Compost update

The second of the three compost bays (bay #3) finally started heating up.  It has slowly been going up, about 10° every day, and this morning it was reading just below 140° F in the center of the pile, and 120° F about 8" from the outside of the pile.  That seems like better heat distribution than I ever had in any of the bins last year, so I hope it's composting more evenly this time.

The temperature at the center of the pile is just below 140° F. 

The other two piles though are just sitting there all sullen and not doing anything.  I figure when the hot pile cools back down, I'll turn it into bay #2 (currently empty) then turn bay #4 into bay #3 and see if I can add some "greens" into the center to try to get it going.  I'm not really sure why that one isn't heating up.  I thought I had roughly the same combination of raw materials in it as I had in bay #3.  Apparently not.

An although this isn't really a compost pile, I have started gathering hay/straw/manure from the field and putting it in a pile at the end of bay #4.  

Pile of rotting hay/straw/manure.

Today I collected four cartloads from the field and just piled it on the ground south of the last compost bay.  Why?  Well, I'm going to try some "no-dig" potatoes this spring.  This stuff most definitely will NOT be going on my garden (it's full of weed and grass seeds!) but I think it will work to hill up the potatoes as they grow.  I just need to find a nice sunny spot for them and give it a try. 

I don't think this new pile will heat up because it doesn't really have very many "greens" in it (wouldn't it just be my luck if it did!).   I don't really want it to.   But I'll be keeping an eye on it because the "what-ifs" are always there in the back of my head.

 

An hour and a half in my war on privet...

Today started out dreary and gray but warm so I wanted to take advantage of the warmer temperature to cut back more of the invasive privet (probably Chinese Privet, Ligustrum sinense) that has taken over.

I decided to continue work on the area behind the barn where a severe storm in 2019 took out a wide swath of trees.  That entire area has been completely overrun by the privet in just three and a half years. 

As I started down the hillside, there was a small privet shrub growing under the edge of an Eastern Red Cedar (Juniperus virginiana).  It was the first to go.

Privet growing under the edge of an Eastern Red Cedar.

Since most of these shrubs/small trees are too big for me to cut at the base using my limb saw, I've decided to just cut the limbs off, leaving the trunks for another day.  I'll come back later with a chainsaw.  I've decided I'm going to buy a DeWalt electric chainsaw for this because first, RAFs big Husqvarna is too heavy for me to easily lift and second, even if I could handle it, I don't want to have to repeatedly start and stop a gas-powered saw (cut, then treat, cut, then treat, repeat and repeat and repeat). 

Using the limb saw, I took off the larger branches.

Bigger limbs have been cut down with the limb saw.

I dragged those branches up the hill so they'd be out of the way, then took the loppers and cut off the smaller side shoots.  

Snip off all the smaller limbs with the loppers.

That first shrub/tree was now ready to be cut down and treated with herbicide.

I continued on down the hillside where the big oak tree lay rotting on the ground.  I find that part of the woods to be very dark and creepy, almost eerie, because the privet is so thick down there.

Standing at the edge of a big stand of privet in the woods.  The picture just doesn't capture how dark the woods are, and how much privet is growing.

The privet plants in this area are probably no more than four years old, but already have pretty good-sized trunks.  Most are probably four to five inches in diameter at the base, with numerous shoots coming up all around the base.  Again, they're too big for me to easily cut with my limb saw.  I can cut them, but it really wears me out and I end up not making much progress when I try to do that.  So again, my plan is to cut off all of the limbs and side shoots then come back with a chainsaw to finish the job.

Unfortunately for me, most of these privet plants have been very productive, and some are still absolutely loaded with berries.  But even worse are the millions of berries that have already dropped to the ground.  The woods are going to require constant vigilance over the next few years (probably for the rest of my life and even on after I'm gone), to keep the young seedlings pulled up or treated with herbicide.  Otherwise, it will end up worse than it is now!

Just a very small section of the ground (maybe 8" x 12"?) under one of the privet plants.  The ground is literally covered in some places with berries that have already dropped off.  

It's amazing how much it opens things up to just take out three of the privet plants.  You can get a better idea from this picture how dark it is deeper into the woods.

Limbs have been removed so these are ready for their cut stump treatment.

