Finding the Bottom of the Hole and the Bones of the Earth

 It is a known fact, up here on the hill, that if you dig a hole of any depth you are going to run into one of two things:  a rock ledge or water.  Well, three things... you will also likely run into a tree stump or at least some serious roots.  I have seen things break.  I have seen things float.  I have seen the tractor sink to it's axles in mud where there was, ten minutes ago, firm ground.  So you know that when you dig a hole around here, it isn't going to be very easy.  These are things you think about when the neighbor says she wants a clothesline. My husband offered help because we have an auger.  And if she was going to have a clothesline, I would like one too.  After all, the auger would be on the tractor.

These plans began last year.  They were scheduled to be completed this year.  We did the neighbor's first, because it was her idea.  The first hole was the most challenging one.  It did not immediately occur to us, but in the end I reminded my husband that it was he who pulled the stump of the Ash tree that had been cut down there.  And when my husband fills in a stump hole, he always starts with crusher run gravel to make a firm base.  And it was this rock and gravel we ran into.  And some roots.  The roots were cut out with a Sawzall after the fifth shear pin went binging across the lawn.  A shear pin is a softer bolt designed to break intentionally under high stress before any serious equipment is in danger of breaking.  Although, we have also broken U-joints while augering holes.  The next hole was in several feet of clean fill, so that one dug beautifully.  We plumbed the poles and set them in concrete.  I realized that I never took photos of the augering of the holes.  I was too busy dodging and replacing shear pins.  But here is a photo from the building of the garden fence back in 2010.  Not much has changed in the digging department. 

It took over two hours just to dig the first, miserable hole and less than an hour to dig the second one and set both posts in concrete.

The neighbor's laundry line is in a bucolic setting

Elsewhere, my husband had been working on his own version of clothesline poles out of 6"x6" posts.  He obviously wants them to hold up well.  

The intention was to sink them 36" into the ground so the base is below the frost line to prevent them from heaving in the winter.  Easier said than done in our yard.  The neighbor's house was built almost above grade and five feet of fill was brought in around it.  Our 160+ year old house is situated on a little knoll, higher and drier than the rest of the original farm.  This is due to a rock ledge that is only about 30" under the soil.  When you reach about 27" you start to break shear pins and get the auger stuck.  Any further depth is gained by a heavy spud bar, a clamshell digger and sheer cussedness.

We finally got to a depth of 35" on our first hole.  The shale ledge is not completely flat and if you are determined, you can find a soft spot and start breaking out chunks of rock.  In the second hole things went even worse.  The auger got down to about 27" and then just sat there and spun unable to grab anything at all.  We chipped away for awhile and finally settled for 30ish" and cut some off the bottom of the post to match the height of the first.  We wanted the clothesline to be about 6'6" from the ground and we achieved 6'9" which I can still reach easily.

This all started last week.  These poles went up Saturday and then it rained Sunday and Monday so today we set them in concrete.

I am still waiting for the concrete to set.  I'm having a hard time being patient.  I am anxious to get my blankets and pillows out in the sunshine before summer is over.

We placed the poles on the edge of the lawn so they will not be a hassle to mow around.  We don't have to mow around them unless we feel like it.  You can see the line where we usually mow to.  We mowed into the tall grass to clear the way.

So now I finally have a clothesline.  It seems like a staple of country living.  My grandmother dried almost all of her laundry on a clothesline. We will not use it all of the time, I don't really like scratchy towels.  But it will be nice to be able to air things out, dry my bib overalls (because all of the buckles tear up the insides of the dryer) and get the bedding out in the sunshine.  Besides, I already have all of the equipment, the boilers and washboards and plungers and wringers, necessary to wash clothes by hand. 

 I have always told my husband that if we ever lose the electric grid, laundry will be my trade.  Few people are as well equipped as this to handle doing laundry without machines.

All I was missing was the clothesline.

Rainy Strolls

 This August has been cool and rather rainy.  Yesterday's high was around 58F (14C).  It has been a good time to catch up on some indoor work, those things that get neglected when you would rather be outside doing something, even sitting.  In between trips to the garden to get beans or sweet corn for supper, I do a walk through to check on things.   Below is a Foxtrot grass that I transplanted in a spot where I removed a daylily.  I actually removed this particular grass from another spot where it wasn't growing well.  I kept it in a pot in the garden making sure it got watered and cared for and now that it is transplanted out it seems to be very happy.

In the spot that I removed the grass (after replacing yet another daylily last year) I put a Winecraft Gold Smoke Bush.  I thought the bright chartreuse color would look nice against this dark, uniform, green wall we have going on here.

Here is another Foxtrot from the same division last July.  This one also had a lot of winter die back and was growing a little slowly this spring, but it sure is loving this cool, wet August.

Below is a new Perennial from this spring.   I watered it supplementally all through June and July because it has high water requirements and it has been doing beautifully, putting out a lot of new stems and flowering away. 

 Obedient Plant

So has this little Amsonia that got burnt to a crisp in shipping and arrived with only about an inch of green stem left.  

Storm Cloud Amsonia

Out in the pumpkin patch, a vine from one of the original seeds is really going for it.  It is producing a whole family of pumpkins under there,

After two days of rain I will have to go around with a pitch fork and fluff some of the bigger grasses.  They are looking pretty droopy

The Niagara Falls panicum grass below is very perky.  It has held up very well.

Although I have curated my Dahlia collection over years, there is nothing I look forward to more than the first bloom of a new to me variety.

The Petunias need to be cleaned up again....

I am really looking forward to replacing these planters with cornstalks and pumpkins.  The fresh Celosia planters are doing really well and can be included in the Autumn mix.

