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Nov. 23rd, 2005 03:06 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
urocyonIt's been another afternoon of spontaneous horticultural therapy, after the delivery guy escaped the plague house. Or so his expression indicated. Maybe he keeps antiseptic wipes for his clipboard in the van this time of year; if not, he should, the way he didn't want to touch it again after I signed for the parcel.
The biggest raised bed inside the wall doesn't want to grow things* I'd expect to grow in partial sun, but British partial shade is pretty obviously not Virginia partial shade. The snapdragon experiment, in the sunnier end, was spectacular in a train wreck sort of way. Even impatiens get leggy toward the shadier--but still not fully shady--end. So, this time around, I thought I would try even more shade-loving plants, and (hopefully) less maintenance in that bed. Besides the Dicentra spectabilis and Astilbe which went in last year, this year I thought I'd go mainly for ferns and shady woodland plants.
Originally, I was thinking of different fern species--a lot of them Eastern N. Am. natives I miss in the wild, actually--but ran across a perfectly acceptable multipack of evergreen ones for quite a bit less money (and an extra plant). So, today I added some compost where needed and planted out Polystichum setiferum 'Divisilobum Wollaston', Polystichum polyblepharum, Dryopteris affinis ‘Cristata’, and Dryopteris erythrosora. I also planted some Asarum canadense, a wild ginger (yum!)**; and a sweet violet in another bed, Viola odorata 'Czar'.
The rest of the narcissus bulbs got put in today, and a patio box of tulip and narcissus bulbs replanted. One of the cats--I suspect Weird Uncle Charlie from next door, even if he is Feist's best buddy these days--threw half the potting soil out of there in enthusiam to use it as a litterbox. That isn't the only place the same cat has chosen; at least they've all been ornamental beds, by luck, so far. I tried laying some dill stalks which had been pulled out of the planter box and not tidied away over the top as an admittedly flimsy deterrent--maybe knocking them off there will be more trouble than it's worth. Perhaps picking up a big container of cheap ground pepper would be a good idea--a pepper-based dust did help keep next door's last cat out of the beds. And, yes, I am aware that I'm well into sounding like a crotchety old lady. *shakes head*
Speaking of cats, does anyone have any suggestions on running off an horrendously obnoxious tomcat? This is the marmalade one who is most likely responsible for the kittens. Mirrors despises him, and the orange beast will come around yowling in that terrible voice of his and jump on poor (neutered) Mirrors every time his back is turned. I know that sounds very one-sided, but this is probably the worst-behaved cat I've ever seen, to the point that the next-door neighbors are keeping their cat flap secured. (I think he was going in and attacking their seven-year-old, besides their old cat.) We have tried squirting at him with vinegary water every time we see him, and I even lost it when he ambushed Mirrors one evening and lunged at him with the patio broom. (Closest thing to hand...) This reception has not seemed to deter him in the least, so far. Even if general cat repellents were effective, using something like that with our own cats running around would be silly. I'm about out of ideas here--does anyone have any to spare?
Ah, yes, we've been looking forward to a trip to Sweden (my first) sometime after Christmas, and![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
vatine's holiday was finally approved after some mixup which caused an insane delay. Unfortunately, we discovered yesterday that his passport went--hopefully temporarily--AWOL at some point between shuffling it from one "handy" place to another, inside the house. The estimated time for replacements is longer than I'd have expected, so we are really hoping it will turn up quickly. (The Swedish "Argh! I need a passport now!" emergency option is somewhat expensive, and good for one trip only, so definitely a last resort. Grr.) Yet more incentive to give the place a good cleaning. *wry smile* I suppose I'd better put in more work on my conversation Swedish (had been curious about learning it anyway--there are too many books and things this curious person can't read around the house!), in any case. :)
Edit: Drifting back by a couple of hours later, I just noticed the number of tyops, besides the error which made it through thanks to sloppy cutting and pasting. Erk. Maybe I really should go and lie down with a book for a while.
* Besides nasturtiums, which keep reseeding and sprawling all over the place. And pretty yellow poppies which came up on their own before I moved in, but which are probably more vulnerable to blackfly because of lack of sun.
** This reminds me of how Eurocentric most guides to wild plants I've run across have been. Things are near-inevitably referred to as substitutes for ginger, or bay leaves, or what have you, when it worked the other way around for people who are actually native to the areas in question. If nothing else, it can be convenient not to have to go grub up and preserve wild ginger.
The biggest raised bed inside the wall doesn't want to grow things* I'd expect to grow in partial sun, but British partial shade is pretty obviously not Virginia partial shade. The snapdragon experiment, in the sunnier end, was spectacular in a train wreck sort of way. Even impatiens get leggy toward the shadier--but still not fully shady--end. So, this time around, I thought I would try even more shade-loving plants, and (hopefully) less maintenance in that bed. Besides the Dicentra spectabilis and Astilbe which went in last year, this year I thought I'd go mainly for ferns and shady woodland plants.
