Garden Non Destruction, Thanks P*n*s of the Prairie

I was expecting people to whack me upside the head, not agree with my reasoning. I hate blue jays because they wake me up in the morning? It's too much work? Have you seen the glory that is my garden? Look here. Here I mean. That is heaven--especially when the monarchs come.

No no no. I want to double the size. But not here. I am very unhappy with the front, though--hostas and astilbes that I once thought were my best options for shade and part shade. After 2.5 years, I've schooled myself real good in this area--plus I want something more uniform. That means all / mostly carex. Sedge I mean. Should do well in a permanently moist, compost-enriched, half slim shadey sorta spot that stays frozen late into spring. I'm still looking for the best carex. Maybe I will just plant carex in between the hostas and astilbes. And a dogwod or two.

Point is folks, I'm sorry for the deception, and shocked at the gardeners who came here and said go for it. Yikes. I'm the guy who tosses wildflower seed over the fence on to the neighbor's acreage, and out the car window going 50 on nearby semi-rural roads. The inside of my car is sprouting coneflowers and milkweed between the cushions.

I'm a seed flinger, just like the inspirational statue atop the nearby Nebraska state capitol, the Penis of the Prairie as we locals call it.

Look at the big foot that seedy gent has. You know what that means.

Garden Destruction

I'm ripping up my 1500 square foot garden. It hasn't worked right since the start or been what I hoped, and there are just far too many animals that are eating things. And the crows and blue jays wake me up in the mornings. Just too much to take care of finally for how busy I am with work and writing.

So sod is coming back in. I'm sure most will hate what I'm doing, but it should help the house sell faster whenever we do move, and it'll blend back in with the rest of the neighborhood finally.

Au'revoir jardin.

If anyone wants to dig up anything, you have until March 15.

Not Knowing Why--Poem by Ann Struthers

Adolescent white pelicans squawk, rustle, flap their wings, lift off in a ragged spiral at imaginary danger.
What danger on this island in the middle
of Marble Lake? They’re off to feel
the lift of wind under their iridescent wings,
because they were born to fly,
because they have nothing else to do,
because wind and water are their elements,
their Bach, their Homer, Shakespeare,
and Spielberg. They wheel over the lake,
the little farms, the tourist village with their camera eyes.

In autumn something urges
them toward Texas marshes. They follow
their appetites and instincts, unlike the small beetles
creeping along geometric roads, going toward small boxes,
toward lives as narrow or as wide as the pond,
as glistening or as gray as the sky.
They do not know why. They fly, they fly.

Twisty Ghost Sucks Out Girl's Brain, and Other Figures in Ice

I'm starting a new art series based on my winter rain chain. I've titled each piece to evoke what I see in the image--what you see may be different, and as a result, incorrect / less valid / quite pedestrian. Not my fault. If the image titles sound like newspaper column titles--or popular songs from the 1960s--it's because I'm also starting a new series of newspaper columns (or popular songs from the 60s), which I hope will turn into a 5,000 page novel composed of said columns (or songs), interlinked by scratch and sniff word find puzzles. I'm hoping Norton will take it. Are you buying any of this? As always, click on photos to expand.

Twisty Ghost Sucks Out Girl's Brain

E.T. Phone Swan

Recline the Headless Dragon Cat

Polar Bear Lizard Plays With Stalactites

Worm Da Baby Bird

Go Go Gadget Bottle Opener Hand

On a Red-Tailed Hawk, Winter Gardens, and Photos

When I first started gardening I was all "plants plants plants." Completely insane with plants. I overdosed many times a day. I have the medical records to prove it.

Obviously, gardeners eventually garden just as much for the plants and themselves as for wildlife. Having insects and animals in the garden extends it into a new physical dimension, a "Z" axis if you will (remember your high school algebra?). Sculptural plants that were kinetic only in the wind are now kinetic as they play a part in the lives of other organisms. Of course, we don't see the vast majority of these organisms, but the ones we do see give this gardener quite a high--especially in winter--and a deeper, more lush and meaningful high than just plants plants plants.

