Down In It

Fall 2025

January 11, 2026

planting log, trees, herbaceous, seed collection, wildlife, seasonal review | permalink

Fall was busy, but that's starting to be a refrain. Every season is busy. I feel like there is a lot of work to do, and I want to get as much of it done as soon as possible so there's more time for things to grow. To get bigger, to spread, to produce fruit, to begin to crowd out the grass, to block the view of the road and the gigantic increase in traffic due to a stop sign being put at one end of it (seriously, somewhere between 50% and more than 100% increase, the exact number depending on getting some raw data from the township for a recent count they conducted). I wrote very little about my activities, so much to catch up on here. I may later go back and add posts for a few of these things, mainly so I can link back to them from future posts and the rough map I'm making.

The biggest project of the season was cutting down the Japanese Maple in the front and planting two Eastern Redbuds (Cercis canadensis) in its place.

I planted two additional trees, both of which came free of charge from the township's shade commission: a White Oak (Quercus ruba), in the southern woodland edge, and a Black Tupelo (Nyssa sylvatica), in the northern woodland edge.

A few existing trees have become tall enough that I'm no longer worried about the deer topping them, and so cages were removed. However, there's still the risk of rubbing. So I did some research on a way to do protect the trunks with natural materials (rather than, say, plastic guards), and found the suggestion of burlap. I bought a 35-foot roll of 3-foot-wide burlap from a local hardware store, then cut sections of about 3 or 4 feet long. I then placed these around the trunks, pushing open small holes between the threads to put limbs through where I could, and tied the ends together with some twine. It seems to have been a successful - only one showed a little rubbing, but no further after an adjustment. On the other hand, the serviceberry near the road that I planted either the first fall or spring after moving in needed more protection. Deer have been keeping it trimmed, so I finally put a taller cage around it.

Transplanted somewhere around 50 to 75 common blue violets from my vegetable garden, most to front meadow along road but also a few between the tulip tree sapling and elderberry in western woodland edge. I also collected a fair number of their seed pods and spread the seeds in the same area. American plantains and yellow wood sorrel were also moved from the vegetable garden to the same places, though not nearly as many.

Another big project (maybe 15 hours over a few weeks) was planting literally thousands of native seeds, mostly herbaceous but also some shrubs/small trees. I have no idea the exact number, but somewhere between three and five thousand. The vast majority were tiny tiny seeds that you just strew on the open surface (and hope for the best), but many others were ones that I planted into the soil (and hoped for the best). My plan is to do this every fall, for at least the next few years. Most of them I bought, but some I had collected from existing plants in my garden. Here are the species, with the collected ones indicated with an asterisk, along with location:

• Hickory - at end of driveway, in northern woodland edge; these were given to me by MH, via a friend of his
• Lupinus perennis subsp perennis (Sundial Lupines) - front meadow along road
• Antennaria plantaginifolia (Pussytoes) - western woodland edge, in wood chips between rock wall I built and bald cypress; on eastern hillside
• Rhus aromatica (Fragrant Sumac), which first needed to be hot-water stratified and soaked - western woodland edge mostly, but also some by new white oak in southern woodland edge and some by new brushpile on terrace
• Conoclinium coelestinum (Mistflower) - front meadow, in mulched area in front of butterfly milkweeds
• Penstemon hirsutus (Hairy Beardtongue) - southern woodland edge
• *Apocynum cannabinum (Hemp Dogbane) - front meadow, right at edge of road; in front of blueberries on terrace; in front of blackberries and raspberries on terrace
• *Lepidium virginicum (Virginia pepperweed) - front meadow, along road
• *Plantago rugelii (American plaintain) - front meadow, along road
• Geranium maculatum (Wild Geranium) - front meadow, along road
• Iris versicolor (Northern Blue Flag) - front meadow, along road
• Amsonia tabernaemontana (Eastern Bluestar) - front meadow, along road
• Tradescantia ohiensis (Ohio Spiderwort) - front meadow, along road
• Solidago odora (Sweet Goldenrod) - front meadow, along road
• Cornus amomum subsp. obliqua (Silky Dogwood) - southern hillside
• Packera aurea (Golden Ragwort) - at corner of front of house
• Hibiscus moscheutos (Swamp Rose Mallow) - southern hillside, around existing red osier (that's a wet area and both like wet feet)
• Amorpha fruticosa (False Indigo) - I mistakenly bought a ton of these seeds so they went just about everyone in heavy doses: northern woodland edge, along border of brushpile on terrace, along the log border in middle of terrace, front meadow in grass next to roadside mulched area, at end of driveway, probably other places
• Viola pedata (Bird's Foot Violet) - around new white oak in southern woodland edge
• Clematis occidentalis var. occidentalis (Purple Clematis) - beneath red or black oak in western woodland edge
• Clematis Virginia (Virgin's Bower) - around lamppost in front meadow and pole on front porch
• *a tall goldenrod, either Solidago altissima or Solidago canadensis
• *asters - on terrace
• Carex eburnea (Ivory Sedge) - in backyard, beneath playset after desodding it
• Asclepias incarnata (Swamp or Rose Milkweed) - southern hillside, terrace

