The Obsessive Neurotic Gardener

Author Archives: jmarkowski

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

A new shade of autumn color

When Autumn Met Winter

609 days to go

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… and I’m still pumped.
I appreciate all the feedback I’ve received since I announced my big plans on Wednesday and I’ve had a few days to mull it over even more. 
Most people want to be able to live their life “one day at a time” and savor the moment. Not this cat. I feel completely the opposite way. I live “day by day” too much. I need to improve on my future planning and act accordingly. Just ask my wife. I’m sure I frustrate the hell out of her.   
This project, more than anything else, is a challenge to myself. It even goes beyond gardening. I want to prove that I am capable of thinking big and delivering on that vision. I will need to plan well, make the best use of my available time and work within a budget. And why not add pressure by making big promises on this blog. Hopefully, it will add to my inspiration. 
As the journey unfolds, I will reveal my plans that go beyond just improving my landscape. Some of these future plans may be unrealistic and far reaching but we’ll see. I will try to reel myself in and not over promise and under deliver. 
After I wrote the post on Wednesday, I managed to sneak some additional work in before it got dark that night. Believe it or not, I’ve had a large mound of topsoil sitting in my front yard for over a year now:         

A perfect example of what I hid from you as I was sharing macro shots of various blooms. No more. Time to let it all hang out (well not all) without fear.

I attacked this pile of soil with a somewhat violent effort and completed the reshaping of one garden bed:    

And addressed the long overdue low spots in my lawn:

Baby steps.

600+ days is a long time and hopefully I don’t lose you along the way. But if I want to match my grand vision, I need sufficient time to do it right.

Have a great weekend
John

Big blog announcement

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June 29th, 2013

Mark it on your calendar now.

I’m serious, most everything written on this blog from this day forward will be with that date in mind.

I am here to declare that I will have my property in tip top shape, like “I can give a garden tour shape”, by that date. And again, I’m f’n serious. I have a conviction to do this like I’ve never felt before and I will document every step along the way. It will be epic.

It all hit me while I was planting some bulbs early this morning. I found a spot where I could add some of my favorite daffodils:

            
A spot where the bulbs would fill in an empty spot in spring and also a spot where the decaying foliage would be hidden by emerging perennial foliage:

A simple task that gardeners perform all the time right? Yes, but today I never felt more invigorated while doing it. Let’s call it divine intervention; a calling if you will. Maybe it is more accurate to say that I felt a challenge from the universe I couldn’t resist. Too mystical and spiritual for you? Yeah me too, but I am gonna do it. All I needed to do was set a somewhat realistic target date and “Game on”.
Enough taking photos of flowers up close, shielding you from the mess around it.
Enough showing you what I’ve done wrong, seeking your sympathy.
We are going to get down and dirty and if you stick with me, you will hopefully witness an awesome transformation. I have no choice but to be confident and cocky now. 
I’m thinking about setting a strict budget so it can be tracked along the way and I can make sure I make smart decisions. 
I may even throw a party when it is done with some surprises I’m mulling over as we speak. The brain is on overload and I couldn’t be more excited.
611 days to go.          
      

Odds and ends

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Some random thoughts on a Tuesday:
My wife and kids may be in the car and heading south as I type this because we’ve been infested with spiders in the house for the past two months. My solution:   

That’s right, osage oranges. All entries into the house have been covered and we won’t see another arachnid again. Yes, it may be folklore that this really works but I’m buying it hard. The “they eat all the bad bugs” line has worn thin and I’m desperate.

Mums really bother me. They’re everywhere this time of year and they bloom TOO well. Worst of all, they don’t have to work hard for your admiration (unless you’ve managed to get them to come back year after year and religiously pinch them – then you’re cool as hell). You just overpay for them at Shop Rite, stick them in a container, throw some pumpkins next to them and voila – an autumn vignette. Color me not impressed:        

This past summer, I planted 15 Lamium plants (‘White Nancy’) and exactly one survived. That is the result of poor planning from someone who should know better by now but still hasn’t learned. I’ll tell you what though, I guarantee this one plant will survive and flourish so all of the other plants did not die without reason:  

On the other hand, some times it is as simple as sticking a plant in a pot and letting it go. These two ‘Alabama Sunset’ coleus have thrived from late April until now and I haven’t given them a thought (although I don’t tell visitors that):  

You know what never gets old? The zoo:

It thrills kids and grandparents to no end:

Ciao
John