...nature’s cycle swings around again, but I’ve only seen two chickadees this spring, and only heard one lonely male sing the classic “IT’S SPRING” wake up call. Dunno why. Nursery dog looks at me wondering why I’m so weird. Who notices stuff like that??? I dunno the answer to that question either. I walked past one of the machines yesterday morning before anyone else got to work and noticed the rust had eaten through the corner of the loader’s bucket and made interesting light patterns I’d never noticed before- thanks to tech, I snapped a pic. I saw movement the other day, noticed two mourning doves hanging out on top of our mulch retaining wall. They seem at first to be dull crappy birds- kinda like pigeons. Flying rats. But outdoor workers who have any interest in nature can begin to notice redeeming qualities once they start getting to know them. They make that soulful song you can mimic by blowing through cupped hands. I think they mate for life (rare trait in the humanoid world). They reproduce really early in the spring and build their nests on top of what I would consider a kindling pile of twigs like you use to start a fire. Carelessly tossed into a flat pile. Their kids are raised frugally- no frills in these families. No time wasted engineering bomb proof nests, that’s for sure. The stick piles are either carelessly located on the gravel right out there in the open, or in the crotches of eight foot Norway spruce trees. HOWEVER, because they waste no time on stupid nests carefully constructed, their kids graduate college before all other species’ children have ever even gotten on the bus for the first time.
Everyone seems to forget about bulbs. Bulbs are the most overlooked tool of landscaping, didn’t used to be that way. I am of the opinion that most Americans want instant gratification. We don’t want to wait six months for results from any particular endeavor, least of all any effort that requires physical work. I could be very wrong, maybe there is some other hidden reason. Not worth dwelling on it though. It is what it is, but it’s too bad, and I think these thoughts each time I see my little friends that I planted decades ago returning yearly to remind me of that day long ago that I took the leftovers out so they wouldn’t go to waste. I planted these bulbs in 1978. They have been coming back reliably for the last 41 years. Bulbs bloom in the spring weather, and go dormant after flowering- saving it up for the next year. They are resilient and continue to propagate every year. If you are looking for beautiful Perennials to add color to your backyard, you may want to consider purchasing some bulbs in the fall. Don’t forget! This is a picture that I took today of daffodil bulbs that I planted decades ago. They are about to flower. April 2018- same bulbs as previous picture above. This is a blueberry plant I planted for my customer in 1983. She says it’s the best plant on her landscape (many beautiful specimens on her property). She never even picks the berries- leaves ‘em for the birds. Brilliant maroon/burning red foliage beams through her kitchen in the warm afternoon setting September sun.
Thirty years ago this tiny little old Italian man who spoke broken English used to come into our store to buy a few bags of top soil and three pounds of grass seed. He came in every weekend for months. Got to the point where I finally asked him what his project was. He said "You taikka da soil n you taikka da seed n you mixxa up in da driveway n putta on da lawn n it comes up fast." I thought about it for a very long time and then mixed up a batch to test. Indeed, that little old man, passed by now, was right. Three or four days and I saw green fuzz on the pile. I started doing this on an industrial scale, mixing up ten pounds of seed per yard, making three, five, ten, twenty yards at a time for customers and for myself. In the spring, it takes six weeks for grass seed to germinate. This method takes less than a week to turn to green fuzz. Our soil has a lot of organic material in it, and as the microbes eat it, heat is generated. It's that increased temperature and the constant moisture that tricks the seed into thinking that it's ideal germination time. Got bare spots in your yard? Try this seed soil mix. We have five different seed mixes for every application, and zee best screened topsoil you can get. Yet another batch mixed up on Monday for a customer in Stratford- I’m the only person I know who makes seed/soil like this. Rembrandt-like sunset last night after suffering all day long outside on a penetratingly chilly Monday. If only the road wasn’t there, a beautiful sight in a drab kind of way. I thought of attempting to paint that dreary sunset but was reminded of my last try, a semi-utter failure. This oil on canvas is my last try at painting, and after hours/days/months/years of trying, I gave up on it.
Ever tried to paint a shadow??? Impossible. The shadow on the road stopped me in my tracks, and this painting constantly reminds me of how cool artists are, capturing scenes accurately in a way nobody else can. I angrily shoved the worthless painting into the warehouse and that’s where it stayed for decades, gathering dust and disrespect. This winter, I finally saw beauty in it and took it to “Frames by Kosal” in Monroe and asked him to clean it up and frame it. When I went to get it, Kosal told me that he likes it, that it looked like a place that he wanted to go. Guess it’s not so bad after all. Now it hangs in my living room and in the morning when the sun sneaks through the house it briefly illuminated my try at art. Not so bad after all, too bad it took me decades to come to that conclusion. I guess I’ll just have to settle for having a picture of that dreary sunset- I’m not even going to think about painting again ‘till I reside in an old folks home. Top quality flowering trees, shade trees, privacy trees arrive in the wee hours 'Slotta work processing trucks full of trees! Takes many days! They need to be treated with expertise so that when you come to see them, they look PERFECT. 14 hour days at work are normal in the spring at nurseries. That’s the way it is, but we get to work outside- what was it with the wind today??? When locking up for the day we get to see these beautiful birch trees lit from below. Landscape lighting is COOL. The next day- still more of the same work! These Pepperidge shade trees gotta get put away before lunch. Yesterday’s Cherokee Princess white dogwoods smothered in white flower buds. Redbud flowers about to delight people driving by. Dozens of pink dogwood trees of all sizes about to..... Flower! Princeton elm trees settled in for safe keeping until you come and take them home with you to offer shade on scalding summer days.
Norway spruce loaded for delivery for some Newtown homeowner’s future privacy. We stock tons of Norway spruce because of its trouble-free happy go lucky existence long term in most conditions. Bugs, disease, and extremes of the environment trouble this tree—-NOT. Peetee the awesome nursery dog oversees the goings-on. I grow some specimen trees like this for multitudes of horticultural reasons. Plus, this format looks a thousand times better than any other growing method. Everything grows better with aeration in the root zone, especially $500 dwarf Japanese maples. Burlapping in the scalding hot summer days doesn’t ever bother trees grown on skids. Extra water drops easily away, there’s air available to each root, and when these trees are sold, I simply unwrap the steel caging, finger-rake the rootless “soil” away from the tree and burlap the rest. Every single root the tree ever had goes with the tree to your house! Zero transplant shock! Trees, conifers, and specimen shrubs thrive above ground as long as they get food and water. During the last recession, I stopped growing trees like this because it takes so much labor but I’m expanding this method back again. Stuff just performs better this way! How would you like growing in hot plastic pots? It takes us substantial effort to repot smaller trees into the right size pots, and even more work to put trees on skids- we spare no effort to grow the best trees... they are family! When nursery growers think like plants, everyone wins. Weeping form of Norway spruce loves my growing method. The deep green foliage tumbles down and flows like water over the various grade changes giving potential buyers an idea how they will look when planted over a stone wall or on a slope. These trees get put in our entrance every morning to keep reckless speeding drivers from performing dangerous high speed u-turns in our driveway. They crash into our gate, drive over trees, destroy signs and irrigation heads. Yesterday some as*ho*e in a Porsche SUV whipped around these beautiful trees so fast he crushed into the last one in the row and sped off. If he was driving more carefully to begin with he wouldn’t have had to turn around in my driveway. Good thing he was driving so fast because if I had caught him..... wouldn’t have been pretty. I made a delivery last week to a 30-year long customer and saw a tree that really caught my eye- Cornus mas.
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