Two evenings ago I had wandered around the garden to take some pics (the smoke from the wildfires in the province of Quebec Canada) is doing a good job of diffusing the light which I thought might help with the images I collected using Andrea’s phone.

This is the ‘Little Patio’ I installed last fall with the help of Don LA Fond. It is located down beneath the canopy of large Norway Spruce trees.  The limestone rocks (on the right) I’d hauled here earlier in the day, will be installed as an edging to mach the left hand side, and finally finishing this project.

Moving roughly 200 ft east,

Andrea had made the right call when she suggested to create a separate island of tufa within this wide patch of limestone gravel. It infers a broken, continuation of the end of a long low tufa wall that starts to the west at the big limestone steps.

One would think that by now, I would cease to be amazed at how successful  Rock Garden plants preform in a drought, including this one, such as we’ve never expected before.

A glimpse westward down the south side of the Limestone  bed.

Below, a close-up view of a beloved Delosperma, one of Andrea’s purchases at the NARGS Annual Meeting held in Dorango Colorado, the summer of 2021.

Looking a little parched, however it is growing in 4“ of crushed limestone gravel over a very sandy mix below.

A view west, of the north side of the limestone bed that’s undergone quite a revision since its first inception decades ago.

Ito hybrid peony ‘Bartzilla’ (below) also seems to laugh at the prolonged drought.

Turning to the right,180 degrees away from Bartzilla,

Is Picea abies ‘Gold Drift’.  I relocated it here as I was informed (by Bob Fincham) “that I needed to get it more sunlight” if I ever hoped for it to attain the screaming canary-yellow, that it had when I first experienced this Bob Fincham introduction. That occurred in the Conifer Garden he helped create at South Seattle Community College.  We easterners have come to accept that there’s no way to give this plant sufficient solar radiation in this part of the country.

A section to the same path, further on from ‘Gold Drift’ as we head down towards the pond.

Where the Scutillaria,  Linum, Dianthus, and some of our native Iris lacustris have made themselves quite at home.

A peek back to the East, to where we’ve just come from.

The concrete step that I poured in place, marks the transition from the Limestone bed to the Fieldstone Rockery to the west.

Turning back to the West, and continuing on downhill,

This section of the garden has become a lot shadier as the trees have grown.  The path is so much better now that it’s leveled (South to North) and the weedy grass has been replaced with gravel.

A couple of steps onward,

Cornus alternafolia ‘Argentia’ still bent, from the storms of March

Below, an especially tall growing Polygonatum kingianum from Far Reaches, growing just downhill of the Cornus alternafolia ‘Argentia’.  That cornus, once a rooted cutting, long long ago, one of countless gifts from Dick Punnett.

Moving onward to the south on the path that encircles the pond,  now nearly empty due to lack of rain.

One  of a precious-few sites, where I can please Dysosma delavayii (above)

Turning the “corner”, and looking westward along the south side of the pond.

The ‘Little Patio’ is directly behind me as I took this pic. The path (at the far end) turns North.

Bending the curve,

Everything’s a lot more stressed that it appears.  The moisture starved trees are all under attack by various insects sensing their lack of vigor.

Looking due North.

Signs of winter storms damage last March (in the background), snapped-off tree tops and sawn-off broken branch stubs.

The circle path bends (again) now looking East.

Large Pinus strobus (in the background) appearing much thinner due to repeated branch-stripping in back to back March storms.

One more turn, now looking past our Pond-side overlook where Andrea & I enjoy our evenings.

Heading up the hill, and towards the house.

The west end of the tufa wall. A top of the tufa wall, another gifted plant that’s making itself right at home.

Phlox ovata, collected from the SW shores of Lake Erie by Peter Zale, ( I believe ).

This Penstemon grandiflora has seeded itself into this recycled storm water pipe.

Penstemon occurs in white as well as a pinkish-purple in our garden.

Lastly, a look to the other side of the Limestone Stairway.

The old tufa bed, going strong in June.  Abies concolor ‘Elkins Weeping’ a discovery of a beloved GLC member Harry Elkins.  Of course another gift from Dick.

We are hoping (with fingers crossed) that the forecasted rain will bring our parched garden some much needed moisture! I do hope your garden is getting all the rainfall it needs.

Last summer, a dead, standing spruce trunk that I had mounted a nest box on nearly 2 decades earlier had finally fallen. Its occupants, suddenly homeless required new accommodations, so I constructed, and put this one up the same day.

Now, nearly a year later here’s an image of the same box, only now its been usurped by roving honeybees. They’re hard to spot in this image, but believe me they’re there!

Most fortunately for me a good friend and good neighbor is a beekeeper! So this past Sunday morning Mike came over along with the necessary tools and a spare bee jacket for your’s truly.

I’d set a ladder the night before, after a brief run thru of our plan, Mike ascended the ladder, smoker in hand. He gave the bees a few puffs of smoke to calm the bees and then plugged the box opening with a rag, the hard part done, came down.

Then it was my turn up the ladder. I tied a rope around the box, unfastened it from the tree, then lowered the box to Mike waiting below.