I also planted a few things in pots and put them in my fenced-in vegetable garden for some protection from being dug up, like the eastern redbuds I mentioned above:

• Hickories - ones from friend of MH and also ones given to me by a contractor that did work on our house
• Symphyotrichum novae-angliae (New England Aster)
• Physocarpus opulifolius (Prairie Ninebark)
• Staphylea trifolia (Bladdernut)
• Swamp Milkweed
• Sundial Lupines
• Silky Dogwood
• *Cornus Florida (Flowering Dogwood)

Stored some seeds I collected paper packets:

• Asters
• Goldenrod
• Eastern Redbud
• American Plantain
• Hemp Dogbane

I finished making the birdbath stump that I'd started in summer, or at least enough for now. Two-thirds of the top is chiseled out. Maybe I'll do the other third sometime. At first I thought it wasn't working, because the first time I filled it, it was empty about 30 minutes later. But it just needs to get water-logged and then it will hold water for a while - possibly a couple days (which is great, because I don't want stagnant water to be around for mosquitoes to lay eggs in, and perhaps it drying out is a good trap for them). Idea came from National Wildlife Federation, David Mizejewski, Attracting Birds, Butterflies, and Other Backyard Wildlife, 2nd edition, 2019 (p. 73).

Other things:

• planted mountain laurel
• bought more elderberry cuttings that will be arriving later this month or early next. Of the dozen I'd planted last year, three or four did not survive.
• bought and put out a "leave the leaves" sign.
• split firewood
• harvested first apples - from the black arkansas tree - with my daughter.
• planted garlic
• put vegetable garden beds to bed
• read A New Garden Ethic: Cultivating Defiant Compassion for an Uncertain Future by Benjamin Vogt

Summer 2025

September 29, 2025

trees, shrubs, herbaceous, vegetables, fruit, lepidoptera, seasonal review | permalink

On the tree front, I transplanted a few small saplings (4 or 5 inches tall at a maximum) from one place to another: I found a small eastern redbud (cercis canadensis) growing between two of my blueberry bushes, and moved it near the picnic table on the terrace, for eventual shade. I attempted to move a black walnut out of the yard and to the western treeline, but it did not survive. Similar thing with an oak, but on the other side of the driveway. But then I was successful, after being more careful with the roots and more frequent watering, with moving two other oaks out of the yard to the same place. I attempted to graft a few cuttings from the apple tree at my mom's house, whose apples I learned to juggle with. Neither survived. Did not help that it was not the correct season for it. I will try again either late this fall or early next spring. I identified, with the help of MH, three black walnuts. (I was worried they were the non-native alanthus altissima, "tree of heaven".) Two are good where they are, but the third is in the herb garden and so that will have to be moved once we get closer to winter. Removed the fencing on a couple, but then protected with burlap in mid September to protect from deer rubbing.

In shrubs, I found a great laurel (Rhododendron maximum) naturally root layering while visiting my mom, and I think it has successfully taken to my place on the western edge, although growth is slow. Of the 12 elderberries I planted in February, the range of success is pretty wide: of the nine that survived, one is about 4 feet tall (with a new shoot from the ground the same height), another is nearly 3', a couple are close to 2', and the rest are between 1 and 2'. The ones doing the best I had to put bigger cages around, twice. I'm starting to have fencing on hand when I need it, which is convenient and no further expense.

