very happy with the changes (indigenous spirits.) 350 years ago, the native tribes gathered near this land, a meeting of the Waters. There is evidence of locally pre-Columbian manufactured spiritual objects in graves south of New York.

Halloween night (Samhain) might be intense this year :circle-of-love:
 
All of that made me smile. It's clear the land is happy with you're being there. :)
 
Very Nice piece of property it looks like your on quite a adventure. It will be a nice retreat.
 
SBG said:
Very Nice piece of property it looks like your on quite a adventure. It will be a nice retreat.
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Pretty much all the property in the background with heavy trees belongs to other people. 4 acres to a neighbor who walks it when a visitor is interested - about 4 times in 12 months. 13 more acres belong to a business with an absentee landlord and no access without crossing the brook. The adjacent landed is also bounded by a river, so it is unused except by me :)
 
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