Originally, I was thinking of different fern species--a lot of them Eastern N. Am. natives I miss in the wild, actually--but ran across a perfectly acceptable multipack of evergreen ones for quite a bit less money (and an extra plant). So, today I added some compost where needed and planted out Polystichum setiferum 'Divisilobum Wollaston', Polystichum polyblepharum, Dryopteris affinis ‘Cristata’, and Dryopteris erythrosora. I also planted some Asarum canadense, a wild ginger (yum!)**; and a sweet violet in another bed, Viola odorata 'Czar'.
The rest of the narcissus bulbs got put in today, and a patio box of tulip and narcissus bulbs replanted. One of the cats--I suspect Weird Uncle Charlie from next door, even if he is Feist's best buddy these days--threw half the potting soil out of there in enthusiam to use it as a litterbox. That isn't the only place the same cat has chosen; at least they've all been ornamental beds, by luck, so far. I tried laying some dill stalks which had been pulled out of the planter box and not tidied away over the top as an admittedly flimsy deterrent--maybe knocking them off there will be more trouble than it's worth. Perhaps picking up a big container of cheap ground pepper would be a good idea--a pepper-based dust did help keep next door's last cat out of the beds. And, yes, I am aware that I'm well into sounding like a crotchety old lady. *shakes head*
Speaking of cats, does anyone have any suggestions on running off an horrendously obnoxious tomcat? This is the marmalade one who is most likely responsible for the kittens. Mirrors despises him, and the orange beast will come around yowling in that terrible voice of his and jump on poor (neutered) Mirrors every time his back is turned. I know that sounds very one-sided, but this is probably the worst-behaved cat I've ever seen, to the point that the next-door neighbors are keeping their cat flap secured. (I think he was going in and attacking their seven-year-old, besides their old cat.) We have tried squirting at him with vinegary water every time we see him, and I even lost it when he ambushed Mirrors one evening and lunged at him with the patio broom. (Closest thing to hand...) This reception has not seemed to deter him in the least, so far. Even if general cat repellents were effective, using something like that with our own cats running around would be silly. I'm about out of ideas here--does anyone have any to spare?
Ah, yes, we've been looking forward to a trip to Sweden (my first) sometime after Christmas, and
vatine's holiday was finally approved after some mixup which caused an insane delay. Unfortunately, we discovered yesterday that his passport went--hopefully temporarily--AWOL at some point between shuffling it from one "handy" place to another, inside the house. The estimated time for replacements is longer than I'd have expected, so we are really hoping it will turn up quickly. (The Swedish "Argh! I need a passport now!" emergency option is somewhat expensive, and good for one trip only, so definitely a last resort. Grr.) Yet more incentive to give the place a good cleaning. *wry smile* I suppose I'd better put in more work on my conversation Swedish (had been curious about learning it anyway--there are too many books and things this curious person can't read around the house!), in any case. :)Edit: Drifting back by a couple of hours later, I just noticed the number of tyops, besides the error which made it through thanks to sloppy cutting and pasting. Erk. Maybe I really should go and lie down with a book for a while.
* Besides nasturtiums, which keep reseeding and sprawling all over the place. And pretty yellow poppies which came up on their own before I moved in, but which are probably more vulnerable to blackfly because of lack of sun.
** This reminds me of how Eurocentric most guides to wild plants I've run across have been. Things are near-inevitably referred to as substitutes for ginger, or bay leaves, or what have you, when it worked the other way around for people who are actually native to the areas in question. If nothing else, it can be convenient not to have to go grub up and preserve wild ginger.
no subject
Date: 2005-11-23 04:57 pm (UTC)If Feist is chummy with Charlie, it may be an idea to get Feist spayed as soon as its not detrimental to her health, or is Charlie neutered?
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Date: 2005-11-23 05:11 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-11-24 12:03 pm (UTC)Oh yes, as Ingvar mentioned, we made certain Charlie was neutered. He's been spending at least 85% of his time over here for a while, and started making a real pest of himself when the hormones started kicking in. Rather like a 14-year-old male human, with more jumping on other people's feet. *shiver* It felt a bit presumptuous taking the neighbors' cat in for surgery, but it was worth every penny!
no subject
Date: 2005-11-24 03:52 pm (UTC)Will let David know about Neo's finickyness, yay! (Not!)
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Date: 2005-11-23 05:13 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-11-24 12:10 pm (UTC)Funny, I tend to think that I'm better day-to-day with cats than with dogs--longer experience--but have learned to deal well with dogs with overtly aggressive personalities. I suppose it hasn't been as necessary with a cat before.
no subject
Date: 2005-11-23 08:31 pm (UTC)I significantly miss gardening; I look forward to getting a house again so that I can try my hand at something similar.
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Date: 2005-11-24 11:10 am (UTC)Not to mention the slight snag of "must be able to provide identification documents" and the only non-expired I have, right now, is the passport (that's somewhere).
no subject
Date: 2005-11-24 06:54 pm (UTC)It may not be the same, but there are always indoor containers, even if you need a fluorescent light setup with the available sun exposure (it's easy to rig up a regular shoplight fixture or similar, rather than paying scads extra for "special" growing setups). Which reminds me, I should put together at least one dish garden for a not-so-sunny place before too long. There is certainly enough moss outside to spiff it up a bit. :)