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I spent the last few days removing the last of the cages I had built 3 years ago to protect little seedling spruce trees. I stored the little 3 inch steel posts in the barn (although it's unlikely I'll have another use for them ever) and folded up all the pieces of chicken wire to be taken to...

You live in a lovely area, Phaedra. I love the potting bench. It is the perfect match to your sitting area wall, and a nice mix of the modern and the antique. You have an eye for decorating.

Color is just starting here. Later this week and next week it will take off. No matter how many fall seasons you've lived to see, you're right, it never gets old.

Researching it, I see you are right, flowerbug. I guess I'd just made this (wrong) assumption based on the fact that most of my existing wild/feral apples are thriving in places which tend to be very soggy in the spring of each year. I guess it is more that they are able to tolerate temporary...

Fascinating!

I miss the ocean and the shellfish that come from it! (My only option here is lobsters, and your post has reminded me that it's getting to be time for my annual lobster dinner.)

Thus far the only damages I've suffered from this rainy summer have been a temporary untamed jungle growth of weeds, but now I think I am going to lose the crabapple tree in my front yard. In this picture, the leafless tree at the far left is the tree in question. The healthy tree at the far...

Amen to that. Yellowjacket wasps are nasty critters with no sense of humor and a short fuse. Even if you're not allergic, these things are dangerous, especially living in great numbers in, or next to, your house.

Your posts are so inspiring!

Never a dull moment, it sounds like! The saga of the tree take-down was scary and impressive. Glad it went well.

Ah you subscribe to the "a long stick and run like hell" method! On some other forum a person recommended that, but I think this brave soul was referring to larger nests than what you're talking about. It made me laugh though.

I propose we all travel to Germany and descend on Phaedra's cafe/shop for a reunion, complete with tea and one of her delicious homegrown snacks! (Don't worry Phaedra, I'm just kidding! I seldom travel outside of a 20 mile radius from home, and never beyond 40 miles, these days. This will have...

You got me thinking, flowerbug, about perhaps using Joe Pyeweed as a replacement planting for my crabapple tree which I fear has been killed by excess water during this rainy summer. I used to have a clump of Joe Pyeweed plants in this same wet area, to the right of that dying apple tree, and I...

I'll start by saying I have hatred and terror, in equal measure, of wasps and hornets. (Bees I co-exist with, and have affection for them, given their beneficial role in nature.) Wasps and hornets are the one exception I've made over the years to my no pesticide rule, so I'm delighted to have...

Ah scavenging... I take it the chicken coop was built by a former property owner, not yourself? Half of my creations and repairs are jerry-rigged hatchet jobs worse than your new lean-to shed, but if it works that's what counts!

That's a shame. Apart from maybe a dozen tomatoes that were split, I've had no issues with these later fruits. I would think that white vinegar might be a better anti-fungal than bleach to use on edible fruit, but could be just as effective.

Amen to that. Those were the days, huh?

I love my goldenrod. It grows wild in the unmowed areas on my property and attracts pollinators by the bucketload. Eventually the trees we planted in those areas may grow to overshadow my wildflowers, but I hope goldenrod and others will still adorn the edges of these reforested spaces.

I'd never heard of Amish Chow Chow relish, so I looked it up. The ingredients sound good: 1 quart of green string beans 1 quart of chopped celery 1 quart of kidney beans 1 quart of yellow corn 1 quart of diced carrots 10 sliced red peppers 1 quart of navy beans 4 small onions, diced 3 pounds...

Welcome Suzee. What breathtaking scenery you have in your part of the country! That scene with the mountains and lupines blooming on the hillsides is spectacular. I'm in Northern New England (Vermont). Everyone here is very helpful with answers to gardening questions.