Radogast's Non-420 Garden Creation Thread

[GardenFaerie]

Hello, hope you dont mind but i subbed this

Have to comment on the ivy: Two years ago we had ivy vines so thick you could rope swing with them. They grew up over all our trees and were suffocating them as they grew. We started cutting the vines and killing them off but could not get them completely out of the top of the trees because they were so high up. After a couple weeks I mentioned how awful our view was outside our bedroom window from the dying vines and the smothered tree branches. My honey decided to go out and cut one of the dead trees down to make my "view" better. I joined him outside after a while. He was down in the brook notching and chopping away. Well the wind picked up and one big gust blew the tree the wrong way. I heard a crack and saw all the old dead vines up top of that tree attached to another tree. My honey tried notching it more so it would fall right but the vines kept it from going down and the next wind gust - dropped the tree in our pool! Needless to say..honey was Not happy! screaming "how do you like your view now" He throws the ax out of the woods, throws the chainsaw out of the woods, out comes the chisel and then him storming up the bank of the brook. We dont let the ivy get too high now. matter of fact if I could get rid of all of it I would. It has since killed two more trees out back where we cant get to because of the brook and now they have to come down. I assure you, He is not doing it hahahah Skip the Ivy trust me

Ivy, when it is in vine form is a very immature period of its life. Now, ivy will live forever, literally, and when it matures the way you describe what it does is reach the canopy of the tree and it actually engulfs the entire trunk making a second scaffold of itself and at the top, it grows into a distinct different tree! So ivy is not really a vine, though it is in its very immature phase. Some people can control it, but if it gets away from you, that's that...as you can see. Every try to pull ivy with its holdfasts on a concrete wall or structure? It is incredible the strength those things have. Utterly amazing.

 

[GardenFaerie]

Rad,

The other day Mark and I went up to the recycle center and got a load of free mulch. The stuff is so gorgeous and it is in mountains. When I see people at the box store buying mulch in my town I cringe for them. Sometimes I tell them, usually not. People don't usually want to know anything.

So anyway, while driving back there into the abyss of mulch piles 40 feet high and wide I noticed they are piling up huge cut sections of trees approximately 15 to 20" in diameter. Along side these beauties, many with the bark stripped so the wood is really weathered and gorgeous are huge piles of beautiful sticks 1 to 4" in diameter in varying lengths.

My head almost exploded! I've been trying to figure out a way to address our sloping property and terrace certain sections, put in rain gardens in others where appropriate and we were going to use cinder block, but now I saw those huge beauties, we're going to dig those into the soil and use them to build retaining walls where we'll probably have to also bring in some soil here and there to back fill it.

I think we'll rent a bobcat for that in the fall. Not sure. It may disturb my trees roots too much and we may just have to do it by hand.
I do know what you are going through with the clearing and piling! I would love property amidst a great conifer forest...some Doug Firs and Reds...ah dream on woman.

 

[Radogast]

Ivy, when it is in vine form is a very immature period of its life. Now, ivy will live forever, literally, and when it matures the way you describe what it does is reach the canopy of the tree and it actually engulfs the entire trunk making a second scaffold of itself and at the top, it grows into a distinct different tree! So ivy is not really a vine, though it is in its very immature phase. Some people can control it, but if it gets away from you, that's that...as you can see. Every try to pull ivy with its holdfasts on a concrete wall or structure? It is incredible the strength those things have. Utterly amazing.

The way you describe ivy I think of wisteria

 

[Radogast]

Rad,

The other day Mark and I went up to the recycle center and got a load of free mulch. The stuff is so gorgeous and it is in mountains. When I see people at the box store buying mulch in my town I cringe for them. Sometimes I tell them, usually not. People don't usually want to know anything.

So anyway, while driving back there into the abyss of mulch piles 40 feet high and wide I noticed they are piling up huge cut sections of trees approximately 15 to 20" in diameter. Along side these beauties, many with the bark stripped so the wood is really weathered and gorgeous are huge piles of beautiful sticks 1 to 4" in diameter in varying lengths.

My head almost exploded! I've been trying to figure out a way to address our sloping property and terrace certain sections, put in rain gardens in others where appropriate and we were going to use cinder block, but now I saw those huge beauties, we're going to dig those into the soil and use them to build retaining walls where we'll probably have to also bring in some soil here and there to back fill it.

I think we'll rent a bobcat for that in the fall. Not sure. It may disturb my trees roots too much and we may just have to do it by hand.
I do know what you are going through with the clearing and piling! I would love property amidst a great conifer forest...some Doug Firs and Reds...ah dream on woman.

Sounds like a fabulous recycling center!. Truly nice

I have been piling dry dirt on top of the fen to build the dam road.
The surface of the fen is a liquid peat mass.

