Oak-y dokey

It's been downright soggy here and the whole darned yard is basically now a mushroom farm. There are a lot of different small varieties and also these three different huge fungi all on the same tree.

We had carpenter ants on the same huge tripartite oak in early September, and Ryan from SavATree reassured me that it's not necessarily a sign of decay. However, he said to keep an eye on this cleft between two of the trunks. If it gets bigger, we need to worry. (Meanwhile, being me, I guess I'll just worry that it will get bigger.)

Purple overload

My new delphinium plant is already blooming, and isn't it lovely? If it does well, it will definitely need friends next year.

I am worried that something is eating the echinacea petals, or maybe the blooms just haven't fully formed yet? It is supposed to be deer-resistant, but I guess if they just eat the petals? Or maybe a bug?

View from the tree stump. Did I mention that the oak from this vantage point was removed a few weeks ago? It was dying. Sad to cut it down, and EXPENSIVE, but inevitable.

I am worried that there may be too much purple in some spots in the garden. I love the geraniums, but they are taking over. This is fine, but they make the balloon flower (middle of the frame below) irrelevant. Perhaps I should remove the balloon flowers and give them away, since they attract the deer anyway.

Hydrangea. Still no pink. The creamy white is pretty, though.

Finally my Larkspur is starting to bloom! And it is lovely. And, of course, purple. 

I went to drop off garden debris at the dump yesterday, and was pulling away, when I saw them: tomato cages that someone had dumped. Don't do it, I told myself, but I got out of the car and grabbed three. So here they are, a harbinger of my impending heartbreak when the squirrels eventually eat my accidental tomatoes that I foolishly let myself nurture.

Also: the zinnias are unstoppable!

Discoveries of various sorts

We were gone for several days last week and when we returned, it was to find that something had been eating my parsley. I'm guessing a rabbit, since I don't think the deer would be over by the steps, and I don't think parsley would be their first choice anyway. But I guess it could be any number of accursed animals. Much of the sage and thyme is also gone, but that may be because they were dry for a couple days. Unlike the parsley, there are no telltale half-eaten stems.

Check out the smaller allium in the back (the big one is almost done blooming). Could these be belatedly about to bloom after all?! I am so confused.

I could not be more delighted that the foxglove planted just a few weeks ago has started to bloom! This is the only of the three plants with blooms, but the other two look healthy anyway.

I found this little oak seedling growing in the back plot, so I stuck it in a pot and will see what happens. [Update: ONE DAY LATER those *%#ing squirrels uprooted and destroyed it. GRRRRRRRR]

This past weekend we visited the Brooklyn Botanical Garden, which is lovely and offered some ideas for things to plant in my own garden.

Roses have always scared me away (bugs! disease!) but isn't this dreamy, growing along a chain (visible on the right).

This is the same climing rose as the photo above.

This purple poppy wasn't blooming yet, which was part of what made it interesting - it could bloom a little later than your standard poppy.

Tree pruning

This coming Tuesday, a crew from SavATree will be pruning our little forest - expensive but necessary. Their arborist Ryan Case is very nice and helpful.

We're also working with them to figure out cutting down the dying/compromised trees in the front and on the south side of the house, but meanwhile here's what's already scheduled:

General Tree Care
Location of plant material is from the perspective of main entry point and targets (trees and shrubs) are oriented in a clockwise direction. One (1) 22" DBH Oak, Chestnut (Quercus prinus), Rear Yard- Perform hazard reduction pruning to include crown cleaning of deadwood 2" in diameter and greater to reduce large falling deadwood. One (1) 28" DBH Oak, Red (Quercus rubra), Rear yard- Perform hazard reduction pruning to include crown cleaning of deadwood 2" in diameter and greater to reduce large falling deadwood. One (1) 14" Oak, Chestnut (Quercus prinus) Rear Yard- Perform maintenance pruning to include crown cleaning of deadwood 1" in diameter and greater to enhance health and aesthetics One (1) 25" DBH Tuliptree (Liriodendron tulipifera), Rear Yard- Perform hazard reduction pruning to include crown cleaning of deadwood 2" in diameter and greater to reduce large falling deadwood. One (1) 14" DBH Hickory, Bitternut (Carya cordiformis)-Rear yard- Perform maintenance pruning to include crown cleaning of deadwood 1" in diameter and greater to enhance health and aesthetics One (1) 50" DBH Oak, Red (Quercus rubra)-Rear yard- Perform hazard reduction pruning to include crown cleaning of deadwood 2" in diameter and greater to reduce large falling deadwood. Also, perform a weight reduction on several arching secondary limbs over/toward the roofline and upper right canopy. Also, perform installation of 2 steel cables to help provide supplemental support to the co-dominant leads. One (1) 26" DBH Oak, Pin (Quercus palustris)-Rear yard- Perform hazard reduction pruning to include crown cleaning of deadwood 2" in diameter and greater to reduce large falling deadwood. Plant Health Care ArborKelp Plus Treatment - Mid Season This unique biostimulant consists of sea kelp and other biologically active components, enhanced by additives prescribed by your arborist specifically for the needs of your landscape. This mixture is recommended for trees which are weakened by construction, insect damage or transplant shock.   Service Details:  1 Japanese Maple-Rear Yard

Fall

'Tis fall. I have read that this is a "mast year" for oak trees, which explains why there are MILLIONS of acorns in our yard. I really should google whether there are any practical uses for acorns.

The leaves are starting to change color in our yard, and increasingly falling, though it hasn't gotten out of hand yet. I bought 30 lawn-and-leaf bags to be ready!

As our mowing people finished their work in September, I also secretly bought a reel mower, and have now mowed two sections of the back lawn after painstakingly removing the acorns. I just kind of hate getting our lawn mowed. I hate the loud mower and I hate, hate, hate their leaf blowers. There was a heated debate on our neighborhood listserv about leaf blowers. I stayed out of it.

My trusty 1947-copyright edition of Peterson's "A Field Guide to the Birds" has two plates on "Confusing Fall Warblers," and I have come to think of that as its own species, as in "Hey look, it's a Confusing Fall Warbler!" since I guess I have been seeing some of them. But I managed to identify one from yesterday: I am pretty confident it is a Myrtle Warbler, although these pictures are pathetic:

The pine tree behind the driveway has a lot of needles turning yellow and dropping, and I looked this up and apparently it is normal in the fall. It is likely a white pine.