Still waiting for things to dry up so I can get rolling on some after rain maintenance.

Desperate Times Call For Desperate Measures

 This past winter we got our first snowfall on Thanksgiving, and the snow cover was in place until spring.  This made it a little hard on the deer, especially since our deer seem to rely primarily on landscaping for food, especially in the winter, and a lot of people do successfully fence them out of shrubs.  You have to be serious about your fences or the deer will just go over them or under them.  Our next door neighbors put loops of fence around their Rhododendrons, but they did not anchor the fence with T-posts.  One day they looked out the window and there was a deer behind the fence.

The deer was behind the fence below and as you can see, there is no way they could jump into that.  They just squeezed between the fence post and the wall.  Is it not a little ironic that the leaves they ate were behind the fence, not above it....

The neighbors had thought previously of pulling these over grown shrubs, but having seen similar damage on other shrubs before I suggested that they just cut them to the ground and let them grow back fresh.  I knew of two other neighborhood houses who had, in the past, done this and I had watched the result.  So the last week of March they cut them down.

Not much left there!  I suggested they give them a good dose of granular fertilizer and just wait.

It wasn't long before they began to grow.  I made sure to take pictures through the spring and summer to track their progress.

End of May

Two of them came back thick.

The new growth is glossy and healthy.

Mid-August

The regrown shrubs are more proportionate to the other landscape.

One of them is lagging behind a bit.  I suggested that they go ahead and cut these bare trunks back further since no new growth is coming from them.  The new growth on this shrub is coming only from the roots.

And this winter make sure to anchor their fence with posts!

Autumn is Coming

Some of the Spruce trees have a lot of dead branches at the bottom.  The neighbor's oak leaves get caught underneath them every autumn.  Leaf blowing will be a lot easier if those branches are gone, and we have a brush pile going that will be burned this fall.  So time to prune,

Anyone a Wooly Bear expert?  What does all black with an orange undercoat indicate for the coming winter?  I've seen all black ones but never with this unique orange tinge.

Rebloomer Daylilies

 Did I mention that I have to cut back the shabby foliage on my rebloomer daylilies early enough so that when I do cut them back, I don't accidently cut off the new buds?  Well....  this is what I meant.  Come on Rosey, try harder! 

Center is Rosey Returns Daylily (no foliage yet)
Foreground is Happy Returns (nice leaf regrowth)

Maintenance

 I have finally dug out all of the 18 daylilies slated for removal and refilled the empty holes with top soil.  In some cases I have already placed a plant, others will wait until next year.

I want to use at least one division of these Black Eyed Susans.

Mother plant

I last divided them in 2024 and they need it again.

First division from 2024

I am chucking annuals that are not making me happy.  This Gallery Art Deco Dahlia has petered out.

I replaced it with a Masquerade Ornamental Hot Pepper.

I am still working raking out on that bed full of Purslane.  This is round three.

My slicing Cucumbers (Gateway)  are still going strong.

(it was wet and rainy this morning)

One almost got away.

My second grapevine is starting to put out side shoots that look like they will make good cordons.

...so that has been my day.  Sweet Corn for supper again.

Other Annuals and Containers Review

 So how are some of my other annual containers doing?  Pretty well overall.  We have had a cooler summer with an average amount of rain.  The wildfire smoke has blocked some sun, and plants are affected by air quality too.  I have religiously fertilized all of the Petunias and Supertunias once a week with Proven Winners Water Soluble Fertilizer and that really is a necessity for containers. 

The Supertunias are looking great.  If I plant this combination again I will double the number of the Latte color because they are not as vigorous as the Black Cherry or Royal Velvet varieties.

But Supertunias are a great product.  They have a nice mounding habit and they do not need seed pods removed.  The blooms are smaller so they just dry up and go away.

The Dreams Series in the Deck Planters are a really nice plant too.  But they do require deadheading.  Maintaining traditional Petunias are something that I am up to every few years.  Because you can get seeds for the Dream series in several colors, growing them out myself is a possibility for the future.

While the bloom to green stem ratio is not as nice as Supertunias, these plants still have a lot of buds on them.  They just keep expanding.....

The black Sweetunias in this planter are a fail.  They petered out.  As you can see the Licorice Plant and Rediculous Coleus are doing well.  I am going to take cuttings off this coleus soon and that will invigorate it.

I will also take cuttings again from my El Brighto Coleus.  I was almost going to say I was done overwintering Coleus, but it is really nice to have a stock of "extra" annuals on hand and they just perform so well.

I have decided I really like the Blue Tiara Supertunias.

I also have some new annuals tucked in a bare spot here in this bed.  Romence put their annuals on 50% off and free shipping.  That's a good way to try out some plants for a reasonable cost.  And they don't have to throw them out.  Win win. These are the Cobalt Superbena and the Unplugged White Salvia.  Both of these are doing well despite the fact that they are really "seconds" and needed some intensive care to get them up and running. I would like to use them again.  I also got a few of the Persimmon Supertunias.  They were not very vigorous, and I have already pulled them.  I liked the color.  If I could buy them locally I may work them into the plan.  But I will not be going out of my way to get them.

My Vanilla Marigolds and Zinnias are a win.

The Marigolds in all the photos are not covered in blooms because white flowers... even Marigolds... just do not hold up to rain.  They brown very quickly and I have gone around and trimmed them all daily to get rid of the yuck and to encourage the fresh buds to open.  Not having to water every other day is nice, but it does not make for lush annuals.

The Supertunias in the ground under the pear tree are nice.  Once of the Latte plants died.  I think its roots rotted from too much rain which is what the Persimmon plants did too.  Gee we haven't had THAT much rain.  Wimps.