The 2020 Garden, Landscape, and Other Stuff Thread...

Jalapenos are turning red .
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Outside of trimming everything I can when it's not raining, I finally got busy and built these planters I've been wanting for some time. The plants are Australian grevillea Neil Bell which are drought hardy and bloom in our winter with a red flower hummingbirds are supposed to like. It may take a year or so to get to "blooming" size, but I've got hopes.

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eisman said:
Outside of trimming everything I can when it's not raining, I finally got busy and built these planters I've been wanting for some time. The plants are Australian grevillea Neil Bell which are drought hardy and bloom in our winter with a red flower hummingbirds are supposed to like. It may take a year or so to get to "blooming" size, but I've got hopes.

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Those planters look very nice. Do they have bottoms? Just curious...
 
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20201009_211036.jpg Made a planter box... 8x6x2 feet. Bought 50-50 compost and potting soil and put it in the planter box.. Transplanted sunflower and pumpkin seedlings. Watered regularly but they did nothing for 2 months. Landlord/lemon farmer said the compost smelled "hot." Meaning it wasn't done composting. So I yanked the pumpkins. Kept watering the sunflowers. And then, BAM they all shot up. I've been collecting seeds for next year.20201010_110250.jpg 20201010_081149.jpg 20201010_081521.jpg Screenshot_20201006-081903_Photos.jpg Screenshot_20201006-081929_Photos.jpg 20201009_211148.jpg20201010_083803.jpg
Dahlias on the left. Young sunflowers finding their stride on the right.
 
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Happy Canadian Thanksgiving all :)

As always, I travel the world here on BF ... wonderful to see some landscape in New Zealand Cursum Perficio Cursum Perficio where it is springtime, as I stack wood for winter here. And all those sunflowers bigsurbob bigsurbob would feed my overwintering birds and rescue my budget as well! A couple of autumns ago I watched one huge squirrel chew off the head of a sunflower three times his size and run off with it to stash for winter. Couldn't believe my eyes at the time.

As for what sparks my gratitude in this season of harvest ... well, my list is long and quite ordinary so I won't bore you. But I will say thanks to all who share here on BF - for the wins and losses, for the pics and words, for the fun and vicarious travel, for the window on cultures and landscapes other than my own ... and so much more - but I must get cracking; my son is coming for Thanksgiving dinner (open air for safety and because of the unbelievably great weather for October).

Colour in the garden includes only annual nasturtiums and the cold-loving pansies at this point, frosts having taken everything else. I cannot even describe the ravenous tanking up of the four black, two magnificent grey and countless red squirrels, chipmunks and blue jays. Just know that the porch bustles and rustles as all the critters wait for sunflower seed delivery :D
 
It is pansy planting time here in Southeast Tennessee. I have purchased a number of six packs and will be planting shortly. This is pretty routine for me as far as the seasons go here. I am looking forward to the fall foliage colors down my way as they develop. Peak here is generally the last week of October to the first week of November. I prefer to take pictures just prior to the peak as I like the orange and reds mixed with greens. I am not one to geographically chase the fall foliage change.

My last hummingbird sighting at the house was October 6th and pretty much consistent with last year. So, I'm officially saying they departed on their southward journey on the 7th. There is always a possibility of a strangler popping up.

We got another pretty big rain from Hurricane Delta as it degraded to a tropical storm here. It was not excessive and I welcomed the steady rains. We got about 3 inches of rain over two days. My fescue yard is very green with the cooler temps and rainfall. So, I will be mowing the grass for another month or perhaps two along with grinding up fallen leaves as they fall.
 
Today was dry so I got some yard work in. Did some weeding, tore out a couple azaleas that weren't cutting it, and stuck in three new Camellias. Camellias seem to do better in that section, so I hope that works. Debated pulling out a currant but left it for now. It's good in the summer, but I really prefer stuff that stays green year round. Hosta's were kind of sad this year, but the ferns have gone crazy as have the hemlock. Only major complaint with the plants this summer is one of the dozen arbor vitea is dying. the rest are growing, this ones just turning yellow. It's kind of late to be pulling that out though.

Hummingbirds hare hitting the feeders hard, most of the flowers are gone. I pruned back the roses last week so even this late blooms are done. The suet blocks are getting hit too; have to order a couple more. Raining now and supposed to do so all day tomorrow. So much for dry days. It's time to waterproof the fleece and jackets.
 
Well, we got some rain. Lots of it. Thunderstorms all morning and when the front passed major winds. I lost a 40' Aspen; snapped off right at the base. I'm going to have to look at getting rid of the rest too, it would cost as much to top them as to pull them down. I'll see what the insurance says...

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eisman eisman

I'm not familiar with aspens, are they susceptible to wind?

I spent thousands removing trees from my lot, hollow sweet gums, hickories in the wrong spots, a couple of wild cherries (made a huge mess).

I had the last sweet gum (60 footer) taken down a few weeks ago. I thought they would have to top it but did a great job (it was on a fence line) and very reasonable since they were clearing a lot next door. The neighbor across the street paid over $4500 to have a big oak topped and taken down...ugh.
 
JB in SC said:
I'm not familiar with aspens, are they susceptible to wind?
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Aspen are a Western tree. In fact, the largest living organism in the USA is an aspen grove in Colorado. Aspen grow from sending out shoots from their roots, and they are a pain in the ... My neighbors and I would love to have them all gone, although it would take years to kill off the roots. They mess up our lawns and flower beds something awful. That being said, they don't normally have a problem with winds, but this one was 45' tall and had a pretty big sail in some very strong winds. My arboralist was out today and said it was abnormal, it shouldn't have fallen, that will be $1200 to clean up, thank you. Still his advice is not to pull the remaining ones, much as I'd like to. They were planted by the folks who had the place before me, so they're not native, and some day I'm going to get tired of messing with them and spend the bucks. Thing is I just had them out to trim all the trees and clean up the property.

I wouldn't have them come out, but that's a lot of branches to get rid of and they won't let us burn. Normally when I trim I just set a fire in the pit and throw the small stuff on it as I'm cutting it up. This is going to give me a years firewood, but it's not cheap having them do it.

What's kind of strange is we were standing around looking at the work and a Coopers hawk came right down into one of the trees and sent all the other birds (robins, flickers, et al, about 20 of them) out like a gunshot. He sat for a few and then flew off right past us. That was unusual.

One last Aspen note; these are often called Quaking Aspen as the leaves shimmer in the slightest wind. There's an old story that says Christ's cross was made from Aspen, and that's why they shake. Fact is they're a New World tree. The cross is much more likely to have been cedar, which Lebanon was famous for (back when all that part of the world was actually forested). Egyptians loved using Lebanese cedar for their burial and incense rituals.
 
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