Message in a Bottle

This will be a quicky becasue I am exhausted, but very excited to share.

We had a busy weekend of out-of-town guests and outings, but we squeezed in some outdoor work this afternoon.  Now that we've identified "the road" we can peck away at clearing as time allows, so that's what we did today.  There are a bunch of trash trees that have cropped up-- mostly Norway Maples 1-4" in diameter.  All are very tall -- re-e-e-e-aching up to get some sunlight under the canopy of the more mature elm and oak and ash.

Interesting finds:

• Several piles of dirt and rock debris roughly the size and shape of snowplow leavings.  There are lots of  flat patio-type pieces of slate and bluestone in evidence.  Wondering if there was an outdoor living area or formal garden somewhere around or below the pool at some point.  Thinking maybe we'll  take up a collection and see if we gain critical mass for some future project.  Happy to recycle!
• Lots and lots of past-prime firewood dumped in the old barn foundation and in the woods.  The bad news is the previous owners (and their family and neighbors and realtors and landscape-labor) did a lot of dumping in the woods.  There are areas where the debris is too rooten to move and too big to chip -- basically a big mound of mess.  The good news is that I have identified some older dumping zones where the grass clipping and leaves have made gorgeous compost.  Happy gardener over here!
• And, the pies de resistance, was more archealogical.  Hubby found an old bottle on the ground.  He was excited about the antique glass.  I was excited about what was inside.  There was a little bit of dirt and 3 or four different kinds of teensy weensy plants growing in there along with a small population of visible worms and bugs -- all in miniature.  It reminded me of that scene in "Men in Black" when Agent K (Tommy Lee Jones) found a universe in a train station locker.  Truly a stop-and-think existential moment.

Hood's Tooth Powder, Lowell, Mass (circa 1880s)

Microscosm complete with soil strata, multiple plant varieties, plus worms and insects -- all in miniature. The weather in "Hoodville" was cloudy with a chance of rain today.

The Road More Travelled

It's always a little intimidating moving to a new place.  You never know who your neighbors are going to be.  And, for us, since we have young kids and this is pretty small town, we could only hope for amiable neighbors with like-aged children.  When we were house shopping, I will admit to reasonable attention to play sets and sandboxes and strollers in neighboring yards.  There were a few in the newer development that wrapped around TOPH in the woods, but you never know if they are "current" or grandparents or whatever.

We totally lucked out.  Not only do we have very nice neighbors pretty much all around us, but there are two families VERY close by with kids that will be in class with our twins.  Yay!

The funny thing is, it was kind-of meant to be as far as TOPH is concerned.

When we were scoping out the upper pasture (now woods) for goats, we found that there were two gates in the old fence.  One was roughly perpendicular to one of the old barn foundations near our garage.  The other -- a straight shot North-to-South -- led directly into the back yard of a wonderful family, who brought us a freshly-picked-blueberry pie when we first moved in.  We had joked that we should clear that path first so the kids could commute.

Our other neighbor -- across the street and down the hill toward Great Bay -- had made a similar suggestion.  Why not make a path through the woods?  Better than having the kids walking in the road, right?

So I set out with my skein of red yarn with the thought that we could identify a reasonable path and do some clearing as time-energy presented itself.  The thing is, the more I looked, the more I found that the path was already there.  There's actually a break in the wall (under a bunch of brambles and poison ivy) at the far downhill corner of our property.  And, if you kind of squint, you can see the old trees vs. the new.  And some evidence of tracks from vehicles (motorized and otherwise) along the way.

The funniest thing is that the paths on the upper pasture (woods) and the one through the lower pasture (also now woods) connect almost exactly at the front of the other (largest) barn foundation.  There are pretty obvious swaths where the trees are younger and scrawnier since they grew up in hard-packed, more-travelled ground.

I strung my string, clearing a bit as I went, and found another cool surprise in the woods -- a meandering row of healthy American Elm trees.  I've always wanted a tree-lined driveway.  And now, it appears, we shall have one, albeit a kid path connecting friends and neighbors with the foundations and intentions of our forebears as landmarks.