Once on the ground I make a quick check that the rag was securely in place.

With me holding the box upright (in order to keep the honey from spilling out of the comb).

We carefully walk down to mike’s house and waiting Apiary.

First thing to be done is to attach some clamps to hold the back of the box in place and then remove the securing screws.

A couple more puffs from the smoker and its go time!

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And then setting the bees former home (the squirrel box) in front of the hive entrance (their new home), Mike says to reorient the bees to their new surroundings. Mike brought the squirrel box back to my house the following day.

All in all it went smoothly. Now Wednesday, everything looks good at the hive, though there is a small ball of bees that refuse to leave the site of their former home. Mike says they were probably out foraging when we removed the squirrel box and took it to his Apiary, and they don’t know where their home’s gone to.

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Clearly I must be old, as the past several of months have shot past in what seems like a few weeks time. Clearing up and disposing all of the trees and countless limbs that came down in early March, has been an ongoing and exhaustive task.

All of the downed materials have been dragged away, but plenty of broken off branches remain above, hung up in the trees waiting for gravity and perhaps a storm to dislodge them.

Our little Prairie needed to be burned as well. Once those tasks were completed then the restoration work could begin.

Quite a number of trees required various corrective treatments in order to get them back on track. The columnar larch above, was bent 90 degrees (roughly half way up its length). I wrapped 2″ wide strips (cut from old towels) about every 18″ around the tree’s trunk and secured with masking tape in order to pad the tree. Next I took a 10ft. section of threaded, 3/4″ Black Iron pipe, that I’d taped sponge, pipe-insulation onto, and starting at the topmost end of the pipe, I secured it to the Larix trunk (using duct tape) wrapping the duct tape on top of the masking taped, toweling strips. Working my down the trunk at roughly 18″ intervals, until I reached the end of the 10 ft. section. Next I threaded-on a coupling union in order to add an additional 36″ length of pipe which I had slid down over a 3/4″ x 5 ft. section of rerod that I had hammered into the ground roughly 4 ft. At this point I’m thinking of leaving this straightening device until sometime next spring.

A dozen or so trees, were in need of re-establishing a leader. This is a relatively simple task to accomplish, so long as I can reach the point where the trunk had snapped off. First I make a clean cut below the jagged break. Then select one of the nearest lateral branch below, gently bend it upward and using masking tape, I make several passes around the trunk-stub and the bent-upward branch in order to hold it in place pointing upward. This once-lateral branch will quickly establish itself as the new leader and the masking tape will simply fall off within in a year’s time.

Where entire trees had come down or had to be removed, new planting opportunities were provided. Years earlier I had sited a newly acquired, golden-needled hemlock, in a location that didn’t provide enough direct sunlight in order for the needles to attain their bright golden yellow hue. Relocating it, to where this large White Pine had snapped off at the ground, had near immediate effect, as the existing needles quickly became much more golden yellow and the new buds and expanding shoots are even more so!

Fixing this is going to take some doing, but I have a plan, which will involves a 12ft. step ladder and nylon strapping. We’ll have to see if all goes according to plan!

But it hasn’t been all work and no play. We did get to go on a few horticultural shopping sprees, in addition to the arrival of several mail-order nursery orders, so there’s been a lot of planting getting done.

I did get to go and hunt for unusual forms of Eranthis, though this year it was in mid February instead of the usual mid March. A few more of these green-centered beauties came home with me.

While this was the most unusual mutant trillium that was added to my collection from this Spring’s hunt. By the way this plant is in a one-gallon pot! so you can see it’s quite a beast as well.

Then this past Memorial Holiday weekend a new hiccup occurred, but that will be another installment.

Well there’s little doubt as to just how March is coming in this year. Two weeks ago we had an Ice storm that knocked out electric power (almost 5 days) in addition to Cable TV and internet for nearly 6 days. Many of the trees in the garden suffered broken branches snapped from their trunks which often fell onto smaller woody plants beneath. While this did create a mess that took several days to clean up, all in all I found it to be a plus as in every case, the fallen branches were ones in need of removal so that more sunlight reach the garden below.

The following weekend’s winter storm delivered 13’+ inches of wet snow that stuck to every twig and branch like spray-on flocking some folks applied to their Christmas trees and windows. The resulting damage was much more significant. Many trees had their tops snapped off, many many more branches were ripped out of the tree trunks, and even a 60ft White Pine snapped at ground level! And of course took out the power as well as TV & internet service again. Aahgggg!

Unlike the preceding Ice Storm (which melted away within a day and a half) the heavy snow persisted in spite to the 40 degree daytime temps, postponing any kind of clean-up until all of the snow’s melts. Only about half of which did so prior to today’s additional 5″+ of fresh, but thankfully dry, fluffy snow.

While the devastation had me thinking that perhaps there just might be something to Prairie / Steppe Gardening, I refrained from chainsawing all of the remaining trees.

Where the snow had melted, reassuring signs of Spring appeared.

This cut-leaf alder is one of many casualties.

