November Hill farm journal, 98

Time for a whole farm update. We had a huge rain this week and everything is growing like mad as a result. The grass in the backyard is close to 2 feet tall! Unfortunately when we created the cat-safe fencing, we made it impossible to let the equines in, which we used to do instead of proper mowing. They loved it. One day we’ll fix the gates so they can come in again, but for now, the mower is going to come in and tame the jungle.

The mower! It came home from getting a new starter and already mowed the buttercup patches in the big barnyard. Today I’m taking it to the patch in the back pasture, and then I desperately need to harrow the arena.

That will still leave the front pasture and Salina’s Paddock with their buttercup patches, but we’ll get to it probably tomorrow.

We also need to open up Echo hive and see how much room they have and if they need a super with empty frames on top.

The pieces of hive #3 arrived this week and I have to make the final decision where to place both Artemis hive and this new yet unnamed one. I’ve decided to move Artemis due to dampness in its vicinity after large rainfall. We’re still pondering putting the new hive in the potager. It will be in closer proximity to us and to the horses, but given what we see down at Arcadia, I don’t think it will be a problem.

In other news, we had a birthday this week. The cake was spectacular! Our local bakery has curbside service and we were able to get this raspberry-lemonade cake home perfectly intact thanks to their method of packaging and prep. That’s a lemur on top!

Yesterday while taking the dogs on a romp, I snapped a few photos of some of the wildflowers growing in our side strip. Years back I sowed a package of wildflower seed. It’s possible they are not all native to NC, but since I do see pollinators foraging them, I’ll leave them for now. They are very pretty and we don’t mow that strip until everything is done blooming.

That’s it for this week on November Hill. I started a remote writing workshop on Thursday that runs for six weeks, called Writing In The Dark, and already have a new mini-essay to show for it. Elephant Rock Retreats is a wonderful resource for serious writers. I can’t say enough good things about Jeannine Ouellette’s teaching. Gift yourself one of her workshops. I promise you won’t regret it!

What’s Coming Up In The Garden, 39: white wood aster

I had the dogs with me today and every time I tried to go into my beds to get a photo they wanted to follow, so I ended up taking a driveway photo of this white wood aster in my front-most shade bed. I started planting this bed last year but then stopped, as we had a young and rambunctious golden girl who discovered the art of digging. The temptation was too great for her then, so I started my second shady bed (for some reason not interesting to her) and will get back to this one in the fall.

Right now there are only a few things in it. This white wood aster is one of them.

I love the heart-shaped leaves and the white asters will be pretty in this shaded bed, beneath 3 oaks and a dogwood tree.

More info:

urybia divaricata 

Common Name(s):

 

• White Heart-leaved Aster
• White Star Aster
• White Wood Aster
• Wood Aster

Previously known as:

 

• Aster corymbosus
• Aster divaricatus
• Eurybia divaricata
• Symphyotrichum divaricatum

Phonetic Spelling

yoor-RIB-ee-uh dy-vair-ih-KAY-tus

Description

Eurybia divaricata, or White Wood Aster, is a herbaceous perennial native to the Eastern United States that typically grows wild in dry open woods primarily in Appalachian mountain areas. It prefers partial shade with 3-4 hrs of sun daily in average medium to dry well-drained soils. It is shade, deer and drought tolerant. The showy white flowers appear in clusters in late summer to fall and are a favorite of bees and butterflies. Its seeds are eaten by birds and small mammals. White Wood Asters can grow to a height of 3 feet and spreads vigorously by rhizomes. Shearing the plant to 6 inches in early summer produces a more compact plant.

Use this plant in open shade gardens, woodland areas, native plant or cottage gardens. It is a tough native plant that blooms in the shade and that can be hard to find!. You can propagate this plant by division in the spring. It will reach its full growth in 2 to 5 years.

Diseases, Insects, and Other Plant Problems:

This plant has some susceptibility to powdery mildew so give it good air circulation. Aster wilt can also be an occasional problem, particularly if plants are grown in poorly-drained clay soils.

What’s Coming Up In The Garden, 38: buttonbush (and new garden dreaming aside)

We’re having a lot of rain today so this is taken from the laundry room window. While I took the photo, a hummingbird passed by, and a squirrel ran across the garden and up a tree across the driveway. Neither were caught by the camera!

This buttonbush is a wonderful addition to the garden. The flowers are very unique and pollinators love them. The bush right in front of the buttonbush is an American beauty berry, and I’ve likely made a big mistake planting these two so close together. I’m not sure where to move the beauty berry to yet, so for now, it’s growing where it was planted.

I have a very large new bed awaiting creation in the front yard. Last spring we moved the grass paddock (also known as Salina’s Paddock) back to create space for a new pollinator bed. I had planned to put in plants in the fall, but life got busy and I didn’t get to it. For now, it has one butterfly bush, a sweet gum tree, beloved by the goldfinches, and a very active bluebird box. It may be the beauty berry will move to that new space as a centerpiece plant.

Back to the buttonbush - they are plants who love big rain events and are recommended for rain gardens. This corner of the terraced beds can have a large water flow when we get a lot of rain, so along with a hand-dug drainage ditch that leads to an underground pipe for overflow, the buttonbush roots are now securing that corner.

I’ll likely use buttonbush in a couple of other areas on the farm where rain run-off is an issue.

More info:

Marcus, Joseph A. 

Cephalanthus occidentalis

Cephalanthus occidentalis L.

