More (yes, more) new plants

These I bought at the plant sale this morning:

• a Bishop's Hat plant (Epimedium) -- likes shady, woody places
• a Balloon Flower (Platycodon grandiflorus) for the border
• a Siberian Iris (Iris Sibirca) to go near the water
• some Lemon Balm (Melissa officinalis) to go in a container for now

Then later I went to the shed shop in Medford to take a look (it was the really-cute Victorian playhouse that caught my eye... what a treat that would have been for the children when they were littls)... and then to Lowes because I needed some more plantpots and it was almost next door... and of course couldn't walk out without a plant or three, so two more clematis came home (one summer-flowering and one autumn-flowering), plus a big beautiful hanging begonia.

Now it's thundering and lightening and generally storming, so they are all waiting underneath the deck for a dry spell.

Am glad I went to Lowes before buying a wooden shed. They had a few examples in their parking lot, one of which was very sad. It was rotting from the floor up. It made me realize that if I buy a wooden (i.e., any wood-based material that is not real cedar or similar), and put it where I was thinking of putting it, without constructing a concrete slab, then it will just rot away very quickly.

May revert to original plan of smaller storage sheds under the deck, against the wall. They they will be on the same concrete slab as the house, and protected from the elements. Lowes had a decent 8 by 3 foot one, made of metal, with shelves and garden-tool racks, which would do nicely. A lot less expensive, too.

Plant sale!!!!! (And somewhere to donate your extras)

William Floyd Community Summit Beautification Committee

PERENNIAL PLANT SALE

Saturday May 31st 2008
10:00 am to 4:00 pm

We are looking for more donations of plants. If you have extra please bring them to the school the morning of the sale.

AT WILLIAM FLOYD ELEMENTARY SCHOOL LEXINGTON ROAD, SHIRLEY

RAIN OR SHINE

For Information please call Phyllis at 631-949-7080
Or e-mail wfbeautication@yahoo.com

All proceeds will go toward beautifying our community.

... find something new every day...

... and if it tastes good, eat it.

I thought the compost heap was composting-down nicely. It was defiitely shrinking.

No. The deer are eating it. I wonder if it's the soggy lettuce leaves or the sweet-potato peelings that they prefer?

Rainbow

... from sometime this sunny, rainy, windy, stormy, sunny week.

More street scenes

Not so green, but still somehow organic.

Street gardens

Was in the city last week, meeting cousin Kerry and Jane, visiting from England. Took time to notice the little (and not-so-little) gardens in all sorts of unexpected places: by Houston Street, between the busy road and flat walls; tucked onto little triangles of earth where no building would fit (one sported a proud sign with the name of the garden and "0.05 acres"); along the streets, everywhere. There is a surprising amount of green, and if you love gardening, there is plenty of opportunity to volunteer or just do it yourself.

A few notes

Been away from keyboard; keeping the tendonitis at bay. Just watching the changes, changing... been here (almost, not quite) a year. So I have experienced the whole cycle, once... but it's still changing every day, it's all new.

- Mini-egrets have appeared. No, they are not babies, and no, I didn't shrink them--they are just small egrets. Like miniature versus standard poodles. Just with feathers.
- Mini-herons too. I saw one perched in a tree (no I wasn't dreaming, it was perched, and in a tree) at the bottom of the garden. Glossy greeny-brown, russet-brown chest.
- The deer have allowed me to see the beautiful purple iris in the front garden. They are royalty (the irises... OK, the deer too, I am their humble subject, anything to stop them beheading any more flowers).
- The birdhouse gourd vines have sprouted (giant seed-leaves!)
- The collection of sedum(s) has grown and have been housed in nice blue pots from Forge River Nursery
- The lilac is pale mauve (back garden) and deep red-purple (little one in the front), and it makes me sneeze when I sniff it (it's worth it, it smells so good)
- The allium is flowering, blue-purple (sense a colour scheme here???? not all intentional)
- The sunflowers are almost a foot high...

The new birds on the block

Recent (re)arrivals include:

• Catbirds (http://identify.whatbird.com/obj/557/_/Gray_Catbird.aspx)
• Yellow warblers (I think--they move very fast) (http://identify.whatbird.com/obj/343/_/Yellow_Warbler.aspx
• Little finches with red heads? I haven't identified these yet... almost sparrow size, brown and cream body, red heads...

Big (grey, furry, fuzzy-tailed) bird

So this is the "bird" that is making such a mess of the bowl of birdseed close to the office door. It's usually the cardinals and finches and sparrows who eat here, with the bluejays and grackles dining at the hanging, squirrel-proof feeder.

