From the category archives:

Iris

Magic Wands

by Lisa on October 31, 2004

122_2255_JFR.jpgWe’ve been playing a lot with the tractor and sawmill and are using the truck to haul more logs. I’m getting really good at backing the truck into really tricky spots. I mean, it’s a real valuable skill of mine, and somehow I’m far betting backing up than pulling forward out of the same spot. I’m sure that says something profound about my personality, but I’m all nervy and confident when Frank shows me where to put the truck, up to almost any challenge, and then once I get it there and he attaches the log, I suddenly notice that the truck feels like it’s going to flip over and I lose my nerve, so he pulls it forward when I get the heebie jeebies and can barely even watch him, convinced the truck’s going to flip.

It’s exhausting work, but we’ve got to get these trees out of where we want the sheep yards to be. Plus, many of the logs that will be the wood to build the sheds are in these huge piles that were left when the foundation for the addition was put in. It’s all so confusing. I keep wanting to just go to Home Depot and buy lumber to build the sheds, but even I know that doesn’t make sense, because we have to get the logs out just to have a sheep yard in front of the soon-to-be sheds.

122_2264_JFR.jpgI think I just need a magic wand. I’m getting a bit overwhelmed.

I love the way the iris foliage is all turning such a bright yellow these days.

in Addition, Clearing, Garden Shed, Iris, Pasture, Sawmill, Sheep, Tractor, Truck

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Bug Damage

August 29, 2003

I am so sick of bugs! We are really being attacked this year by both the dreaded red lily beetle and the awful green Japanese beetle. I often go out in the evening to collect them off of the plants, but it’s a losing battle. I’m ruthless, though, and when I spot them I either [...]

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More plants, and planting

August 14, 2003

We went to the grand opening of a Home Depot in Keene last night. Their nursery isn’t great, but we did get some good deals. We were a bit disappointed in how many zone six and seven plants we saw. Keene might be zone 5, but most of the hill towns around Keene are definitely [...]

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Fending for itself

June 26, 2003

Frank and I spent the week in Philadelphia this week, leaving the garden to fend for itself. While we were gone, summer arrived with a heat-wave, hitting the mid-90s, which is pretty rare for New Hampshire. Of course, because that’s the way things work in our world, Frank had been fiddling with the irrigation before [...]

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Dripping

June 20, 2003

One of the Lamer Landscapers semi-successful projects was installing irrigation for us. They actually got it running in the spring of 2001. As usual, they demonstrated that they are landscapers not gardeners. Also cheap. They finally got the stuff running June of 2001 (only 9 months behind schedule). Two valves failed that summer. In 2002, [...]

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A tiny painted turtle

June 12, 2003

Lisa’s out of town, so I took advantage of a rare nice evening to do some chores. I planted the accumulated swap plants: Purple monkshood, sweet woodruff, blue hosta, pulmonaria, plumbago, and something in a sixpack. I’m not sure about the plumbago, because the plumbago I found on the internet is zone 8 or 9, [...]

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End of the tulips, start of the iris

June 9, 2003

It’s amazing what a couple of hours after work can do out in the garden. I was just going to do a little deadheading on the tulip bed, and before you know it, we got quite a few things off the to-do list. I did get the tulips all cut off, and Frank spread bonemeal [...]

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