Radogast's Non-420 Garden Creation Thread

[Radogast]

I can tell spring is here.
One of our solar lights has poked through the snow and is putting out light.
A second solar light is still buried, but also lit up.

 

[Radogast]

Today feels like spring.


Some snow, but we can see the outlines of our paths.

Temps in the 40s. Winds in the teens. Snowmelt in the brook.
The stepping stones are underwater, but were stable enough for me to walk across and collect some gravel.

I trimmed the Blueberry Bush by the back steps and took the trimmings as clones.

Now for the spring part; our first crocus ! ! !
I also saw 5 tulips poking through soil, so 1% of the bulbs I planted last fall have started to show.

 

[SweetSue]

Happy Easter Rad! Mother Nature's starting to cooperate at last and let spring begin. What a relief!

Good luck with the clones. May they all spring forth themselves.

 

[SweetSue]

Where are you planning to put the blueberry patch Rad?

 

[Radogast]

Where are you planning to put the blueberry patch Rad?

This picture looks south from our house which is roughly centered in a one acre island.

See the rock border shaped a bit like Florida or a gun holster?
Just past the flat top of Florida, is an area that will include a small pond at the bottom of a waterfall coming down the rocks to the right. The blueberry bushes will be used as a screen to set apart the currently open area between Florida and the little arbor gate leading back into the wood chopping area my wife likes to call the Viking Lodge.

OPTION #1 for excess blueberry bushes, is the lower meadow, in the left side of the photo near the brook (where the deer walk)

OPTION #2 would be the ledge which is out of sight.

See the little patch of snow in a line between the tops of the two arbor gates? That is about 400 feet from the deck where I took the photo and is a soggy meadow just past the southern end of the island. This is provisionally named Mushroom Meadow as I plan to erect log sections upright in the shady edges of this meadow, sunk into the damp ground and inoculated with Shiitake and other mushroom spores. There is a land bridge over a tiny stream from the island to Mushroom Meadow.

See where the sky is first visible directly over the right arbor gate? That is the shrub and tree covered peak of a basalt? ledge about 1/3 mile away. The "waterfall" rock and Mushroom Meadow are the feet of this ledge which rises 3-4 stories into the air. If I plant blueberries on the ledge, I can call it Blueberry Hill. The north (closest) slope of the ledge is currently covered with invasive species bushes in the honeysuckle family. The rest of the ledge is native maple, ash, pine, and oak. Last year I cut a path straight up the ledge in line with our house accessible from Mushroom Meadow.

The brook to the left of the photo makes 9 or 10 serpentine curves in a "C" shape around the ledge and then passes under a road. The brook to the left and backyard fences and swampy creeks to the right of the ledge are natural barriers to humans, enclosing about 6 acres of land accessible mostly through Mushroom Meadow. This winter I cut a path between the brook and the ledge.

I hope my words created a bit of an image of the ledge on my neighbors land.

 

[SweetSue]

Isn't the ledge the huge rock you both thought you'd be able to dig out before you realized it was much more than a simple rock? You posted pictures of that. The names Rad! The Viking Lodge. Mushroom Meadow. What delightful fun! I didn't remember the ledge as being on your neighbor's property.

It really is a slice of paradise isn't it? The sound of the water has to be..... We married and honeymooned next to a stream in the Alleghenys. I will always be drawn to the forest. It's a cosmic joke that we have no access to wilderness. I walk through your world in imagination. You make it easy to do.

Thanks for the series of belly laughs.

 

[Radogast]

Isn't the ledge the huge rock you both thought you'd be able to dig out before you realized it was much more than a simple rock? You posted pictures of that. The names Rad! The Viking Lodge. Mushroom Meadow. What delightful fun! I didn't remember the ledge as being on your neighbor's property.

It really is a slice of paradise isn't it? The sound of the water has to be..... We married and honeymooned next to a stream in the Alleghenys. I will always be drawn to the forest. It's a cosmic joke that we have no access to wilderness. I walk through your world in imagination. You make it easy to do.

Thanks for the series of belly laughs.

The "huge rock" is the toenail of the 1 acre island "foot" of the ledge "leg" 1/3 mile away on the neighbors property. This whole area is filed with great rock outcrops. I suspect they are all the "body" of Paul Bunyan under the surface soil

 

[Ranger275]

Blueberries are weird. They like very acidic soil, so I always mulch w/pine straw. It's the only time I use the stuff. For everything else I use wheat straw: biodegrades in less than decades, buffers temps, and actually holds water. Also, in Nature, most berries grow at the edge of forest and glade. Not only do they like a little shade, they need it. W/all your trees, you just might have berry heaven!