I don't know how it managed to get through the privet, but there was quite a bit of the foam insulation from the old chicken house here too.  I had brought a bucket to hold berries that I stripped off the limbs that were dragged up out of the woods, so I was also able to pick that up too.

Foam insulation from the old chicken house.

It didn't take very long to cut as many limbs as would fit on my little cart.  I think I worked down there maybe an hour to an hour and a half altogether.

Privet limbs loaded onto the cart.

So back to the house to unload these.  Little Joe has some work to do!

I think I cut limbs off five or six privet shrubs/trees today.  I only have about 10,000 more to go.

In pursuit of the Blackhaw

One of the things I loved so much when I first started walking was that I was always discovering new things.  In 2015, I found a Blackhaw (Viburnum prunifolium) in bloom at the far end of the 12-acre field. 

Blackhaw in bloom, as seen on April 12, 2015.

The showy clusters of flowers were buzzing with insect activity, so not only did I think they were beautiful, being an insect lover, I was very happy to see a plant that the insects found so attractive. 

Closeup of the Blackhaw bloom.  Although there's only one beetle on the flower in this picture, there were lots of insects on the other flower clusters.

I didn't give the little Blackhaw much thought over the next few years but in 2022, as I started learning more about how vital native plants are to a healthy ecosystem, I decided I wanted to plant natives in my yard.  One of the ones I decided to plant was a Blackhaw.

I read somewhere that the plant could be propagated from semi-hardwood cuttings, so last fall I walked back down to the end of the field to get a few cuttings.  It took me a while to locate the little shrub.  In the years since I took that first picture, some tree limbs had fallen on it, and it was being smothered by the native, but very aggressive, Saw Greenbrier (Smilax bona-nox) and invasive Japanese Honeysuckle (Lonicera japonica).   

Poor little Blackhaw, being smothered by aggressive natives and invasive honeysuckle vines.

I took a few cuttings, and potted them up thinking that I'd get a least one of them to root.

Unfortunately, fall probably isn't a very good time to try to start Blackhaw from cuttings.  Just like my spicebush cuttings, the little Blackhaw cuttings soon dried up and it was pretty obvious that they weren't going to make it.  I finally dumped them out and checked for roots...not a single one even showed any sign of a root.  

So I decided I'd try plan A again, only this time take some cuttings in late spring/early summer.  But I also decided I'd have a fallback plan B, which was to see if I could bag up some berries and try to start some from seed if the second attempt at cuttings failed.  But I am pretty sure that if the plant is going to have a chance to bloom and make berries, those vines that were smothering the bush were going to have to go!

Today seemed like a good day to work on that project, so I got my pruners and gloves, then Mo and I walked down to the end of the field.  Because I now know what Blackhaw twigs look like in winter, I was intrigued to find that there wasn't just one shrub down there...there were several good-sized little shrubs all around the parent plant.   As I looked around, I noticed a lot of small sprouts (less than a foot tall) that were apparently more sprouts from the plant's root system.

I cut, and tugged, and cut, and dragged, and finally managed to get most of the fallen tree limbs and vines pulled down.  

The Blackhaw shrubs after many of the vines were removed.

Blackhaw from a different angle.  You can see the tops of them again!

I say "most" because I didn't get them all.  Poor little Mo was so good and patient, but he didn't understand why we had stopped there instead of walking like he thought we were going to do.  I kept telling him, "Just let me get these few more," and finally I had to keep my promise to him and make myself reach a stopping point.

The largest of three piles of saw greenbrier and Japanese honeysuckle that I cut out of the Blackhaw.  Sweet little Mo sat patiently and waited on me while I worked.

 
I decided to go ahead and try digging up three of the small root suckers.  I found some small sprouts that were a ways out from the main plant and managed to get a little piece of root with a couple of them. 

Is it bad of me to dig up plants from the wild?  Maybe so, and I certainly won't ever try to dig up just anything that I wanted.  But with these being root suckers, and with there being so many of them, I don't feel too bad about it...I know it didn't hurt the parent plant to dig three small suckers.   

When we got home, I put some rooting hormone on the bottom of each sucker and potted each one in a mix of potting soil and some of the dirt that I had brought from around the base of the parent plant (thinking if there are any mycorrhizal fungi in the soil, it might help the sprouts to have some of that in the pot).  They all got a good soaking in water, and they'll stay in the south window for the rest of the winter.  