Common Buttonbush, Buttonbush, Button Willow

Rubiaceae (Madder Family)

Synonym(s): Cephalanthus occidentalis var. californicus, Cephalanthus occidentalis var. pubescens

USDA Symbol: ceoc2

USDA Native Status: L48 (N), CAN (N)

Common buttonbush is a multi-stemmed shrub which grows 6-12 ft. or occasionally taller. Leaves in pairs or in threes, petiolate; bladeup to 8 inches long, ovate to narrower, sometimes 1/3 or less as wide as long, with a pointed tip and rounded to tapered base, smooth margins and glossy upper surface, lower surface duller. Glossy, dark-green leaves lack significant fall color. Flowers small, borne in distinctive, dense, spherical clusters (heads) with a fringe of pistils protruded beyond the white corollas. Long-lasting, unusual blossoms are white or pale-pink, one-inch globes. Subsequent rounded masses of nutlets persist through the winter. Trunks are often twisted. Spreading, much-branched shrub or sometimes small tree with many branches (often crooked and leaning), irregular crown, balls of white flowers resembling pincushions, and buttonlike balls of fruit. 

Buttonbush is a handsome ornamental suited to wet soils and is also a honey plant. Ducks and other water birds and shorebirds consume the seeds.

What’s Coming Up In The Garden, 37: nodding onion (plus a new garden view)

I fell in love with the nodding onion last year when I saw them locally - possibly Debbie Roos’ demonstration pollinator gardens at Chatham Mills, or at the NC Botanical Garden, I’m not sure which. The NCBG had some in their plant shop in the fall and I got them to put at the front edge of my newest shade bed.

They overwintered well and are now coming up.

This isn’t the best photo - there’s so much in the background of the shady bed it all tends to blend together if I stand back further, but you can get a general idea. The flowers on these plants are beautiful and I’ll be sure and update when they bloom.

Meanwhile, here’s another garden view I love. The golden Alexander against the clematis, with the limbed-up hollies behind that. I love the way you can see through the trunks of the hollies. This is, in miniature form, exactly what I want to do with American hollies along our one fence line that has neighbors on its other side. Leave a little room along the fence to see through, but the upper part of the trees will be a solid screen. I hope I can get that going this fall, as it will take awhile even with 8-foot tall plantings. In my mind’s eye, though, I can see it. For now I look at this view and really love the combination.

More info on the nodding onions:

Allium cernuum

Allium cernuum Roth

Nodding Onion

Liliaceae (Lily Family)

Synonym(s): 

USDA Symbol: alce2

USDA Native Status: L48 (N), CAN (N)

Soft, grasslike leaves and a 1-2 ft., leafless flowering stalk rise from a bulb. The stem bends so that the pink flowers, borne in a cluster at the top, nod toward the ground. An umbel of many pink or white flowers at the tip of a long, erect, leafless stalk, bent like a shepherd’s crook; a basal cluster of several long, narrow leaves. All parts of the perennial have a mild, oniony scent. 

This plant is closely related to the Autumn Wild Onion (A. stellatum) but differs in its unique nodding flower cluster and earlier flowering. One of the rarer Carolinian species because of its restricted habitat.
It is principally found on Lake Erie islands, the southern most land in Canada.
It is edible and has medicinal uses similar to garlic. (Lamb/Rhynard).
Eaten sparingly by Northwest Coast First Nations. They were steamed in pits lined with cedar boughs and covered with lichen and alder boughs. After they were eaten, or dried in strings or on mats or pressed into cakes. EDIBLE PARTS: Leaves, bulbs and bulblets. Field garlic (A. vineale), introduced from Eurasia and northern Africa, is too strong for most tastes. Gather leaves during spring and fall. Gather bulbs in the second year when they are large enough to use like cultivated onions. Flower stem bulblets are collected during the summer. Use as domestic onions, for seasoning or raw in salads. Bulbs can be used raw, boiled, pickled or for seasoning. Their strong taste can be reduced by parboiling and discarding the water. To freeze onions or garlic, one should coarsely chop, blanch two minutes, drain, pat dry and place them into plastic bags. The bulbs can also be dried for use as seasoning. Use flower bulbs to flavor soup or for pickling. Attracts hairstreak butterfly. The city of Chicago gets its name from the Algonquin Indian name for this plant, chigagou.

What’s Coming Up In The Garden, 36: swamp sunflower

These are really cheerful flowers and this year I’m going to cut them back in June to help them branch out some. Last year they got very tall, like the goldenrod, and the entire upper terrace of the bed was hidden if you were standing on driveway level.

Not sure what’s happening with the yellowing leaves in the upper, larger plant, but it is time for me to order the mulch. I’ve put it off and put it off and I’m going to call tomorrow. Too many things on my plate with outside stuff!

More info:

Common Name(s):

 

• Narrow Leaf Sunflower
• Narrow-Leaved Coreopsis
• Swamp Sunflower

Previously known as:

 

• Coreopsis angustifolia

Phonetic Spelling

hee-lee-AN-thus an-gus-tee-FOH-lee-us

Description

Swamp sunflower is a native perennial member of the aster family and can be found from NY to FL to TX. It is a large perennial that can grow up to 8 feet tall with showy yellow daisy-like flowers from mid to late summer into fall.  Prune plants back in June to encourage branching. It prefers moist to occasionally wet acidic sandy to clay loams in full sun. It can be grown on drier soils if adequate moisture is provided. It will tolerate part shade but flowers better in full sun. This plant is a favorite of pollinators and songbirds. There are shorter cultivars available if desired.

Use this plant in the back border of a native/pollinator garden, naturalized area or along streams and ponds. Give it room to grow and spread and you will have a profusion of late-season flowers when little else is blooming.

Insects Diseases and Other Plant Problems: Caterpillars and beetles often chew on the foliage but seldom cause enough damage to warrant management. Rust, leaf fungal spots and powdery mildew are somewhat common.  Because stems can be flimsy, plants may need to be staked, especially if planted in a windy location.