If it's raining, it must be Saturday

[rolanni]

It was a lazy sort of day, after yesterday's excitement. I own that I'm a little worried about our elm tree, which isn't looking all that hot at the moment. The only thing I can think is that it's been sitting with its feet in the water for 'way too long, as it's planted in the bottom land, where it tends to be damper anyway. I'd hate to lose that elm tree, after all it's been through. And I'd really hate to lose the shade it gives the deck and kitchen.

Think green and drier thoughts for the elm tree.

The roses on the hill have been overwhelmed by the weeds, which grow like, um, weeds in the rain. I haven't been outside to do garden stuff in forever (see Rain, above), and now it's too much; I'll never get those weeds outta there, and truly, the original concept was that the roses would cover the hillside and strangle the weeds, not the other way around. We'll see, I guess.

kinzel's day lilies may be a casualty of the Great Ice Cream Stand Move, looking a little bent and droopy. They may be able to recover, though they're also threatened by Huge Numbers of Weeds.

The butterfly and wild flower gardens, OTOH, look wonderful. Though, as my father, the hybrid rose guy, will tell you, wildflowers aren't anything but weeds themselves.

Writing has gone forth. I'm flying by the seat of my pants, again; I know what needs to happen, but I don't the steps between. Usually by this point, the finish and all the steps are forced. Sigh. Repeat after me: Each book writes different.

Progress on Carousel Tides

80,779 / 98,000 (82.4%)

Comments

[magda-vogelsang.livejournal.com]

I'm thinking dry green thoughts toward your elm.

Both of the huge ash trees behind my townhouse (which helped shade my south facing doorwall) were lost to Emerald Ash Borer about a year ago. In fact, pretty much all of the ash trees in my county are dead or dying, and it's illegal to transport ash wood out of the area as they try to quarentine the problem before it spreads across the entire eastern U.S.

Sadly, when most of the elms in the area died of Dutch Elm disease the most popular trees to replace them with were ashes, so now those are all going at once too. One hopes that this time they'll be replaced with a wider variety of tree types.

[saruby.livejournal.com]

Not that I know beans about gardening, but have you though of a ditch to draw water away from the tree. Just for now, and then fill it in later.

Also, a weed is only a plant that is growing where you don't want it to. Thus a wildflower is not a weed if you like it and it is growing where it should.

Shade is a big problem for us as we have a lot of western exposure, which in Colorado can be a bit hot. We finally got tired of waiting for the nicer trees to grow up and fill in and planted a cottonwood last fall. It's still small, but they are native and grow fast, so there is hope that in the next few years we'll be able to actually enjoy the backyard, which is lovely, but too hot to use at this point. Don't think cottonwood will grow in Maine, but I don't know. The thing is you don't want to bring in plants that are exotic, because if they like it they'll become weeds. Someone got the bright idea that russian olives would do well in a dry climate. Now, they are growing in every ditch and stream from Denver to the Nebraska border. They have become weeds and are incredibly invasive.

[magda-vogelsang.livejournal.com]

Don't know about Maine, but we definitely have cottonwoods here in Michigan, and anywhere near them is full of flying fuzz around Memorial Day weekend. Another quick growing tree popular around here is the silver maple, but a lot of people don't like them because they tend to have a lot of surface roots. My mother replaced a mostly dead maple tree (which had been slowly dying since before she moved there in 1990) a couple of years ago with a Tulip tree--another relatively fast grower--in hopes of saving the shade loving perennials planted nearby.

[rolanni.livejournal.com]

...have you though of a ditch to draw water away from the tree.

Alas, a ditch wouldn't take the water anywhere. The tree is on the bottom land -- the lowest, flatest piece of our land, at the bottom of two hills.

Someone got the bright idea that russian olives would do well in a dry climate. Now, they are growing in every ditch and stream from Denver to the Nebraska border. They have become weeds and are incredibly invasive.

Same thing happened with loosestrife, I think, and it's now in danger of completely crowding out cattails, which are useful, and replacing them with itself, which is not.

[magda-vogelsang.livejournal.com]

Yep, we have the purple loosestrife here too, and it's now in most of the ditches along the roads and such. Pretty, but *very* invasive. And I've always been fond of cattails.