Once I pack the dirt down, it seems to hold water well enough, but I am wondering,
Should I be pounding sticks into the peaty moss? I hear they did that to start Venice

 

[Radogast]

Hello, hope you dont mind but i subbed this

Have to comment on the ivy: Two years ago we had ivy vines so thick you could rope swing with them. They grew up over all our trees and were suffocating them as they grew. We started cutting the vines and killing them off but could not get them completely out of the top of the trees because they were so high up. After a couple weeks I mentioned how awful our view was outside our bedroom window from the dying vines and the smothered tree branches. My honey decided to go out and cut one of the dead trees down to make my "view" better. I joined him outside after a while. He was down in the brook notching and chopping away. Well the wind picked up and one big gust blew the tree the wrong way. I heard a crack and saw all the old dead vines up top of that tree attached to another tree. My honey tried notching it more so it would fall right but the vines kept it from going down and the next wind gust - dropped the tree in our pool! Needless to say..honey was Not happy! screaming "how do you like your view now" He throws the ax out of the woods, throws the chainsaw out of the woods, out comes the chisel and then him storming up the bank of the brook. We dont let the ivy get too high now. matter of fact if I could get rid of all of it I would. It has since killed two more trees out back where we cant get to because of the brook and now they have to come down. I assure you, He is not doing it hahahah Skip the Ivy trust me

Thanks for your real world, local experience. I will read this aloud to the wife.

You have a brook - very cool ! ,

 

[GardenFaerie]

I am not sure what you are asking. What is a fen? It is not registering in my brains.
I'm going to the recycle center today and I'll take photos. I need more mulch.
We buy IKEA bags for 60 cents, those big blue bags (if you have an IKEA). I use them to get mulch and compost. Today I'm also going under the bat bridge to get a few 5 gallon buckets of guano. Then I'll compost that until the spring. It is way, way too hot. Very fresh stuff with urine so hot Nitrogen. That will get my compost pile to burn. I'll take photos of my excursion. I have to go out for labwork anyway.
I am so sick of doctors and labwork and tests. In the last three weeks I've been poked and prodded for hours and hours and I still have a full 5 hour set of tests for all different memory, cognitive, functional, bla. FIVE hours of that. My poor parrot will be alone all day. Poor thing.

 

[Radogast]

A fen is a type of mire/wetland. It is closely related to a bog.

Bogs and fens both have Sphagnum moss, peat moss, etc. The main difference is that a bogs is acidic while a fen is alkaline or ph neutral.
Boston tends to have fens (Fenway park near the Fenway)

So my question is, should I use sticks and rocks to stabilize an earthen dam on top of a fen (bog) ?
I can compress the moss enough to not leak (much) just putting lots of dirt on top.
I'm just wondering if my earthen dam will be problem built on a shaky foundation.


p.s. I think I have a bog as well as a fen. The fen I am turning into a pond drains clear water.
There is another mire less than two feet away that drains baby shit yellow/brown (a color characteristic of bogs.)
I need to test the ph

 

[GardenFaerie]

All I know is that anything you do needs a very firm foundation or it eventually will collapse or fail. That is a guarantee.
I am not knowledgeable enough to make that call. If this is something permanent, you may really want to do a lot of research on what materials you would need to establish a really firm base under the earth/soil.

We recently watched a documentary about Venice. They document all kinds of interesting cities. They peel it back and show all the innards of the land, sewers, pipes, etc. I found Venice fascinating, but I'll be damned if I remember what was so outstanding to me. I remember it being remarkable, but that's it. Was Venice on a fen or peat bog? I don't remember.

 

[brightlight]

A fen, Fenway Park....interesting and totally new info to this west coast guy. Thanks Rad.

A fen is a type of mire/wetland. It is closely related to a bog.

Bogs and fens both have Sphagnum moss, peat moss, etc. The main difference is that a bogs is acidic while a fen is alkaline or ph neutral.
Boston tends to have fens (Fenway park near the Fenway)

So my question is, should I use sticks and rocks to stabilize an earthen dam on top of a fen (bog) ?
I can compress the moss enough to not leak (much) just putting lots of dirt on top.
I'm just wondering if my earthen dam will be problem built on a shaky foundation.


p.s. I think I have a bog as well as a fen. The fen I am turning into a pond drains clear water.
There is another mire less than two feet away that drains baby shit yellow/brown (a color characteristic of bogs.)
I need to test the ph

 

[Radogast]

Venice it's built on mud flats at the delta of a river.

Venice pounded many, many sticks in the muck and threw dirt on them.
Tidal currents and waves from boats cause underwater erosion.

San Francisco sunk a few ships in shallow water and threw dirt on them.
Earthquakes and waves from boats cause surface damage.