Roadies & Rhodies

I think I mentioned before that I joined the Master Gardener program through the UNH Cooperative Extension.  It has been a great way for me to scratch my gardening itch while keeping my won't power intact here at TOPH.  I have pledged not to do any serious gardening here at TOPH until Spring 2013.  But, I will say that I am kind of enjoying living vicariously for awhile.  I feel like a roadie.  And I'm following this band of talented folks who are doing all that I can't right now -- just kind of soaking it all in and nodding enthusiastically.

In the meantime, I am doing a minor gardening project.  I am getting away with it only because it pertains to grading and drainage and foundation-saving.

We have these two enormous Rhododendrons.  They are on the west side of TOPH between the kitchen door and driveway.  The trunks are 8" in diameter and they are each about 8' wide and 8' high.  When we visited TOPH in the late Spring they were gorgeous.  Massive, multiple blooms of a pleasant not-pink, not-purple hue.

Unfortunately, they were planted too close to the foundation and their root balls sit a little higher grade-wise than I would prefer for healthy drainage and sill-health.  Sad, but they need to go. 

Moving large bushes has its risks, but, the way I see it, these rhodies owe us nothing. We bought the house and they came along for the ride -- free parking as it were. Now we just have to figure out how to reassign their parking places without killing them.

We covered  planting and transplantation in Master Gardener class, but I had a feeling that our well-established monster-Rhodies might require some more creative attention.  I was right, according to Michael Garrity (Garden Works LLC & Blueberry Gardens Organic), an expert on perennials and ornamentals, we're "going to have break some rules and make it ugly, before it can be pretty.  Patience is key."

His advice was to prune them hard, selectively stripping off all outer new growth and buds, then cut a trench in around the root balls this Fall, then finish digging them out and moving them in the early Spring, as soon as the frost lifts.  Finally, once they are relocated and dug in nicely (with root ball flare safely above grade -- that's one of his big campaigns), then I am supposed to prune all of the massive (now-budless) growth off the outside and let the inner buds and branches go nuts.  Sounds reasonable.  That way all the inner stuff will be protected this winter and through the move.  We shall see.

Pruning a Rhodie in the Fall is a no-no, usually.  And doughnut trenching around bushes has some real downsides, but this is a special circumstance and Mike seemed to have a rhyme to his reason.  Something about helping the plant to conserve energy, kick-starting some close-in root growth, and looking forward to a spectacular bloom (if they live) in the Spring of 2013 in their new locale.  OK.


So, I have now selectively pruned all of their outer growth and extremities.  The inner buds look very promising!  OK, maybe that's wishful thinking... And I also took out all the dead twiggy stuff to eliminate harmful pest habitat.  That was my idea, but it seemed like good, basic IPM (integrated pest management) practice to me.

I have to admit they look kind of sad at the moment -- sort of like a long-haired cat after a bath.  I still have to do the trenching, but the weathers been rather soggy lately.  I think I will wait until there is more dirt and less mud to slog though for that little task.  The digging will be hard and I will have my bot cutters in-hand as the root system on these puppies is fibrous and thick and woody with no fine hairy stuff.  Quite ingeneious, really.  That's how come they are so acid-loving (-tolerant).  No fine, hairy roots.  Just the smart ones with uptake sensors.  It's really fascinating.  They are closely related to blueberry bushes in that way, you know.

In the meantime, I am chanting words of encouragement to the granite foundation wall nearest to these impinging root balls.  I'm sure it will be fine until spring with the bushes can be safely moved and the small door yard there can be regraded and planted with some storm-water-sucker-uppers.  We will be paying close attention to rooting distance and spacing relative to the house and driveway, as well as appropriate root-ball-to-grade depth assignment.  Right-O!  I'm thinking red twig dogwoods on an island in a drainage pond... Wait, the hubby is wholly opposed to the p-word.  So we'll call it a kidney shaped sub-grade catch basin with appropriate outflow, landscaping and aeration.  And frogs.  Yep, that's it!