This last week or so a red-tailed hawk has been buzzing the yard. Two days ago in high north winds the hawk was floating above the garden, hovering like a helicopter, hopefully at work on clearing me of my rabbit problem (nota bene: I've not seen a rabbit in quite some time--but maybe the snow melt has something to do with this as other food sources open up). But the hawk was gone before I could move to get the camera.

Later that day I was sitting on the couch grading student blank verse poems. I saw the hawk crest the tree line 200 feet away. I knew it'd simply pass over the house as it always does. It flew quick and low and out of sight. After 10 seconds I made myself grab my camera, debating the possibility of getting a shot if it came around again. It flew by probably no more than 30' off the ground, but I knew it was long gone.

Standing at the sliding glass door there it was, perched like a giant football atop a neighbor's eastern red cedar. I couldn't believe it was balanced there. It reminded me of a Christmas tree angel hung off to the side because, if placed on the very top, the tree would bend over.

I missed the shot. As soon as I snapped off my SLR cover the hawk was leaping into flight. Below is what I got.

In the dead of winter I get the fullest, bare-bone understanding of where I am, and how I and my garden and little 1/4 acre homestead are connected to the larger world. A hawk passes over my yard in a second. In one minute how much more has it experienced than me? Whose perspective is deeper and richer? Whose life would suffer more for the lack of the other? The answer to that last question should be obvious.

(And does anyone want to start the conversation about how we must take photos of objects and events we value? How that is an act of ownership and appropriation? How once we have that image safe and secure in our clutches another experience with that object or event seems less meaningful?)

A Viking Prayer

Our Favre who art in Minnesota, hallowed be thy name. Thy bowl will come, it will be won, in Miami as it is in the Dome. Give us this Sunday our weekly win. And give us our touchdown passes, as we forbid those who try to pass against us. And lead us not into frustration, but deliver us to the Super Bowl. For thine is the MVP, the best of the NFC, and the glory of the Purple People Eaters now and forever. Amen.

Skol Vikings!

Vikes 34
Saints 27

Avian Roundup (+ Rabbit Poop, Squirrel Corn, and Icog)

Or, studies in wildlife. I'd never seen a common / northern flicker before. Look at these great closeup shots I got, courtesy of my new birdbath heater near the patio door.

This is the most beautiful bird I've seen in my backyard. And did you know they're considered ground woodpeckers? First time I saw this guy swoop through the yard I thought we had a hawk.

Flicker shunning.

Flicker balance beam.

Flicker GQ.

Floating cardinal. Most of the cardinals here are magicians who were scheduled to appear on Conan O'Brien in March, but....

Junco v. strawberry. Who will make the first move?

The squirrel soon ran up the elm and into the cedars with its catch of the day. After pillaging the bird feeders.

Rabbit scat!!! Yay!!! I pretend they are berries. Na na na, la la la la. They are berries. There are no rabbits. There are no rabbits. There are no rabbits.

The chicken wire around the shrubs, to keep the wabbits at bay, caught the snow most interestingly.

That's a 3 foot drift on the right by the arbor. We've had almost 3 feet of snow already this year, 15 inches above average.

With the snow melt during the day, and hard freezes at night, ice fog / freezing fog develops. This is another reason not to cut back plants in the fall. The last two mornings every object has been covered in a frothy white that is stunning in the sunlight.

And finally--GO MINNESOTA VIKINGS!

Naked in the Snow Garden

It would not have felt uncomfortable today. At 40 degrees, my 12-36" drifts are settling fast, and I had my coat unzipped and my gloves off. This time of year, no gloves feels like freestyling.