My pond doesn't have have strong currents, boats, or earthquakes

Even though I admit I am building on a shaky foundation, I think I'll just throw dirt on it.
It's only a footpath/dike

 

[GardenFaerie]

OH, now I know what you are talking about! Doh. How embarrassing.

Sure, for what you are doing, it is fine. My mind is weird. I just came home a few hours ago and when I pulled into my street I saw the construction going on in the woods at the T on the end of the street. They are putting in the drainage pipes, sewers and paving the roads, which they use about 10 layers of all sorts of road stuff before paving. I had road on the brain. For a footpath, you are good to go with how you want to do it. If you can direct water into rain gardens that is ideal for erosion. This fall is the big job around here. Do we pay someone or do we do it ourselves, that, is the questch.

 

[Radogast]

Footpath under construction across the fen
This section is about twenty feet long and will be at least two feet taller when complete.

I call this the Dam Road

The current spillway, with duckweed and frog noises.

 

[Radogast]

Although the flowers mostly failed to germinate, the kids are doing a great job on rock lined paths!

 

[Radogast]

Conversation with the Mail Lady in front of the house

ME. Good morning!
Mail. Morning

Me. Signature or delivery?
Mail. Delivery. - I live here and I never knew there was a house here.

Me. It's nice isn't it?
Mail. And that thing in the window? (Pointing to a life size cardboard cutout of Modern wizard of oz in second story window)

Me. (Realising BOTH of us are high) He's fun isn't he?
Mail. I forget his name
Me. He's in my window. I really should know.
Mail. Something with a 'D'
Me. Danny Elfman did the music of wizard of oz._ _ He was in the Pirates of the Caribbean movies.

Together. Depp, Johnny Depp

Mail returns to her mail truck and drives away.


I think Mail would approve of screens, pipe cleaners, infused oils, and these !
It's a blueray day

 

[Radogast]

Wide found this poster in a thrift shop yesterday, I missed the White background black.


Perfect for Smaug movie

 

[Radogast]

Baby Downy Woodpecker

This little Downy Woodpecker is a baby. There are lots of young birds born in early summer, including other Downy Woodpeckers, but that ars a few second litter birds. A second batch of robins left the nest last week. By the behavior of this bird, and when I first saw it, this little baby has been flying about 4 days.

Developmentally, 4 days is a long time in the life of a fledgling. The goal used to be, point, flap, hope you get there. Now there are in-flight corrections and softer landings. There is a 14 day BlueJay flyer that has made HUGE strides in landing with poise and grace. It has been watching the nuthatches and titmice, soon it will start acting like an adult BlueJay and land with a clatter and a thunk like suitcases thrown out a window.

Baby Downy Woodpecker had a specific pathway and order of actions on how it lands on the suet feeder. I have numbered the steps in the picture below.

1: Land on trellis and point towards the bird feeder pole.
2: Land on bird feeder pole in the fully upright position
3: Land on horizontal birds feeder arm, head towards feeder, lying flat on top of the horizontal arm.
4: Spin 180 degrees to upside down along the horizontal arm,
IMMEDIATELY DROP UPSIDE down to the deck rail AND LAND ON BACK.
5: Regain upright position, aim at suet feeder, fly there.

I must have watched part of this routine 5 times today.
The last two times, my wife and I watched the whole routine from 3 feet away on the deck.

ROFL scared the bird and it had to start all over.

 

[GardenFaerie]

There seem to be a lot of birds this season. Early in the spring, the common grackles descended down into our gardens and had Plato's Retreat out there for weeks. These are very large loud birds. Not afraid of humans. So they had about ten nests in the yard. Of all those babies, three didn't make it. We found one in the pond, must have been trampled by its siblings and other very clumsy big baby birds. Then we found two more on the ground. They are prolific, but I suppose that's why. I'm just glad they only do their kids here and go back to the Walmart parking lot! They live there in the many thousands and in the evening put on quite the show...along with the starlings.

 

[Radogast]

Part of why we were sitting in the deck watching was there was a troop of about 20 grackles muscling out the smaller birds.

Our grackles ARE scared of humans, to the extent they won't approach to within 5 feet.
Sitting on the deck we are protectors of the little bird.

That and the whole bong on the back deck on a summer afternoon

 

[Radogast]

Road construction


I decided to use some half moldy firewood logs and surface the Dam Road

It's sort of in the tradition of a corduroy road. A bit narrow but much better than walking in muck and mud

On the left the future pond, home to duckweed and frogs.
On the right a small stream

The future pond. Some of these trees will contribute to the Dam Road

 

[trichomes]

Looking good in here Rado, I'm looking forward to my first taste of WW, she started flowering early last week.

a great state, thank you New Hampshire! / nhteatime great ivy story, except for the pool.

wish i could help with the "fen" i had to google it.

If I have any bird questions, they will be posted in here, nice yard update Rado