Perhaps the biggest effort of the season was at the herbaceous layer, namely removing the crabgrass that had taken over the four-foot-wide strip of mulch next to the road that I put in last year. That little patch - what I'm trying to make into a "roadside meadow" - has been a bit of a pain in the ass. First I heavily mulched it to kill the grass. A fair amount of weeding grass that survived was done a number of times. Twice I tried to start a holly hedge, and both times it failed. I spent a lot of time planting lupine and blue vervain seeds in it this spring, and mostly they were eaten by the deer. And then the fucking crabgrass. It took a good five or six hours worth of work to remove it all, and then an hour getting and spreading mulch, and then the occasional 15 minutes of weeding here and there to get what survived. After that, beginning in late August, I spent several mornings every week digging up and transplanting blue violets, and the occasional spotted spurge, from my vegetable garden. In all, it ended up being about 40 or 45 of them. I planted them right at the edge of the grass, every six inches or so, hoping they will help to keep it out. The spurge went further in, toward the road. I really like those two plants together. At times I found seed pods from the blue violets and tucked them into the mulch beyond the spurge. I also started a little patch of yellow wood sorrel on the other end, also dug up from my vegetable garden. A couple American plantains got transplanted on that side as well, and some of their seeds spread. Little bluestem seeds sown at the corner with the driveway, but no germination and probably wrong time of year (going to try again in spring).

In other places, non-native thistle was removed, native pokeweed was frustratingly removed by the spouse, grapevines removed from azaleas (I'm actually not sure of nativity of either of those, come to think of it, nor if the vines are really grapevines). Various things trimmed around the AC units. Bricks and rocks moved from one place to another. Got (self-)certified with National Wildlife Foundation, and put up a sign.

The herb and vegetable gardens were good, in addition to being a source of blue violets and yellow wood sorrel. Tons of tomatoes. Cherokee corn, but I need to learn how to harvest/cook it properly if I try it again. Damn groundhog ate the green beans a number of times, resulting in not many harvested. Peas got thrashed by deer, I think, just as they were beginning to first ripen (they ate the tops of the plants, not the pods, damaging the whole plant anyway). I gave up after the second time it happened and the plants didn't seem like they would recover. That was also a disheartening moment. Decent garlic harvest.

The backyard orchard: peaches grew, but I either waited too long to harvest or the trees are just too young (or some other reason that caused them to be dried up and molding when I checked on them in July). Of the seven apples on the apple trees I counted in May, there are three still left on the Arkansas black. Not sure what happened with the two other trees, but the one missing from the black is from me trying it way too early. Have since read up and discovered that it won't ripen until probably November and with perhaps three months of storage after that.

In addition to the black walnut (and redbud), I also identified:

• bittersweet/climbing nightshade (solanum ulcamara, not native)
• various asters (native)
• common dewberry (Rubus flagellaris), common copperleaf (Acalypha rhomboidea), and white vervain (Verbena urticifolia) (native)
• Virginia Pepperweed (lepidium virginicum, native), whose seeds I collected, spread, and stored (it's plain but still pretty, seems like a few more would be good)
• white clover throughout grass (trifolium repens, not native)
• monarchs, monarchs, monarchs
• definitely much more that maybe I'll add later

Finally, I read Attracting Birds, Butterflies, and Other Backyard Wildlife by David Mizejewski/The National Wildlife Federation (2nd ed., 2019).

Spring 2025

June 22, 2025

trees, vegetables, fruit, wildlife, herbaceous, shrubs, seasonal review | permalink

It felt like spring was a lot of effort and not too much to show for it. On the other hand, this work of taking a sterile lawn doused in chemicals to something that actually contributes to and supports the local ecosystem does not happen overnight. I think I need to be more mindful of that, especially at moments of setbacks, of which there were several this season.

I'm going to try something a bit different for this reflection of the past season and go by layer. So let's start from the top: one shade tree went in, a black cherry (prunus serotina). It is at the corner of our property, several feet back from the road. After oaks, it is one of the best trees to plant to support a wide range of wildlife.¹

I also planted a few understory trees: an American hophornbeam (ostrya virginiana) and two American hazelnuts (corylus americana).

The black cherry and the hophornbeam came from the township's Shade Commission, while the hazelnuts came from MH.

There was also some work on existing trees: at the end of April, I cut about three feet off the American hornbeam I planted last spring, so now it's about two feet tall. Last year, it dropped nearly all of its leaves during the summer, but then regrew some of them towards fall. I didn't have high hopes that it was going to make it, but then the bottom of it leafed out. Aside from being much shorter, it now looks as healthy as it was when I planted it. I think it probably gets too much sun, so hopefully the black cherry in front of it puts on a few feet in the next couple years to give it a bit of shade. I also extended the fencing on the pear tree and apple tree I put in last season, after removing the top I'd placed on them as a temporary measure. The fencing is now six feet tall rather than four, and so is sufficient for deer protection. I'm not sure how many more trees I'll be putting in, but I'm going to find and use six-foot fencing going forward so I don't have to do that again. Live and learn.