Only time will tell if this Thuja occidentals ‘Rheingold’ will remain, or be chainsawed.

While things are currently a mess to be sure …

I find Eranthus especially cheerful, and successful at seeding about.

One of several less-common forms I’ve been most fortunate to find.

As well this peony-flowered form.

Spring will not be denied, and with each flower every day gets little better!

Looking back I’m a bit shocked to find so many weeks have shot past since I’ve last posted anything. It wasn’t for a lack of anything worthwhile going on, but rather as one of the last few gardeners without a smartphone, I don’t have a camera handy in order to capture images of those events.

My friend Pat Karl and I, have been making weekly trips out to Hidden Lakes Gardens ( in Tipton Michigan) in order to volunteer, working in the Harper Conifer Collection, a designated reference Conifer Garden of the American Conifer Society. Most recently, there’s been small but growing number of volunteers who have joined us. They share a passion for conifers, and their efforts are making a difference. We’ve been enjoying our time there assisting with edging, weeding, pruning and mulching the beds. It’s been slow going (it is quite a large collection), but what’s been accomplished by the tireless and undermanned staff at HLG can only be called impressive, well and beautiful too. Sadly, my thoughts on those Wednesday-Workdays have been focused on the work to be done and remembering to pack the right tools needed for the day, and never a thought about a camera.

Work in my own garden has for the most part, been limited to dragging around hoses. The usual Monsoon season, that normally brings rainfall to the American Southwest (and then on to us as it moves East and North), hasn’t been making it this far (or at least not to my garden)! Additionally, the Hurricane Season which plagues the Southeast U.S. seems behind schedule as well, and that also plays a role in putting an end to our annual Summer drought. So for the most part the garden is beyond dry. Frankly, much of my garden is crispy with brown foliage.

If I limit the scope of view though, I can capture a few images that look presentable.

A number of late season flowering plants (at least in this garden) seem to take the extended dry periods all in stride. Decades ago Andrea’s mom shared seed of Nicotiana sylvestris from her garden, and it has proven to be a reliable performer here ever since.

Just like the Asters, the Anemonies have shown themselves to be equally up to the challanges of less-than-ideal growing conditions.

Hardy begonia’s have amazed me by their tolerance of droughty spells!

However it is the arrival of the late season bulbs that ( for me) signals the waning days of Summer.

The lead off to the fall bulb season, is a toss-up between the pink scilla (above) and the Cyclamen hederifolia (of which I neglected to capture a single image). I was introduced to this easy-to-please little bulb over a decade ago by my dear friend and garden mentor Dick Punnett. It does put on a good show, however it is “a good doer” aka a bit of a weed, so you’ll need to give it some room. Here it is taking over a path in the Limestone Bed, but it is rather late in the garden season, and the foliage will wither in the coming frost, by spring there’ll be no sign of it until the foliage begins to appear in mid August.

Ah but the Colchicums! They have won me over, and there’s no such thing as too many colchicums, at least not in this garden. They thrive just about anywhere I site them (except really dry spots) and unlike the autumn flowering crocuses, Colchicums are not devoured by rodents, as they are quite poisonous. These easy to please, fall flowering bulbs, seem to relish the heavy clay-loam soil that makes up most-all of my garden, but don’t seem to mind the improved drainage found in the raised beds either, again so long as it’s not too dry. In this garden, the bulbs off-set with such great abandon the off-sets “push” themselves up and out of the soil. I simply gather those heaved up bulbs, and find new spots to tuck them into the garden.

The first Colchicum to flower here is always C. agrippinum, ( another gift ) from a generous and longtime friend Bill Brown. Not only does it “open the season” but it is by far the most commented on, and requested Colchicum in the garden.

Next to appear is C. ‘Disraeli’ also a handsomely, tessellated-colchicum and good increaser. As with so many others in my collection this came to me as a gift from yet another very generous and long, long-time friend Don La Fond. Thankfully non-generous gardeners are an anathema!

Once things get started more colchicums start popping-up daily

And now (in mid September) the early season Colchicums are in full swing!

I have been spurring them on with a drink from the hose in order for a better showing at the GLC’s Open Garden & Fall Plant Sale that was I hosted this past weekend.

Good thing too, as the prolonged drought had left the garden’s floral display pretty sparse indeed!

As I feel there’s never too many Colchicums in my garden, I couldn’t pass-up this potful of beauties above. The only purchase I made at the sale, not for want of other treasures, but rather too many distractions as host!

While not a colchicum I couldn’t resist adding the first of the Sternbergia lutes to bloom. Several years ago I teased several bulbs out from an overly crowded clump of bulbs, and scattered those divisions into raised beds elsewhere in the garden. Only a few, which had benefited from my passing-by with the hose while watering new additions (such as the weeping Japanese Red Pine in the background) are blooming. All of the others have, as yet to come up due to the dryness of their sites.

As I said previously, the Colchicum season is just getting started. What with all of the species and hybrids there will more new flowers to feed the bees as well as this gardener’s heart for weeks to come.