He sat there, enjoying dinner, for about ten minutes. Each time he tipped the bowl it made him jump, and he ran a few steps back along the deck rail, paused, and then returned. Eventually he knocked the bowl right over and down into the grass below.

He really enjoyed the dry corn kernels!

How To Be A Gardener--a book review

I am reading Alan Titchmarsh's "How to be a Gardener", published by the American Horticultural Society, and with the note, "From the host of Ground Force BBC" at the bottom of the cover. It's a beautiful book, nearly 600 pages, loads of photographs, just excellent. I bought it on Amazon.com from a "new or used" dealer for just under 2$ (retail price is nearly 40$). If you would like a copy, try here: http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/159258036X

This book is fascinating to me, not just because I love gardening, but because I work in translation and localization. Alan Titchmarsh is one of the faces of British TV gardening. If you're American, you will probably only know him if you're in an area where BBC America is available, assuming you watch it (it's not on Cablevision, darn it!) But as a native Brit, I know his face and voice and mannerisms. Reading a book that is Alan through-and-through, I hear him talking, and the "localization" for the American market jumps out and bites me... and the missed localization makes me wonder what other readers in the USA make of it.

There is some hugely interesting, fascinating info about general horticulture: what makes things grow, how it happens, how plants "work". I am reading this book like a novel: page by page, beginning to end: not like a reference book that you dip into now and then. As a gardener, I love it. As a translation manager, I am very very picky :-)

(Who authorised (with an s) the replacement of the word "use" with "utilize"? Are you so afraid that "use" means "abuse" and so choose to u-til-ize a three-syllable non-tactile word instead? That one I never understand... Yes, it does have a place in the English language. No, it should not be used as a total replacement. See, I said "used" not "utilized". Yah boo.)

So... all the instances of "colour" have been replaced with "color". A section has been added (or replaced) to explain the North American hardiness zones. But when Alan talks about the different climates in the country, and how daffodils are in different states of bloom as you drive from north to south, I see him driving down the A1 from Yorkshire to London, not on any American freeway from the Canada border to Florida.

There are pictures of newly-emerged weeds, and their big brothers, to help new gardeners with identification. Bindweed and stinging nettle and dead nettle and giant hogweed.... but no poison ivy, no smilax, no rampant grapevine and none of this stuff with leaves that are a cross between chrysanthemum and poppy. (I would gladly trade my poison ivy for a patch of stinging nettles.)

And the animal/insect pests are all English :-) (yes, I asked for that comment, I heard you) though of course some of those are common to both sides of the Atlantic (slugs, snails), but are there Cabbage White caterpillars here, or are they called something else?

In the irrigation section, "you'll need an outdoor tap because you'll soon get fed up with running a hosepipe through the kitchen window", someone forgot to replace "tap" with "faucet", and they also forgot that a huge number of American homes already have an outdoor water supply, if not in-ground irrigation systems. Soaker hoses, made from recycled tyres (or tires, if you prefer) are more common that plastic hoses with holes in for slow irrigation.

I love the book, but the localization is not correct. I can read through it, and maybe enjoy it all the more, because I see both sides. But how does an American reader like it? Do you even notice? Is there so much good content that you ignore, or don't notice, the inconsistencies? Or is this the reason that I was able to buy this gem of a publication for less than two dollars...

Go on. Buy a copy and let me know.

Alan: I volunteer to be your editor next time :-)

This is just a "Before"

There is no "after", yet. It's under the office and deck, looking towards the boiler room. Lots of space for... something shed-like. Maybe.

Bachelors' buttons, geranium-pelargoniums

Flowers!

The woodpile, at last

Before...
... after several hours of sorting and hammering in the old nails. Looks about the same, doesn't it? Kept thinking, one bite at a time... there is a difference, the blanched dandelions and squashed grass and bare, revealed soil prove it but... still a long way to go.

It was the wood from the old deck. I asked the deck guy to leave it, so that I can make it into wooden pathways, boardwalks. I asked him to leave the useful, big bits. *Just* the useful, big bits.

I didn't ask him to leave all the little corner bits and broken trellis and rotten bits and plastic bags and some-gooey-chemical-mess-that-had-escaped-from-somewhere and the used-up containers of glue and other stuff, all of which I found hidden under that top layer...

Am sorting them into railings, treads, and supports. Then when we've had a few dry days, I'll saw them up into the right size. Then it will be a relatively-simple task of drilling and screwing them all together. And that can be done a little at a time. At least, it will be a neater pile soon.

I am so glad I grew up around a carpenter.