 

[SweetSue]

Yeah, great rocks in that region. Dale and I were always jumping out to grab rocks that fell along the roadways. In our local natural history museum they have a time tower explaining stratigraphy and the base is comprised of a pile of varied and interesting large rock specimens gathered along the PA Turnpike. What a day that was! We were driving a truck load of fossils we'd pulled out of someone's basement - about 15,000 specimens of Carboniferous plant fossils. It was in Philly and the day we packed the truck was a miserable 95 degrees with 80% humidity. Took us 9 hours to haul and pack those boxes. We had to stop for the night and Dale puked his guts out from exhaustion.

Next morning we're driving back with the load and every time we'd spot an interesting big rock lying along the side of the road we'd jump out and wrestle it into the back. Picked up 30 huge monster rocks. We had to look like madmen.

We were stronger then.

 

[SweetSue]

Blueberries are weird. They like very acidic soil, so I always mulch w/pine straw. It's the only time I use the stuff. For everything else I use wheat straw: biodegrades in less than decades, buffers temps, and actually holds water. Also, in Nature, most berries grow at the edge of forest and glade. Not only do they like a little shade, they need it. W/all your trees, you just might have berry heaven!

That's very helpful information Ranger. Berry heaven! Can't you taste them already Rad ?

 

[Dutty Panty]

Morning rad. Nice garden thread.

 

[Radogast]

Blueberries are weird. They like very acidic soil, so I always mulch w/pine straw. It's the only time I use the stuff. For everything else I use wheat straw: biodegrades in less than decades, buffers temps, and actually holds water. Also, in Nature, most berries grow at the edge of forest and glade. Not only do they like a little shade, they need it. W/all your trees, you just might have berry heaven!

Thanks for bringing up acidity!

You reminded me that I need to get out and test my waters. With a river, brook, two streams and rainwater there are multiple water sources for PH microclimates.
The agricultural soil maps give a basic soil profile, but they don't include water.

And thanks for the blueberry info. Thinking of flowers and litmus paper, I wonder if all blue plants like acid.

 

[SweetSue]

Morning rad. Nice garden thread.

One of my favorite corners in our virtual neighborhood. I can feel the quiet.

 

[Radogast]

Yeah, great rocks in that region. Dale and I were always jumping out to grab rocks that fell along the roadways. In our local natural history museum they have a time tower explaining stratigraphy and the base is comprised of a pile of varied and interesting large rock specimens gathered along the PA Turnpike. What a day that was! We were driving a truck load of fossils we'd pulled out of someone's basement - about 15,000 specimens of Carboniferous plant fossils. It was in Philly and the day we packed the truck was a miserable 95 degrees with 80% humidity. Took us 9 hours to haul and pack those boxes. We had to stop for the night and Dale puked his guts out from exhaustion.

Next morning we're driving back with the load and every time we'd spot an interesting big rock lying along the side of the road we'd jump out and wrestle it into the back. Picked up 30 huge monster rocks. We had to look like madmen.

We were stronger then.

Glad you enjoy rocks. The local rocks are mostly boring rocks, nicely shaped, but geologically boring.

There is one local rock of interest, but my town is the only place in the USA with this rock so I will keep that one a secret for now

 

[Radogast]

Morning rad. Nice garden thread.

Morning DP. I love your wild lands. My family line on my mother's side includes Daniel Boone's uncle and a founding family of the Oregon Territories. I have ancestors buried several places in Washington and Oregon.

The garden in my mind is wild and weird with hardly a straight line. In reality, it is still a odd man's dream.
This party of the country has seen the poetic farming and non farming of Emerson, Thoreau, Louis May Alcotts parents (total disaster) and more.

I'm in the right place to indulge my crafting of a personal paradise.

 

[Radogast]

FYI: The daughter spotted a coyote crossing the brook on Saturday, just past Mushroom Meadow (Shroom Holler?)
This its the largest mammal predator we've seen in the yard, bigger than a Gray Fox, Fisher, Raccoon, and domestic Cat.

Bears sightings are locally more common than Fisher, Fox, and Coyote. I can't think of anything on the land attractive to Bear, as woodpeckers, raccoon and possum probably get all the grubs in the logs and trees.

 

[SweetSue]

Shroom Holler!

 

[Dennise]

Just FYI... I heard from Canna this morning and she is doing well and should be at her new job before the end of the month and hopefully back with us soon after that as the new job doesn't do random testing... She seems to be in good spirits and looking forward to getting back to her 420 home.....

 

[MassMedMan]

Glad you enjoy rocks. The local rocks are mostly boring rocks, nicely shaped, but geologically boring.

There is one local rock of interest, but my town is the only place in the USA with this rock so I will keep that one a secret for now

Interesting. I, too live in a town with a,, special rock. Small world,, or state

 

[SweetSue]

Just FYI... I heard from Canna this morning and she is doing well and should be at her new job before the end of the month and hopefully back with us soon after that as the new job doesn't do random testing... She seems to be in good spirits and looking forward to getting back to her 420 home.....

Thank you Dennise. That actually made me tear up for joy. The entire community has missed her terribly. Great news!