Blackhaw root suckers potted up.  I hope they make it.

I told them on the way home that I was sorry for taking them away from the wild, but that they have a new purpose in life...they will become "nursery plants" that I'll use to start more plants from.  Their new purpose is to help save the biodiversity of our local ecosystem.  I hope they heard me and try really hard to live.

January 15, 2023 Gardening Journal

I had so many things I wanted to do this weekend, and yet here it is, Sunday evening again, which means back to "work" in the morning, and very little, if any, time for gardening for five days.  The weekends are just never long enough.

But I guess I did get a few things done so the weekend wasn't totally wasted.  After it warmed up just a bit on Saturday morning, I took my Green Shoots foam herbicide dispenser, the loppers and the saw back down to The Carey woods and spent about an hour and a half cutting privet and treating the stumps.  There's just so much privet.

Saturday afternoon I carted in three more cartloads of cow poo from the field, and layered that in with three cartloads of straw and hay that the cows didn't eat.  Now...that may have been a big, big mistake, because there are definitely weed and grass seeds in that hay.  But I started thinking about how little composted cow manure I ended up with last year, and I wondered if it just didn't have enough "browns" (carbon heavy materials) in the bins.  So I decided to go ahead and take the chance on the weed and grass seeds because I'm having a tough time coming up with browns again this year - and especially since I've decided not to use the leaves in the compost.  

I also spent part of the afternoon shredding privet limbs.  RAF helped me load some in the truck and we unloaded them by the garden.  Little Joe and I worked for about an hour late yesterday, and got about 2/3rds of the limbs shredded.  I think the privet limbs will work pretty well to make some chips for the walking rows in the garden.  They do shred very easily.

Little Joe does a great job at shredding privet limbs. To the left by the loppers there was a pretty healthy pile...enough to fill the front part of that walking row with about 3" of chips about 3' in to the row.  Nice.  :D

And while I was shredding privet, Mo was digging moles.

Mo dug quite an extensive bunch of holes trying to catch the mole that has been working the back yard.

Today (Sunday), I carted in more cow poo and hay/straw so I now have two of the bays filled up and have started on a third.   The one bay that I filled last weekend still hasn't really heated up.  Ambient temperature was 52° F when I want out this morning, and the pile was only reading 72° F.  I've added some water to both of the full bays.  The manure wasn't as wet and raw as it was last winter, so it might just not have been wet enough to start heating up.  I'll check on it in a few days and see if there's any change.

RAF went with me down to the creek so I could "hack and squirt" the female Tree of Heaven (Ailanthus altissima) that grows down there (a part of my war on invasives...).  But when we got there, I was dismayed to discover that there wasn't just one female tree...there were many.  They may all be root suckers from a single female tree, but regardless, there were way more there than I thought.  And unfortunately, it looked like most of the seeds that were on the one I saw earlier in the winter have dropped off, so I missed my chance to collect and destroy the seeds.  It may be too late in the year to effectively poison the trees, but I figured it was worth a shot.  I'll see what happens to them this spring and if the treatment doesn't kill them, I will try to be more on top of things this year and get them poisoned in the fall as is recommended.

Female Tree of Heaven at the creek, photographed on June 26, 2016.  That's been six years ago...six years of making thousands of seeds.  It's really amazing that the entire creek bank isn't covered with this invasive tree!

When we got back, I walked Mo around the field, then went back by myself and dug up an American Beautyberry (Callicarpa americana) from the field.  I planted it in the back yard where I plan to put a new flower bed.  It was a fairly young plant, and had a good root system, so I think it should survive the move.

I'm a bit worried about Mo tonight though.  He has seemed fine all day, but tonight seems very tired and maybe like he doesn't feel well.  Maybe he's just worn out from all the digging and the walking.  He does tend to want to eat gross things that he finds, so I hope he's not gone and made himself sick.

January 8, 2023 Gardening Journal

I probably spend too much time watching videos on The YouTube.  But I have learned a lot, and there are a few channels I follow that have some really good gardening information.

Two that were especially helpful to me this winter were about how to prune grapes.  After watching them, now I know what we never get any grapes from our single Concord grape vine.  I've been pruning it wrong!