Arrival of the horseshoe crabs

There were quite a few on the beach today, alive and crawling. Usually it's just the empty shells, like war helmets, curved in the sand... but today they were coming ashore and then slowly, slowly crawling towards the water.

A family was trying to rescue them: picking them up and putting them back into the waves. I didn't help, was holding the dog on her leash and she was interested in other things, like what other dogs had left behind, footprints, and the playful water.

As we walked away, I thought... don't they come ashore to lay eggs in spring? Isn't that what they are doing?

I think the family was trying to turn back the tide...

All my own fault

It is. All My Own Fault. I knew the two pots of tulips were still within deers' reach... and I had learned that while deer dislike daffodils, they enjoy tulips. Very much.

And I had sprayed the front garden hostas with all-natural (so natural that you can drink it) deer repellant, which to me smelled just wonderful, a mix of cinnamon and coffee and other yummy ingredients... so the deer hadn't nibbled the hostas or new roses for a few days.

I guess I forgot the tulips. Or this was deer's way of saying, We Rule!

Anyway, this is all that is left of the tulips. Just one pretty head with about an inch of stalk. All the others, gone. Just the flowers gone. The stalks and leaves are still there, reminding me of my guilt...

... last night I planted astilbe in the woods. "Planted" is probably not the right word, "scraped a hollow and covered roots with more leaf mould and other stuff found on woodland floor" is probably more accurate, as there is such a mash of roots and vines and long-dead branches and twigs that you can't dig holes. Four astilbe, two red and two pink, under the big-entwined-trees. We shall see if they root. There will be a lot of we-shall-see-ing in the woods. We-shall-see if the smilax stays under control. We-shall-see if the deer ignore the stuff the books say they don't like to eat. We-shall-see what it's like in there once the mosquitos return...

Gone fishin'

Dog fishing.

Just found Fury standing in the shallow end of the pond, happily watching the fish. She was wet all over, so either she'd swum a few lengths, or she'd been laying in the water. She jumped out when I suggested it might be a good idea.

Now she is restricted to the deck, unless under parental supervision.

Maybe she thought they were cat-fish?

High tide

Looking back up Park Drive from where it curves towards Riviera Drive

Park Drive looking towards Riviera Drive and Lincoln Drive

Riviera Drive from Park Drive, towards the wetland beach and No. 1 Beach.

We enjoyed paddling, the dog and I.

Twenty minutes later, the water level is already dropping. Fast. Tomorrow it will be like it was never there... apart from a boat, stranded in the reeds.

Did you lose your boat?

It is slowly drifting south, across the marshes, towards the Great South Bay. The ducks are keeping an eye on it, and the swans may adopt it as their nesting platform.

If it ends up in my front garden, you may find it filled with compost and sprouting alyssum and lobelia...

Very-wetlands

This is why we need to protect the wetlands.



Because they protect us.



This is at 4 p.m, wind still from north-east, inflating the tide and pushing the water inland.

At least no tornadoes here

We have scary-high winds this morning; been blowing all night. The windows on the east side are creaking. Forecast gusts up to 50 mph, some powerlines already down in Nassau county; tidal flood warning until 6 tonight.

High tides around 6 o'clock today here; predicted around three feet higher than normal. But not much rain expected out here; it's sticking to the city today.

Wildlife doesn't seem too bothered by the weather. Grackles still hugging the birdfeeder. Seagulls wheeling and yelling. The swans paddling upstream and now sitting on the edge of the creek.

And three young raccoons playing in the street. In broad daylight...

Blue rhododendrons???

Couldn't resist them. There they were, tucked away between the purple and pink ones... two Rhododendron "Blue Baron"... Home Depot of all places (they are dark violet, almost-but-not-quite midnight blue). They are now planted on the right side of the driveway, in the shelter of the trees.

I moved the magnolia: was not happy at the front near the street. Moved it up to the left of the front lawn. Filled the hole at the front with a new Eastern Redbud (Cercis canadensis), an "Arbor Day" special from Home Depot, less than $20 and much taller than I am. I hope it will be OK there.

Other new additions this weekend: a Scotch broom (Cytisus scoparius "Burkwood") with flowers a surprising maroon colour. Not yellow. I saw it from across the rhododendrons and thought, that's bizarre, it's broom but someone's dyed the flowers...

The pond is a little better: so far, the water-level is staying pretty steady, even with the waterfall. Am starting marginal plant garden in the "shallow end", but all in pots, terracotta to keep them wet; standing them right in the water. With other non-water-plants-but-reedlike-all-the-same plants raised out of the water.