By the way, do you know what blank verse is? Tomorrow, the second day of poetry class, is traditionally the hardest day for my students--followed closely by the third, fourth, and fifth day. And likely the sixth and seventh. Good to get it over with early in the term. On the first day only 1-2 knew what blank verse was, and these were former students of mine. Can't write poetry without knowing the forms, let alone what a tercet is (another question only one student volunteered a guess at). Favorite part of the term for me because I am 100% sure they're learning something tangible they can use to become better writers.

Am I Stupid?

I'm gonna ramble about my garden design. It might not be elegant, but since I have to be smart next week as a teacher again, I'm feeling a bit, oh, je ne sais quoi. Grrrr.

1) Next time I start planting a garden, shrubs are the first priority. This is made obvious by the fact that for 4 months in the spring and summer my garden looks more like a field of dandelions. I'm talking height here. Even texture. It's most disconcerting. Blah blah blah. No structure or interest. (I do have around 20 shrubs out there, mind you.)

2) As a play off of one, I want to add a yellow twig dogwood in a position now occupied by the most slowly-growing 'Isanti' red twig dogwood I've ever seen. It's sibling 20' away gets less sun and is easily three times as big--both were planted on the same day. Deal is, any yellow twig dogwood, even some of these smaller varieties, are just too big. At least, too big in the summer. Come winter, the garden--being overly perennial--looks like a desert of brown vomit. So, in the winter, it'll work. But perennials are neater in the late summer and fall--my fall garden is heaven. The 'Isanti' began to get crowded out this year by wild bergamot, iron weed, eupatorium....

A person just can't go plugging shrubs back into a nearly established perennial garden. It's like putting a baby back into its mother.

3) Trees. More trees. Charming, different, butterfly and bird attracting small trees that grow. See, I got this 'Coralburst' crabapple I rescued for half off from Home Depot. Deal is, it grows slower than the 'Isanti' dogwood. It's even refusing to root well. So I made the mistake of planting a ninebark by it. Already I am envisioning what 2010 will look like in this corner of the garden--crabapple in a ninebark. Maybe it will be a new design fad. Did I mention a 'Snowbank' boltonia is on the other side, and that I hate to cut it back because I like those puppies tall? Crabapple sandwich.

Tall perennials are like a strong narcotic. Low perennials are like sugar in a stick.

4) A higher fence. Much higher. Say, 30'. Neighbor's dog toys shall not bombard my garden like meteors. Better, yet, a moat. A 5 acre moat.

Machine guns that sense movement, zero in, and blast tennis balls out of the air seem appropriate. I've seen these on Ebay.

5) The garden is too small. Not really. But it is. To have shrubs I need fewer perennials. This won't happen. I had so many more insects this year as my perennials matured. Butterflies galore, honeybees en masse. I am becoming entangled in the web of my perennials.

I need more shrubbery to detox me. Ni!

6) Machine guns that also target rabbits. However, I am getting some winter trimming done on my willow 'Nana' don't you know. However, the trimming is becoming most over the top--as in, where did that half of the willow go that was there yesterday?

Ratta tatta tatta rabbit shrapnel.

7) A divine number. What I feel most stupid about is basically a design quandary. Most designers say that in a smaller space like mine (is 1500 feet small?), you should go for repetition, use swaths of the same plants, or at least similar textures and colors. Whatever. I don't think my garden--or most prairies I've seen--look like cottage gardens, so what do I have to fear? But, I do have repetition in plants around the garden, just not together. Is it cohesive enough, or too chaotic to the eye? I'll find out for certain this year, barring a hail storm.

A private backyard garden cannot be a prairie. I'm learning this painfully slow. Native plants or not, I have a manicured garden like those English uptight snobs who have poisoned this country's sense of its natural and ecological self. You can check me on this if you want, because I'll agree with you tomorrow. Hate mail from England in 3, 2....

But I worry too much. I think about my garden late at night when I can't sleep, thus making me stay awake longer doing calculations and line drawings and doodles of shrubs in my head. Let it go. If you love something, just let it grow.