I identified the tree - now about five feet tall - growing in the vegetable garden. It's a northern capalta (catalpa speciosa), which is great luck because I wanted to get one of them. I have not yet decided whether I'm going to do the work to transplant it or just let it go and garden around it. On the one hand, moving it will be a decent amount of work (and it might not survive) and perhaps it could act as a good pole for a pumpkin to climb? On the other, it will probably shade too much of the garden. I'm torn. But I can't be torn for too long, because late fall/early winter will be the best time to move it if I'm going to.

I also have a tentative identification of another tree, which somehow has survived unprotected to about four feet tall in the mulched area in the backyard. It may be an ash - I need to look more closely at it.

So that's the good news on trees. Unfortunately, though, the oak I transplanted last fall did not survive - or at least not as a eight-foot-tall tree. The only sign of life was one shoot coming from its base, which was eaten by some animal within a couple days. I'm reluctant to cut it down, mainly because of how much work it was putting it in but also because I still want to believe it will come back. But I will probably do so between now and next spring. I would like an oak in that spot, so in the meantime I'll probably dig up one of the little saplings I frequently find in the lawn and put it there, under some protection.

The second attempt at a holly hedge failed. I'm going to continue trying, but on a much smaller scale. I'm going to take a cutting or two from one of the existing hollies and see if I can get them to root in water. I think I'm also going to have to protect them from wildlife - while some simply didn't root, others were eaten.

A few shrubs went in: another northern spicebush (lindera benzoin) and two red-osier dogwoods (swida sericea). I put the spicebush between the other two I'd planted in May 2023. I did not cage this one, mainly because it's rather large and probably needed to be pruned after the transplant anyway. I'll watch how much it gets eaten (so far fairly minimal) and then perhaps just cage all three of them together if necessary. I think I need to get one more in that area, opposite the others, to make it too thick for the deer to reach the middle so they'll do better. I did cage the dogwoods. Fucking deer.

I ordered and planted four bearberries (Arctostaphylos uva-ursi), which are doing well. I also tried to propagate several more by root and stem cuttings, but only one may have been successful. It seemed like it was alive the last time I checked.

I spent a lot of time preparing various native seeds for planting outside and then planting either them or the resulting seedlings. None of them developed into full plants, if they grew at all. I knew that would be the case for the milkweeds and blue wild indigo (baptisa australis), but I thought I'd get some decent-looking sundial lupines (lupinus perennis) or literally anything else (black-eyed susans, columbines, purple love grass, little bluestem, buttonbush, blue vervain), but nothing is taller than four inches, except maybe the butterfly milkweeds. I haven't seen a sign of the black-eyed susans, purple love grass (eragrostis spectabilis), little bluestem (schizachyrium scoparium), buttonbush (cephalanthus occidentalis), or blue vervain (verbena hastata). I'm hoping some are just putting down roots and will come up next year. Even if not, I suppose it's ok. I have double that number of species that I'm going to plant in the fall. Seeds are relatively inexpensive (and sometimes free); I'm going to load the ground with them every spring and fall, with the occasional season off to give myself a break.

Removing lawn continued, but at a slower pace than I would have liked. Aside from areas where trees went in, it amounted to maybe 20 square feet.

In the vegetable garden, now nearly double the size it was last year, most things that I planted came up. The things that didn't: about half the corn, most of the Detroit Bull's Blood beets, and none of the handful of cucumbers. Those only accounted for a very small amount of the space, though, and I moved other things that were too thick into their spaces. So everything else came up and grew well, until deer (I assume) got into the raised bed and destroyed the 130 pea plants that were over four feet tall. I was able to save maybe a quart of peas. I'd wanted to keep saving them to replant year after year, but will have to buy some next spring now. Something has also been getting in and eating the green bean leaves. I'm not sure if that's also deer (maybe a rabbit?), but soon I'm going to extend the fencing from four feet to six feet tall. If the green beans are still being eaten, I guess I'll have to put in better protection at the ground level.

