The Obsessive Neurotic Gardener

Monthly Archives: November 2011

596 days to go – a little less ugliness

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OK, I know I’ve found it difficult to find the time to not only create new garden “wonderfulness”, but even maintain what I’ve already got. Case in point: 

There is no excuse for letting things get this bad. I feel nothing but shame and do not deserve to call myself a gardener. 
Damn, that felt good. Time to move on.
It’s all about priorities now. A single focus. If I have to blow off family functions or ignore my children, so be it. 
While it isn’t much, I feel like I am on the right path. Even a slight improvement from the photos above is good:
We’re going big and bold and there is no looking back.
John   

598 days to go – damn lawn

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I’m not one of THOSE guys. 
I am not a LAWN guy by any stretch of the imagination. 
I have never followed the Scott’s 4 step plan and I could care less if I have clover in the lawn (in fact, I welcome it spreading into any open spots). Many of my guy friends who reluctantly read this blog (you know who you are), will see me and say “I have a garden question for you ONG. My lawn … blah blah blah.” I’ve already tuned them out. 
All I know is that I cut my lawn at the highest setting, I leave the clippings on the lawn and I never water. When it’s freshly cut, it looks great and green. The kids can play on it and it looks good as a back drop against all of my trees, shrubs and perennials. But I have too damn much of it.
My property is a little over two acres and a lot of that is lawn. It takes me just under two hours to cut it and trim. With time being such a prized commodity, it makes no sense to waste it sitting on a mower like a big dope. While I’ve cut away at the lawn over the years as I’ve created new garden beds or increased the size of others, there is still a lot of work to do. 
With this new garden renovation promised for 2013, I will be focusing on lawn removal quite a bit. I’m imagining paths to interesting destinations (fire pit anyone?) and I’m imagining new large planting areas that will hopefully transition into the wildness/woods at the back of my property. 
I’ll make the time investment now knowing it will be a huge time saver in the future.
P.S – I’m under 600 days now and I’m scared to death. There is a lot to do and I don’t know what to do next. Help! 
John               

I feel friggin great this morning

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As she does every morning around 6:30 or so, Casey (the greatest labrador retriever ever created) cried to go outside. I dragged my tired butt out of bed to open the front door for her and what a greeting I received when I stepped outside: 

How can you not feel good to be alive when you see that? I had to create a quick post early this morning to share with you.

And it didn’t end there. My good buddy and favorite ornamental grass was showing some serious spunk:

After looking like this only two days ago:

We have a little ways to go with some of the other ornamental grasses:

But you won’t get a negative word out of me today.

Have a fantastic weekend my friends!

John

603 days to go – no task too small

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As difficult as it is to stay focused on my big 2013 goal while there is snow on the ground, I am drinking mega amounts of coffee and taking extra ginseng to stay on track. There are always tasks to be completed this time of year and those tasks were typically ignored in the past out of pure laziness. No more. No job is too small or too insignificant. 
Case in point – tackling the removal of enormous amounts of unwanted seedlings in the spring. Talk about a time waster. Instead of prepping new garden beds or pruning my trees and shrubs, there I am on my hands and knees picking out each individual seedling. No thanks. This needs to change. 
I have two plants that overwhelmingly contribute to the unwanted seedling issue – Northern Sea Oats and Caryopteris ‘Sunshine Blue’. If I can address this problem now rather than in the spring, I can make much better use of my time, especially now that I’ve promised big things in the near future. 
I love Northern Sea Oats (Chasmanthium Latifolium) because they’re tough and the seedheads add a tremendous ornamental interest from mid summer into the winter:
                 

Luckily, I intelligently (and I use that term loosely) relocated all of these to a more “natural” area rather than in the garden beds surrounding my home. But the reseeding will still be an issue with the threat to completely take over if not addressed:  

So I vow to cut these down in the very near future to prevent the seeds from scattering and taking up residence where unwanted this spring. Winter interest be damned!

Caryopteris ‘Sunshine Blue’ is a tremendous small shrub with fantastic golden/chartreuse foliage:

And sweet purple/blue flower spikes in late summer:

But it has reseeded all over my property the past few years to the point of extreme annoyance:

Well no more. These bastards will be cut down pronto. No chance to drop their precious seed any more.
John is kicking ass and taking names from this point forward.

As we head full steam into winter, I vow to do whatever I can to make my big garden dreams become a reality. I am on a mission and you do not want to miss out. Even if I crash and burn it will be fun to watch the train wreck I become.

John      

Wordless Wednesday

A Bizzaro Halloween

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I never imagined that the kids would use up their allotted “snow days” for school by the first week of November but that has become the reality this week. Most schools in the area are without power as there are downed power lines everywhere. I am home with the little angels today as my wife and I try to make the best use of our remaining vacation days from work. Vacation it ain’t. 
As you can see from the photos in my last two posts, it has become a winter wonderland here in New Jersey. We had about six inches of snow deposited on Saturday and most of the neighboring towns are still without power. I’ve never seen so many downed trees and it has created a bizarre and surreal feeling here I can’t put into words. Definitely a Halloween weekend we’ll never forget.
As the kids were watching a movie this morning, I snuck outside to assess the damage. As I ventured out the front door, I was greeted by a scene right out of Twilight and I fully expected to see a pasty vampire emerge:            

Seeing flowers stuck in the snow is still a difficult image to digest:

As is seeing my trusty Miscanthus ‘Gracillimus’ completely blanketed in snow. A nightmare come to life:

I find the autumn color with snow in the background disturbing:

And the pools of water/mud may put me into an early seasonal affect disorder coma:

Yet through it all, I found myself consumed with trying to snap off some bird photos and I never really got exactly what I was looking for:

But enough negativity, we did make the most of Halloween the past few days and kicked it all off with the greatest Halloween movie of all time:

Followed by “mummy dogs” (of which I downed four with ease):

Cheese stick fingers:

Spider deviled eggs:

Ghost punch (commonly known as sugar water or drink to make kids act like nutjobs) :

And finally ghost cookies :

And last but not least, off to trick or treat in the snow with my son dressed up like Harry Potter and my daughter dressed up as a hybrid rock star/hippie:

Good times in spite of the strange weather conditions and resulting state of emergency. Oh well, we can’t complain too much as we’ve managed to not lose electricity and have been able to share our heat and allow our friends to shower here.

This Halloween will not be forgotten any time soon.

John