My Poetry (Chap)Book--Buy It

On New Year's Eve I found out my 2nd chapbook will be published by Finishing Line Press. Hopefully, Without Such Absence will come out this summer. I just don't know yet. It's a solid press, good list, nicely designed little books, and they are on Amazon and do some other promo unlike most other chap publishers.

So, I will eventually need to sell some books, especially pre orders, which determine the press run. The more pre orders, the larger the press run (and the more books I get free to sell myself at readings and such). If you'd like to be notified via postcard when the presale will begin--this spring sometime--email me your address. There will be some gardeny poems included in the book, which will be around 30p, and a few poems from it can be found here.

AS FOR THE PREVIOUS HOLIDAY, it was the first time the inlaws spent Christmas with my parents, and it went very well (whole family together--very cool). On the drive back to Nebraska, my wife and I counted SEVENTY (70!) cars, semis, Uhauls, and pickups along the edges of I-35--some right side up, most on their sides or upside down, and many groups of say 3-6 cars. 12/25 saw a blizzard of 1-2 feet I'm glad I wasn't driving through.

And school starts next week--I've been away from teaching since May. This may be the most apprehension I've had since my first days in 2000, but it's more to do with losing my free time than anything (in 2000 I was a 200 / 10 on the apprehension scale, 2010 is 3 / 10). Good classes though. I'm hoping. Trying some new things. Bribes. I jest not.

Garden Evolution -- 2007-2009

My garden is just over 2 years old. And yet in that time I've amazed myself (easy to do) at how lush the plants have become. So, here's a post with twenty some pics tracing the garden from July 2007--when my wife helped me spread 20 yards of mulch in 90 degree heat--to just this past August and September.

FALL 2007

I didn't know how best to organize these photos, so we'll go from year to year. Many of the pics were taken from near the same position to highlight the evolution. As always, click to expand (especially with those of mostly just mulch).

I've never had a garden before, but I grew up with a gardener--one who gardened by a "do it and see what happens" creed. So I just threw myself into it. In 2007 and 2008 it wasn't uncommon for me to be outside for 8 hours, even in the middle of the afternoon, sweating like a Robin Williams.

My idea for the main garden, above, was a combination of whatever native plant I happened to come across and like, as well as prairie / meadow flowers and grasses. So I just started plopping stuff in, creating scattered repetition, mixing heights and textures, hoping form would follow function. Or function would follow form? I felt blind out there the first year.

A view back toward the side garden and main gate. Though I didn't have a real plan, it was always my intention to make that side garden along the house as low maintenance as possible. To me, this meant varied shrubs, as well as ideas of what a Japanese garden might look like or work like (though mine doesn't look like one). Since this area is on the east side of the house, plants get half sun, and the soil stays damp.

Side garden

Those Amsonia hubrichtii by the deck were dug up from my old place. I had a very small porch garden were these plants never took off. Wait till you see them in 2009. (FYI the woman who bought my place tore up every last flower of my mini garden. For shame. She left the two arborvitae, though.)

FALL 2008

In the spring of 2008 we added the disappearing fountain--which took 7 hours to install. Ridiculous.

Side garden

I added a dry stream bed--which isn't dry when the rain chain is rainy.

See that obelisk way out in the middle with a morning glory on it? Well, it's out there. And it's copper. I built it. Viva Trellis Craft by Roger Beebe.

MAY 2009

I added a real bona fide bridge over the 6" deep stream bed. That stream was a real hazard during heavy rain (sarcasm).

Here's the main garden about the time I graduated with my Ph.D. Most of my plantings were at first just native perennials to the midwest and plains, with some native to other parts of the country. In 2008 I started adding shrubs so that 1) there'd theoretically be less maintenance and 2) there'd theoretically be winter interest. So far, the only winter interest comes from rabbits who eat the shrubs and make me buy new ones in the spring.