I was doing more weeding (mostly grass of one sort or another) than I wanted to, in both the vegetable garden and in the areas where I've removed grass and mulched/planted other things. It's frustrating because one of the reasons I'm trying to remove the lawn is to lower the amount of maintenance needed. And things I've planted are either growing extremely slow or being eaten by deer, allowing room for weeds. It's doubly frustrating because some of it is coming from my compost. I'm hoping that by next year, after another round of native seed planting in the fall, the good things will begin to out-compete the bad things. In the vegetable garden, I think it's now mostly under control from grass clippings I put down, which will have the added benefit of keeping soil more cool and more moist during the hot summer months that are now upon us.

One thing that I did that I had not planned on doing was creating a small rock wall on the western edge of property. I was originally just digging out some rocks so I could plant one of the bearberries, and got carried away, digging up giant rock after giant rock with the help of a neighbor's pry-bar he calls "the persuader". It certainly persuaded the rocks out of the ground much easier than any tool I have. I like how it turned out, and that makes a clear distinction between the grass and the mulched/wildflower area. (Eventually I also intend to start removing the lawn on this side of it, but that's probably at least several years off.)

Other tasks completed:

• fill small sinkhole next to driveway with mulch
• identify groundcover with yellow flowers in space between us and neighbors (lesser celandine)
• empty rotating compost barrel
• transplant blue violets from hillside with grass to new rock wall and hillside with apples
• transplant some of the pussytoes - I don't want to lose them when I eventually get around to removing grass on hillside below flowering dogwood
• plant white hyacinths from MH&DW
• plant sunflowers from MH
• weed and spread woodchips around chestnuts, oak, and maple
• do soil test in vegetable garden
• sharpen mower blades
• Read Chris Baines's How to Make a Wildlife Garden

1. According to Doug Tallamy. I saw this once before but the most recent place was on the May 15, 2021 episode of the Native Plant Podcast.

Winter 2024/25

March 21, 2025

seasonal review | permalink

For being winter, I was quite busy with gardening and the yard. More so than I had really originally intended. I kept finding more things to do! I'm quite happy with how much progress was made.

The "farm" is coming along nicely. I put the furring strips on the back half of the existing large raised bed, so that I can hang strings from them that peas can grow up. I also built a third raised bed, and then redid the fencing so that it goes around the two large ones, with a door now opening at the center and a walkway between the two. I do not plan on further expanding the vegetable growing area anytime soon, but I could add a third raised bed in front of the one I just put in (opposite the garlic bed) if I do want to expand it in the future.

In early February I planted the 12 elderberry cuttings from River Hills Harvest. Eventually they should provide a decent amount of food for wildlife, in addition to making the yard look more interesting. Planting took little time; what took longer was making the small cages for them.

I started a new wildlife habitat area at the back of the terrace. That didn't amount to a lot of time spent, but it was fun/hard to carry the large logs up the steps (otherwise I used the wheelbarrow from the shed to the steps, and then again from the top of the steps to the back of the terrace).

I did a lot with herbaceous perennial seeds - packed them up for cold (dry and moist) stratification in the fridge. Then at the end of February/beginning of March, I spent an hour or so each night for a week planting them in pots in the basement and putting them under grow lights. At first I thought it was a giant failure, but then after three weeks the first butterfly milkweed seedlings started to come up. Since then a couple of common milkweeds have emerged and there is also a decent amount of beebalm. I also planted a bunch of seeds outside during the last two weeks before spring.

Got a load of woodchips from ChipDrop and spread them on the hillside with the apples. Also mulched all of the fruit trees, the blueberries, and a 4-foot wide section on the terrace along the rock wall from the gazebo to the raspberries. Some in other places like what appears to be a small sinkhole next to the driveway and on top of the part of old cement foundation sticking out of the ground by the bald cypress. Still have 3-4 yards of it left probably.

Finally, the other big project was expanding the mini orchard. Three new trees - an apple, a peach, and a pear (from Cummins Nursery in Ithaca, NY) - went in, all on the terrace, packed into the unmowed middle section. I could maybe fit another small one in there but I'm not going to - I think that's it for the fruit trees for a while, maybe for good. We'll see how these ones do over the next few years. It makes nine total - five apples, three peaches, and one pear - and six on the terrace.

