Category — garden

Yesterday we went to the lot and were overwhelmed by the shrubs.

We’re not sure if these are honeysuckle, or Russian (or Autumn) olive, but they’re in the way and they’re fast growing and they’re taking over and they’ll have to go.

Just in case you don’t believe me, here are some views of our lot over the years (thanks to the county website!)

In 1998, the land was farmed:

In 2002, it was fallow (the subdivision was started in 2003/2004):

In 2005 you can see our (newly constructed) driveway, as well as the ATV/Snowmobile tracks our inconsiderate neighbors have started:

In 2007, you can see individual shrubs. These things have grown 12 feet high and 20 feet around in 5 years:

Since we don’t want to have a scrub view, we’ll have to do some pulling. The county extension suggests that we chop them at the base and then paint the stumps with brush killer. It’s sad for the birds, but man, these things will take over soon!

We have bunches of this plant, and are trying to figure out what it is. Is it an Asclepias? An Eupatorium? It’s got a purple/red stem, and creamy-green flowers. Any ideas?

Update A Flickr user (mossgeek) says it’s Dogbane (Apocynum). Given the various descriptions, I’d guess it’s Indian Hemp.

It’s January, there are 8 inches of snow still on the ground, and the garden catalogs have started arriving. Which means I have tons of ideas for plants and flowers and vegetables and trees and shrubs and seeds and and and…

The land is former farm that has been fallow for at least 5 years. Lots of stuff has moved in — milkweed, goldenrod, Russian olive, wild roses, berries and other thorny things. It’s very pretty, and we will do very little to the bulk of the lot (plant a few trees to screen the kennel, for instance), but near the house we’ll be trying to build a nice garden.

We want to put as many native plants in as possible, and keep the mowing to a minimum. However, there are many favorite plants that aren’t native that we would like to have. So today here’s my plan: put ornamentals that we want close to the house, possibly in raised beds, and native materials in places we want to naturalize (such as the steep slope to the west). We’re not big vegetable growers (though that might change, I don’t count on it) so there’s not really a need to plan for a veggie patch. We have to dig a septic system, so we want to plant prairie there.

We’ve talked a lot about trees, American Yellowwood, for instance — at the rate we’re going, we’re likely to have a wooded lot! And we may have to plan for some summer screening (hops?) to help prevent heat gain.

Just some early thoughts…