I also have 5 butterfly bushes, but in 2009 the insects mostly left them alone, as opposed to 2008. In 2009 the native perennials came into full vigor and were devoured instead--by bees, butterflies, and a massive plague of grasshoppers. (Did you need another reason to go native? Insects REALLY DO FAVOR NATIVE PLANTS). The trick with a perennial garden is to be patient, I've come to learn. Many perennials--like eupatorium--will soon grow to the gerth of shrubs and be just as interesting in every season, even in winter with the grasses. Maybe shrubs are silly indulgences.

LATE SUMMER / EARLY FALL 2009

Just look at that native sweet autumn clematis, c. virginiana, in its 2nd full season. And the smell was luscious--like roses (better than roses)--permeating the entire garden.

Entrance to the garden / side garden. That one person chair against the fence is my favorite place to sit, until the neighbor's dog finds me, or one of his toys is lobbed over the fence.

Just beyond the arbor.

From the deck.

There are several eupatoriums and ironweeds along the fence that grow to 6' high or more and act like shrubs, as well as provide a second privacy screen. By the arbor you can see one of 5 trees in the garden, a clump river birch. There is also a regular and weeping bald cypress, and two crabapples elsewhere.

Look at those Amsonia hubrichtii now.

In the forground bordering the yard are three shrubs that I hope will become a mixed hedge from this viewpoint, and from within the garden provide a nice strong background. There's also a 'Coralburst' crabapple on a stick to the right that I got at Home Depot for $60. Sometimes you can go to hell and redeam a lost soul, particularly when it's on sale for half off.

Above: 2009 -- Below: 2008

 
 
 
 
 
 



JULY 2010 (UPDATE)

Link here to see the garden 300% more lush in mid summer of 2010--all on its 3rd birthday, and my X birthday.

I don't use chemicals. This spring I spread 4 yards of city compost about 1-2" deep most everywhere. This fall I put down 2 yards of mulch in sunny areas. I do sprinkle a little bit of slow release all purpose fertilizer in the spring, but I maybe don't really need it. I am pretty anal about researching plants before I buy them so I know if it will work, and where it should go. Parts of my garden stay very wet, and others get very dry. I'm doing ok I suppose.

That's my garden. About 1,500-2,000 square feet in the back. There are another X feet of foundation beds along the back of the house, and 500 feet out front I never show because it's boring and I can't figure it out (and if that piques your interest, stop it).
 
If you want to know what anything is in the pics, let me know. A link to my end of 2008 season plant list is on the right somewhere toward the top.
 
And some of my favorite nurseries, online or in person:

Ambergate Gardens
Prairie Moon Nursery
Prairie Nursery

I'm afraid I might get bored this year and just start digging random holes in the yard. Lawn circles. Aliens. Insane assylum. Plant catalogs. Straight jacket. Join the A-Team. Follow? The garden doesn't need to be bigger, and we won't be here but a few more years anyway, I figure. This is my trial garden for a future acreage. Still--leave it better than you found it, and hope the next owners will also pay it forward.
 
Have a Merry Christmas from all of us one people here at The Deep Middle, a certified 501c nonprofit on this 1/4 acre lot looking for plant donations.

Frozen Fog Pics -- Part Deux

Who needs tree flocking? The frozen fog stuck, then the next night we had freezing rain. The double coat made the trees a brilliant white.

The sun is up there.

You can see the ribs of the freezing rain on the branches above the bird feeder--click to expand.

My Poem in Your Local Paper

You and hopefully 4 million others can find a poem by me in your local newspaper sometime this week. It will also appear in other print and online publications according to their schedules. The poem is part of Ted Kooser's American Life in Poetry, which provides a new poem every week free of charge to any pub who wants to print it, along with Ted's introduction to the work.

If you'd just rather go see the poem online now, click here. It will also be archived on that site if you arrive after this week and don't see it on the main page.

The poem comes from my manuscript, Afterimage, which focuses on family photographs (get it?) from the last 130 years or so. Don't ask how many times it's placed in contests or received lovely comments from editors. Some day....