Today will be the beginning of a new J garden at Anglemont. I expect it will be a slow process for any number of reasons, not the least of which would be my age. However, with the help of our young friend Jeff, and his trusty excavator, there will be a good start today. The section of the property where this little garden will be set has very little character, so I will just have to make do with what's there. The original plan was to have a pond complete with recirculating stream, but then I decided that with our coolish winters here, typically reaching -17ºC or lower, that would be impractical. I have set aside three rocks which I like, and today they will be placed by Jeff. This is the small area that will be used for the J garden, currently weed infested, except for some ferns on the bank part which I will let alone.
How wonderful Keith, a blank canvas to get your teeth into. I'm going to enjoy your updates over the coming years as you develop this area. Three good rocks to start it all off. The perfect number.
Thank you D. Once the rocks are in place, I will need to build a surrounding fence on the high side, as that is the usual entry point for the deer. I think I can use the almost invisible plastic netting down the slope on the far side, which will let all the daytime sun in. Then with some bamboo in front of the netting, it will improve the look and give some dappled shade in the early part of the day.
Those are the words every maple likes to hear Keith. I can see a shopping trip for a specimen red in the near future perhaps !!!?
I may well be mistaken but I see what could be a bracken fern on the bank and, if so, you wouldn't want to leave that type would you?
To be quite honest, I didn't even see what kind it was! We got tied up in a dozen other projects yesterday that I didn't get a chance to check. You're probably right. It will have to go! Just went outside this morning and got some better photos of several of those ferns. Wouldn't you know it, they are all Bracken, every last one! The first photo is the one you spotted. All this ground has recently been disturbed, same as over at the neighbours' place. I understand that Bracken is often the first plant to take hold under such conditions. I will need to find something which will hold that bank in place, and preferably which will spread fairly quickly. I don't think that there's much chance of the bank collapsing, as this entire area is full of thousands of rocks of every size. But still, it would be nice not to have to worry about the soil on the surface vanishing in the next rainstorm. Given that this will soon be the start of the new J garden, I think I might try three different bamboos. The running bamboos usually have shallow root systems, whereas, some of the clumping varieties will go deeper. So a few judiciously placed bamboos is going to be my choice.
I was outside early this morning D, checking to see what available shade there might be. In the summertime, when the shade would most be needed, it's questionable as to whether or not these trees would do the job. I'm going to have to watch throughout the day to see exactly what might be shaded and what might not. We're under overcast skies this morning, so I may have to wait until tomorrow to get a better idea. At the far corner on top of a small bank, is this rather ugly looking creature. It appears to be a child of this one. This is all the same clump of trees, there's 7 or 8 large trunks there. Over on the far side of the neighbours' lot, about 100 feet apart, is another very similar tree. It almost looks like they were planted at the corner of each piece of property. To the best of my knowledge, these local roads weren't developed until the '70's. So whatever this is, if it was planted then, it can only be 45 to 50 years old. Both trees are about the same height, it's just the perspective throwing things off. I will say that in the summertime, when these trees are totally covered in greenery, they look really quite nice, especially if there is a wind blowing.
Rather than blindly forging ahead, I think it prudent to actually try and design the whole J garden in advance. Once Jeff has moved the rocks down below (Val managed to commandeer all his time yesterday so they didn't get moved then) I think I will try and do a fence which I will set back four or five feet from the top of that bank. At the far end it is about twelve feet above the flat part of the ground. If I wind the fence around behind the big clump of trees and then run it down roughly on the property line, it will get rid of the view of the neighbours' excavator. He hasn't moved it in about a year. Not the most beautiful garden ornament!
About half way down the bank at the far end is a patch of grass. Please don't tell me that it's a noxious weed, as it looks really quite nice. I see that a few of the taller stems (about three feet) have just gone to seed. Even though it is dull this morning, the colour is quite attractive. I'm going to leave it there.
Continuing to the south (right side here) of that clump there is a considerable number of trees which will give shade most of the year except when the sun is high. The trees are straddling the property line so I don't think that either myself or the neighbour is likely to remove them. The exception to that is the broken birch trees behind the shed below which will need to be taken out. They will eventually fall by themselves and there's no telling in which direction they may go.
Those look like the Cottonwood or Poplar trees we've been talking about lately that produce the fluffy seed heads that you found on your lawn. As for the grass, I agree it is quite nice looking. The thing I find with grasses growing wild here is that they often go brown and become pretty straggly after they finish blooming - which many seem to be doing right now.
You know, I thought they looked like Cottonwood as well. I tried to compare the bark to some online photos, and indeed it looks very similar. The only thing is I couldn't find any that were clumping like these are. And I haven't noticed the seeds coming off the trees. Further down the road, where we still see the seeds flying through the air, all of those trees have a single trunk. I haven't done a bark comparison between those and the big clumps here. We will be otherwise occupied with a trip to Salmon Arm shortly so maybe later today I can get some close up photos. And yes I'm sure the grass will turn brown, but it's something I can keep an eye on as I didn't pay any attention to it last year.
The most important thing is dappled shade and it doesn’t really matter where it comes from tbh Keith.
Yes, of course. I remember when I was on Ruxton that there were lots of tall trees to the south and the filtered light that came through was just excellent.
Yesterday we went to Salmon Arm, and on the home trip I started watching for both Cottonwoods and Blue Spruce trees. Daniel had previously pointed out that the spruce were not likely native to this area and my observations would seem to confirm that. I counted about 21 Blue Spruce trees between the main highway and our local road from there to Anglemont. Every single tree was on private property, leading me to believe that they were fairly obviously planted there. That is over a distance of some 40 kms. As for the Cottonwoods, I did spot a few that were clumped together along with a few more that had started as a single trunk and then developed into two trunks. And still there are thousands of the seeds flying through the air. One small problem that I paid attention to is that the Squilax-Anglemont Highway is strictly a two lane road and there is hardly anywhere that one can pull over in order to take pictures.
Here's a photo of what might be a Cottonwood at the top corner of the property here. Taken a few years ago in a light breeze,
Good morning Keith, I presume it's now gone ? Not the most attractive tree and with all the seeds in the air in the Spring, is it more of a nuisance than anything else ??
Well, actually no it is still there. One of a pair of trees on our top lot and the neighbours' lot. But, oddly enough I haven't seen any seeds come off either of these two trees. So I am still somewhat stumped about that. I think on the next good weather day that I will take a close look at the far one and compare it to ours. I'm quite sure they are the same breed. Let's put it this way, a Japanese Maple it is not!