 

This morning, I took down the old section of cattle panel I had used as a trellis (it was way too small anyway), set four t-posts, and put up a 16' cattle panel for the grape vine to climb on.  Since the vine has been there for probably 10 years or more, I figure it has enough roots that it can probably support four canes, so that's how I pruned it this time.  I'm excited to see what happens with it this year!

The old Concord grape that I bought on clearance at Atwoods many, many years ago may be properly pruned for the first time ever!  You can sort of see the four canes fastened to the second and fourth wires up from the bottom of the panel.

I also watched a video from Daisy Creek Farms about starting grapes from cuttings and I have four cuttings in some potting soil, and a few others in some water.  We'll see what happens.  I've not had the greatest success with my cuttings.

I've also watched LOTS of videos about pruning apple trees and decided to go ahead and give that a shot today.  I hope it's not too early to be pruning things.

The Enterprise apple tree is on a semi-dwarf rootstock and is being pruned to a modified central leader shape. Some of the branches need to be spread just a bit to reduce the slightly too sharp branch angles.

The Gala apple tree is on a dwarf rootstock, and because I just couldn't see a good way to prune it to a modified central leader, I decided to just go with the open crown shape.  Interestingly, it already looks to have some fruiting buds on it, so I wouldn't be surprised if it blooms this spring.

Other work today included chipping some more sticks with the little Sun Joe electric chipper that I decided to buy for myself.

My new little gardening toy:  a 15amp SunJoe electric wood chipper.

Corny, I know, but I think I should name it "Little Joe."  LOL!  He does a good job, although I don't feel comfortable putting anything in there over 1" in diameter (it says it will handle sticks that are up to 1.57").  Anything that's crooked, or which has a forked branch doesn't want to feed very well, but straight sticks zip right through!  I'm pleased with it and have probably shredded about 2/3 of the stick pile that was in the garden (sticks that were picked up from the yard last spring).

My plan is to bring the privet branches back to the yard once I've removed the berries and run them through to get some wood chips for my walking rows.  I've just pretty much given up on ChipDrop and the local arborists.  They apparently prefer to pay to have their chips put in the landfill!  So Little Joe and I will be making our own wood chips from that hateful privet.  Might as well get some good out of that stuff, right?

I worked on my compost bins yesterday, turning the one that had cow manure in it into a new bay, mixing in layers of straw that the cows had left in the field.  I guess they pick through the hay, eat the good stuff, and leave the big stems so I took my cart out in the field and brought back a few loads of that.  That pile never did get hot.  I'm not sure if it just wasn't big enough, wasn't damp enough, didn't have enough browns or something else.  I'll see what it looks like in a couple of days.

I started filling the third bay again and managed to get three cart loads of manure and one cart load of straw before my back just gave out.  That bay is now about 1/3 full.

Bays 3 and 4 at work.

An update on the seed starting.  It looks like something ate the top out of one of the Carolina Buckthorn seedlings, so I am holding my breath every time I go check on them, afraid that something will have happened to the other one.  So far so good though.  

The top of the second little pecan seedling is all black and dead looking, so I'm not sure if it will survive or not either.

The pot with what I think is Joe Pye weed now has five seedlings in it, and I was excited to see the central part of that first one is purple!  Excited because Joe Pye weed has purple at the leaf nodes so I'm hoping more than ever that it is, indeed, Joe Pye!  

I ordered a few more seeds from MIGardener.com and from Sow True Seeds.  Looking at the Farmer's Almanac planting calendar, it's coming up on time to plant several things pretty soon.  I'm not going to get into a rush this year.  That didn't work out so well last year - it just wasted my time and my potting soil!  I did go ahead and plant onions yesterday though, but I'm going to follow the method Jenna uses for her onion seedlings.  Who is Jenna?  Another YouTuber, of course!  "Growfully with Jenna."  She's in Ohio, so if she can start her onions now, then I bet I can start mine here too!

But my weekend is over, and tomorrow it's back to work.  Maybe I'll be able to do a few things in the afternoons though.  It's supposed to be warmer than average through Wednesday, when another big cold front is supposed to come through bringing more rain. 

Christmas Break Projects - 2022

After a few days of really cold weather, it has decided to be warm again.  I think it got into the upper 60s today.  Reminds me of last December....

And just like last December, the National Weather Service is predicting severe weather on Monday...all types of severe weather, I guess.  Not looking forward to that to start 2023.

