What’s Coming Up In The Garden, 33: Joe Pye weed (and a favorite garden view)

Joe Pye weed is one of my favorites in the pollinator beds, feathery, tall, muted color, and lasts a long time. It also gets VERY tall and while I had originally put it in the center of the front bed, where it actually did well and looked lovely, by summer’s end it was laying prone on top of other shorter things and I realized it needed a different spot in the garden.

Late in the fall I moved the Joe Pye to the trellis wall in the back of the bed. I get tired of that white grid pattern being so prominent visually and I’m hoping the Joe Pye will like the intense full sun that area gets in the summer.

Given that the plants were dormant by the time I moved them, I wasn’t sure what would happen come spring, but here they are:

They can still fall forward, but I can use the trellis to attach a line across if needed, or I can learn a lesson and cut these very tall growing plants back mid-season so they bloom but don’t just go up and up and up.

If you see me posting photos of goldenrod in the lower bed over 3 feet tall please remind me of this.

Yesterday I was in the garden and glanced up - capturing one of my favorite garden views. I have little stone pathways that wind through the beds, mostly so I can get in easily to weed, but also because there are angles for viewing that make my eyes and heart sing. My beds are mostly for the pollinators and birds, it’s true, but they also serve as space to stop and ponder the beauty they offer. I try to stand and enjoy them this way for a portion of every chore time I spend in them. It is like taking a long cool sip of water on a very hot day.

This is one of my favorite views, and it’s only visible while the baptisia are blooming. There are other flowering plants that will come when these fade, but today, right now, this is what I love looking at:

The baptisia tall and white and purple, reaching up to the sun, the bluebird box, the green of the foliage and the brown earth, the silvery gray path and driveway curving to the distant gateway. It’s a story, a little journey, to what is beyond that curve, what the gate opens to. I could stand here all day and just ponder those questions.

Happy Birthday Little Man and Keil Bay!

I cannot believe it but Little Man is now 20 and Keil Bay is 31 years old. We had a party in the grass paddock again as that proved to be a popular way to celebrate for this herd.

The donka boys were beside me so they were at the party but just not in the photo.

Couple of interesting things on the farm today.

Coyote in Arcadia (photo by husband):

And the first coneflower of 2020:

Happy birthday to the boys - we love you! You are both amazing and bring so much joy to all of us.

November Hill farm journal, 97

Time for a whole farm update. We are in jungle mode now, with all our large trees fully leafed out and lush, green, and happy just in time for Earth Day.

I spent some time yesterday walking the farm and looking at what’s happening outside my pollinator beds.

In the riding arena (and now also dog agility course) I found this very long and beautiful snake skin stretched along the ground. I feel sure it’s a black snake and if I’m lucky he/she has moved into the barn and was out here sunning before shedding.

In Poplar Folly, one of the trees that Duke Energy cut. We’ve left the remainders, some of which is stacked for firewood, some larger sections I’d hoped to get made into lumber for our feed room, have been repurposed in creating terraces to slow rain run-off. There are several of these stump stacks which are making unusual and interesting “sculptures” - and growing various lichens which I’ve been reading are like medicine for various bees.

My tree of life flags are fading but still hanging in the breeze. I put these up when Duke first notified us that they intended to cut not only the 7 trees we allowed them to take down, but approximately 40 more. The entirety of Poplar Folly would be decimated had we not filed a complaint with the NC Utilities Commission and stopped them.

Here’s a tulip poplar branch in the front pasture, simply loaded with flowers!

While on my walk I had a wild hair and added a new element for the dog agility course. Green duct tape has a higher calling! Why I never did this when we were making jumps for horses I can’t tell you.

And an interesting tree stump in Poplar Folly. One trunk but clearly two separate trees that at some point merged. I love the pattern from above.

