Baldur

Perhaps Baldur has been feverish, please forgive the many errors in my last few posts, including:
#965 -somewhere +someone
#968 +e =one
#975 -with festooned +festooned with

My injury again has improved some even as the central bite looks ready to erupt, I hope it does so soon.

Baldur

And Thank You Autumn, you are very sweet.

matthew

Hmmm... If Forum Post were Pictures... You would be Mekeys...

Baldur

Baldur never expected this Forum thread to be so enduring.
Yet strangely enough it is approaching the 1000 post mark.
Pretty amazing for someone who cannot type.

Baldur

Baldur just taped up his bum leg and went to go get horse manure for the garden. It's available to me only during the month of July so I go whenever possible during my time slot.
While I was shoveling the young man who owns the place came home with an odd small tropical bird perched on his finger. Baldur asked if it was a Minah, but indeed it turned out to be a Toucanette. Who ever heard of such a thing? It is identical to a Toucan but will always remain quite small.
It's name is 'Rupert'.

lilalee

You shoveled the young man?? Hope you didn't hurt Rupert!!

Baldur

Rupert is still a baby but the previous owner had clipped his wings. He can only fly very short distances always with a constant descent.
He decided he needed to see the back of Baldur's pick up truck so he flew and just barely made it to perch on the side, looking at the pile of manure.
He quickly lost interest when he discovered it wasn't full of fruit. Rupert's favorite food currently is the blueberry.

Baldur

Russ, the young man could use a good shoveling since he piles the manure on top of a tangle of bittersweet vines that then find their way into my garden. GRRRRRRR
Baldur has been waging a constant battle against bittersweet which tries to choke out everything else in it's path.
I wish that my Stargaze lilies were so aggressive.

lilalee

Wow!! In the great state of Ohio, it's against the law to even cut Bittersweet for a bouquet, unless it's on your property!!

Baldur

+r =Stargazer.

Speaking of which tonight Baldur needs to remember to sprinkle cayenne pepper on his lily plants, They have sustained some damage from the deer nibbling on the buds this week.
I can only hope and pray that they are not TexMex deer who will find the hot pepper a fitting condiment.

Baldur

lilalee is that law in place to protect the plant or to prevent it's spread?
We battle it here constantly.
One small seed can produce a huge strangling vine quite quickly.

lilalee

When my son was a senior in high school, he and a few friends decided to get drunk, and I had to go pick up his little butt! Of course, he was sick and had his first hangover the next day. but felt so guilty, he went out and bought me two star Stargazer plants!!
We named them "Drunken Lilies". It's been five years now and they are just so beautiful, and the fragrance lingers into my windows!!

Baldur

We are not allowed to tamper with 'lady slipper' orchids. They apparently are quite rare but you wouldn't know it here. My woods have quite a few.
Baldur thins out saplings around them with this in mind. They prefer open but shaded woodland, I do my best to provide that.

lilalee

To protect the plant, as you rarely see it here! Also in some areas, there are warning signs up near the plant!! A big deal here!!
My husband were at a park in the autumn, and was my first time seeing it. So I picked a large bouquet, and was so happy to find something so pretty for a fall arrangement. When all of a sudden a park ranger comes up to me and wants to know where I got the Bittersweet? I pointed to the area, and he proceeds to tell me the laws, and that I could go to jail!

lilalee

Sorry, my husband and I. So I apologized, and he told me to put every piece back where I found it!! Then he pointed out the sign, gave me a lecture, and to leave the park!! I have never been back there, as they probably have my picture on the warning signs!! I felt that every tree, bush, and flowers, had their eyes on me!!

Baldur

It is quite beautiful, but once you get it in a garden there is no stopping it.
I would think it would be off the protected list if a few people intentionally seeded it to expand it's range.

Baldur

A couple years after first moving here to Primrose I waited until there were lots of lady slippers in bloom and invited Frank over.
Frank is quite a plant nut.
I found a pretext to walk with him up into the woods and as we were approaching I told him to be careful to watch where he stepped.
His eyes nearly bugged out of his head, he wanted to dig one up for his property but changed his mind not wanting to disrupt the natural beauty.
The look on his face was priceless.

Baldur

Baldur also read that the common daylily is also a protected plant.
It is everywhere up here.
Maybe Rhode Island is like 'Land of the Lost'.
In the past couple of years I've taken some out of my gardens and made two 20' beds of them across the street.
There is a narrow undevelopable strip of land along Primrose Pond.
They spread quite quickly.
The area there is very rocky and sandy with not many nutrients in the soil so I shoveled on a good layer of horse manure.
Day lilies are quite tough, they will transform the soil.

lilalee

I only have a small flower garden along the length of my house, and a depth of four feet. Most is full sun. My back yard is all shade with four walnut trees, so the soil is very acidic. I have alot of hostas, which do well back there, and for color, I do impatiants in pots, and have to rotatethem.
My neighbor has a Bittersweet plant, and it does not do well.
We have been at this house for 23 years, and it has been difficult finding plants that work with the soil.

Baldur

We also have deadly Amanita mushrooms everywhere. It's such an exciting place to live.
Currently the prickly pear cacti that no one believed could live here is blooming profusely. They have now survived 4 winters in the Northeast without special care. They are in the sunniest location I had in a raised bed.
I mixed the garden soil with lots of sand and quite a bit of gravel for drainage. They absolutely love it.