But in the meantime, it's Christmas break, and there is so much I need and want to do!

Project #1 - Work on the raised beds around the cellar

It's probably been almost a year since I finished the raised beds on the west side of the cellar.  I really couldn't start on the other side until I had killed the Bermuda grass (stupid me, putting that up there!) and I didn't have enough black plastic to cover it over until I removed what was on the west side.  But the Bermuda grass on the east side of the cellar baked in the sun all summer, and it's now time for me to put that area to use.

I plan to use that area to grow my lettuce, radishes, and other early spring vegetables that the rabbits just won't leave alone!

East cellar raised bed build in progress.

Project #2 - Finish clearing out around another catalpa stump

The west fence around the yard use to have four catalpa trees growing along it.  The storm on April 30, 2019 blew three of them over.  The one that was at the south end of the row is now the centerpiece of "the flowerbed to hide the ugly stump."  But the one at the north end was surrounded on the west by saw greenbriers, Japanese honeysuckle, and some kind of obnoxious rose.  I had cut the rose down twice before, but this time, I wanted it gone for good!

I had already cut them all back so I spent about an hour yesterday digging out as many of the roots as I could.  It was amazing to me how big the root knots on that brier were.  And they are very hard to dig up.  But I hope I've made a good start on that and will keep after it so I don't let any resprouts get a chance to take hold.

I still need to dispose of the pile of vines and roots, but they've been cleared away from the stump so I can plant some trees there.

Project #3 - Build a Hügelkulture bed in the west end of the garden.

After the disaster that was last summer's garden, I decided I'd like to try putting in some Hügelkulture beds at the west end of the garden.  I plan to start with one row, and if it does well, will add another one next winter.

We had a big pile of wood in the field from all of the trees that blew over in the 2019 storm, so I have quite a bit of rotting wood to go in the bottom of my trench.  I think I've managed to finish up about 6' of the row and hoped I could get another 6' or so finished by the end of this weekend.  

RAF said it looked like a grave.  He said I needed to get the rest of it finished ASAP so people won't think that's what it is!

So I worked on that last weekend, and got all but about 16' of the row finished.

First thing to do was dig the trench.  I dug it about 2' wide and about 15" deep.

Next, add logs to the trench, top that with rotted wood, leaves and some of the Sorghum Sudan grass I grew last summer.

I put a layer of cow manure over the trench, then piled the dirt over that and added another thin layer of the cow manure.  It wasn't fresh manure - it was some of the cow piles that had been out in the field for a while and had already started to break down. I hope I didn't just plant a bunch of weeds in the new bed!

And finally, a pretty thick layer of straw over the top of the bed to keep the dirt from being compacted or washing away.  Now it looks like one big, long grave!

Project #4 - continue the war on the invasives in The Carey woods

This is a project that's ongoing and sadly, will never end.

As the privet, brier and honeysuckle is taken out of the woods, something needs to go back in its place. 

I'm planning to plant some black walnuts in a few spots (privet is probably juglone tolerant though).

I have a few redbud trees that have come up in my yard and garden, and plan to transplant some of them into the woods as I find them.  I hope I can build some barriers around them using the privet branches so maybe the deer won't be able to get to them and eat them down to the ground.  

Project #5 - Pick up foam insulation

Down the hill from us, there used to be an old broiler house (chicken house).  It was falling down, and with every big windstorm, pieces of foam insulation would invariably blow off into the ditch along The Carey field.  Eventually the bigger pieces would get broken up into smaller pieces, with many of them finding their way into the field or even over into the woods. 

Bits of foam insulation that had collected along the fence line in The Carey field.

I had picked up what was in the field before, as had my dad.  But it wasn't long before more bits blew into the field - it was going to be a never-ending battle until the old broiler house was gone.

Well, it's now gone.  The owners had someone come in and tear it down and bury it.

Over the course of a few days, I took some empty feed sacks with me and started picking the stuff up.  The worst part was in the ditch by the road, because lots of the insulation was buried under the dead grass.  But I think I ended up collecting about eight 50lb feed sacks full, and it just looks so much better!

Some of the insulation and trash that I picked up over the Christmas break.

I haven't managed to get it all just yet.  There is still a bit along the east fence, and quite a bit over in the woods.  But I feel very happy to have most of it picked up.