Planted some lupins (pink ones and hopefully blue, the label had fallen out), and some lemon grass (to scare the mosquitos and to use in Thai food). It will be an annual here, unlike the clump I planted in Citrus Heights which went from 2" pot to 6' in less than six months.

The herb garden (actually, the collection of herbs-in-pots, can't decide where to put them, am tempting the deer with them to see what they do/don't like, so-far-so-good) has grown some more. Now have a big tub with about six types of mint (including chocolate mint, spearmint, and a couple of others: the peppermint is in a separate pot); three different basils; coriander AKA cilantro; sage; curly parsely; chives and garlic chives (they are both just peeping out); caraway (feathery fronds like carrots)... and more.

The lilac is on the verge of flowering... so is the allium in the raised garden... the daffodils are gone, but the tulips by the garage (in pots, conveniently placed at nibbling height for the deer but so far they haven't noticed) are just opening.

And the wind is rising again...

Deer-dog standoff

Fury was in the back garden, in the drizzle. I noticed that she was "pointing" into the woods... and there was something white, wagging.

Went to investigate. Fury didn't bark, didn't get excited, just continued to stare.

There were two deer, one slightly larger than the other, at least as big as the dog (and she is big). They were standing their ground. And the largest was snorting with indignation. "Hmmmmph! Hmmmmph!!!"

Didn't know they did that. Seems to work on dogs. She went obediently back into the house, and we left the deer to the business of eating smilax. Please. Not the hostas, ok?

Outdoor furniture

We now have an outdoor table, four chairs, an umbrella with a stand, two loungers with big soft cushions, and a low table to go next to the loungers. It came all the way from Hampton Bays on the back of the truck a couple of evenings ago. And on the back seat of the truck, And on the front seat of the truck. And partway out of the window (that's the end of the umbrella).

Truck spider-webs are good! I'm glad it held tight and got us home in one piece!

(I miss the bed-extender, will have to find another one.)

Happy sound

It is raining this morning, quite heavily now. And there is a brand-new sound to go with it.

It is the sound of water dropping down a downspout; water that is running off the (new) sloped roof, along the (new) gutter, and then down the downspout and away. Instead of sitting on the (old) flat roof and waiting for me to sweep it off.

And a happy noise it is, too.

The pretty tree in Sunday best

The tree "next door" is clothed in blossom, little bunches of it at the end of each twig, with nine or so little flowers. There are many trees, or bushes, like this in the area: all have been blooming for the past few weeks.

I thought it might be a type of hawthorn, but it has no thorns. Maybe east-coast-American hawthorns are thornless? Maybe it's something completely different?

The leaves are oval, coming to a point, carried asymmetrically. The young bark is grey, and smooth: on older trees it is rougher and supports lichens. I don't remember if it had berries or not: if it did, they have long been eaten.

Better do the sensible thing, and ask the locals. Help, anyone?

(I saw the American equivalent of a Horse Chestnut the other day, in East Hampton. The leaves were new and still soft and droopy. They are called Buckeyes here. No-one plays conkers. And American Sycamores are completely different to English Sycamores, reinforcing the good practice of learning Latin names!)


My tree book is not helping.

This weekend's plantings

Two new clematis, to grow up the retaining wall and trellis around the raised garden: Clematis 'Warsaw Nike', with deep red/purple, rounded petals (this one blooms on both old and new wood), and Clematis x "Hagley Hybrid", a delicate pink, pointy-petaled "compact, reliable" clematis.

Several bog plants/irises which I ordered online weeks ago and which have been sitting, waiting patiently, in a black garbage bag since they arrived a few days ago. They looked OK and not too traumatised... we'll see.

And a flowering dogwood. Pink. Right in the middle of the front lawn. :-)

Went to Forge River Nursery, they only had a small cream one. They will have more later in the week, probably a pink one included, but I was too impatient. So I drove just a little further along Montauk Highway, and found a garden centre (I think it's Farmhouse Farms), just in Moriches on the north side of the road. They had a pink one, just the right size: big, but not so big that I couldn't get it from the truck to the planting spot. It is Cornus x "Rutgan", "Stellar Pink" flowering dogwood.

I wonder why I never saw these in California? Did the Rockies get in the way? OK they are native to the eastern states, but that doesn't usually stop something nicely decorative making its way from one coast to another... maybe I just wasn't looking.

A flock of cormorants?

Early this morning, after the rain but before the sky had lifted, for about ten minutes, streams of birds flew past, low over the water, making and breaking formation, keeping to the edge of the bay. Then they were gone.

I saw something similar, yesterday, when driving away from home: the birds seemed cormorant-shape, or gannet-shape, but were sillhouetted against the sky.

