Observations on a Gray Day

It's another gray day with a threat of rain.  Even when it's not raining, the air is so moist you feel drenched just stepping outside.  Not a good day for gardening tasks.  That list will have to wait for better weather.

Here's one view of the gray day. As I sit outside I see the yellowing leaves of the tulip poplar.  With all the moisture some of these are skipping the yellow stage and going right to brown.   The dogwood is showing a pinkish hue.

 

Though I didn't capture them in this photo, the robins are busy in the garden paths finding grubs and worms.  I also saw them on the roof of Dan's shop eating stink bugs.  There are plenty of those for them to eat.

This female hummingbird is still around which surprised me.  I thought they'd left on their migration south.

 

She visited several times after going to other flowers in the garden.  I didn't think I needed to refill the feeder and was thinking of putting it away. 

 The titmice and chickadees are doing some leaf rattling in the beech tree.  I finally figure out they are going after the beech nuts.  This is the first year that this tree has had beech nuts.  I guess it finally reached the proper age.  I expected the squirrels to eat all the nuts but they haven't paid any attention to them.

Other wildlife observed on this gray afternoon: the rabbit scooting out from under the deck near where I sit and high tailing it to the pond, a flock of starlings fly onto the roof,  two squirrels have a game of chase, and a lone chipmunk runs across the rocks on an errand of some sort.  All of them busy, busy, busy.  But me?  It's a gray day.  I'm holding out for some sun before I tackle those fall garden chores.

Environmental Good Sense

I know that there are a lot of you out there who concur with me that any little thing we can do to help our environment will eventually make a difference.  Something as simple as carrying your own bags into the grocery store and using them time after time.  Carrying a bag in your purse to whip out for those purchases at other stores instead of getting a plastic bag.  (I use a fabric one and even showed on an earlier blog how to make these Chinese peasant bags.)  This may not seem like much of an effort, but if more and more of us do it, there will be an impact.

Lately I've taken it a step further thanks to my daughter.  She gave me a set of mesh bags to reuse for vegetables.  I then purchased another set from her so I have a good supply.  I take these with me to the grocery store to use instead of those plastic bags the store provides.  They are reusable and allow the vegetables to breathe in the refrigerator.  They are perfect, too for storing veggies directly from the garden that need refrigerating. 

 Here are two bags, one with broccoli from the store and the other with beets from my Mom's garden.

(Recently I saw that Gardener's Supply is selling these types of bags for more than twice the amount of Emily's and I heard from my sister who works for the Container Store that they have them, too at a higher price.)

So for all you environmentally-conscious folks that want a good deal visit Emily's Greens and Jeans etsy site and buy yourself a set or two of these wonderful bags.  You'll be doing another little bit to help the environment.

DEER! #@*&%$

 Before!

A morning glory growing on the clematis trellis.

 

After! 

I should have sprayed deer repellent when I thought of it last week.

 

Now don't get me wrong.  I do enjoy seeing the deer in my woods.  Just today I watched a fawn meander up the driveway.  Cute.  But there is so much other green stuff they can eat, so leave my plantings alone.  And to help them remember that I will spray liquid fence.

Moving Stone

We've had a lot of water this summer and it became more obvious that the water coming from the gutterless roof was washing out the pathways in the perennial garden.  I proposed getting a pallet of dry stack light stone which is what we built the walls of the house and garden with and using it to make a dry stream bed which when it rained would slow the water down.

 Here's the pallet of stone.  I thought when it was delivered it would be placed next to the driveway but the driver said he could take it with his forklift where I wanted it.  This worked out perfectly for my back.

 Here's the rain barrel with the beginnings of the stone being laid around it.  The hose coming out of the top is for overflowing water.  The hose runs out of the perennial bed so there isn't a waterfall coming from the rain barrel which has been ever full this summer.

 Above and below are some of the eroded areas.  Believe it or not I did mulch these areas in the early summer but the mulch ends up down hill with the rain.

 Here is what's left of the pallet of stone.  I have to wait for rain to see if I need to expand the dry steam beds.  If I don't these stones will go into more flower bed walls.

 Here's the finished area next to the rain barrel.  We could return the grill to its spot now perched on rocks.

Here's another view of the completed bed of stones. I thought it would rain last night but it didn't so the stones didn't get washed off fully and I didn't get to test it to see how it slowed the water.  I planted creeping thyme between some of the stones and hope it spreads.