Sad thing is that I was only able to pick up the stuff that was "visible."  Where it had been exposed to the sun, tiny dust-like particles came off on my gloves, and I know were left in the soil.  I don't know how long that will persist, or what kind of damage it does, but I hope not long and not much.  Sigh.

January 4, 2023 Gardening Journal

A couple of weeks ago, my younger sister and I were messaging back and forth about how pitiful we were, checking on our little pots of dirt, hoping every time to see some tiny shoots coming up.  She confessed that she had even gone so far as to use a magnifying glass to check on hers!  I told her I don't have a magnifying glass, but I would have used it if I did!

And even though it's winter, and things aren't supposed to be growing yet, I still can't help but go in every day, at least once in the morning and once in the evening, carefully scanning all of the little pots of dirt with my wildflower and tree seeds, looking for the first tiny shoots to start coming up.  I just can't help myself!

BUT, day before yesterday when I made my evening trip to check on the pots, I was excited and delighted to see two tiny green shoots coming up in one of the containers.  They were Carolina Buckthorn (Frangula caroliniana), which I had planted at the end of October!  

One of two Carolina Buckthorn seedlings that has sprouted.

What makes this especially exciting is that I had started one of those trees from seed about five years ago.  Twice it was eaten back by deer or rabbits, but after I caged it and gave it time to grow, it had turned into a beautiful little tree that was an absolute insect magnet when it was in bloom.  But me being the dummy I am thought that because it was a native tree, it would be able to survive the hot dry weather we had in the summer of 2020.  I never watered it until RAF mentioned to me one evening that my little tree wasn't looking so good.  By then it was too late.  It lost all of its leaves by the end of the summer, then put out a few weak shoots in the spring of 2021.  But it wasn't long before the little tree gave up and was gone.  It made me very sad to cut it down.

So ever since then I've wanted to start another one, and this past summer I bagged a few berries on the trees down in The Barber field.  I went back in October and collected the bags, and immediately planted the berries when I got back home.  And now I have two tiny trees and if I can manage to keep them alive, they will probably go out into the yard in the spring of 2024!

The next day, I had yet another surprise.  I had collected some seeds from a plant which I hope was Joe Pye weed which was growing down by the creek.  I say "which I hope was" because I'm really not positive what the plant was.  The leaves had already turned brown and shriveled, and I didn't even know what Joe Pye weed seeds looked like.  But I thought I remembered seeing a Joe Pye weed growing in that general area in the past, so figured I'd give those seeds a try.

It turned out the seeds did look like Joe Pye seeds, so I have my fingers crossed that that's actually what they are!

Seedling of what I hope is Joe Pye weed.

But if it turns out to be something else, that's Ok too.  It will go into my wildflower bed no matter what it is.  I will be inspecting that pot in the coming days to see if any more come up.

And one final happy note...I had planted some of the small pecans that came from the old tree in the yard.  Those pecans are only about 1/2" long, but the birds really seem to like them.  I had hoped to get a few started and plant them around at the edges of The Carey woods and in The Barber field, but I had never had any luck at all getting one to spout.  

I had noticed something sticking up in the pot where I had planted those pecans, but it never did make any leaves, so I thought if it was a pecan, it must have died.  But when I looked closely at it today, I can see the tiny leaves starting to open, so I guess it was just growing at its own pace.  

Pecan seedling, with its little leaves starting to open.

It will be interesting to see if any of the other seeds in those three containers come up, or if I start to see other seeds sprouting now.  The pots have been in a room that's been quite cool for a couple of months (even below freezing back around Christmas), and then the weather warmed up some, and although the grow light is LED, it does give off some heat.  That may have satisfied their cold-moist stratification requirement and now they're ready to go!

Sunday, January 1, 2023

2023 has started off with a chilly, damp morning.  I think we must have had a pretty thick fog last night, because it looks like it has rained!

As I've gotten older, I invariably find myself wondering what will happen in the new year.  This year, the threat from climate change and our biodiversity crisis are most often the things swirling around in my head, and I find myself trying to think of things I can do.  Too often, my mind circles back around to "the earth is doomed."  I just don't think many people in the wealthier countries give a damn.

A screenshot from "Need for Seed: A Strategy for the Northeast - Part 1."
https://youtu.be/5Jr1vV60fp8

So on that depressing note, I think I'll go outside.