They didn't come back, they just headed on eastwards: not landing, just low-flying.

And while I watched them, I noticed four new bushes in the middle of the wetlands. They were not there yesterday.

Turkey-shaped bushes.

Like the turkey you see on the front of a box of stuffing mix. Tails out and showy. Yes, they were turkeys, no, they were not new bushes. There they were in the middle of the wetlands, probably getting wet, showing off their tails. Didn't see the females, they had probably left the guys to sort out who's leader-of-the-pack and were keeping warm and dry instead.

And then a young deer stuck her head out of the reeds, nibbled the young grass on the verge, looked both ways and trotted across the road...

Nice morning it was. And the sun came out later, and a nice afternoon it was too.

Flowering dogwoods

I have fallen for flowering dogwoods (Cornus florida). I first saw one in flower a couple of weeks ago in Lowe's garden center. I didn't buy it because I hadn't planned where to put it. But it made me smile... and then I saw it being carried, proudly, to the checkout by another woman, beaming ear-to-ear.

There is something about these trees that make you smile.

They can be cream or pink. Mature specimens are about the size of an apple tree; not too tall, quite wide, curved canopy. They are just beautiful.

Have to work out where to plant one. The front garden would be ideal, but I don't think it drains well enough. Maybe to the right of the drive, if I promise to keep the undergrowth from re-invading?

Road trip--Sag Harbor

A house by the harbour, decorated with many painted, wooden floats.

Some of the houses in Sag Harbor, like this one, are huge and majestic. Other smaller cottages line the side-streets: more modest homes built by or for the fishermen, the sailors, the whalers, who lived here between their trips. Cosy, snug little houses, tidy and ship-shape.

This is the Whaling Museum, but it was closed when I visited. A sign said "by appointment", and I hadn't made one. The building is, or was, the Masonic Hall. It needs work, and a sign gives details of fund-raising for the repairs.

The last whales were caught by Long Islanders around a hundred years ago, but Sag Harbor remembers them, and the men who spent months and years hunting them, very well.

Road trip--East Hampton

East Hampton windmill

Many of the houses are this shape: the long, sloping roof towards the east, the shorter roof, and the front of the house, towards the west.

Gardens full of magnolias and other spring-flowering trees.

... and some very, very huge and old trees, like very-fat ladies.

A long brick footpath runs between the village pond and the houses to the south. It's crooked and lumpy and nice to stroll along, no rush.

The swans are nesting on the pond, the nest built high above the water, the mother constantly checking beneath her feathers. They have raised several annual clutches here.

I liked East Hampton, very much. It is not as high-fashion, celebrity-rich as the other Hamptons. It feels like an old almost-English village. It's pretty and homely. I could imagine the settlers here on their farms.

Montauk Point memorial

... to people lost-at-sea.

Road trip--Montauk Point

Saturday was grey, cool, blustery and just the right day for a little tourism. No tourists and no traffic jams. Intending to go to Sag Harbor, I started driving... and ended up at Montauk Point, the far end of Long Island. the eastern-most tip, or "the end of the world" as my daughters call it. This is where the lighthouse is.

I paid my eight dollars, visited the museum, and climbed the 130-or-so steps to the top. You can go into the room just below the lantern, and then half-way up a ladder so you can peek at the view from the lantern room. A door opens from the room-below onto a tiny balcony where you can watch the ocean, a long way below.

A family climbed the stairs while I was there; mother, father, and two little girls. The mother said she was afraid of heights... I admired her for doing this and showing her children that fear doesn't have to get in the way.

I am afraid of heights, too, if my little children are looking at a huge drop. On my own, it doesn't worry.

Lighthouses tend to disappoint me. I'm always expecting to find circular rooms, stacked one-upon-the-other, like those plastic cups children play with: secret staircases leading to the next floor and eventually to the lantern. A windswept balcony all the way round the top. But somehow they are all just houses with towers stuck on the side.

This one has a metal spiral staircase to the top, with a couple of small wedge-shaped platforms by tiny windows, and a rope bannister on the outside for a feeling of security. Like climbing a church tower, but with the treads unworn by time.

In the house-museum stand the older lamps and lenses. Before electricity arrived, the lighthouse keeper would hoist a small kerosene (paraffin?) lamp into the shell of huge lenses. The lenses would magnify the small flame many thousands of times, allowing it to be seen for at least twenty miles.

The lighthouses along the south shore of Long Island are about forty miles apart: Montauk, Shinnecock, Fire Island and further. The height of the lighthouse allows the ships to see the light of the next before losing the previous one behind the curvature of the earth.

Now I have to see the others...