And a gorgeous patch of native ferns on the side strip in front. We have ferns volunteering all over the farm, and we leave them untouched. This is a new strip that has come up this spring and are thriving. I need to get out my books and see if I can ID this one. We have different kinds, and all are distinct and different when you look closely. If you look really closely, you’ll also see a baby tulip poplar and a couple of hollies.

I hope everyone spent at least a little time on Earth Day out in nature, or looking at photographs of nature. The earth is our home, and she’s beautiful. She gives solace and shelter, food and air, water and peace. We must take care of her.

What’s Coming Up In The Garden, 32: New York ironweed

This is such a pretty plant, tall and leaning slightly at maturity with deep fuchsia flowers and seed heads that stay interesting well into the winter. Pollinators, natives, and wildlife friendly too.

While these are quite tall and most would put them at the back of a garden, my front bed only has a short side that is truly at the “back.” It’s bordered on one side by our driveway, and the other by the walkway to our front door, and the piece at the confluence of drive and walkway is where I put these. They are on the lower side of the sloped bed, and tend to lean over the driveway’s edge, and in a way they form a sort of “flagship” effect at the narrowing end of the bed.

They are just coming up now, and it’s hard to believe that by summer’s end they’ll be taller than I am.

I have several clusters in this area and they will be prominent in the next few months. 

More info:

Brundage, Stephanie 

Vernonia noveboracensis

Vernonia noveboracensis (L.) Michx.

New York Ironweed

Asteraceae (Aster Family)

Synonym(s): Vernonia harperi

USDA Symbol: VENO

USDA Native Status: L48 (N)

New York ironweed is a tall, clump-forming perennial, growing 5-8 ft. in height. Slightly rough stems bear lance-shaped, deep-green leaves. Small flower heads occur in large, loosely branched, flat-topped, terminal clusters. Flowers are all of the disk type and deep reddish-purple in color. Tall erect stem branches toward the summit, with each branch bearing a cluster of deep lavender to violet flower heads; together, clusters form a loose spray. 

This often roughish plant is common in wet open bottomland fields. It typically has more flowers per head than Tall Ironweed (Vernonia gigantea).

What’s Coming Up In The Garden, 31: woodland stonecrop

So, this little plant is a ground covering succulent that is mostly found in shade. I have a small section of the front pollinator bed that stays shaded from April - November, and I wanted something to hug the ground there. This was a good choice, I think, but I get all kinds of weeds trying to encroach in this same space, so I think sometimes I end up pulling out the woodland stonecrop with the weeds!

This year I’m trying to be more mindful and I’ve let the weeds creep in until I can be sure that what I’m pulling out is not what I planted there.

Our walkway is stone with gaps between, so I actually let the wild things grow along there and we just weed-eat down a bit if needed, so there’s a fine line between where I let things grow wild and where I want a bit more order.

In any case, this is a very sweet plant and I hope to see it really spread out this year with me paying a bit more attention to what I’m doing around it.

If you look closely you’ll see about 5 other things trying to mix in with it. The competition is fierce in that corner of the bed!

More info:

Cressler, Alan 

Sedum ternatum

Sedum ternatum Michx.

Woodland Stonecrop, Wild Stonecrop

Crassulaceae (Stonecrop Family)

Synonym(s): Clausenellia ternata

USDA Symbol: sete3

USDA Native Status: L48 (N), CAN (I)

The creeping stems of this rock-loving perennial usually send up a single flowering branch, 4-8 in. high, and several shorter, leafier, non-flowering branches. The succulent, light-green leaves are arranged alternately or in whorls of three. Flowers are white with five, pointed petals and occur in a three-branched terminal clusters. 

Woods Stonecrop is a member of the sedum family (family Crassulaceae), which includes succulent herbs or small shrubs, commonly with star-like flowers in branched clusters. There are about 35 genera and 1,500 species. Many are cultivated as ornamentals or succulent novelties, including Jade Tree, Stonecrops, and Air Plant. Vegetative reproduction is common in the family, and in some members little plantlets grow along the leaves, drop to the ground, and root.