Other tasks completed:

• read Tallamy's Nature's Best Hope
• watch this video on no-dig
• (re)cage apple trees on terrace
• organize notes on herbaceous plants; go through pictures I took when I planted the bulbs this fall and note what I planted where
• read "Roll Back Your Turf"
• cage top of hickories
• cage spice bush in front
• Read Kate Bradbury's One Garden Against the World
• clean up and organize shed
• define areas of yard/garden to consistently measure light and moisture at
• Read Uri Lorimer and Native Plant Trust's Northeast Native Plant Primer
• transplant asters out of new raised bed
• transplant pokeweed that's in front of compost
• prune rose bushes
• prune apple trees
• weed grass that has survived mulch in new front hedge

Fall 2024

December 21, 2024

seasonal review | permalink

It was a pretty productive fall. I started another holly hedge in front, mulched it. Planted two trees from the shade commission, a pagoda dogwood and a white fringe tree, along with another oak and another chestnut. I also transplanted a tulip tree that had come up in the vegetable garden to the other side of the picnic table. Planted various bulbs I bought from the local garden center. Planted some seeds I got from a local seed exchange. Ordered more fruit trees. Ordered elderberries. Made a separate bed for the garlic and planted it. Tried out winter sowing potatoes in the vegetable garden - will check how they've done in spring. Got free wood chips from an arborist working next door, spread as foundation for next raised bed and around blueberries. Attempted two more grey owl juniper propagations. Harvested, dried, stored some seeds. Picked up two rain barrels from a neighbor giving them away.

Tasks completed:

• get bulbs and sedum, plant (2024-09-21)
• create small raised bed for garlic (2024-09-22)
• watch the tree/fruit production webinar
• order peach, pear, and apple (but shorter one) (2024-10-04)
• plant garlic (2024-10-05)
• transplate the other oak from MHDW (2024-10-11)
• winter sow (more) potatoes (2024-10-13)
• plant bulbs (2024-10-13)
• transplant the small tulip tree in the garden to other side of picnic table, protect it (2024-10-14)
• take holly cuttings and try to create hedge (again) (2024-10-18)
• spread compost (2024-10-19)
• get trees from Shade Commission (2024-10-26)
• spread mulch - along road around hollies (2024-10-26)
• plant white fringe tree from Shade Commission (2024-10-27)
• plant pagoda dogwood tree from Shade Commission (2024-11-02)
• try to propagate grey owl junipers again (2024-11-02)
• put chicken wire over garlic bed (2024-11-05)
• plant blue false indigo (baptisia australis) in front of hollies (2024-11-06)
• collect, dry, and store tomato, carrot, and marjoram seeds (2024-11-16)
• plant Mary Frances iris (2024-11-27)
• get two rain barrels (2024-12-04)
• return fabric pots to Shade Commission (2024-12-06)
• spread woodchips - base of new raised bed, around blueberries (2024-12-07)
• plant second chestnut from MH (2024-12-10)

Summer 2024

September 22, 2024

seasonal review | permalink

I made more progress on desodding and mulching - slightly extended the area by the mailbox, created area on the hillside by the swingset, and created the area from the arborvitaes almost to the maple on the western line. Got and assembled a picnic table. All kinds of weeding and removing vines. Got lumber to make small raised bed dedicated to garlic. Finished removing excess soil around house. Transplanted ferns. Got a decent amount of things from vegetable garden - at least a few quarts of green beans, a pint of tomatoes so far, lots of squash, beets, a couple carrots, a bunch of cucumbers. Threw in some potato eyes a few weeks ago and now have several good plants - we'll see what comes of them.

Tasks completed:

• plant ferns (that got dug up with vines) on western tree line
• use D's truck to get mulch
• use D's truck to get picnic table for terrace
• move wood from driveway to firewood pile
• expand front mulched area - cover with thick paper, throw mulch over it
• assemble picnic table
• cut more boards for compost bins
• move giant stone from under false holly
• bring veggies to SE due:2024-07-17 (2024-07-17)
• mulch around blackberries (2024-07-18)
• remove vines from false holly in back (again) (2024-07-18)
• sand picnic table (2024-07-18)
• stain picnic table (2024-07-20)
• recage two blueberries (2024-07-21)
• weed left blueberry (2024-07-21)
• try to propagate dogwood (2024-07-21)
• mulch around raspberries (2024-07-21)
• weed overgrown blueberry (2024-07-30)
• open up the tulip tree cage so the branches have room to spread out (2024-08-07)
• weed/mulch around Japanese maple in front (2024-08-07)
• weed hickories (2024-08-24)
• finish removing excess soil from in front of dining room - use this for raised bed for garlic completed (2024-08-25)
• record the specific vegetables and herbs I planted this year (2024-08-25)
• desod and mulch between trees on western line, from gazebo past the oak (2024-08-25)
• weed/remulch around blackberries (2024-09-02)
• buy lumber for raised bed for garlic (2x8x8) (2024-09-16)